Gas Prices

[SNP]

My poor poor piggy bank, after I got gas this morning.

[Betty Boop]

Definitely not going to be first place winner at the L.A. County Fair that Farmer John slaughters this year, SNP.

[filthybeast]

Man you know it. I paid 3.30 per gallon in San Jose. I was happy when I got off the coast the price went down to 3.09.

[Betty Boop]

On a more serious note, and I realize this editorial was published prior to the devastation in the South where roughly 10% of our American gasoline was refined, I always listen with great interest to Hal Fishman - news manager, anchor with KTLA for most of it's 50 year history and top-awarded journalist and professor at USC. I think this short commentary put a lot of perspective as to why that poor piggy bank is so emaciated:

COMMENTARY

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

By Hal Fishman
Commentary

August 17, 2005

There was joy in the stock market today because the price of a barrel of oil dropped $2.80 to just over $63. The feds announced there is an adquate supply to get us through the final weeks of the summer vacation season.

This same routine has been going on now for months. Remember when oil peaked over $50 a barrel, then dropped back a few dollars into the upper forties, people celebrated the reduced price and ran out and bought an suv. We also said at the time with this "three steps forward and two steps back" approach to oil pricing one day we'll see oil at $60 a barrel. Well that day is now, and the same ludicrous pattern is emerging: Shock everybody with a sudden runup in the price, then retreat a bit to make it seem as though the peak was only an illusion before a new runup is started and oil heads for $70 a barrel.

Furthermore, we have not yet seen the effect at the pump of the recent $67 price. It takes at least two weeks for the price to filter down to the pump before the price we all pay reflects reality.

And while I'm at it; have you wondered why the same brand of gas is 2.93 a gallon in one part of town and 3.19 in another? We called for congressional hearings on this whole sorry mess months ago. A subcommittee did meet here in L.A. and do you know what happened? Nothing!

http://ktla.trb.com/news/local/eveni...ll=ktla-news-2

[Woodmonkey]

When I first got my Plymouth Breeze, $13 filled the tank. It cost me $28 yesterday.

[Betty Boop]

I paid $2.899/gal this morning here in town - in a 20-gallon tank that means almost $58.00 every two weeks now. I remember getting my license in November 1973 and paying $0.39/gal. As Bob Dylan sang, "The times they are a-changin'" (but unfortunately we are not).

Again, from my favorite anchor, this commentary (a few days earlier than the above posted):

Monday, August 15, 2005

By Hal Fishman
Commentary

August 15, 2005

We are all feeling the pain at the pump. Gasoline, nationwide, is 68 cents a gallon higher today than exactly one year ago.

And the price of natural gas is 30% higher, which does not bode well for the winter. As we mentioned Friday, there are 512 million barrels of oil untapped off the Southern California coast blocked from drilling by court order.

But when we think about increased oil production, whether domestically or from foreign sources, one issue hovers over us like a dark cloud. What would we do with the oil once we got it?

Our refineries right now are producing at 96% capacity. The underlying problem is that we have not built a new refinery in this country in more than 30 years. The analogy to our highways is quite clear. Our population has increased manifold, the number of cars on the road has multiplied enormously in the past few decades, yet the increase in freeway mileage is minuscule.

In other words, government and private industry in this country have been exceedingly short-sighted for many years. There was no effective planning to anticipate traffic congestion as we know it, no planning for the rapid economic expansion here and in such countries as China and India.

It's not a pretty picture, but it's something we have to confront - because chances are it's not going to get any better.
Copyright © 2005, KTLA

http://ktla.trb.com/news/local/eveni...ll=ktla-news-2

Too bad that Hal is only a local - His wisdom and insight should be right out there for everyone to see and consider!

[JohnRN]

I got a 4 cyl piece of junk.

I put in 20 bucks worth of hard earned cash. It didn't budge the needle past the half tank mark