$4.67 A Gallon

[leftyguitars]

£1.24.9 a litre here in North Yorkshire today, that equals $11.25 a gallon!

[leftybass]

That is out of hand. I can remember when I could fill up my first Focus on $13.50.....

I feel your pain, Pete.....

[rickenbrother]

The lowest price I've seen for regular in SoCal this past week was $3.76 without going to an oddball brand gas station. Most gas prices that I've seen lately here the last week were $3.79 to 3.95 per gallon, depending on what city and area I am in.

I drive only when absolutely necessary and plan my routes with errands carefully. I wish many more people would do that.

[gibsonlp]

$2 Per Litre here.

[shamustwin]

Just going the speed limit on the freeway improves my milage. It seems P.O. the other drivers. And If i set my cc for 5 mph under the limit (60mph), I can get about the maximum gas milage as claimed by the manufacturer. Maybe not fun, specially watching all the gas guzzlers trying to take off my headlight by passing and cutting close back into my lane for spite, but I'll be darned if I want to throw my hard earned cash at OPEC and the Washington oil men.

[soundmasterg]

I wonder if the prices will go down once Bush is out of office? Since he's in with the oil guys ya know??

The speculators are the problem right now. They were in the stock market and it started to tank, so then they went into housing and look where that is at now, and then they went into collectibles and gas and gold futures, and it keeps driving up the prices. The low dollar doesn't help either as it forces gold and other commodity prices higher, such as petroleum. If China would float their currency instead of pegging it to the dollar, it would help the rest of the world out considerably. We should kick them out of the WTO until they abide....

Greg

[scotty]

Hey Peter what are people complaining about im trading in the cars for A Tartan Haggis on wheels. Hows your Yorkshire Pudding Scooter?

[rickenbrother]

Jerry, you and I must be among the slowest SoCal drivers on an open freeway, trying to get the best gas mileage. I really try hard to keep my speed under 70 mph, but the flow of traffic is 80 mph or better. Even if I am doing 75 mph, every car here whizzes by me like I'm standing still.

Greg you are right about the speculators being a big problem. The media makes people panic too, and the media just LOVES to scare people!!

[86kubicki]

Yes the price of gas is high, but perhaps some good can come of it. Maybe we'll see consumers demand more fuel efficient vehicles. Increased R&D on alternate fuels may occur. How about a rise in the idea of conservation over consumption? Perhaps some folks will seek employment close to where they live (or move to where they work), rather than enduring expensive, time consuming commutes? There's got to be a silver lining!

[rickenbrother]

Steve your thoughts would be terrific, if people would or could go by them. Sure, more people are starting to buy vehicles that are better on fuel, but the price of these vehicles is beginning to rise accordingly. Alternate fuels might not necessarily be cheaper, because of the research...and just because!! The oil and fuel companies should have had this all figured out years ago!! Notice lately that ANYTHING is an excuse to raise the price of oil!!
It also seems to me that most people are looking and waiting the the other guy to do the conserving. I hear plenty of people complaining, but not too many are changing their ways. How bad does it have to get before they will? i wish we could all pick a day where there are no vehicles on the road except emergency vehicles and people like doctors who must get to work. No one or not enough people will team up for that, because they have to get their nails done or their latte, etc... If they really want to go, they should walk!!
Thankfully, I don't have much of a commute. It would be nice for most people to find to find a job close to home, but unfortunately people have to take a job where they can. Iit should be more like the responsibility of the employer to hire people within the vicinity of where they will work.

[jps]

...they have to get their nails done or their latte, etc... If they really want to go, they should walk!!

In L.A.! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Ever see L.A.Story?

[rickenbrother]

Exactly my point , Jeff!

[johnallg]

There is a way to hedge the high prices at the pump... own stock in the oil companies.

Though I tend to believe PGA's tax and profit figures, I would suspect the profit on a gallon is possibly higher - the oil companies are running record profits for many many quarters.

I remember filling up a $0.239 a gallon during a price war in 1970 or '71 - cheapest I've ever paid. That's $1.21 or $1.27 a gallon in today's dollars.

[dean712]

California:
18 cents per gallon Federal tax
17 cents per gallon state tax
The state also gets sales tax on top of this

I agree; it's not enough. Also sales tax goes back to the county and the city where it originated from.

Oil company profit per gallon: 8.5 cents

OK, that's enough.

You think that fuel taxes should be higher?! Yikes. Keep me out of that. I think they should be less.

I listed the above info to show that the Fed and state governments make the most money off a product that they do nothing to produce, while oil companies, who do all of the work, jump through all of the hoops, and get accused of price gouging by congress, make the least off a gallon of any of the entities involved. If I remember correctly, oil company profits per gallon are less than Coca Cola makes off a gallon of soft drinks.

By law in the US, the Federal gas tax money goes directly into funding for highway and bridge maintenance and construction, not for any other purposes. Same for most States' gas taxes. The roads you drive on are provided by gas tax revenue.

[winston]

It's a $1.29/litre here. Thankfully my wife and I hardly drive at all during the week. Weekends though are another story. Speculators, the oil companies and government are doing a good job of conditioning the media to have us brace for the worst. They want us to get used to the high prices, since they are not going away any time soon or perhaps ever, unfortunately.