Gasoline could drop 50 cents/gallon by spring

I imagine he is hiding/lurking. If he popped up on this thread, I suspect he would get slammed with flame posts.

 

He posted last on 2/20.

 

We as consumers can drive less, for one. As someone else pointed out, when the stock rises, the price drops. That means planning your daily trips better. Less just 'jumping in the car' and driving for a short trip and back again. That would be one step that if everyone, or even a high percentage of people did, could lead to lower prices. It would take time, that is true. Another step would be to not buy gas hogs anymore. Of course, that would take a considerable amount of time and effort to do. But again, every small bit adds up.

Boycotts don't work, otherwise, they would happen more often. And people need to get to work, so they need gas. But what if more people car pooled? What if more people took public transportation?

I am not giving out advice that has not been heard of before. A radical idea would be to purchase less non-essential items. When consumers spend less at the store, and if the reason becomes clear that it is because of the high gas prices, that could also lead to the prices coming down.

Another way to use less gas, is to drive with the windows down, at least when the weather permits it. I live in Texas, and for the past few months, I have had the windows down most days. It's not only nice to have the fresh air, but I have noticed in my HyHighlander, that I am getting 30 MPG on average. Which is good for a SUV Hybrid. Again, the theory being every bit helps.

Organize protests, would be a way to see some change. Exxon is a publicly traded company after all. Imagine if people showed up, en masse, at their head quarters, making a loud noise? Could change things. Maybe not. But at least it would make the news.

When I was 16, gas was I think near 45 cents a gallon, maybe less. I can recall gas as low as 25 cents a gallon. It's beyond my rational thinking that gas has got to this high a price, in less then 30 years since I was 16.

You would think, as cars got more efficient, and production got more efficient, that prices would be lower then they are now. But then again, greed and stupidity has to factored into the equation, am I right?

 

TJ, as I think I mentioned much earlier in this thread, the price increase really isn't a consumer demand-driven issue. Yes, the US demand is big by percapita world standards, but nowhere near as large as the total Chinese demand or even the US military demand for example. (The US military is the biggest purchaser of oil in the world!)

Even more to the point, the price increase is being driven by threats to supply (think recent US foriegn policy) and the rapidly falling value US dollar (gold is also at its highest USD price ever). Since the oil commodity markets are priced in USD$ the price of oil is rising rapidly due to the twin problems of threats to production and failing dollar. The sooner the world switches away from the USD as the currency of exchange the better for ROW (rest of world) -- not so good for the US perhaps as this would make US assets a bargain for overseas predators.

 

Ok, I admit it. I was completely wrong about this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/us/12gorda.html?_r=1&scp=6&sq=gas&st=nyt&oref=slogin

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-main-forum/43979-here-we-go-3-45-gal-2.html#post576468

 

Gorda has some added transportation costs that are skewing the result. Communities in the Sierra Nevada that are off the beaten path have similar cost factors for local gas.

 

At some point, the cost of gas vs. electricity will make a PHEV conversion very compelling. Does anyone have a source for kW/mile that is credible? If I could get credible consumption factors, I could put together a spreadsheet that would compare PHEV vs. Hybrid vs. Gas to try and find where the tipping point is at.

Consumers are starting to say f**k it all and are pulling back from spending because they are spending so much of their income on gas: msnbc.com Video Player At some point, it will make economic sense to convert our cars into PHEVs. The question is where is that point on the price of gas scale?

 

Consumers are pulling back to buy food and gas. They find they don't need to go out to restaurants, to the movies, they don't *really* need that new pair of shoes or a new shirt, dress, whatever. They can let the magazine subscriptions lapse. Go to the library instead of the bookstore. But they do need to eat.

And they need to drive to work. But they don't need to drive to a lot of other places. So they're also pulling back on mileage.

Maybe a few are even starting to practice conservative driving: coasting to stops, no jackrabbit starts, driving at or below speed limit and keeping tires inflated.

 

The Chevron station at Death Valley is pretty bad too. That was the first time I ever saw gas above $3. I think that was in March 2004.

 

One can only hope you are correct.

 

There are probably a bunch of communities that are in general off the beaten path that have high transportation cost factors for local gas. I was just giving the example of communities in the Sierra Nevada mountains because a while back (when local S.F. Bay Area gas was at $1.00/gallon), I was traveling in the area during the summer and was amazed at where the local gas prices were at. When I asked why the difference, the store owner said transportation costs were the reason.

 

Which is why if the cutbacks are taken to an extreme, the recession could be longer and deeper than it otherwise would be.

 

But the more people pull back, conserve and spend less...the more the economy is going to tank.

 

I cant complain about the price of petrol, I have seen what they pay for petrol in Europe. Also in our pricing over 50% of the price is tax. The higher the tax on petrol the lower the percentage of tax I have to pay because my fuel bill is low. Increase fuel tax and lower income tax and I'll be happy with that. Better still, spend the increase on health care and schools.

 

Where is Malorn, doesn't he need to come in here and eat CROW?

 

Yup. And in the long run, that may be a good thing. My late father, born in 1920, raised in the depression, had a much better sense of a buck, so to speak, then modern people, and maybe we all need a wake up call.

 

Trying to convince people to buy big trucks and SUVs when gas is $4 / gal will be punishment enough.

 

They also won't need two incomes to make payments on all the crap they don't need. Europe and elsewhere don't have nearly the consumer lifestyles that Americans have and they seem to be doing OK.

 

My Xebra gets about 3 miles per KWH. (And for all its bad points, it gets me everywhere I need to go in Spokane without using any fossil fuel at all.) I pay about 6 cents per KWH, so two cents per mile.

You're lucky you live in Australia, where health care and schools are not considered to be a communist plot.

 

We can't afford health care or schools. We have a war to pay for.