Gas prices are going up fast

[JoeWras]

I filled up yesterday morning and when I drove past 1.5 hrs later it was up another 30 cents. Yikes! Bracing for later in the week/month/?. Glad everything like groceries, hardware stores, etc. are less than 3 miles.

Cheers!

So it wasn't just me. I was starting to doubt my eyes.

It seemed a memo went out to at least the entire Southeast distribution system.

 

[GenXguy]

Yup just filled up today at $4.01 regular in Tampa.
Still travel 30-40 minutes one way 6x weekly to play Pickleball. Gas prices be damned.

I remember you talking about playing Pickleball. Bummer you have to drive that far every time, though.

Gas up to $4.19 here in IL (20 cents higher at some places in the region).

 

[Dtail]

I remember you talking about playing Pickleball. Bummer you have to drive that far every time, though.

Gas up to $4.19 here in IL (20 cents higher some places in the region).

Thanks, but actually my choice. The flip side of getting better and wishing to play against higher levels, is that the courts within 10 minutes of me have many more beginner/advanced/intermediate players which is fine for 1x weekly.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

Price not scarint me yet but planning a cross-country roadxtrip witham an infant in 3 wks and the idea of shortages is scary

 

[jazz4cash]

I budgeted $300/mo for gas in retirement. Last year i spent about 1/2 that much. No one is commuting. The 5% cashback on gas helps and thankfully i don’t need premium. It’s a bit painful but looking on the bright side the Amazon Prime fee increase looks like a bargain now. It will be tough on all the gig workers doing instacart, uber, etc.

 

[punkinhead]

Gas is now up to what it was in 2007. What other expense do people complain about because it's the same price it was 15 years ago?

 

[Midpack]

While it was going up daily, it’s leveled off for 48 hours at $3.899/gal for regular here. We’ll see…

 

[Bigdawg]

Gas is now up to what it was in 2007. What other expense do people complain about because it's the same price it was 15 years ago?

Maybe I have a selective memory and I don't feel like doing the research right now, but 15 years ago when gas was high (I lived in Southern California) I don't remember everything else inflating at the same time. It seemed like it was JUST the gas prices. This time EVERYTHING is going up along with gas. I'm sure someone will come along here shortly and mention my selective/short term memory issues.

 

[DrRoy]

For the last several years, we have been driving from Michigan to Utah and/or Arizona for several weeks in the early spring. This year it will be mostly New Mexico. Higher gas will add $200 or so the the cost of the trip. We are still going.

 

[Amethyst]

I remember services (contractors, etc.) charging more and blaming it on fuel costs. Those new higher charges never went back to what they were before, even when fuel prices dropped.

Maybe I have a selective memory and I don't feel like doing the research right now, but 15 years ago when gas was high (I lived in Southern California) I don't remember everything else inflating at the same time. It seemed like it was JUST the gas prices. This time EVERYTHING is going up along with gas. I'm sure someone will come along here shortly and mention my selective/short term memory issues.

 

[JoeWras]

Maybe I have a selective memory and I don't feel like doing the research right now, but 15 years ago when gas was high (I lived in Southern California) I don't remember everything else inflating at the same time. It seemed like it was JUST the gas prices. This time EVERYTHING is going up along with gas. I'm sure someone will come along here shortly and mention my selective/short term memory issues.

No, you are not selective. The 2007-08 event was isolated mostly to gas and was a combination of the peak economy and a bunch of refinery issues. The highest prices were a relatively short period of time. It crashed down when the economy got into trouble.

So what will happen here? Who knows? But we'll be comparing the spikes in the time to come.

 

[street]

I believe the futures for June is 180$ a barrel. I see some place I read we could expect 200$ a barrel mis summer.
We hope that doesn't happen people will struggle to stay alive with all essentials to live going through the roof.

 

[Car-Guy]

https://www.aogr.com/web-exclusives/exclusive-story/u.s.-holds-most-recoverable-oil-reserves

"The United States now holds the world’s largest recoverable oil reserve base–more than Saudi Arabia or Russia–thanks to the development of unconventional resource plays.

Ranking nations by the most likely estimate for existing fields, discoveries and as-of-yet undiscovered fields (proved, probable. possible and undiscovered), the United States is at the top of the list with 264 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves, followed by Russia with 256 billion, Saudi Arabia with 212 billion, Canada with 167 billion, Iran with 143 billion, and Brazil with 120 billion (Table 1)."

Let's pump/recover/use our own oil as we transition to renewables (however long that takes).

Agree 1000%...

Even though I can afford it, I hate to be paying so much more. (I wish I could tell you how I really feel)....

In doing my part, this weekend I just traded in my 2021 super truck that averaged ~11 mpg for another new 2021 vehicle that gets ~double that.

I may even buy another motorcycle (too) to help out even more.

 

[ivinsfan]

Agree 1000%...

Even though I can afford it, I hate to be paying so much more. (I wish I could tell you how I really feel)....

In doing my part, this weekend I just traded in my 2021 super truck that averaged ~11 mpg for another new 2021 vehicle that gets ~double that.

I may even buy another motorcycle (too) to help out even more.

What do posters her think would be the right or fair price for gas?

We farm and are concerned about the fuel /crop price ratio. Right now they are rising in tandem which isn't always the case.

 

[Car-Guy]

What do posters her think would be the right or fair price for gas?

We farm and are concerned about the fuel /crop price ratio. Right now they are rising in tandem which isn't always the case.

I don't really know what a fair price for fuel should be but a ~doubling in price in a ~year was not necessary here in the US... Of course rising fuel (gas/diesel) prices contribute a lot to inflation since just about everything we do (e.g. farming, trucking, etc) needs fuel. YMMV as well as your opinion.

 

[38Chevy454]

Maybe I have a selective memory and I don't feel like doing the research right now, but 15 years ago when gas was high (I lived in Southern California) I don't remember everything else inflating at the same time. It seemed like it was JUST the gas prices. This time EVERYTHING is going up along with gas. I'm sure someone will come along here shortly and mention my selective/short term memory issues.

X2 on the price of fuel is only going to increase the inflation in everything. We are already dealing with price inflation and supply shortages, now add the increased costs of fuel for delivery all along the supply process. It's going to get worse.
To make it worse, now the US is begging all the other countries to produce more oil. We could have been in better position for both internal supply and for exporting, but I will stay off that political hotpoint. As much as people say they want green energy, oil is the lifeblood of the economy.

 

[jimbee]

Increasing fuel prices is a tough problem. The petroleum market is global, and production lags price/demand signals. I don't see a simple solution.

 

[Andre1969]

The 2007-2008 fuel spike was but a fast blip, at least here in the Maryland area. I remember gas getting to around $4/gal briefly, over the summer of 2008, but then the Great Recession took care of that real fast. Christmas Day, 2008, I filled up for $1.49/gal.

Home heating oil had also shot up. At the time, I had an oil furnace. Once prices hit $5.62/gal for oil, I decided to switch to an all-electric heat pump. By the time it got cold enough to start needing heat, oil prices plunged. And guess which way electric rates went?

Prices didn't stay down for long, though. However, I sort of lost track, I guess, because I went from a 2000 Intrepid that got wrecked, to a used 2000 Park Avenue Utra. Its supercharged engine called for premium fuel. So thanks to that, and then a Ram Hemi afterwards, which called for mid-grade, I got used to higher fuel prices, anyway.

I also didn't have a very long commute to work back in those days either, so I was somewhat insulated by fuel prices. Even now, while I'd complain about it, I could endure it. Before COVID sent me to work from home, I was averaging about 300 miles per week, in a fairly economical 2003 Regal. A weekly fillup usually ran about 30 bucks. If I had to go back to work, I estimate now I'd be up to 60 bucks a week.

So, an additional 30 bucks a week, at current prices, if I had to go back to work. That does add up, to around $1560 per year. I could always buy a more fuel-efficient car, but the costs involved would far outweigh any fuel cost savings.

 

[scrabbler1]

I drive very little, at most 3,000 miles per year but this year probably in the 2,000 mile range. My car, a Corolla, gets about 25 mpg, so I buy gas once a month to fill up the ~11-gallon tank. So, 80 gallons per year at $4 per gallon is $320, barely a blip in my budget.

My local gas station was at $3.97 per gallon for a few weeks before his price shot up to $4.35, still below what I recall paying back in the spring of 2008 when it was $4.40. Back then, I recall lots of people trading in their gas-guzzling SUVs for more economical cars, filling up the dealer's lots. For a while, it was nice driving around and not being behind one of those view-blocking vehicles as much, whose mere presence was a hazard to my safe driving.

Nearly all of my trips are very short, maybe 5 miles round-trip. Very rarely do I have to drive more than 40 miles in one day.

 

[street]

What do posters her think would be the right or fair price for gas?

We farm and are concerned about the fuel /crop price ratio. Right now they are rising in tandem which isn't always the case.

I do know for a fact that producers fair well at a 70 to 80 bucks a barrel. When it was that price we were paying 2.25 to 3.00 bucks at the pump. I believe that is a good number to keep people working and exploration and drilling remains active.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Saw $7 a gallon today on the news in Los Angeles.

 

[Aerides]

Saw $7 a gallon today on the news in Los Angeles.

Yeah..that's apparently always the single most expensive station in the US, so it makes great news to have reporters stand in front of it.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Yeah..that's apparently always the single most expensive station in the US, so it makes great news to have reporters stand in front of it.

Makes for great "news"

 

[Ronstar]

We need about 100 gallons to get back home on a road trip. Gas was $4.00 a gallon on our last fillup in Arizona.

 

[Car-Guy]

Yeah..that's apparently always the single most expensive station in the US, so it makes great news to have reporters stand in front of it.

I saw a similar news clip from NJ this morning, but the price wasn't as high as the one in LA... Funny that there wasn't anyone pumping gas there... I know around here, when there is a 10 cents difference, the higher price station doesn't have much (if any) business, while across the street at the cheaper station every pump is being used.