Energy Department Says $4 Gas Here To Stay Through Next Year
Hope you're getting along OK with $4 gas because the energy department says its here to stay.
Caruso told a House hearing in Washington on Wednesday that crude oil prices are likely to average $126 a barrel next year, $4 higher than this year. He said gasoline prices are expected to peak at $4.15 a gallon in August, but won’t go down much.
Can you sustain yourself on $4 gas? Time to sell the SUV?
Energy Dept. says oil, gas prices to stay high [MSNBC]
(Photo: Jb0 )
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Caruso told a house hearing?
I thought any meetings about US energy policy are conducted behind closed doors and classified, with no details released?
Oh, that's right, that's only when our government officials are meeting in secret with the oil companies.
My bad.
damnit Meg, why you gotta post such depressing articles?
You need to cheer us up with how bad BestBuy is or give us something to hate other than big oil...anything.
:D
I'll believe it when I see it. Lately, sadly, I doubt the climax is going to stop any time soon... we already have gas in my area at $4.51 for premium.
I wonder if it's going to be another post-Katrina with oil companies declaring yet more record profits? Meanwhile, the little guy gets screwed. Speaking of, weren't gas prices supposed go *DOWN* after Katrina? That never happened.
Someday we'll all remember fondly the days of $4/gallon gas.
By 2010 I predict gas will be $7/gallon.
I guess... at least it won't go up much more... right? I feel terrible for folks that have to drive a lot. I know it's partially a choice, but it's a choice they made when fuel was affordable.
Lets hope it'll stay at $4. We are slowly getting economic gains. Once this housing market stuff figures itself out, and we can raise our prime rate, our dollar should come back and gas should come back down.
Thats the good news about this problem. It's not so much that gas went up, it's our dollar went down. Thats fixable.
It likely isn't yet cost effective to sell the SUV. Heck, I think it was an old post on here, or Lifehacker, that explored this concept. The point is, that the cost of a new loan and interest on a more fuel efficient vehicle likely requires something like $7.00-$9.00/gal gas for there to be a break even point. Depends on several factors, such as current mileage, new car mileage, loan amount, interest rate, driving habits, etc..
Suck it up you wusses! Here in Vancouver, BC, we're paying the equivalent of $5.56/gal ($1.48/L). I won't even start in about the fact Europeans pay more than we do.
No, it's not that our dollar went down (doesn't help - but), its unregulated trading of oil futures, record profits, price fixing (OPEC as in CARTEL)and supply limits. Some oil speculators are now purchasing storage facilities and hoarding oil, to resell at a future profit.
The euro is increasing in value, yet there gas and diesel prices are far higher than ours and their Middle-East oil doesn't has the same transportation costs.
Here's a recent article that comments on this: Trade-in for a fuel-efficient car may not be worth it
That's kind of good news actually. Everyone else is predicting much worse.
Of course, none of the predictions are worth a buck, let alone 4.
@katekate is squared: Also I know I'm gonna get shit for that comment. People should have made better decisions about where they live, their lifestyle etc., but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck. Our cities are generally so poorly planned, which is part of the problem.
Time to move to somewhere with good public transportation...
Lotsa luck trying to sell the SUV. Nobody wants them anymore, and they surely don't want your used one. No amount of Febreeze will get rid of the accumulated fart vapor in the upholstery, the nicotine residue, or your idea of pleasant-smelling air "fresheners" that lamely try to mask the former two odors.
OOTH, if you are one of the rare people who actually needs a vehicle like that, the market is flooded with them, and you ought to be able to get a nice one cheap.
@CapitalC:
Us Canadians cannot complain about gas, since up to 40% of the price is tax. I like driving on roads without having to stop and deposit 75 cents at the toll booths.
this wouldnt be so bad if the economy had time to catch up with it. normaly one thing goes up, then everything else goes up including wadges. but since wadges are low this is probly going to criple our economy more.
my wife and i make around 60-65k year combined , we used to be middle class, now were eating romen and thinking of trading our cars (for a cheaper payment ,not better mpg)
@ironchef: hahahaha, that's hilarious! He also claims we should just trust him.
@SkokieGuy: Good points, unregulated oil futures aren't exactly helping. There's a good article about this here:[www.globalresearch.ca] just ignore the title, it over reaches a bit.
The one highlight that might come from gas prices is that enough (wealth) people might finally get pissed off to push for alternate energy, and not just biofuels since that presents its own set of problems subtracting resources from the food supply
of course if we could eliminate speculative trading of a vital resource, then we can go back to have oil at 50 bucks a barrel, maybe sightly more but no where near 100 dollars.
Oh but then that means a whole lot of rich white assholes would lose
billions, and we cant have that while our poor struggle to even GET
to work to make the money they now need to spend on gas.
Times like this I'm glad I have a Scion tC, 25 mpg city in real life, 20 on sticker.
but here's the truth, GAS PRICES WILL NEVER GO DOWN OR STOP RISING UNTIL GAS IS COMPLETELY OBSOLETE
I've started shutting my car off at red lights, and coasting in neutral whenever hills present the option or I'm coming to a stop. It's given me about 4 more mpg, and thus far, no one has honked at me. At least it's something...
oil companies are raping us while they can. they know in a few years the "greenies" will put them out of business.
$4.15? I'd be happy to pay that. Around here, its at $4.20, and going up.
I just can't help but feel manipulated. Like when Enron was manipulating Electricity prices in California. I just don't see how the the current price is really justified.
Since, I've decided 2 years ago to not drive anymore in Los Angeles due to the traffic here, and decided to walk everywhere and use public transport, I have barely been affected. I have noticed a rise in food prices, but as 1 person, it's hardly worth mentioning.
How about $5 or $6? All the people driving SUVs with 1 person in them to work, I hope this affects you.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...
We will be heading into hurricane season before you know it. A couple of bad storms will move the price to about $6/gallon (experts say). We'll be fed some bogus story about refinery damages, capacity problems, etc.
Hey, instead of taking home billions of dollars in compensation, what about re-investing some of this money into your company so we can take preventative measures to avoid this?
I bought an old motorcycle to save money on gas, gets around 55-60 miles to the gallon.
At $4.00 a gallon, it will take about 35,000 miles for me to break even over the cost of using my car.
I live 3 miles from work, live in Wisconsin (we get around 5 months of non-winter to ride, minus windy days, rainy days, days I have to haul something).
So, I figure those 35,000 miles will take me about 15 to 20 years to accumulate.
Don't tell my wife.
yeah, I'll take $4 bucks for gas any day.... it hit $5.11 / gallon here yesterday.
And yes, I have a big lifted Dodge Ram quad cab that gets about 8 miles to the gallon.
but i don't drive it anymore. It hasn't moved in a month. Have to sell another kidney to fill it up so i can go somewhere.
@katekate is squared: You have a point about the cities being poorly planned, especially down south. Unless you live in a big city like Dallas and can take the DART or something, you have to drive or hitch a ride. The town I live in has a bus system but it's pretty limited. And I work in another town and need a car for my job. I get a fuel stipend, which helps, but it still sucks because short of moving to a big city or one of the coasts, I'm stuck. Luckily my car gets decent mileage and I don't have to drive around too much, but still. No vacation for me this year. It was questionable whether I could go anywhere anyway, but now I know I can't, except maybe to my mom's house.
All these comments about new alternative energy sources eventually making gas more obsolete and thus driving the price down are ignoring one key point.
We have more oil in this country and in the surrounding oceans than most middle eastern countries ever dreamed of. A serious threat from our government to tap and refine that Alaska motherload would drop prices in a hurry. Actually starting the work would drop it even more.
Come on people supply and demand.
Why is this pushed aside as "not an option?"
@lalaland13: Part of the problem is that cities don't try to put P-T systems in place (or at least infrastructure). They complain about how much it will cost, but how much does it cost to maintain highway police forces, road maintenance, EMT's, sewage, etc. for all those cars? In the long run, P-T systems are cheaper to run and last longer. Of course, that would mean thinking more than three days in front of you, which politicians never do.
In the summer, I ride a Ninja 250. 60+ MPG.
I may start riding my bicycle to work instead, maybe in the winter, too.
gas prices will always continue to rise.
as cars become more fuel efficent, prices will rise. since we will be consuming less gas, the oil companies will jack up the prices to compensate. they need to make their 4 billion/quarter.
Like others have said, just budget for it. Take stock of what you really like to do, things you could do without, etc. and adjust for it.
I personally enjoy driving as much as some people enjoy watching movies. So I'll do things like eat at home more, maybe cancel some of the extra channels I really don't need on my DirecTV and use that money towards gas. I am fortunate that my car that gets the best mileage is also my summer fun car, so there's that.
@mndjkc: I don't see how opening ANWR could have that much effect on the price, really. Production is estimated to peak at about 876,000 barrels per day in 2024. That represents 1% of the world supply. So if we open it up to drilling we might save a few cents 16 years from now. I think drilling there is probably inevitable but it's disingenuous to suggest it'll have much effect on prices.
I just tanked up my civic. 417 miles with 10.996 gals = 37.9 MPG...
I'm still happy but the damn tank cost me almost 44 bucks. I'm almost back to spending what I spent on my V6, per tank, two years ago. At this rate I'll need to buy a car that gets around 50/60 mpg in another two years to keep my fuel costs the same... course the increased car payment pretty much negates that logic.
Such is the plight of the horrid petroleum system.
@Bladefist: Something to chew on, based on the price of an oz. of gold, the dollar has lost 60% of it's value between 2001 & today.
Too bad the Energy Department failed to brief the President about that. Maybe he would have, you know, done something about it.
Er.
Well, at least he wouldn't have acted incredulously when it was first proposed. I guess that's *something*.
@Jaysyn: I hadn't heard that. Assuming thats true, that drives my point even further, we must get our dollar back, and oil/gas will follow.
Step 1, bring back the prime rate
Step 2, stop printing money, maybe take some money out of the economy.
@mndjkc: As orv said that's a drop in the proverbial bucket. However, even if you say that will make a big impact on supply, which isn't actually low btw, what about when that dries up? We'll be right back here but with usual inflation gas will probably be at like $10 instead. ANWR drilling is a very shortsighted proposition that will at most provide a small band-aid, you know one of those little dot band-aids with sponge bob, to an arterial bleeding situation.
@Bladefist: Exactly. That whole minimum wage hike, falling interest rates, too many dollars printed all made for a weak dollar.
On the bright side I import a lot less now and buy a lot more domestic while our exports look more attractive to other nations.
@mndjkc: Why is this pushed aside as "not an option?"
Look at who is in Congress. I'm for making it a requirement to be elected to office you have to have an MBA or at least have taken a few economics courses.
Actually I think a lot of them get it, they just don't care or have other agendas.
Personally, I have a car which the EPA says maxes out at 33mpg Hwy whereas I routinely get 34 or more combined. Either way, it's not bothering me too much and since I was told recently that I'm up for review (and possible increase in salary) it will most likely pay for my gas so it will become a non-issue.
@crabbyman6: More drilling, and more importantly refining, buys time for other technologies to develop and mature. Now that there is a significant market for high mpg autos the supply will follow and the technology will be driven at a faster rate. Watch over the course of the next few years, efficiency will explode. And what drove it? Not some government mandate on the auto manufacturers to increase fuel efficiency but customer demand.
I'm soooooo tired of the alternate energy arguments. We have it already. It's called nuclear power. But wait! Not in my backyard.... If we're going to forbid ourselves from becoming self reliant, than don't complain about energy prices. period.
@Jaysyn: I'm curious if gold can really be regarded as a stable reference, or if in fact we're seeing a commodity bubble that includes gold. There's a limited supply of gold, after all (that's why it's valuable) and if a lot of people buy it as an inflation hedge that will artificially inflate the price.
It hurts... I just try to budget it in advance and it doesn't hurt so much.