Price of Gas Affecting You, Too?

I buy at Costco. Usually about .10-20 cents cheaper than a normal gas station. Granted I pay $50 a year for membership, but between food and gas, well worth it!

Public transportation around here sucks, period. Buses are almost always late. If you rely on them to get to work, you won't have a job.

And some of us can't afford to live close to work either. Personally... I prefer paying $600 a month to OWN my little half acre parcel with horses and a 3 bedroom 1400 sq ft house than to have to pay $1200 in rent for a two bedroom apartment. Means I have to pay more in gas to commute, but that's another debate. I will complain about the gas prices going up so quickly in a short amount of time, while also complaining about the cost of living.

We try to make as few trips as possible, I try to limit it to one a day. Up until I moved back out to the San Juans I didn't own a car, the public transport system wasn't so bad down in Seattle (at least I knew it well enough to get wherever I needed to go in a reasonable amount of time). Because they had buses period up here I thought "Great! I can just use their system!" only to find out buses only run once an hour (with a lunch break) and have erratic routes that take 3+ hours to just go 20 miles. Not even going to touch the ferries.

Luckily I live close enough to work that I can walk if I have to, and when the weather isn't cruddy I'll pick a bike up. Just sucks when we have to head into the next town for anything outside of groceries or hardware store stuff ($10-$15 in gas for each trip). I'd kill for a local store where I could pick up some freaking underpants and socks that isn't a touristy boutique or thrift shop (ew)

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Originally Posted by 33rpm

All it is, is Obama, and his cronies, pushing his radical environmental agenda. Communism 101.

The U.S. has more natural gas and oil reserves than Saudi Arabia, Iraq & Iran combined. If the left would just crawl back under their rocks, we could become a self-sustaining fuel powerhouse in the world. Imagine that, no more dependency on foreign oil! AND, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, ta boot. Don't believe me? Look up North Dakota and their drilling on private land that Obummer is trying his hardest to limit and control.

Sorry about your $10-11 gal. gas prices, lol, but most Americans aren't known for just rolling over and being screwed. lol :salute:

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You don't seem to understand oil economy. We pay high gas prices because even though we're producing more oil than ever, we don't directly reap the benefits of that production. It has nothing to do with one political party vs. another, it's all about the oil companies who own the land and equipment. Instead of selling it here in America they ship it overseas, and in turn you and I have to buy mostly imported oil.

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Originally Posted by 33rpm

Nowadays, I hear all of the time that the President "has nothing to do with gas prices"...hmm? :rolleyes:

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That president had as little to do with gas prices as the current one does, just because people talk about something either way does not make it legitimate

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Originally Posted by SaintTawny

You don't seem to understand oil economy. We pay high gas prices because even though we're producing more oil than ever, we don't directly reap the benefits of that production. It has nothing to do with one political party vs. another, it's all about the oil companies who own the land and equipment. Instead of selling it here in America they ship it overseas, and in turn you and I have to buy mostly imported oil.

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Understood. The point I was trying to steer towards was Solindra, Chevy Volt, etc. All of which have been shoved in our faces by you-know-who... 37 straight days of raising gas prices. Ya don't need a weatherman to tell ya which way the wind's blowing.

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Originally Posted by ewaldrep

That president had as little to do with gas prices as the current one does, just because people talk about something either way does not make it legitimate

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Yeah, kind of my point.

Gas prices will continue to rise, except if there is another global economic crisis. Only a global economic crisis has the power to (temporarily, as long as it lasts) reduce gas prices.


The problem is peak oil, most individual countries are well past their peak production. The USA already used up more than half of all its oil and gas reserves, and whats left is incresingly harder to get, requiring methods such as deep sea drilling or hydraulic fracturing.

Now one of the reasons for the very high taxes in europe is that this has been anticipated, by increasing the taxes early on we have two benefits: first, alternatives did benefit, second, if prices become unbearably high europe just needs to lower the taxes.

In the USA fuel is partly subsidized, partly just world market prize. So when world market prices rise, and they will, the USA can do nothing. Except for maybe giving more money to big oil by subsidizing it. As prices climb to 10 dollards per gallon, the USA will be in a world of trouble while in europe just by lowering taxes it can be ensured that the consumers feel nothing.

"The problem is peak oil, most individual countries are well past their peak production. The USA already used up more than half of all its oil and gas reserves, and whats left is incresingly harder to get, requiring methods such as deep sea drilling or hydraulic fracturing."

I'm gonna have to disagree with that. It's all about the EPA and restrictions. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could have been avoided if they didn't have to drill over a mile deep. In shallower water, they could have capped it off quicker and easier, in the event of a spill.

1/2 used up? C'mon, man... Case in point, look into S.T.R.O.N.G.E.R. and the likes.

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Originally Posted by SaintTawny

You don't seem to understand oil economy. We pay high gas prices because even though we're producing more oil than ever, we don't directly reap the benefits of that production. It has nothing to do with one political party vs. another, it's all about the oil companies who own the land and equipment. Instead of selling it here in America they ship it overseas, and in turn you and I have to buy mostly imported oil.

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if by "we" you mean the USA, thats not true.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Production.png

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Production.PNG

its not looking much better for other states of the USA, as a whole USA reached peak production in 1970:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...bert_Curve.png


globally, production is quite stagnant, after it has histrically exhibited exponential growth its now a kind of plateau. The USA is buying more and more and more oil, since 1970. If climate change wont encourage people to decrease consumption, these facts will.


EDIT: "I'm gonna have to disagree with that. It's all about the EPA and restrictions. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could have been avoided if they didn't have to drill over a mile deep. In shallower water, they could have capped it off quicker and easier, in the event of a spill. "

they have to go deep, because the oil in shallower waters is already gone, this has been pumped up in the 70s and 80s. The EPA is powerless, the USA does not protect the environment.