Gas Prices

hey guys just wondering what you think of the new gas prices. the news in los angeles was saying thier gonna go up to around 6 dollars a gallon and stay around there. thats way too high to be filling up 35 gallons for a few houres of riding.

$6???

Gosh, I really hope you typed that wrong. :-/

$6.00 for what?! Jet Fuel?! The news in LA is that prices will raise anothe .10 by next week and then taper down slightly.

Personally, I think gas prices right now are absolute horse sh#t. It is ridiculas what OPEC is doing right now. I mean how much is going to be enough. I don't know if the 6 dollars a gallon is just blowing hot air or if it is true but either way...if the prices keep going up like they have not only for the past couple months but the last couple years how much is it going to take for us to say enough. We are going to be able to afford only so much.

I agree, gas prices are getting out of hand. Soon we wont be able to much of anything involving a gas tank. This weekend we got a three hour session in and it cost us 130 bucks. It's just not worth it.

I have one thought for everybody to ponder...The US government tried to break up Microsoft because they labeled them as a "Monoply." Alright, so what is OPEC then?

Its not the oil supply that is even the problem, OPEC could open their wells to full capicity and we would not even be able to REFINE it. The US hasnt built a refinery for 20 years and one of few just blew up a little while ago. Ponder the reasons that government has not be able to allow a refinery to be built and then you will have who is to blame.

Yeah, from my understanding, crude oil barrel prices are at a 5 year low. It's all politics and BS. If you think the government is going to step in on fuel prices when you've got a texas oil baron president you're crazy. Go "double-ya"

I thought I heard crude oil barrel prices are at an all time high not a 5 year low.

If you compare the prices to the early 80's, and the 60's, in REAL money, so take out inflation, they are actually roughly the same. I think we are about an average of 20 cents per gallon more.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank china for using the most ammount of gasoline they have ever consumed, and they are doing it extremely inefficiently.

On that note, it is true that we have not built a refinery in the last 20 years, and I completely agree with scottyb, follow why we haven't been able to make a new refinery (Cough...Liberals...Cough).

Evan, you may believe that we have a 'texas oil baron president,' but when prices get too high for the average American, something funny called basic economics comes into play. People stop buying, we get a surplus, prices fall because of the surplus, then people start buying again. If prices get high, and people are not buying, it seems to me that our 'oil baron president' would be hurting, being that he has oh so many ties to Oil, and everything in Farenheit 911 was true and not scewed in any way whatsoever...

Here in ohio it is up to 2.25 for regular and my boat holds 100gal. this is going to get expensive.

Yeah, honestly your little left-sided mind needs to open up a little bit more before you make such stupid comments in a public forum. I really don't even need to add to what Daniel just said but I will. IF Double-Ya wants to make more money he wouldn't be trying to raise the gas prices, that is just stupid. In economics, a study that has been around much longer than you and has proven to follow simple models for ever, there is a supply curve and a demand curve. The higher prices go the less the demand is. SO if Bush wants to turn a larger profit he would probably actually want gas prices to be a bit lower so people would be willing to buy much larger quantities.

Think then speak and please don't allow morons that call their emotions "thoughts" dictate what you believe. It makes you sound really ignorant.

Most of the reason for the high oil prices is an increased demand from Asia. Also instability in south america and the midddle east plays into it (causing a bit of a premium). Also low reserves.

CIE. Crude oil prices are not at a 5 year low. Not even close.

BK. You're post was ignorant. First off, economic models are a little more complicated than you let on. Price is not the only variable effecting demand and its effect on demand may not be as great as you think. Also gas is not the only product made from crude. Anyone that follows the markets knows that higher prices mean large profits for oil and gas producers as input costs stay relatively unchanged. I don't know what Bush's involvement with the oil and gas industry is so I can't comment on that, but the energy sector has had a great year.

Bottom line is it will be an expensive summer. Thank god I work for an oil and gas company so hopefully my bonus will make up for it as we are robbing you guys blind.

Ha, ha, makes me laugh. People take themselves very seriously. Apparently those with "little right brains" are easily worked up. I'd love to see some hard evidence about prices, as I've heard it go both ways and I should have clarified that I mean an all time low in terms of present inflation values.

Anyway.... Thanks for the personal attacks. I love 19 year olds opinions. They amuse me. For the record: right brain or left I think the president is an idiot (and I thought farenheit 911 was stupid). Who else in the world has a leader that looks like he is constantly looking into the sun. he, he, he... OOOOH, get worked up. Now's the chance.

Oh well. I guess we should be happy we don't live in Europe where gas prices have been around $5 a gallon for years now. I'm not complaining too much, and it wont stop me from riding this year. It may just give me a good excuse to buy a new motorcycle because they're so much more "efficient." yeah... that's a great idea.

Its not 6 dollars a gallon its suppose to hit 3 by the summer time. However it already hit 3 dollars in area's like malibu. It won't go up to 6 dollars for a couple of years and by that time hopefully they prefect the hydrogen engine.

Bk, What side of your brain were you using when you posted on this thread ? http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/4387/222120.html?1113267524

Evan,

What are you talking about? Gas isn't $5 a gallon in Europe. They use the metric system. They don't measure liquids in gallons.

Do you know what they call the Quarter Pounder with Cheese in France?

Filling up my Excursion this afternoon in Santa Barbara, CA;

Mike, How big is the fuel tank on your greenback killer ?

44 gal... I'm glad it wasn't COMPLETELY empty to begin with!

$5.25 a gallon race fuel dosent seem so bad anymore. Its been the same price for 5 years.

$2.90 for premium in Modesto today...Hate to see what the bay area looks like...Its ridiculous

Evan, 2 things.
I never made a personal attack on you.
And how does the fact that I am 19 come into play. I made a valid argument that you can't argue with, you can play the age card all you want, but if you're going to try to make fun of what is true (not my opinion), at least have something to back it up.

This is assuming the age card was pulled on me and not BK

Seriously, if you want to play the age card again go for it, just so you know, it completely undermines whatever it is that you are trying to say.

And thats fine if you think the President is a moron, maybe next time MTV's 'Rock the Vote (but only if you're going to vote for a Democrat)' will work.

(Message edited by agfan12 on April 11, 2005)

Oooh, man $100+ hurts. My suburban had a 42 gallon tank. I never liked filling that thing from empty and that was 4 years ago. I filled my car last night with 15 gallons and it was $50 (I liked it better at $20). I remeber being in high school and scraping cash together from change to fill my tank. It'd take a lot of change these days.

Oh well. The Quarter Pounder? I believe that's a Royal with cheese. Funny french people. Sounds good, huh.

Daniel....Couldn't pull the age card with you, since you dont have your age listed. Anyway, you aren't totally wrong, except that most people don't have an option but to pay for fuel. There are some people like us that choose to use fuel for recreation, but most boring individuals use their vehicles as basic transport and, whine as they may, they cannot avoid fuel use. Anyway... College students fresh out of political science courses and economics always want to put their fresh knowledge to use by arguing. I remeber those days. Now I just don't really care, but it still amuses me to play the devils advocate.

Piranha: What does the conversion work out to? The last time I was in Italy I remember working it out to pretty close to $5.00 a gallon, but I could have been wrong.

True Europe has been paying around 5 dollars a gallon for years now. There prices are going to go up also. Thank god the US buys their oil in bulk so that it is cheaper than most of the rest of the world.

(Message edited by w4k3b04rd3r19 on April 12, 2005)

Alright I apologize for the political attacks and will admit that initially I was a little "worked up." However it is not because I am an overzealous Bush fanatic, but because I get annoyed when people try to lump the blame of a huge serious of events and coincidences (which have lead to the current price of gasoline) onto the shoulders of our President. Do you honestly think he gets to just decide what the price is going to be for gas?

Jonathan, yes you are right that there are indeed many other factors that have lead to the price, and much more complicated than my simple example. However, my example is accurate. It would still make more sense to lower prices a little bit than to further raise them. Please note the "little bit" there. As before I am indicating that leveling off the price or dropping it a little, is in the better long-run interest of oil companies or as some would claim "Double-Ya." So call me ignorant when what I am saying is based off of tried and true models. You brought up the international effects on the price, I am aware of them but didn't use them in my example because I was responding only to Evan's Bush bash. So your label of ignorance does not apply.

Yes, Evan, I am 19. Because I am 19 does that invalidate my point? I don't think so. It makes you look stupid and condescending that you would even point out my age in response to my post. I like how you attempt to disqualify what I have to say by reporting my age and then saying that I am fresh out of poli sci and econ courses. Very mature of you. Unfortunately you have yet to say anything to back up your blame for Bush..........

Walt-haha I believe the term for that is "brain-dead" That would be the best way to explain my state when I wrote that. You should check out some of my other posts from that night.

Here's my score card after round two:

1st - Daniel
2nd - BK
3rd - Evan













Just playing fellas!

Mike,
I feel you! 2.79 at the Chevron off Storke. It's way way too painful!

Okay so as far as the econimics go I'm not to sure a standard model applys to gas prices. The oil companies kinda have us by the balls. For one the oil companies are making record profits (well at least the one my father works for and the one my buddies dad works for). Second with supply and demand you need a choice and most people don't. Now I relize that boats don't really fit this but boats are not driving the prices. You see big oil sets the pump prices and when all of them are in bed with each other. There is no true competition to keep prices down. OPEC is not really helping but the true theives are the oil companies right here at home. It also doesn't help that in california we pay like .37 cents a gallon tax. People have to have gas, to get to work and such, so as a result prices can keep going up and we will have to pay. I don't know of this makes sense to everyone but just my 2 cents

Well, my economic predictor is seeing a slight down-turn in the economy happening. Construction material prices are on the rise along with gas prices, interest rates are creeping up and corporate spending seems pretty stagnant. I'm not sure about retail, but that seems to be flat as well. Also, the stock market ain't doing much. New home construction and existing home sales seem to be the only thing holding it together right now. Of course, the automobile and defense industries aren't doing too bad. Overall though I'm feeling a slight recession, but I'm sure I missed something.

What are y'alls predictors saying?

BK- Congratulations. You are finally making sober posts.
More importantly, you are not understanding Jonathan's comments. The main point is production costs are relatively unchanged. I understand what you are trying to say but textbook logic is not always universal.

BK- Congratulations. You are finally making sober posts.
More importantly, you are not understanding Jonathan's comments. The main point is production costs are relatively unchanged. I understand what you are trying to say but textbook logic is not always universal.

I didn't read all the posts, except some misinformation about supply and demand. On that front, three things to consider: (1) the elasticity (slope or price sensitivity) of the demand curve might (and probably is) leading to a very small drop in demand despite the higher prices (i.e., we're all addicted to our gas guzzlers anyways), (2) gross receipts from oil sales (or any supply and demand curve example) are determined by the area of the rectangle formed by the intersection of the two curves (i.e., Price X Quantity), and one could imagine a set of supply and demand curves with elasticities such that a downward shift in the supply of oil would yield a larger area and hence more profit, and (3) I wish wakeboarding was as fun and as easy as economics.

Here you go.

David, I see a downturn also, albeit slight. All of the factors you mentioned will have an effect, and also the fact that Repubs tend to have a underperforming economy during the first year or two of their terms, then it picks back up during the last two.

Thanks Matt. I can see the logic - a decrease in gov't spending initially and later on the benefits trickle in. A simplistic point of view maybe, but makes sense.

Anyone else...in the next 2 years do you generally foresee a recessionary or inflationary period for the U.S. economy?

Evan, my B...I thought I had it listed...if you didn't guess...I'm 19.

Anyway, I'm not fresh out of any Political Science courses or Economics...I'm a Film Major...well, until last week, now I'm Finance, but I keep up with everything and read the WSJ daily.

I hear you on playing the devils advocate, thats the position I usually take in group settings just so I can piss people off and get a rise out of them.

And you're right, people will not totally stop buying gas, but the ways to cut back, like using mass transit, carpooling, and altering vaction plans, will have a substantial impact on the oil companies. True, many people will still rely on it for everyday transportation, but that is really about it, assuming it gets much higher.

yeah i havenyt heard anything else about those high gas prices but i did hear it once and that was scary. also ive had several people telling me about some company in so cal that converts deisel engines to run off vegetable oil and somehting like you go to mcdonalds and they even pay you to take thier old oil. my buddy works and shapes at patagonia surfboards and he was last tellin me cuz something about patagonia being really into environmental stuff.

Alright, alright. I will no longer try to use economic models as an EXAMPLE.....I understand and know what you are all saying about the COMPLEX world of gas, I was just saying that the most likely case would be to level off gas or maybe even reduce a bit if Bush wants to do this or that or whatever the old argument was about. And as far as the Devil's Advocate, well that's me too, I like to either piss off people or make them laugh, hence my drunk posts and then my posts here trying to piss off some people. I love you all. But I am not IN love with you all, just Amy.

I like the idea of buying McGas. Sounds like a good new item for the 99 cent value menu. ha ha. Alternative fuel is the only solution. The problem is oil companies have such good lobbyists that it is hard for the search for alternative fuels to get the appropriate attention by the government. Same reason tabbacco is still legal while some places want to outlaw wake surfing because someone might run into the back of a boat. I'll take scrapes and bruises over lung cancer anyday. Oh well, at least we live in a country where we're able to relieve our stress by going out and stomping 3's and backrolls. Its fun to both hate and love the American government at the same time.

thankyou C.I.E for pointing out that measurements can be converted. (wish i was in Italy)
Gas is going for $1.00/L in canada right now and i hate it. my boat holds over 200L (about 53gal)
and i dread having to fill it. thats about $162USD to fill.... DAMN YOU FOSSIL FUELS!

down here in Dominican Republic the gallon of regular is $4.07, and in france the liter of regular is $2.65 which put the gallon @ $9.54 !! that s why people dont drive big V8

We americans definitely like to whine about gas. We've got it pretty good with gas and boat prices around here.

Looking back at my initial statement (as it seems to have been lost in the argument); I stated, in essence, that the President wouldn't do anything to limit profit of the oil companies. That said, my actual feeling is that it is regional, national and international issues that create the prices of fuel.

Simple economics would state that fuel here in the Bay Area would be cheaper than fuel out of state because it is refined 10 miles away. In actuality, with the exception of L.A. we have some of the most expensive fuel in the country. Part of that is the taxes that are levied by the local government, part of it is a demand issue and a lack of resistence by the general populace. Most simple economic models don't seem to work in this instance, as they don't seem to work in the micro economy of the Bay Area. Our economy is so falsely inflated because of housing prices and interest rates that I could only expect the worst in the next couple of years. Alot of people have talked about a "leveling off", but that doesn't seem to be happenening.

In any case... The only real problem I have with gas prices right now aren't how high they are, but how much they fluctuate. I'm tired of gas going up and down close to a dollar in the course of a year. My opinion is that there should be regulation regarding pricing, although I wouldn't know how to structure it.

Think yourself lucky, in the UK we're paying around 90 pence a litre at the moment. That works out at a nice $8 a gallon!!!

Here is a fun link:

http://www.cheatatshopping.com/Splashgoogle/gas.html

Yeah Chris your right, damn expensive over here in the UK.

But hey its worth it with the sweet weather we get, low taxes, low prices on any thing boat related.......

The thing no-one has mentioned is that the prices of goods and services rise everytime the gas prices increase. Tradesmen can't take the bus to the jobsite, all of our essentials are delivered by trucks etc.
If my wage increased from my youth in direct proportion to the increase in fuel prices I would be able to retire.
And face it no matter how you feel about Bush it would be naive to not accept the reality that he answers to the energy lobby first. Also they are getting rich(er) from the increase in prices. I dont need to study finance to know that if I can give you less for more I come out ahead.

Just filled up the truck and the boat...$147.50

Here in Manitoba, were at $0.92 per litre. So I think it would be about $3.50/gallon.