Let's hope I get that new job where I can take the bus or ride a bike to work. I've never been one of those people that bitches about gas prices or even really thought about it, but with my Passat needing premium, I'm betting it'll be close to 80 to fill it up. Yowch.

Let's here it for living within walking distance of your workplace!

HAH!! My Civic may be slow, but at 35mpg, I won't complain.

Rice burners FTW!!!

Hey, you never know what prices will be like. Last year, analysts were also claiming that in the summer of '07 we were going to get hit with $4 a gallon, and that never happened (at least where I live). So well have to see.

In the meantime, when spring hits, I will be riding my bike to and from work, seeing how I only live 5 miles away from my job.

Of course gas prices will go up after the election.

Anyone know how much gas is in a barrel of oil?

@AstroPig7:

I feel ya, living downtown FTW!

Worst case i can walk to work the store, my pub and 3 different parks

I'm going to hitchhike everywhere. What could possibly go wrong?

i live in new york where the gas is approx. $3.25-$3.30 a gal. i was checking out a place south of boston for post graduation and the gas was $2.89 a gal. i almost fainted.

Glad I bought a Prius last year...

What is it going to take to finally wake people up and get MAD, for the price of a gallon of gas to surpass the hourly minimum wage?

I guess Bush and all his Saudi and oil buddy friends are going to keep making record profits until the very minute Bush walks out of the White House for the last time.

He has served his masters quite well.

I will start driving my divine Piaggio scooter to work more. Yes, it's not safe, but as more people start realizing how fun 75 mpg can be, perhaps there will be more scooters (and thus fewer cars) on the road, which will make it safer.

Or at least more fun.

Good to live near metro.

I already walk to work. For some reason gas in Maine is super expensive; it was actually cheaper to fill up when I visited New York last week. NEW FREAKING YORK.

As much as I hate taking the B line every day, I'm glad I don't have to pay for gas. Nineteen dollars and some change comes out of my paycheck twice a month, and I get to ride the T and take the bus however many times as I please.

Its all BS i think. Oil companies make way more then they tell us. I bet they could sell gas at half the price and still make a killing.

@SkyeBlue: But what can we DO about it? I'm really asking.

eh this is more liberal scare tactics. I whole-heartedly believe this will not happen. It's big media trying to scare you into voting for a liberal who will solve all your money problems by increasing your taxes.

Drive by media. Thx Rush.

By the way I don't know if you guys have looked on any finance sites, guess who owns these satan gas companies? Our 401ks do. If government was to step in and regulate gas, you're retirement savings would disappear.

well, when these companies are reporting record profits each year and each year the record they are beating is their own they can afford to lower the price. thanks bush.

Meh, I have no choice but to drive. No public transport here.

@sp00nix: Yeah, that and up to a dollar of the cost per gallon goes to taxes, so really its only 2.25 right now.

I think some of why it didn't go to 4/gal is that the profits (something like 9 trillion?) reported for the big oil companies. Thats also why places like McDonalds will be the last to raise food prices, because they will be making a fat (haha) profit no matter how much fuel prices go up.

Yeah, I'm happy to live about 4 miles from work. I can walk every day (and take the bus when it's ridiculously cold/rainy).

I'm surprised that there isn't more of an uproar about the tremendous core inflation that we're seeing (oh, haha, I forgot! Food and oil aren't included in core inflation numbers, so we're all just fine).

Is anyone else pissed off that the Fed is allowing insane inflation because they are so afraid of a recession? Because I really don't think it's going to help us too much if we devalue our currency considering we can't compete with China and India on cheap exports anymore. Recession would hurt, yes, but at least if you had a job and little debt, you'd be ok (hell, you might even come out ahead when things got cheap). But I can't see how inflation is going to be good for anyone, because it'll erode the savings and purchasing power of everyone. Oh, yeah -- right -- everyone except the wealthy. Well I guess that's why we're going with inflation and not recession, then. Might as well wipe out the whole middle class at once, and not just the middle class people in debt/without jobs. Hey, wouldn't stagflation be fun? Great, let's get on that, Bernanke.

So again, WHY are we STILL in Iraq if we are NOT stealing their oil??? I'm confused...if we are stealing their oil shouldn't our prices being going DOWN???? WTF????

@Asvetic: 42 gallons/barrel

@kimsama: Hmm, maybe I need some coffee or something to get back to a happy place.

P.S. I'm sure that the economic stimulus package checks will solve all our problems anyway.

in canada its already 4 dollars a gallon. WHich is really really annoying because we are a NET EXPORTER of gasoline.

Prices yesterday in toronto were about $1.06 a liter. and if memory serves me right its roughly

3.8 Liters to the gallon so doing some quick math that is exactly $4.028 a gallon oh and our dollar is currently worth more (this week at least) so if any of our friends to the south have to drive up here STOCK UP at home

@HRHKingFriday: The reason gas is going up is simple. Gas goes up when the value of the dollar goes down. Since most of our oil comes from foreign sources, the value of the dollar is huge. There is certainly other factors, because obviously gas flucuates when the dollar is good, such as supply and demand, inflation, etc. But right now its because of the value of the dollar. The value of the dollar is worthless because of the Fed keeps lowering the rate which causes foreign investors to invest elsewhere. The fed keeps lowering the rate to keep -tards from foreclosing. This is all happened because of the real-estate melt down. Can't blame bush, can't even blame politicians. This was stupid lenders giving too much money to people who can't do basic math.

maybe it's time to lower the taxes on the gas so we can afford it?

Why has the price of gas gone up 6x over the last 30 years, but a quart of oil is the same? yeah, a barrel of crude has gone from $20 to $100, but shouldnt all oil products have a similar increase?

I'm buying my wife a Ford Focus tonight (30-35MPG) so she can offset my V8 F-150.

Here's what I don't understand...when demand is high and inventories are low, analysts use that as a reason for higher gas prices. However, right now, demand is much lower and inventories are rising, yet these same analysts are spouting that this is the reason for higher prices. So...basically, we're screwed either way.

I COULD telecommute my job, except that my boss is one of those people that is computer-phobic and doesn't like his employees to be able to work from home. He prefers to have them "all in the office and available to work during scheduled hours without 'distraction.'" It annoys me to no end since I could be saving up to $100+ a month at this point just from how much I have to spend to drive the 50ish mile round trip to work each day.

@myotheralt: I would say that the quart of oil at least doubled. Maybe tripled. I remember when I was in high school and I could buy oil for 99 cents a quart. Now it's about 3 bucks. Which is kind of consistent with my old 99 cent gallon of gas now being 3 bucks.

What I have found is that these "experts" tend to predict really high gas prices a few months away to take away the surprise from people. Generally the prices don't get close to the predictions... but people are now ready for it.

It's all BS. Right now we have a ton of gas inventories in the US. One thing in favor of keeping prices from spiking too high later on.

@IndyJaws: It's kind of like the stock market. When oil rises, the stock market goes down because of worries about the economy. When oil drops, the stock market goes down because the energy stocks go down.

@skwish: Unless you have more refineries than I thought, you're a net exporter of oil, not gasoline. Iran has the same issue, which is why their gas prices are so high they're rationing gasoline.

There's really nothing the average consumer can do to lower prices besides naturally adjusting their habits to cope with the high price of gasoline. Oil is sold on a global market - no one can just artificially lower the price.

@AD8BC: The stock market favors price stability in the oil market, certainly. It's not so much about the price of oil as the future price of oil, funny enough.

$4 gas soon, I don't doubt it a bit.

gas here in the bay area has hovered between 3.20 and 3.80 a gallon for a couple years now. when i first started driving in the mid 90s it was around .99 a gallon -- it's incredible how much it's jumped over the past 14 years. i remember hearing on the news that even at these prices it's still less than it was in the 70s when allowing for inflation... and cars back then were far less efficient than they are now - but what we don't hear is how much more expensive everything else is right now - housing, staples like milk and meat... everything is going up. maybe those vegan cyclists are on to something.

We need to tap ANWR like a frat boy taps a keg.

@Erwos:
Well i may be wrong (wouldnt be the first time) but im 90% positive that we also have enough refineries to be a net exporter of gasoline. But you also have to remember that we only have 33 million people so we dont need that much refining capability to be a net exporter.

But we are most definately an exporter of oil that is for sure.

The cool thing is that the oil sands most likely has more oil in it then the middle east the problem is that there is more sand in it then a redheaded stepchild on a visit to the beach

@nlatimer: You need one of these: [members.premiereinteractive.com]

I drive an econo-box car that gets 35mpg. And I only fill up every four weeks because I live/work/play in a small radius. Don't think I'm moving or trading in my car any time soon!!

Cite whatever reasons they want, gas is going to keep going up unless something intervenes. That might not even do much. No public transit, no way to bike into town since the two roads don't have shoulders and a 55mph speed limit.

In the last six months our electricity, homeowners ins., health ins. and telecom bills have all gone up considerably. Groceries have gone up again from the last 20% hike. We keep finding new places to cut out costs or drop services & products from our budget but all it does is cancel out an increase somewhere else.

Most of the upward pressure on oil prices is centered around the fact that it prices in US dollars, and the dollar has been rapidly depreciating. The rest of it is increased demand in the rest of the world coupled with the sustained American appetite for something like 2/3 of the world's oil supply.

The first problem can be fixed by aggressive debt management. The dollar will quickly regain value if the national treasury deficit is eliminated, which every Fed chairman since the 70's has demanded. Greenspan cut rates in 2001 as aggressively as he did because Bush promised him deficit reduction/government shrinkage - add that to the lies of a failed administration, no?

This is also largely driving the explosion in commodity values. Not good. Even worse is that the two major candidates in Hillary and Barack have promised substantial, sustained, continued deficit spending. Not sure who's buying more dollars these days, China's closed, so who the fuck knows what they're thinking.

The second problem will never abate as long as populations/energy demands continue to increase. Until energy competition becomes more robust, energy prices will continue to rocket to the point where alternative sources become more viable. Since every other available energy source is either politically unpopular or very expensive, expect oil to continue to inflate.

"we already have a vehicle that gets 100 mpg, its called a scooter." I forget where I first saw that.

@Bladefist: So when the "super extreme left liberal media" warned of $3 a gallon, were those scare tactics?

Why would we need to increase taxes? GWB and all the other Republicans said we'd "grow" out of our deficits because the economy would be flying. What happened?

BTW- You don't think you're already not paying more "taxes?" No, its not taken out of your paycheck. It's in $3.30 gas, in increased fees for every little thing you do (driver licenses, filing fees, etc.), its increased costs for just about everything (thank you weak dollar), its increased local taxes or real estate taxes, its in a staggering economy due to weak dollar, huge national debts, etc.

I love the people that still think that their paycheck taxes is all that matters.

Interesting. Economic stimulus checks arriving sometime this summer at a mailbox near you and the grocery and gas prices are skyrocketing. Oh, and by "interesting", I meant "nauseating".

@MissPeacock: Use less oil. Supply and Demand will cause the price to fall if the supply is constant and the demand is lower.

because of my job hours I cant carpool, cant bikeride/walk 20 busy highway miles to work and there is no public trasnit. I will just have to suck it up & pay. I already save money by doing my shopping & other errands while driving to & from work & limit my days off travel greatly.

I am already at the limit of what I can do to save money on gas.

@forgottenpassword: As are many of us. I live 15 miles (by freeway) from work -- can't afford to live closer. Public transportation would not get me from point A to point B (although I do live 1/2 mile from a commuter rail station that I can take to the airport, downtown Dallas, or downtown Fort Worth and I do enjoy using it when I can).

I suppose I could bike to work -- if I want to get up at 5:30 AM and get to work all sweaty in the summertime.

I would use public transit if it was available but that takes money too, as in higher taxes -- which nobody wants.

I was driving down the highway the other day, and I happened to look down into a car with a family in it. It was a Cavalier, so i figure it was probably doing 30 mpg or so with 5 people in it. That's about 150 man-miles per gallon.

I then considered my own situation. There was just one of me, and I was, at the time, getting about 9 mpg.

It amuses me.

No, I will not stop driving. I'll just buy some stock in the oil companies.