Gas prices rising like a mother.

[GT2000]

Yep, we kinda knew it was coming after the latest hurricane blew through, forcing the shutdown of many, many oil rigs. Many gas stations seem to be taking advantage of the situation however and have been gouging their prices...

Here's just one example of the increase in prices..

http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw120591_20050831.htm

Around here in Hampton Roads, prices have gone up 20-50 cents, and even more than that in a few cases (increases near $1.00/gallon), just in the past 24 hours, prices are nearing $3.50 in places. Luckily around my house they are still 2.70'ish.

Might be time to re-learn how to ride a bike.

[Mike]

Yeah, over the course of the day, Gas rose an average of $.45 in Massachusetts. It's about $3.10 here.

President Bush opened up the Federal Reserve as well, which is good, as it was filled to capacity (727 million barrels) just this past August. Though, much of the gas has to be further refined because it is "sour" crude... which is less desirable I guess.

OPEC still continues its false shortage... which certainly isn't helping things.

[GT2000]

Beautiful prices in Georgia, $5-6/gallon, they use a direct pipeline to Lousiana which is OOS, so, while they are trying to replinish their supply, they needed to jack prices up so high that people wouldn't buy.

You're still gonna have those people who need to get to and from work though, I know I'd be pissed.

[Mr Biglesworth]

that's about what they normally pay in europe

[raublekick]

but in europe they have wonderful public transportation. here, we have jack shit. i might have to quit my job because what i make there in a week might not cover the expense of driving there.

i wish i lived on campus :(


that article mentions something that makes me extremely worried about gasoline: people don't get upset about it. with any other product we can just stop buying and the product will either have to change and become cheaper or fail. but with gasoline this is not the price. there is no way in hell we can just stop buying gas because we are so dependent on it. i forsee a future where gas prices continue to rise, and we continue to pay. like i mentioned above, pretty much all the money i make at my one job goes into the gas to get there and back. what's the point? well, for me it's good experience and a job in my field. but if it wasn't i'd quit in a heartbeat. but would anyone else be so willing to just drop their jobs? now, we're not nearly at that point yet but i don't doubt that we'll get to that point before we have an alternative.

[Mike]

As gas begins to get more expensive, alternative fuels will drop as more people will invest in them... and then the price of gas will drop. Despite it being unpopular amongst a lot of people, I'd like see the North West corner of Alaska be piped... It's not going to harm the wildlife, as evidenced by the Great Alaskan Pipeline ... which is a marvel of ingenuity and design; on top of that they've cut down spills to 6.5 barrels lost over the last 7 years ... it was in the hundreds before that. WHile there isn't enough to sustain us for more than ~10 or so years, it'd force OPEC to lower their fixed pricing that they've had since 1998, which would help sustain us until other forms of fuel (Hydrogen, Ethanol, etc) are more efficient and affordable.

As it is now, Hydrogen is at a 5:1 loss:gain ration, in that it takes 5 "units" of energy to make 1 unit of useable hydrogen energy. It is also ridiculously expensive to outfit a hydrogen fuel cell car... upwards of $200,000, and the cell has to be replaced every five years, at roughly $5000 - $8000 for a replacement. With the replacements alone, this is roughly the same price that gas would cost you over the same period of time (assuming $20/week... figuring gas prices go back down after this recent spike to about $2.50/gallon).

Ethanol and Gasanol (the combination of ethanol and gasoline) seem like the smartest alternatives for today, but it would never be able to support the entirety of American drivers... There isn't enough real estate in the US to make that much corn. Additionally, big business and industry drive the oil empire ... and airplanes, and other means of mass transportation, could never run on Ethanol or hydrogen (hydrogen freezes and becomes useless at -10 degrees celsius... and at 35,000 feet, it can be several times that).

Yup...

[heX]

my car broke down right when gas started to climb up so i cut my hours at work (wich also happens to be a 30-35min drive one way) so ive managed to not pay over 2.60 for my gas. i dont work till firday but im in serious need of a raise to cover my gas just for going out there.

[johnny]

As gas begins to get more expensive, alternative fuels will drop as more people will invest in them...more people should have started taking an interest in alternative fuel sources already. years ago! but nobody really seems to care. AND THEY SHOULD!

[raublekick]

more people should have started taking an interest in alternative fuel sources already. years ago! but nobody really seems to care. AND THEY SHOULD!

yeah that's the major issue. problems an be avoided with even a little bit of forsight. of course, there's a lot of factors that go into developing technologies, so maybe this is something that couldn't be developed effectively. either way i feel that alternative resources are not anywhere close to the level they could and should be at.

[GT2000]

Well, the 7-11/Citgo by my house which I use religiously, has gone up I guess about 2-3 times today, right now it's 2.99 for regular, which, they are out of, 3.09 for mid-grade, which, they are out of, and 3.19 for premium, I only needed 4 gallons to top-off my tank luckily. I'm hoping what I have in my tank will last me for a good 1-2 weeks.

[sharkz]

about $3.10 to 3.20 here iirc from watching signs last night

[Marshall]

Its 3.30 here in rural Georgia. I have a half a tank and I will make it last.

[raublekick]

gas was $2.59 the other day, and i thought "sweet, it's not gonna be too bad around here". the next day it was $3.09 and it's still rising.

[teensupernothing]

yeah. gas in jersey was 2.50 one day... then 2.89 the next.. now it's 3.10+ (and still rising) this is when i go.. thank god for not driving. and finally, buying my new bike (as in bicycle) makes sense. (okay, so yeah, i work 15 miles from my house, and my school is another 5 on top of that... but for school anyway, i can take the bus)

good excercise at the very least. heh.

[Optimus Funk]

33.99 for ten gallons!!!! Man it must suck to be a robot dependant on gas right now, Sorry I was just pissed about dropping that much money and not filling my tank!!!!!!!! 33.99!!!! GOSHUOIHAUGYETYUATJTEJHAE!!!!!

[GT2000]

Gas prices have finally steadied over the last few days around here, mainly:

[raublekick]

haha good one donnie. i filled up last night, the first time since this raise. it only cost me $29.XX, which surprised the hell out of me, before it was like $23 anyways. but then again i didn't drive as much as normal this past week.

[GT2000]

Yeah, saw it at another forum and figured I'd throw it in. I haven't really done much driving at all since my girl went home, I filled up 4 days ago and the needle still reads full.

[thecreeper]

30 bucks for 10 gallons. yeesh.

the first time i bought my own gas in 1999 it was $0.87/gallon.

[GT2000]

I can't even remember what gas cost back in the day, I'm sure it was around ~$1/gallon though.

Fuck I miss that.

[johnny]

it wasn't too long ago that people around here thought 70 cents per litre was outrageous. before the long weekend it was at 139.9 cents. and we have oil, for christs sake! i'm pretty sure that, some time ago, canada surpassed saudi arabia as leading exporter of oil to the states--we've still got plenty of it. why don't we keep some of the shit for ourselves? i don't even have a car, so it doesn't affect me too much.. but it doesn't make any sense to me.

(but i guess opec is going to set the rates anyways..? :/)