$2 Gasoline - Get Used To It

[hatrack]

EDIT

"Many factors are pushing prices up. Demand is growing but production capacity isn't keeping up, the International Energy Agency in London warned Wednesday. The agency cited strong growth in China as a major factor in the globe's appetite for oil.

Global demand is growing at its fastest rate in eight years, the agency said. It's up 2.5 percent over last year, rising faster than at any time since 1996, it said. The New York Mercantile Exchange reported June crude futures jumped 71 cents to close at $40.77. The last time they did that was in 1990 in the lead-up to the Persian Gulf War.

There are other factors to weigh, including the reviving U.S. economy's thirst for gasoline, some pipeline sabotage in Iraq last weekend and decisions made by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

U.S. domestic oil production is now at 50-year lows, forcing refiners to import more crude oil and even refined products from around the world. But U.S. demand is rising over the long term, even faster now that the economic recovery has kicked in. 'The year-to-date growth in gasoline demand is a little over three percent,'' said Dave Costello, an economist at the federal Energy Information Administration in Washington. The average national consumption is 8.9 million barrels of gas per day, EIA reported. "

EDIT

http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=communique&newsid=5688

[Webster Green]

1. $2.00 gasoline........I would welcome it.

Its creeping towards $3.00 where I live. (Northern CA)

[progressiveBadger]

2. Yep, I am now excited when I only pay $2

How sad is that?

[russian33]

3. I guess I'm lucky, I only pay $2.11

and if I even look around, I can find like $2.07 or something...woo hoo!

[dweller]

4. $2/gal....don't get used to it.

predictions are for $3/gal by summer.

i bet it will go even higher.
dp

[Loco_moco]

5. $2.579 for regular here...

..as of this morning....

[happyslug]

6. Just creeped to $1.95 in Johnstown Pa

The Local Sheetz has been going to .X5 on Wednesday and than .X9 on Friday since the price of Gasoline was $1.59 last month. Tomorrow I would not be surprised to see the price at $1.99.

[NNadir]

7. Let's not make any mistake about it: High priced gasoline is a good thing

Nothing encourages conservation more than high prices. Nothing makes the alternatives seem more appealing.

I've spent lots of time here bad mouthing biodiesel, but even biodiesel is certainly preferable to petroleum. As petroleum rises, biodiesel becomes competitive. So does other alternatives, hydrogenation of carbon dioxide, nuclear based fuel options, etc, etc.

I would not be overly pained if the cost of gasoline hit five bucks a gallon. Given the damage done by fossil fuels (see all the global climate change threads, war threads, etc, etc), that's still a very low price.

[ozone_man]

9. There's no alternative like efficiency.

I guess $2 or $3 gas will start to change the kind of autos that come out of Detroit, and that is a good thing. Hopefully, SUVs will go the way of dinosaurs. Better them then us.

[amandabeech]

10. Actually, Ford is supposed to roll out its Escape SUV hybrid

in summer 2005. In a test drive in stop-and-go Manhattan traffic it got 38 mpg--it is expected to be rated 35-40 highway by the EPA. I've seen no estimates of its highway mpg, but I expect that it will be better than others of its medium-smallish size since it will be cruising with a 4 cylinder engine.

Ford developed the technology itself without going to Toyota or Honda, I believe. The hybrid Escape is expected to be a big seller if reliable, but I wouldn't buy it until its 3rd year on the market.

Expect more of this from Detroit. They will probably do a mid-size sedan (Sable/Taurus in the U.S. and Mondeo in Europe) or wagon/SUV cross in hybrid before they try to put one in their smaller cars.

I have no idea what GM and DaimlerChrysler will do.

[ozone_man]

11. A step in the right direction for sure.

The innovation will come from the scarcity and price of oil resources. Or else more oil wars.

[amandabeech]

12. Yes, price motivates more people than the possibility of climate

change. Seeing the twice weekly rise of gas prices plastered on signs all over major intersections and traffic corridors is more effective than the nasty events that may happen 20-30 years in the future.

At any rate, I think that the U.S. could cut its oil use by as much as 50% if it had to over the course of 10-20 years, and maybe less by:

1. Driving alone much less.

2. Buying high mileage vehicles of various sorts, including small diesels of the new variety, hybrids, pluggable hybrids and regular high-mileage conventional cars.

3. Using small motorcycles, scooters and power assisted bicycles.

4. Using regular bicycles.

5. Using feet.

6. Taking public transit, including hybrid city buses and good old Greyhound-style intercity buses which carry in excess of 30 people and get as much as 9 mpg on uncongested intercity routes. That's at least 270 passenger miles per gallon. Compare that even to two people driving a VW TDI at 50 mpg, yielding 100 passenger miles per gallon. Two people in a large SUV is about 36-40 passenger miles per gallon highway, for comparison.

7. Lowering the speed limit and enforcing it. In the 1970s, the speed limit was lowered to 55 and it did improve mileage even if people engaged in moderate speeding. You can test this out yourself by driving for a while at the lowest safe speed on the local interstate and then at the highest.

8. Greatly reducing long and medium distance trucking by moving as much freight as possible to rails. Trains use 4 to 10 times less diesel to haul a ton of freight than do trucks. Give displaced truckers first dibs on new rail jobs. Actually transfer some highway rehab dollars to rails.

9. Buy as many locally produced items as possible, particularly food, to cut down on fuel used in long-distance shipping.

10. And of course, just generally don't drive or travel as much.

[Dissenting_Prole]

8. If you want to get a taste of what's coming....

sample some of the whining and complaing on the GasBuddy Forums:
http://www.torontogasprices.com/forum_topics.asp?category=1056&page=1&page_size=30


http://www.endofsuburbia.com/

[Township75]

13. Good! Keep it going up.

Then every asshole that thought he would get lots of envy and attention we s/he bought a huge SUV will not get looks of "Glad I don't own that gas guzzling hunk of sh!t" when s/he drives around.

This will force every environmentalist want-to-be to actually conserve...and this is good.

[ChemEng]

14. Oil will fall to $30/bbl or lower before the end of summer.....

because oil inventories are building fast. The only reason oil prices are high is because of fears of a shortage due to terrorism. But eventually, as inventories continue to fill, prices will fall. Just in my humble opinion.

[blindpig]

15. if that happens it will be because the Saudis

are trying to prop up their friend, bu$h. Oil IS a finite resource, and it's getting finiter every day. That we recognized this 30 years ago and did nothing will be seen as one of the (many)great tragedies of our times. Now we need to address the problem triple time!
(Please don your tin foil hat)
What is it with the people who are calling the shots? Are they running us off a cliff out of short term greed and stupidity? I don't think that they are that stupid. Even if they are as arrogantly ignorant as georgie boy they still have the best minds that money can buy to give them the straight poop, and I'd bet that they don't believe their own propaganda. Two theories come to mind: 1)they don't care. They will have more money than god by the time oil extraction becomes unprofitable and will be able to set themselves up as lords as our society collapses around us, leaving us to be their fixers and serfs. 2)They already have the next energy source in their pockets(some buried patent or unannounced discovery) and will whip it out when they can maximize their profits and influence.
That's the best I can do this morning.