Gas


It’s getting uglier by the minute out there.

With yet another rise in the price of crude (now cracking $75) it seems--finally--to be generating a little activity in Washington--activity of the kind that might arrest this death spiral we’re in. Feeling the point of a spear at their spines, Sens. Hastert and Frist are beginning inquiries with the FTC and the EPA; they are also (believe it or not) going after this little piggy and his (in Hastert’s words) unconscionable salary.

Workers are pawning the tools they use to earn money in order to fill their tanks.

Like mental illness, “the causes are overdetermined” regarding the reasons behind exploding prices. Lack of ethanol, federal mandates and just the change in seasons (and the different gasoline mixtures that accompany each).


Doug Richardson April 22, 2006 - 3:34pm

There have been plenty gasoline exports from Europe to the USA in April.

A ton of gasoline costs $720 in Rotterdam.

-- There are no income taxes in The Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Gandalf April 22, 2006 - 5:33pm

I just effectively cut the cost of my gas by half.
How ?
By getting rid of my Land Rover SUV and getting a Volvo I am doubling my MPG.

Happy Earth Day!

mcmillan April 22, 2006 - 5:45pm

Cheney and Company ( Big Oil ) developed the energy policy for this country. Of course we can not find out who was in that meeting because Cheney cried "priviliged" information. If you think any branch of our present government is going to go hard on BIG OIL you are dreaming.

Bucksouth April 22, 2006 - 10:02pm

but the facts are the facts...so far. Let's see where it goes. Putting this in context with the bigger picture of ever-swelling discontent with virtually everything this administration is doing, maybe We the People will get a little something out of the deal; a lot of people here have noticed a rise in the petulance level and squirming in the Oval Office.

But you could be right...maybe I AM dreaming.....

"Lord! What fools these Mortals be!"

Doug Richardson April 22, 2006 - 10:55pm

Bush said during the 2000 presidential campaign it was the job of the president to "jawbone" OPEC producers to lower oil prices. "What I think the president ought to do is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots," Bush said in a January 2000 presidential debate.

Mark April 23, 2006 - 11:50am

Hastert (who is Speaker of the House, not a senator, btw; the senators from Illinois are Durbin and Obama) is certainly no genius, and Frist isn't showing any signs of getting any smarter.

Collectively, consumers in this country control their own destiny. I heard an analyst point out on the radio this week that a three per cent drop in domestic gasoline consumption would cause prices to collapse.

It's highly unlikely that the market would be in such a panic if the US were led by someone who had an inkling of how to conduct a foreign policy with anything other than wanton bluster, ignorant ranting, and unnecessary belligerence. But in Bush's America, moderation of one's appetites is apparently a shameful sign of weakness; better that we all go bankrupt buying $5 gasoline than to figure out how to live with less of it.

xfrosch April 22, 2006 - 10:52pm

$ 5.49 cnd an imperial gallon, that's what we pay here in Quebec, just north of New York state. $1.209 cnd a liter of regular.
So what's about the whining there in the U.S. of A.
Check European prices.
Damm, you people have just about the cheapest gas on this planet.
Please don't forget, to buy Hummers, tear up railways, and don't use the busses, please.

Jelco Cathlon April 23, 2006 - 7:23am

before we'd get a comment like this. Wasn't a question of 'if,' it was a question of 'when.'

The issue of US pigginess about oil is not in question here...at least by me.It's been well-documented and commented upon here at great, great length. And yes there is a lot of whining about it, and with the exception of the Texas pawn shop link, I deliberately avoided the "poor me" stories and sought material that dealt with the "why" and "what-we're-gonna-do-about-it" sort.

I've noticed, BTW, that the most significant portion of those here "whining" about gas are not the Hummer/musclecar/monster truck drivers; those people, generally speaking, have the money to fill their tanks. It's the everyday working stiff that is feeling the pain, along with businesses who depend on trucking to get their goods to the marketplace, and I'm scouring the news pages looking for stories about impact and, more importantly, solutions. You'll find no one, particularly here at The Agonist, doing a "poor me" screed; it's crystal clear that the issue of our amount and cost of consumption has got to change.

America, in the last quarterr of the 20th century, has had a lot of wake-up calls about oil and we've hit the snooze alarm on most of them. Maybe this time we'll get out of bed. Posts like yours do serve a purpose; like a recalcitrant child, America needs some nagging and scolding. But we also need some leadership, some solutions and, above all, a stronger inclination to change. What I'm trying to post here are signs of intelligent life in the oil consumption universe.

"Lord! What fools these Mortals be!"

Doug Richardson April 23, 2006 - 9:09am

From Norway (one of the largest oil producers in the world) I
pick a medium price for a litre, 11.40 NOK
http://www.dinside.no/php/oko/bensin/vis_prisliste.php?region=1

and convert it to euros:
conversion

and get 10 eurocents per litre more than here.

This old page tells something about the relationships of gasoline prices in the world:
http://www.galtglobalreview.com/world/world_gasoline.html

* US - $1.43
* Hong Kong - $5.24
* London, England - $4.83
* Oslo, Norway - $4.38
* Tokyo, Japan - $4.34
* Quito, Ecuador - $.50
* Jakarta, Indonesia - $.52
* Kuwait City, Kuwait - $.76
* Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - $.93

Price level has correlations to living standard and being an oil producer.

The reason for 3rd world taxing of gasoline in the USA has probably been the domestic producers. They have wanted to sell as much gasoline to the consumers as possible.

Economically now is a good year. If Yankees have now problems with their gasoline bill, I wonder what happens if there will be the predicted recession in the end of the year.

-- There are no income taxes in The Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Gandalf April 23, 2006 - 10:01am

The problems with oil prices are not limited to profiteering by corporations (which may or may not be a large factor), but also by the general facts of supply, demand, geopolitics. There is little that Congress can or will do to help soften the situation -- our society has ignored the issue for too long to deal with it gently, and now we're in for a bumpy ride.

moonbiter April 23, 2006 - 9:00am

I hesitate to say anything about Jimmy Carter and Iran, but I would like to observe, a little more pointedly than I did last night, that a real leader would be making serious appeals to tbe public for energy conservation, rather than making ineffectual noises about hydrogen that can't accomplish anything for years to come.

xfrosch April 23, 2006 - 4:30pm

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