Boston Herald: Gas prices drive for record

[Elessar78]

ME trouble goes away?

haha. Scarce resource valued by every country, antiquated system of government, predominantly illiterate population . . . what could go wrong?

[Bang]

I really don't know what the excuse is this time. They blamed the Muslims for 9-11 and the gas prices. Bush and Obama have destroyed Iraq-Afghanistan and eliminated Hussein and Bin Laden. Why are gas prices so high this time?

the excuse this time is actually very real.
Iran is threatening to shut off supply to some of their European trading partners, such as France and UK.
If they do, then France and UK will have to shop for their supply elsewhere, which uses up resources, drives up demand, and obviously, increases price.

This isn't just a good ol' gouging. It's an inevitable extension of dependency on a finite resource, and a resource that is partly in the hands of a contentious state.

This is sort of the point to my posts above.. not so much to wag the finger, but to say we've KNOWN this is coming. For whatever reason, be it Iran, or be it other actions by unfriendly states who control supply, or be it just by the very fact that the supply IS finite.. we've known it, and we've done very little to change it.
We can say all we want to 'drill drill drill'.. but not changing our habits only prolongs the problem. And you'd think we've seen enough chickens come home to roost in the last decade or so to understand that we can't just keep procrastinating about the future.

~Bang

[sjinhan]

Ah, the annual, spring/summer gas price gouging by the oil companies. Yay! It's springtime!

And of course, lots more profit to be made. It's obscene really, the way these gas/oil companies get tons of tax breaks, incentives, and allowances and then they make these huge profits. It happens every year, and it's bunkum.

it is gas price gouging by the market place (wallstreet). It has been quite a long time since the oil companies lost the pricing power of their products...

---------- Post added February-21st-2012 at 01:05 PM ----------

the excuse this time is actually very real.
Iran is threatening to shut off supply to some of their European trading partners, such as France and UK.
If they do, then France and UK will have to shop for their supply elsewhere, which uses up resources, drives up demand, and obviously, increases price.

This isn't just a good ol' gouging. It's an inevitable extension of dependency on a finite resource, and a resource that is partly in the hands of a contentious state.

This is sort of the point to my posts above.. not so much to wag the finger, but to say we've KNOWN this is coming. For whatever reason, be it Iran, or be it other actions by unfriendly states who control supply, or be it just by the very fact that the supply IS finite.. we've known it, and we've done very little to change it.
We can say all we want to 'drill drill drill'.. but not changing our habits only prolongs the problem. And you'd think we've seen enough chickens come home to roost in the last decade or so to understand that we can't just keep procrastinating about the future.

~Bang

I might be wrong but France and UK do not really buy their oil from Iran. What Iran is doing is just trying to fear monger and the media is surely helping them achieve that. Good reason for speculators in the market to drive the prices up.

However you are right about the need of people to slowly change their habits to reduce energy comsumption. I work for a major oil company and I take a metro bus (~35 min ride) to work. It would be easier for me to just drive but at the grand scheme of things, there isnt a real good reason for me to put one more single passenger vehicle on the highways.

[TheLongshot]

We can say all we want to 'drill drill drill'.. but not changing our habits only prolongs the problem. And you'd think we've seen enough chickens come home to roost in the last decade or so to understand that we can't just keep procrastinating about the future.

In particular, drilling more doesn't necessarily mean more oil for us, since oil goes on the international market no matter where it is drilled.

I'd like to see more work done on alternative fuels (not Ethanol, which is crap. I'd like to see more done with Biodiesel)

[pjfootballer]

Some of y'all need to buy a Volt.....or good shoes and a bicycle as someone mentioned.

I wonder if Starbucks will suffer?

I just moved closer to my job. It would take me all day to walk to work and half a day to bike. I'd come to work sweaty and there are no showers. No public transportation and when the cost of the electric cars go down, maybe it would be a viable alternative. I have to keep my car payments at a minimal.

[Rocky21]

I'm mainly upset that I can't blame George Bush for this.

[Rdskns2000]

Value of the $

Demand is actually very low compared to a few years ago. Nobdoy is driving around a hummer anymore.

However, the buying power of the dollar has significantly diminished since GW started running big deficits in 2002 and President Obama has continued this going forward.

Its why food prices are so damn high also. Can anyone do groceries for less then 100 dollars a week?

I remember I could buy a Big Mac, Fish Fillet and Med Drink for $5-6; now the same costs me $10-11.

[Enter Apotheosis]

Edit: Also, it's nothing compared to what airline prices have done recently. I'm going to FL the first week of April and looked into plane tickets.....about $450 a person round trip....even at $4 a gallon the 1600 mile round trip will only cost me $256. When you think about what everything else costs these days that's still an awfully nominal amount to essentially traverse the length of the eastern seaboard.

You're going at a time when gas prices are rising, airlines have recently been forced to advertise their fees and taxes in the ticket cost, and you're going around that spring break period to boot. Prices tend to spike around then. You'd probably be closer to that $256 (if not under) if you had bought for May.

[mjah]

I'd like to see more work done on alternative fuels (not Ethanol, which is crap. I'd like to see more done with Biodiesel)

Sugar ethanol, I'd be happy to see.

Sadly, corn grows more readily here than sugar cane. And corn ethanol isn't mere crap -- it's worse than crap. At least the resources in crap did something useful en route to becoming crap. And if you use crap to make energy, you aren't inflating the demand for a food resource.

Or rather, I hope you aren't.

[Dan T.]

ME trouble goes away?

Sub in any pending crisis or rumor. A hurricane watch is issued for the gulf States. Gas prices immediately spike due to the "fear of an interruption of production." The hurricane fizzles, but the higher gas prices linger.

We can reach an ironclad peace agreement with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz will be wide open, yet this price spike will linger for a long time.

[Buford]

I'm mainly upset that I can't blame George Bush for this.

We should attack Iran. That'll drive the price down.

[twa]

I'm mainly upset that I can't blame George Bush for this.

just imagine what it would be if we hadn't boosted domestic production.

[TheLongshot]

Sugar ethanol, I'd be happy to see.

Sadly, corn grows more readily here than sugar cane. And corn ethanol isn't mere crap -- it's worse than crap. At least the resources in crap did something useful en route to becoming crap. And if you use crap to make energy, you aren't inflating the demand for a food resource.

Or rather, I hope you aren't.

Actually, biofuel from waste is one of the things that I look forward to developing. So yes, I'd rather have fuel made from crap rather than corn.

[sjinhan]

just imagine what it would be if we hadn't boosted domestic production.

now imagine what would happen if the extreme environmentalist have their way and they get the EPA to ban hydraulic fracturing within the USA.

I think the impact on US energy prices would be so severe that the government will find a way to allow some form of hydraulic fracturing one way or another but i guess the opposition will at least give it a try...

[gbear]

Actually, biofuel from waste is one of the things that I look forward to developing. So yes, I'd rather have fuel made from crap rather than corn.

I wonder if the corn would be as resistant to processing post crap as before. I can just see it now, the process to make fuel from crap will need a strainer because the corn would be the only unprocessable input. Corn will be the post processing cockroach for all the difficulty getting rid of it will entail.