Gas Prices Options

[Bleyseng]

What is everyone paying for gas?
Its $2.00 for regular here in Phoenix.
Was $1.80 in Seattle when I left on Thursday

Geoff

[need4speed]

We complain about the price of gas at $2.00 a gallon, then turn around and pay around $4.00 per gallon for Coca Cola (sugar and water), $12.00 for beer (hops and water), $40.00 for wine (grapes and water), $50.00 for whiskey (grain and water), and $$$(?) for mineral water (water). Why do we do this? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

Mike

That's a BS argument.
Nobody *needs* beer, or bottled water, or whiskey.
EVERYBODY *needs* gasoline. From the stuff in your car to get to work, to the fuel in the jets that deliver your mail, to the trucks that deliver food from the farm to the grocery store, to the fuel in the tanks rolling through Baghdad right now to ensure our oil supply keeps growing. (Democracy? yeah right. Not as long as Chalabi has a hand in things).

Energy is an input to the economy - so energy costs act as a friction on the economy. It works the same as a tax. Our economy started to sag in late 1998. That's right around the time Venezuela's Hugo Chavez started prodding Opec to cut supply to prop up oil prices. A speech he made at the time (and I can't find a link for it anymore) said that the US had been having a great economy, and it was time for them to take a peice of the pie.

I'm not for going in and taking out Chavez (piece of dirt that he is) - he's democratically elected. But I think this is probably one of the most underreported and ignored news stories out there. The US economy is VERY sensitive to energy prices. And the oil industry does NOT want the government to interfere. Remember the outrage when Clinton tapped the strategic petroleum reserve to smooth off the price spike?

The guys you have to watch for are the corporate terrorists that ran Worldcom, Enron and even Martha Stewart. I'd rather see a few bombed out boardrooms than caves in the middle east. Now I'm not saying the price of gas is outrageous in relation to so many other things, but the way this is all managed is outrageous.

Whoa there - I'm with you on that there's serious need for corporate and regulatory reform here in the US. But that kind of talk will get you sent to Guantanamo.
Martha Stewart is the one they chose to make an example of. And you know what? She's only going to get 10-16 months. And her fans are *crying* at the sham. This is a careful propaganda ploy to tug at the public's heart strings to soften our response to the Enrons and Worldcoms. Don't fall for it. These guys deserve what they get. Call it a witch hunt if you will, but these gingerbread mansion execs are eating our children.

They claim it's caused by a shortage of the reformulated gas we use here in California in the winter, and is now being used in several other states. If that's the case, why is diesel which isn't reformulated, going up with regular?
The truth is they have us by the nuts and can squeeze whenever they feel like it.

Yes, "boutique formulation" of Gasoline is what the oil industry is complaining about as the big bugaboo. Boo hoo. Remember when there was leaded and unleaded? I'm sure they'd want to go back to leaded if they could. The goal here, is to paint their political enemies - those who have made regulatory requirements for low-sulfur or oxygenated gasoline, as whiners, and the cause of the high gasoline prices. Ask any industry lobbyist, and they'll tell you that the problem is too much regulation. Poor babies don't want to have to do business responsibly. These are the same people who brought us Bhopal. Well, excuse me if I don't want to live in a place where the air is like Mexico city. Just look at how Houston, TX has taken over as the nation's smoggiest city from LA. Gasoline formulation works. Regulation works.

Don't misconstrue that as an argument for regulating antique cars though. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) I still say we should get rid of the politicians who propose that. A few thousand "weekend warriors" are nothing compared to the tens of millions of cars that drive to and from work every day.

In CA we VOTED YES for higher taxes!!

No we didn't. We voted to whip out the credit card, then pat Ah-nold on the back as a financial genius who "balanced the budget".
Ah-nold, who is just a paid shill for Enron. Because $9 billion of prop 57 is going straight into the pockets of the cheating energy companies who ripped us off in 2000.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/fighting19.gif)

They do have us by the nuts, but they can't squeeze whenever they feel like it. They can only squeeze when we put their executives and their close freinds into public office.