GREAT metric. Absolute prices don't often matter that much in the big picture. It's all relative to your income.

Funny how SF and Chicago areas always make the news for the highest prices, too.

I care, I really do. Its just that my heart is to busy going out to the suburban mom who's got to lug her one 3 year old kid around in a H2 Hummer because, ya know, it's safer.

/sarcasm

Off-note, I live in SE CT and yesterday in Greenwich, I saw a lady in a H2 with a bumper sticker that said STOP GLOBAL WARMING. If I had a gun, I would have shot her as to oblige.

Tell these poor folks they can thank the policies of the President they overwhelmingly supported for their suffering.

Hopefully, in November they don't have enough gas to drive to the polls.

@Wormfather: Trust me, there aren't that many of those people in Wilcox County, Alabama.

@The Rude Bellman: Yep. I just don't understand people who enthusiastically vote for Republican policies and then complain about the results of Republican policies.

it's been $4.25 for gas here in Ann Arbor, MI for a good while now. Paying over $5/gal for diesel in some spots, too.

@The Rude Bellman: @The Rude Bellman: I agree, while this may fall under the "blame the victim" category-- these are the same folks that overwhelmingly voted in 2 administrations that wholly supported the interests of the oil industry. And what sickens me is despite the suffering they are experiencing they will still vote for McCain because they don't trust a black man with a terrorist-sounding name and wont wear a stupid pin because that's the only sign that someone is a patriot.

I live in rural Ohio and I spend upwards of 20% of my income on gas. Problem is, I make so much money that I can't afford to take the pay cut of getting a job closer to home. Factor in the idea that my student loan payments are based on a percentage of my income, and I've been hurting pretty bad. I even bought a used car that doubled my gas mileage a few months ago and it's still 20%.... If I was still driving the SUV my parents gave me when I left home, it would be more like 35-40% of my income.

I think this is an excellent way of relating gas prices to a scale of affordability.

Toolmonger had a quip about it. [toolmonger.com]

The price of gas is totally hosing the tradesmen. The only thing that they can do is either suck it up or raise their prices. Carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc. all have to drive trucks or vans to haul their stuff around in. Now do they need the biggest 3500 4WD they can afford? No, but even the most economical trucks still get crappy gas mileage, and if they want to work, they need to be able to drive to wherever the job site is.

@The Rude Bellman: Why does everyone always think that these things are directly tied to the president, as if he's got a magic wand that can turn things upside down.

Again, this is without a doubt, directly tied to the housing bubble. The bubble burst and Bernanke cut rates so fast head spun, this in turn reduced the value of the US Dollar, unfortunatly, oil is bought and traded in dollars, the value of oil didnt budge, so it cost more dollars. I know it sucks saying this, but when OPEC said that the current prices had nothing to do with supply and demand and they wouldnt be boosting production. Theye wer right.

Also, the president did try to do things to stop this from happening.

Drill in Alaska: Oh no-berries, the furry little animals will be sad.

Build more oil refineries: Like oh my god, but they like stink and are bad for the environment, like as if.

Invest more into nuclear energy: Shit on a stick, not in my back yard.

And now here we are, completly dependant on a recourse we can no longer afford.

It's kind of like the personal retirment accounts that the W admin tried to roll out. In 40 years, people are going to be like why didnt ythey fix this social security problem decades ago and no one will remember how congress united to shoot this down (pst, there's a crap load of taxes in SS). But I digress. Bernanke and Greenspan are ore to blame than the president.

Much of the rural South--especially black majority areas--votes straight Dem, believe it or not (for example, South Alabama). Don't make blanket political statements about the entire area--sure, most of the population-dense areas are solid Republican strongholds.

If we based political beliefs on maps of counties, we'd think the country was 90% Republican. The head count is the basis, not the land area.

Holmes County, Mississippi and Wilcox County, Alabama were probably both overwhelmingly Kerry supporters in '04.

A look at the map says yes. [www.usatoday.com]

I though this Democrat controlled congress that was put in power in 2006 was supposed to "ease the pain of $2.00 per gallon gas." Almost 2 years later we are staring at $5/gallon by the end of the year.

Remember your high school civics class? It really doesn't matter who the president is. The legislative and judicial branches of government is where the action is. If the Democrats wanted to lower gas prices, they have had 18 months to do it in congress.

@The Rude Bellman: oh and sweet stereotypeing. Subtle but oh so BAM!

@Elvisisdead: tell me about it. And to top it off, the most economical ones are usually diesel powered. Diesel is $4.85-5.00 right now.

I wish we'd just switch to nuclear power all around. Electric vehicles and a nuclear/wind/solar grid. All is well.

@xanax25mg: @johnva: You guys are putting a whole lot of prediction and generalizing out there. The reason that most people vote the way that they do is because of prioritization. Very few people agree with one party 100%. It's whether or not the thing you disagree with most is enough to get you to switch sides. My wife and I have the same beliefs, but different priorities. The prioritization is what makes us vote for different parties.

It's an ignorant position on either side to believe in or act upon a stereotype. Especially when the belief in a stereotype manifests itself as false pity for the stereotyped and righteousness for the stereotyper. People decide for themselves and will suffer the benefits and consequences of their actions - simple as that.

@Wormfather: Gas prices were at reasonable levels, George W. Bush decides to Invade Iraq, completely unsettling the mideast and as a result oil prices have increased SIXFOLD since the start of the War.

Don't try and tell me Bush's hands are clean when it comes to this.

I doubt things will change with McCain much when he's elected...and that kind of worries me.

@Wormfather:You're right, the political instability in the mideast caused by the illegitimate war we started has ZERO to do with oil prices. The complete failure of the administration to support anything resembling mass public transit also has ZERO to do with oil prices. Tax policies supported by the administration that encourages companies to outsource to India which has expanded their middle class thus increasing demand for oil also has ZERO to do with oil prices. You're absolutely right that the 6 years Republicans controlled all branches of the government had no effect on oil while the 18 months Democrats had a small majority in the House and tie in the Senate are responsible for all the evil in the world

@The Rude Bellman: @johnva:

In every single blog post about oil on this site, someone in the comments explains truly why the price of oil is so high. And I know you have read them. I know it in my heart. Yet, each and everyday, you bring the same nonsense back to the comments. You're informed. The answers are in front of you, why do you hate the truth? Why cant you understand the value of the dollar, being worth less, means foreign commodities raise in price? God. Seriously? Are you that thick headed? In addition to the dollar, you have a market, therefore speculators, who directly decide the price of oil. Then you have a ton of oil, in Alaska, that one party, I won't say who, won't let us drill. Bush, our loving president, would like to get off foreign oil. You won't let him. But you will blame him regardless. This is NOT a Presidential issue. This is a Market issue, and a Congress issue. Can you PLEASE, PLEASEEEEEEE not be so, friggin, retarded. PLEASE. I can't stand the ignorance. It's making me boil.

@dragonfire81: Yes, Another dumbass. The top 2 countries we buy oil from are Canada and Mexico. Are we at war with them? Idiot. Research.

@Wormfather: you guys over $5 down in stamford yet? it's up around $4.50 here in litchfield.

i'm considering buying one of these - www.aptera.com - unfortunately, only available in ca for now.
===
i can't agree with most of what you say - my leanings are a little different with...well, just about everything you say. people like to point to supply & demand as the reason for high prices, but it's largely due to commodity trading. check out this interesting story on how refineries are screwed --> [www.nytimes.com]

& while building more refineries or drilling for more oil may reduce the impact of speculators, it's not likely to help for the next 4-5 years.

You think its bad now, wait until corporate and personal income taxes go up under Obama. They'll need all of those handouts because unemployment will be 15%.

Gas gas been over 4$ a gallon in Canada's cities for quite a while. People adapted. Yes, it sucks. However, it's not the end of the world.

People here were buying Yaris/Aveo brands for a while too. Economical cars matter for an ordinary person.

I'm 99.9% sure Obama cant do a damn thing about oil prices, just like Bush cant. But if he could, it wouldn't matter. With taxes through the roof, we'll still be in the same place we are now.

@spoco: Thank you. You beat me. But yes. Right on.

I was taught in high school that the price of oil is tied to the strength of the dollar, and that when the dollar is weak, the price of oil spikes.

Let's see - the worst credit crisis this country has ever seen (simply because Americans want more than they can afford) has caused the dollar to drop to a ridiculous level. As the dollar strengthens, the price of oil will drop.

I just had to drive out to...well Kansas is such a great state I guess every other rural town west of Topeka is in the middle of nowwhere...well it was a 3 hour drive through Kansas, and we saw gas prices from $4.06 to $3.66.

$3.66 in Greensburg, Kansas.

@spoco: You are 100% correct. You can directly blame the price of Oil with the mortgage problem, with people, being at fault. People and their banks caused all of this. To me this is really simple.

Ha. And I thought paying $4.67/gal for diesel last night was a steal.

How about these hillwilliams make use of all that farmland and make their *own* ethanol (as terrible of a fuel choice as it is)? :) Just tell them they're making 'shine, but put it in the car when they're done.

Some of the Bush-lovers here point to the pinko liberal democrats being at fault for not capitulating to Bush's plans to free us from foreign dependence on oil by allowing drilling in Anwar or building more refineries or even worse the billions we give away on the ethanol boondoggle. Nowhere does Bush or his blind followers propose a national rail system like in Europe or Japan or increased local funding for light rail systems. All of your answers to decrease oil dependence is to increase more oil production here. How about decreasing oil use by increaseing alternative transportation? How about supporting walkable communities?

@xanax25mg: Fantastic idea. During the oil crisis, credit crisis, and a time of war, lets start a light rail! You forget how small Japan and Europe countries are, compared to us?

Light Rail is 50 million dollars a mile. I spend that on lunch.

@Bladefist:

Just like the book says - if democrats had any brains, they'd be republicans.

If the Republicans did have a magic gas price wand, gas would be 50 cents a gallon right now and the whole world would know about the magic gas price wand leading up to the election.

@dragonfire81: I don't know about where you're at, but here in Washington 100% of are oil is drilled out of Montana. Also, Canada is the second largest oil-exporting country in the world. Oil companies are keeping prices high because people buy that the "war" is jacking up prices.

@The Rude Bellman: THIS. No sympathy for those who caused this situation through their stupidity. Every time I hear about rising gas prices, I want to go outside and hug my subcompact car and thank God for giving me the good sense not to go out and buy one a big fat SUV for no better reason than that I could make the monthly payments.

@spoco: Actually, you and your HS civics class have it wrong. The executive branch holds all the cards. We cannot expect Congress to do a damn thing because they have no enforcement capabilities that are not controlled by the executive branch. You can go to AG Mukasey all you want and say "arrest this so-and-so and that so-and-so," and he'll just look at you like you farted or something. So Bush does as he damn well pleases, the Congress complains about it, holds hearings, issues subpoenas (which are ignored because of "executive privilege"), and everything else that is within their capabilities, but to no avail.

My suggestion is to make sure the President's party doesn't control the White House next year, so we might have an Attorney General who takes his job seriously for a change. These people might think they can blow off Congress, but wait until the FBI pays them a visit.

I have a 27 gallon tank to fill. It hurts, a little, then I get over it. When I got my raise at the beginning of the year, I calculated that it would cover my entire fuel costs for the year.

For about half of the year I travel, on my employer. Filling up rental cars is fun when you are going to get reimbursed for it!

$4.80 where I live.

@Poisonthescene: "are oil?" wtf is wrong with me?

@Bladefist:

and don't forget that with the "I want it now" mentality of Americans, they would just rush to ride a rail system across the country.

Call me old fashioned, but I think the way to do it is by modifying what we already have. If a bunch of college kids from Mississippi can do it, surely the fine engineers at our great auto companies can come up with a solution that will actually work.

[www.clarionledger.com]

@Bladefist: You mean the illegitimate war started by your president? Despite that, the credit crisis and subprime meltdown we still managed to pass a several hundred billion dollar transportation bill. Some of that highway money and 250 million dollar Republican Bridge to Nowhere money can be instead used to fund light rail projects. Oh, and maybe the 3 trillion dollars we spent in Iraq could also fund some of that $50 million dollars a mile. Nah, we're much better off building the bridges we blew up in Baghdad and creating electrical grids we blew up in Baghdad and contracting out to paramilitary organizations to protect refineries in Baghdad, oh yeah, the same refineries your president said would pay for the war and reconstruction that wasn't going to cost us a dime.....

It is bad down here. Farmers are getting screwed (And we're having a rotten weather year to boot -- I'd start hoarding corn and soy sauce, peeps: they should be 80% planted; nobody's more than 40%, and some people had to start over becuase the rains turned the ground into cement. And this is on top of the fact that becuase of how agricultural contracts work, half the farmers won't be able to afford seed next year because of already rocketing corn prices. We really didn't need a bad weather year.). People with longer commutes are getting screwed, and that's not unusual in more rural areas where one partner might work on the farm while the other drives into the city to work, or they might work in two different cities.

And many of our jobs are in industry, so those companies are getting squeezed too, especially by ridiculously high shipping costs. Our two bright spots are Caterpillar, because the weak dollars is letting it go gangbusters in overseas markets, and that our housing market didn't overheat so can't collapse. (Oh, and thank God we're on a river -- most of our steel shipping is done by barge, which is much, much cheaper than truck right now.) Otherwise I think we'd all be begging on the street by now.

@Bladefist:

Oil is a publicly traded commodity. It doesn't matter where it's produced, it's sold for the same price everywhere. That's why there's no separate price for Canadian oil or Mexican oil or Venezuelan oil. When one oil producer sneezes, it impacts the cost of oil as a whole. So even though we get our oil from our own hemisphere, what happens in the other hemisphere will still impact the prices. Before calling someone else an idiot, do your own research.

@myasir: You're statement is both obvious, and does not invalidate my argument.

Sucks here in Vermont - we had to move closer to our job, because paying lots of money for gas was retarded and there are really no places to work other than Lebanon, which is a big border town right in NH that's nearby.

@Steaming Pile: Amen brother.

@Bladefist: I'd support a privately owned light rail. ;) Hell, America and the UK built the best railways in the world without the government.

@Wormfather: Excellent, excellent post. Funny thing is, here in MA people are calling for more nuclear on deaf ears. We had Yankee Atomic all those years ago and no one has any bad memories about it.

We need a stronger dollar but that will take a lot of market correction but in my view it will happen if Bernake doesn't screw things up and cut interest again.

@spoco: Call me old fashioned, but I think the way to do it is by modifying what we already have. If a bunch of college kids from Mississippi can do it, surely the fine engineers at our great auto companies can come up with a solution that will actually work.

Damn right! We're Americans and we attract the best and the brightest of the world so there's no reason we can't fix this with technology and thought. I also don't doubt that such a vehicle would sell and make a profit (depending on how much it costs to build.) Plus even greenies could run the damn thing off biofuel so everyone wins!

I love how people recommend that you move closer to your job. If I moved closer to my job, my housing costs and property taxes would go up and negate any possible savings on gas prices.

My poor wife, she drives about 800 miles a week for her job -- but she can't move closer to her job because her job is all over the DFW Metroplex -- she does home health care, God bless her. and God bless her employer for reimbursing her mileage.

(That's why I drive the F-150 and she drives the Focus)

@Bladefist: You don't think Republican policies had anything to do with the declining value of the dollar? I do. I also think the housing bubble had a lot to do with Republican policies, as well (specifically, lack of effective regulation and spotty enforcement of existing regulations in financial markets and the credit rating and mortgage industries).

It has been Republican policy since at least Reagan to encourage high gasoline usage rather than discourage. They attacked Jimmy Carter for even suggesting we should cut back on the size of our cars and conserve energy in other ways. High demand = high prices, especially when you're also competing with a rising China and India for supplies. And drilling ANWR is not the answer - it's not going to address the underlying problem of excessive gasoline usage. At best, it might marginally reduce gas prices in 10 years or so, for a couple of decades. In other words, it kicks the can down the road and in the meantime allows us to become even more dependent on oil. And it destroys a natural treasure that is more important than people saving 20 cents a gallon or whatever while fueling their H2s.

Oh, and for the record I'm not for policies that simply reduce gas prices in the short term. I'm for policies that keep the price permanently high, so that we will move away from using so much of it. Reducing gas prices will just undercut the diversification away from gas guzzlers and such that we're currently seeing. So tax policy should be used to keep the gas price high.