The only way we can make a difference is by buying less gas on average. Make a real effort to combine trips or decide that you don't actually need to go anywhere at all (well, work of course). On September 10, a large car group in my area had scheduled a day long drive through a state park that it takes a couple of hours to get to. As much fun as I've had at this in the past, I'm seriously considering staying at home that day.

 

Now that I can understand and is a legitimate beef.

Why not ask your state congressmen? Call them, Write them.

Its your RIGHT to find out whats going on ...

 

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with profit and I expect companies, even oil to make a profit but... To jack prices up because of a disaster is very callus.

To profit from so many suffering is the lowest I can think of and is not an ethical business practice in my book. Though I do realize many of the last two generations grew up knowing only greed and don’t know squat about ethics.

This is not the time to make shareholders more money.

 

Sure, but thats NOT what we are talking about. We are talking about prices on the whole not Super high prices in or around a disaster site

 

--Yeah I got something about that too, but it was 9/3/05. Anyway I think it's centered on the fact that labor day weekend is the biggest driving weekend of the year so they're trying all these boycott the gas station things to prove a point. I think it just might be a ploy by the oil companies to trick us into buying more gas in August.

I mean I agree with Gr8Force, what does it matter if you buy it all on Thursday and don't buy any on Friday? It doesn't make a dent in the oil companies. Pay them now or pay them later. It makes no difference to them. It's a moot demonstration, except that you can get a whole bunch of people to do what you say so long as you put a good cause in front of it.

Hey everyone pyratio needs a new house for his brand new Cooper S. He's a really nice guy and you'd really like him if you met him. So let's help him out! Everyone send him 1 penny a day for a year that would really help him buy his brand new house in Hawaii. How about it people? His paypal account is pyratio@U_a_sucker.com. Help put an end to homelessness in Hawaii.

--pyratio

 

I not only write down the mileage on my receipt, I write down the rating (87, 89 or 93) I get, then I transfer the information to a spreadsheet that calculates my mileage, cost per mile, tank octane and 5, 10 and 25 tank average mpg. It then displays it all in charts for me.

This car is so new (3 months, 5k miles) I'm just calibrating my information now, but it has shown me that there is no appreciable difference in mileage between 87, 89 and 93 octane fuel in comparable driving situations. I do feel a lack of response and a little roughness when I use 87 so I probably will not use any more of that (but I had to for experimental purposes).

Using the same spreadsheet on a previous car, I used the information to let me know when to have engine maintenance done rather than slavishly following the mfg's mileage edicts (once out of warranty). My engine was still in great shape at 150k+ when the tranny gave up the ghost (my mechanic said just a month earlier I should get 250 with no engine problem).

 

I don't understand the logic of applying supply and demand to gasoline. The fact is that it is not reasonable for most people not to drive. I don't know anyone who makes uneccesary trips in their vehicles. So, I'm not sure where this sudden increase in "demand" came from to cause a spike in prices.

Everything today is happening with better, faster, cheaper equipment. Computers are used to run factories 24 hours a day, design things, mold things, make things all MUCH more efficiently than a human could at less cost. And the computers today are cheaper than the pieces they are replacing, not to mention better. So they get more done, faster at less cost.

Also, with increasing demand, comes increased need for supplies to make whatever product is being produced. With increased need for supplies, comes better buying power......... less cost. Higher demand would then equal less cost which SHOULD equal less end price.

So why is everything more expensive. You argue demand, I argue greed. Just because something is used more, doesn't mean the prices can go up. The only reason they would go up is because the people in control KNOW we will pay for it. It's not the demand changing the price, it's the people in control.

This is the numbification of people. We will pay higher prices because many times, we have no choice. Sure, sometimes we do. I don't see it, realistically, with gasoline. As prices go up, the "good ol' days" of $2/ gallon become lost. Then, when gasoline goes from $3 to $2.50, we're "happy".

 

Huh? You don't. How many threads on NAM talk about just taking the MINI out for a drive for the sake of driving? MANY

 

Then why are the prices going uo all over the US not just the direct feed from the Gulf area.

I will say it again.The last two generations for the most part grew up knowing nothing but greed and have no ethics what so ever. You do not bump gas prices to profit from so many suffering. It is absolute greed and totally unethical.

But they didn’t have to teach ethics at school in my day and there were greedy people then also. I know the right thing to do and when to make profit because my parents taught me from day one – I didn’t need a school to teach it to me 15/20 years after it’s too late to comprehend the concept.

Ask yourselves all of you… Why do they have to have ethics classes in schools today? It’s only over the last 15/20 years that schools have done this as a required course in some schools and all schools for certain curriculum.

Anyway go back to your “it’s their right to price gouge all of us now sermon”, or do I hear a school bell ringing.

 

Also, your definition of "unnecessary" will likely change as prices get higher, I know mine has

 

I drove to Atlanta from Charlotte today and then back...
I passed a Sunoco this morning and regular was $2.69
On my way home, same gas station, regular was now 2.99. It's all crap..
But compared to the misery that the people on the gulf coast are facing.... I stopped and filled up and went on my way... thinking things could always be alot worse...

 

Well here comes another suprise.....The infrastructure to the oil companies also sustained heavy damage, including several refineries. Has it occured to anyone that perhaps raising prices a modest amount to compensate for the rebuilding they have to do is reasonable.

Everyone agrees that $6 a gal in LA is gouging.....But come on, Thats not what we are talking about. This talk about how unethical this country is, Is completely misplaced.

 

Anyone remember a few months back when a network news team smuggled a hidden camera into a meeting of oil company execs back East? They were bragging and patting each other on the back over the great job they'd done keeping supplies tight and prices up!! This is not an urban myth! I saw it on TV with me own two eyeballs One of our California senators got up on her soapbox promising to "get to the bottom of this because now we've caught them red handed!" Surprise, surprise, it all went quietly away as has happened so many times in the past. Looks like shrub and his band of merry men may have put the fix in once again

Sooooo, I have to dissagree with the economics professor, this is price gouging due to colusion, plain and simple The gas that they're putting the price up on today has been refined and in the pipeline for weeks. And it was refined at yesterdays prices. So why is it going up every day?

 

Just paid $3.19.9 for 93 octane. They only had 93 and 89 the other station was closed, out of gas.
Anyone remember 1972? I had a 61 VW 1200, yes it was Modded too!:smile:

 

last night..chevron in S.F. 91 octane 3.199

 

I remember when there were gas wars (well maybe Iraq is a gas war, but let's not go there). I lived in San Diego in the 70's and I bought gas for .25 a gallon.

 

Since the oil companies are making record profits (up 38% this year, so far), now is the time for them to spend that money to rebuild their damaged equipment. It seems to me that they have made SO much money since 2000, they can afford to upgrade/modify their equipment without jacking the prices up so high. It is the humane thing to do considering the disaster the Gulf States are facing. The extremely high fuel costs are going to ripple through and effect the entire US economy.


Clover

 

In the Atlanta area there is a 10 day supply already available. It won't take long to build that back up. What's stupid is seeing everybody panic and fill up and there are lines! Lines! I haven't seen lines for gas since the 70's. Atlanta barely even got kissed by Katrina and people are panicking. I have enough gas in my car to last until the weekend. Surely prices will go down some by then and the pipelines are already flowing.

 

Why not just drop the federal gas tax for a bit?

LOL, lots of luck

 

Often price differences like that can be just the difference in time when each station received their most recent delivery. Most prices are pretty much set at the terminal.

 

--you're right I feel so ashamed that I badmouthed the billionaire oil families. I feel so bad that they need to spend millions of dollars on their refineries and not on a mansion, yacht or aircraft.

After all 30 to 50 cents more a gallon is only about a 25% increase isn't it? That's modest isn't it? I mean if we were to pay 25% more for our rent, our taxes, or for new house purchases it wouldn't be a big deal right? Especially if those increases came in the last month. 25% per month for 1 year hmm that would be 300% by next year. Yeah we can handle that. $9 to $12 per gallon? No problem! We're all just rolling in dough. We don't need it.

Sorry planeguy nothing against you but if you ever worked in a bloodthirsty corporation or with billionaire industrialists you must know that they have the money but it's easier to pass it on to the consumers. They do it not because they need to, but because they can and no one is stopping them. I said it before and I'll say it again, I have no sympathy for the oil companies. Some of the gas stations, yes, because I know how thin a margin they have at times. I don't know about nowadays but they used to run pretty close to red before.

--pyratio

 

I never thought I would see the day it would cost me $5.00 bucks to fill my lawn mower.

I recall the day after 9-11 here in Okla City, some gas stations were charging $8.00 to $10.00 per gallon all based on panic and greed. I tend to think more greed than panic

A couple of stations got busted by the city for the high prices, and the stations agreed to refund anyone who had a receipt and only charge the rate before 9-11. Really nice stations owners

 

Gas was good 'n leaded back then, not this decaf our cars have sipped on since then.


We even had the (murky) air to show for it.

 

The average price I have seen for Premium (only 91 octane in CA) in the Santa Rosa stations (70 miles noth of San Francisco) was $2.99 today, although it has been rising about .05-.07 per day since last Friday. Independants are at least .10-.20 per gallon more for no-name gas.

 

not a gas war in Iraq, but a natural disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.... when it was .25 gallon there it was $.69 to $1.29 here in CA (depending on the year).