No one could have forseen these gas prices.. ???? HUH??

No one? Come on!

I bought my Prius in April of 2005 because *I* saw it coming. $5.00 by 2010. I must say between Katrina, sub primes and Iraq that timeline is going to hit earlier.

It's also why I put PV on my roof last summer.

I'm hoping for a plug-in Prius before 2015, my next scheduled car buy. After that....I'll be in an EV unless there's one available in 2015. (Except if it's built by GM. Then I'll wait.)

 

If *I* were elected Supreme Dictator of the Universe for Life, I'd take the patent away and release it to "public domain" under the auspices of "Homeland Security". There is absolutely NO EXCUSE to be sitting on this technology. So what if it isn't perfect. You use it now until you develop something better. Microsoft does that all of the time.

And Froley, thank you very much. If called I will answer and if elected I will serve.

 

I still think that most people are in denial.
Looking back I saw it coming the summer of 2004. My wife was given a 1991 Ford Explorer around easter that year. Gas at the time ranged from $1.25 - $1.45 a gallon at that time here in Ohio. By the end of the summer around Memorial day gas spiked to $2.09 for about 2 weeks. I knew it was happening but I guess I was in denial myself even when the prices never started to recede downward to the "normal levels" that they were previously. All of a sudden gas at about $1.79 a gallon was cheap. And it would occassionally pop over $2 a gallon just to reinforce how it was such a deal when it dipped. By the summer Katrina hit '05 $2 was the norm and then after Katrina the price never dropped again except by a few cents. We definitely needed to get her a more efficient car to drive. I bought her a VW Beetle because it was about twice as efficient and just garaged the SUV for weekend and emergency only use. It was a mistake as I made a poor choice in vehicles and completely dismissed the Prius when she was interested in one as being a waste of money that would never pay back the difference in gas. (one of the dumbest decisions I ever made, plus her VW is a headache but thats a different story) A year later we dumped my car when it broke down and traded in the explorer for a Prius (like we should have the previous year) Amazingly they gave us $1500 for a 16 year old Explorer I bet today they would have refused it.

 

Gas wars ?

How many years has it been since I last heard that term ? Ten ? Twenty ?

Now the war is on us, and the middle east...

 

Quite a few wise folks here forsaw these gas prices.. !

Funny you should bring that up. I was just thinking last night about when I was a kid hearing my parents talk about this or that station having a gas war. At the time gas was normally around 31¢ or 32¢ / gal. When a gas war went into full swing I think the price would drop to around 25¢ / gal. It still seems surrealistic to me to drive by stations and see gas at $4.15 / gal. (Luckily, with the Prius all I do is drive by most of the time).

As far as who could have seen this coming, a lot of people on this board and others who could see the writing on the wall. I tried to buy a Prius in the spring of 2004 but due to demand and waiting lists decided to wait. In 2006 there was still a wait but much more reasonable with less than 2 months wait. Although I had a strong feeling these days were coming, I would not have guessed I could buy a Prius, drive it for 2 years and probably turn around and sell it for what I paid for it.

As mentioned, gas wars as a kid have now turned into wars of aggression on the part of the US to secure a base of operations in the most oil rich region of the world. Who would have thought it

 

I remember my Dad driving our old Ford stationwagon around the neighborhood looking for the station with $0.09 gas. And you'd get a free glass and either green stamps or blue chip stamps. (The glasses had antique cars on them.)

 

So how many here are expecting the price of (utility) electricity to start its climb?

 

utility electricity will not climb appreciably since it is regulated. but what will happen is a new industry reselling electricity at a premium with the convenience of offering quick charge methods that a normal person would not have access to at home...they will be like gas stations... they will make a modest profit reselling what they buy from public ultilities, but will make an obscene profit but adding to the mix, power they have generated thru wind, solar, etc.

so, we will still pay the same people, however, more of the resources will stay at home, the profits would only drop slightly, our cost would probably not be much cheaper than what an average person pays now for transportation

 

ME ME ME!

That's why I had PV installed. Don't care how much the cost goes up as long as I don't use more than I do now. If my needs increase....I'll just put a few more panels up. I have a larger inverter to handle the future increase.

 

Several states (including Texas) have deregulated electricity so prices have sky rocked

 

I believe California would be included in that lot. It was a conspiracy between our elected officials and mostly Enron. They needed deregulation so they could artificially manipulate the market with a faux shortage and jack up the prices.

We're still paying the price. In fact, I would offer this as the beginning of the mess we're in now. It's just being exacerbated by the subprime mortgages and price of oil.

 

I have to disagree with the statement of this thread. We never have had this type of demand increase in gas before, so nobody was looking for an increase in gas prices. We did have signs of a pending problem.

First, for years I have been hearing that China was buying up every Catipilar that they could find. Nobody made the connection. Also, how can every company outsource to China and third world countries and not think there was going to be a resulting consequence. I could go on, but I think we can see the point. There were and still are signs of really high demand for fuel. We just remain complacent and continue to live in denial.

 

Not true for fuel costs. Those can be passed on. The utility is not allowed to make money on the fuel, but they are allowed not to lose any money as the price of coal skyrockets.

 

i never realized that so many areas of the country have unregulated utilities. i guess that is why so many pay so much

 

Get rid of income taxes (but increase property taxes) and deregulate everything. The Republican line that has bankrupted the country. Wait until November. I would not want to be a Republican running for reelection this year.