<p>I paid $3.19/gallon on Thursday in the Milwaukee area. On Friday, the price was up to $3.35 or so.</p>
<p>So is everyone in agreement that maybe we should try to figure out how to lower the price of a gallon of gasoline, or is everyone just content to sit back and pay whatever the market happens to be dictating?</p>
<p>Is there any website where we can compare the gas price in the nearby neighborhood?
I will drive less, more car pool, plan the route ahead and find the cheapest price as possible. </p>
<p>I’m planning our summer trip to Asia, can’t believe the price I found on line. called travel agent, usually they can give me some discount, but the price for this summer, well, for the family of four, we need to pay more than 8K. The reason for such expensive ticket price? They said because the oil price… </p>
<p>What can we do?</p>
<p>I bought gas two days ago and it was $3.79/gallon for regular unleaded—eastern Long Island</p>
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<p>How would you propose to lower the price of gasoline?</p>
<p>The usual market approaches are decreased demand or increased supply. There are ways to increase supply but they may carry environmental costs or other costs and we seem to be at somewhat of an impasse there. We could open up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve but should we use that to head off higher prices or only use it in a true emergency?</p>
<p>We could decrease our demand. The pricing mechansim will automatically do that for us. Higher prices mean decreased demand which may eventually result in lower prices. We could put a big tax on vehicles that consume a lot of fuel. All sorts of ways to deal with the demand side.</p>
<p>Our Central Bank appears to want a weaker dollar so that our labor force is more competiive internationally. One side-effect of a weaker currency is that imports are more expensive so that consumers have to pay more. Would you like to see more people employed or have lower-priced goods?</p>
<p>Another thing that could happen is that we get an energy bubble, the bubble pops and oil goes into a bear market. It’s already happened in the last decade. Commodity bubbles popping can be spectacular to watch; especially if you’re not long when they pop.</p>
<p>I think that most of us will just pay it. Some will curtail use with more efficient vehicles or with optimizing their travel.</p>
<p>Very sad. </p>
<p>“Most of us will just pay it” and I think you’re right. I’m not sure what happened to the days when “Big Oil” was regularly lambasted. It seems that it depends on who happens to be in office for the lambasting to take place.</p>
<p>Nonetheless it’s shocking to me that the usual cast of characters are so quiet now when the price of a gallon of gas is going through the roof.</p>
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<p>Did lambasting big oil result in lower oil prices? No.</p>
<p>What caused the last bubble to pop? Prices went higher and higher and higher to the point where companies and countries were hoarding it. Tankers floated on the oceans with full loads hoping the price would go up. We finally had a glut of supply which collapsed the price.</p>
<p>Natural Gas went from something like $15/mBTU to $2/mBTU in the last five years.</p>
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<p>What would it accomplish other than getting an industry mad at you. Politicians want to be seen as business friendly as everyone wants a jobs recovery.</p>
<p>browninfall: Just wait till Big Bad Oil releases their first quarter earnings.</p>
<p>Sorry that you didn’t get my point.</p>
<p>arling - try gasbuddy.com</p>
<p>You can’t compare Natural Gas prices to Oil prices. There is a huge abundance of natural gas available and prices will remain cheap except for the usual small uptick during the winter months. Petroleum is a whole different monster. The days of cheap oil are long gone. Believe me, I wish they weren’t. I remember paying 99 cents per gallon during the 1990’s. Unfortunately, the cost to produce oil has been rising for quite some time and anytime that there is uncertainty (whether real or speculative) with oil producing nations in the middle east, that can easily send prices higher because believe it or not, a 1-2% drop in oil production world wide has a huge effect on the average consumer. Also, new oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is halted right now due to the Deepwater Horizon Blowout so prices definitely won’t be coming down soon. The best approach we can follow is conservation (We did it in the 70’s). Renewable energy is nowhere near close making up for dwindling petroleum supplies. So don’t drive your car as much.</p>
<p>BTW: $3.73 for 87 in California</p>
<p>I wasn’t comparing Natural Gas to Oil. I was comparing the effects of bubbles in commodities.</p>
<p>Paid $3.19 in Houston last Friday and I think that is the highest I have ever paid. A friend with a large truck told me that most gas pumps cut off around $85. He said he can’t fill his truck all the way up before it cuts off!</p>
<p>With poor transportation, the rich lived in towns. With cheap gas, good roads, and personal tranport, those who could moved to the suburbs. With the cost of commuting going up in energy and time, those who can have moved back into to town. I work 3.2 miles from my office, and fill my tank twice a week. My secretary is 40 miles away and pays 4 times what I do on gas and wear and tear…</p>
<p>Went to Costco yesterday in SoCal and it was $3.65 for regular unleaded. I did not fill my tank all the way since the pump stops at $100.</p>
<p>Government should speed up to build a better public transportation.
In Europe and Asia, most of the countries have high speed train. </p>
<p>Everytime when i drive 5 hours to visit my son (once a month, at least), i always think about the trip we had two years ago in japan and taiwan. We use their high speed train to travel all around the country. It’s so fast, convience, clean, comfortable, on time and cheap. But here, when the gas price was still ok, I prefer to drive not even think about Amtrak. Why? My experience: expensive, not flexible schedule, always delay and slow. Almost the same as I drive unless I pay more for express train which of course, more expensive. </p>
<p>But now, gas price is high, I might try Amtrak and hope this company will “work harder” to improve their performance. Government should do something to improve the public transportation, before it’s too late…</p>
<p>Wow, Showmom, that’s a BIG gas tank you have! Yes, in HI, a lot of the rich (especially younger professional couples) are moving back to town. </p>
<p>Greybeard, I agree. It is the poorest who often have the longest commutes and least flexibility in their schedules, which takes literally hours of their lives daily. I spoke with a sherrif once and he said he got on the EARLY bus about 4:30pm and still hadn’t reach home by 8pm. His wife called him frantically & he said he was still on the bus and there was no apparent accident or other problem, but he was still on his way home. (The bus was going less than 20 miles total but obviously in our heavy HI traffic; this was just slightly long than usual for him & his family, with a similar story in the morning.)</p>
<p>“In Europe and Asia, most of the countries have high speed train.”</p>
<p>It and mass transit over there also work because they have higher population density. Here they work quite well in Ny City, Chicago, Seattle, Pittsburgh. They are failure in cities like Houston or Dallas.</p>
<p>The MBTA works reasonably well in Boston but it appears that the financial picture is pretty shaky.</p>
<p>But for some states/ cities in east and west coast, we really need high speed train.
Sometimes it’s because people used to drive, public transport never come out as an option. But now, we must think about not just save money, we must reduce our demand of foreign import oil. </p>
<p>Well, I’m really a big fan of high speed train and subway.</p>