Gas prices, how high will they go?

[Leatherneck 693]

$4.359 today for regular. I found a place down the road for $4.189 and I was happy. $100 to top off the tank. I fill up when the gauge is at about 3/8's now.

Ouch, ouch! We're nowhere close to Memorial Day.

[MyLittlePony 340]

Wow that is nuts I have not filled up yet afraid too.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Wow that is nuts I have not filled up yet afraid too.

The 76 at Marlow and Guerneville Roads is the cheapest for brand name gas in the area. At these prices, there is no reason to burn off brand gas in a fuel injected engine.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

http://www.californiagasprices.com/GasPriceSearch.aspx

Cool tool!

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

http://www.californi...riceSearch.aspx

Cool tool!

Yeah, I have it as an app on my phone. VERY useful these days!

Shame the best gas prices are in Stockton!

I also know exactly where that $5.59 gas is at the corner of Olympic and Figueroa that's the highest in CA -- right by the Staples Center. They had $4.79/gal gas when my local station was selling regular for $3.45 the other month. A fool and his money... or a fool and his unattended gas gauge...

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

[Leatherneck 693]

Interesting.

Edited February 28, 2012 by Leatherneck

[MyLittlePony 340]

I spent $40 dollars today to fill my tank full holy chit i said.

[Captain Oates 911]

Just finished the 2,000 mile drive from Washington State to the capital of liberalism - Madison, Wisconsin.

My 3.5 liter V6 268 horse Toyota averaged 30mpg (US)

That's having it both ways as the actress said to the bishop

The taxis here are Prius' and have bicycle racks on the back. I had the only car at the gun club in central washington - the rest were 8 foot high pick ups dripping with deer blood

Those people are due to see Barry re-elected and $5 gas - that will choke em and they might even realize that driving 7 liter trucks to go to the supermarket is more than a bit daft - and they still don't look tough - they look like over-fed flobberly versions of Granny Clampitt

They need to lose half their body weight and half their vehicle weight and shave that goatee beard off - the future is upon us !

Edited February 29, 2012 by Ashud Cocoa

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

$70 to fill up the Volvo yesterday at the Arco. I nearly sank to my knees and cried but I was wearing tights I'm rather fond of, and didn't want to risk getting a ladder in them.

[Captain Oates 911]

$70 to fill up the Volvo yesterday at the Arco. I nearly sank to my knees and cried but I was wearing tights I'm rather fond of, and didn't want to risk getting a ladder in them.

If you can get my ladders in them, then let me know - they are in store at the moment

x

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

It's all good. The more you pay at the pump, the fatter the wallets on Wall Street get. All we need to do is to make sure not to tax the loot too heavily. Perhaps we should exempt the speculator tax we all pay at the pump from being subjected to any kind of income tax at all. After all, the speculators deserve this tax they collect from you and me.

Wall Street greed fueling high gas prices

By Bernie Sanders, Special to CNN

CNN) -- Gas prices approaching $4 a gallon on average are causing severe economic pain for millions of Americans. Pump prices spiked 5% in the past month alone. Crude oil prices stood at $108 on Friday, up from only double digits at the beginning of the month.

What's the cause? Forget what you may have read about the laws of supply and demand. Oil and gas prices have almost nothing to do with economic fundamentals. According to the Energy Information Administration, the supply of oil and gasoline is higher today than it was three years ago, when the national average for a gallon of gasoline was just $1.90. Meanwhile, the demand for oil in the U.S. is at its lowest level since April of 1997.

Is Big Oil to blame? Sure. Partly. Big oil companies have been gouging consumers for years. They have made almost $1 trillion in profits over the past decade, in part thanks to ridiculous federal subsidies and tax loopholes. I have proposed legislation to end those pointless giveaways to some of the biggest and most profitable corporations in the history of the world.

But there's another reason for the wild rise in gas prices. The culprit is Wall Street. Speculators are raking in profits by gambling in the loosely regulated commodity markets for gas and oil.

A decade ago, speculators controlled only about 30% of the oil futures market. Today, Wall Street speculators control nearly 80% of this market. Many of those people buying and selling oil in the commodity markets will never use a drop of this oil. They are not airlines or trucking companies who will use the fuel in the future. The only function of the speculators in this process is to make as much money as they can, as quickly as they can.

I've seen the raw documents that prove the role of speculators. Commodity Futures Trading Commission records showed that in the summer of 2008, when gas prices spiked to more than $4 a gallon, speculators overwhelmingly controlled the crude oil futures market. The commission, which supposedly represents the interests of the American people, had kept the information hidden from the public for nearly three years. That alone is an outrage. The American people had a right to know exactly who caused gas prices to skyrocket in 2008 and who is causing them to spike today.

Even those inside the oil industry have admitted that speculation is driving up the price of gasoline. The CEO of Exxon-Mobil, Rex Tillerson, told a Senate hearing last year that speculation was driving up the price of a barrel of oil by as much as 40%. The general counsel of Delta Airlines, Ben Hirst, and the experts at Goldman Sachs also said excessive speculation is causing oil prices to spike by up to 40%. Even Saudi Arabia, the largest exporter of oil in the world, told the Bush administration back in 2008, during the last major spike in oil prices, that speculation was responsible for about $40 of a barrel of oil.

Just last week, Commissioner Bart Chilton, one of the only Commodity Futures Trading Commission members looking out for consumers, calculated how much extra drivers are being charged as a result of Wall Street speculation. If you drive a relatively fuel-efficient vehicle such as a Honda Civic, you pay an extra $7.30 every time you fill your tank. For larger vehicles, such as a Ford F150, drivers pay an extra $14.56 for each fill-up. That works out to more than $750 a year going directly from your wallet or pocketbook to the Wall Street speculators.

So as speculators gamble, millions of Americans are paying what amounts to a "speculators tax" to feed Wall Street's greed. People who live in rural areas like my home state of Vermont are hit harder than most because they buy gas to drive long distances to their jobs.

It doesn't have to work this way. The current spike in oil and gasoline prices was avoidable. Under the Wall Street reform act that Congress passed in 2010, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was ordered to impose strict limits on the amount of oil that Wall Street speculators could trade in the energy futures market. The regulators dragged their feet.

Finally, after months and months of law-breaking delays, the commission in October adopted a rule. It was a weak version of a proposal that might have put meaningful limits on the number of futures and swaps contracts a single trader could hold. Even the watered-down regulation adopted by the industry-friendly commission was challenged in court. The Financial Markets Association and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association wanted free rein to continue unregulated gambling in the oil markets.

So today, Wall Street once again is laughing all the way to the bank. Once again, federal regulators should move aggressively to end excessive oil speculation. We must do everything we can to lower gas prices so that they reflect the fundamentals of supply and demand and bring needed relief to the American people.

The time for real action is now.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Fuel here is 4.33 now. I spend roughly 26 USD a week ( about 30mi round trip commute). I maximize my fuel economy, walk a lot, and take public transport on the weekends.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Sousuke

[Captain Oates 911]

It's all good. The more you pay at the pump, the fatter the wallets on Wall Street get. All we need to do is to make sure not to tax the loot too heavily. Perhaps we should exempt the speculator tax we all pay at the pump from being subjected to any kind of income tax at all. After all, the speculators deserve this tax they collect from you and me.

Speculation is a 'wash' - because when the delivery date is getting nearer, the speculator must SELL or accept delivery of 500,000 tonnes of crude oil at their apartment

Speculators therefore SELL as much as they BUY and only people who accept delivery can influence the price in the long term

[Captain Oates 911]

Fuel here is 4.33 now. I spend roughly 26 USD a week ( about 30mi round trip commute). I maximize my fuel economy, walk a lot, a take public transport on the weekends.

Living in an isolated area in Central Washington with the nearest City 150 miles away is the biggest gasoline saver ever

So is being banned for DUI

I don't do either and have only done one

Driving a big pick up truck in an aggressive and bullying manner brings its own monetary penalty instantly

.. so all is well with the system... except that said drivers can't then afford to send their kids to college so the ignorance persists

Mind you, if they could afford to send their kids to college, it would only cause them to be civic driving snaaaaaaarbs who can spell 'cat' and we don't hold with them fancy ideas