Gas prices: Terrible here, worse in SF

Gas prices keep closing in on record territory. But it could be worse. In San Francisco, officials say they have actually hit the gas price record, with one station in downtown S.F. charging $4.18 a gallon for premium. Some speculate the capture by Iran of British soliders is making prices spike more. We are doing better in Southern California -- but not much:

The average price of a gallon of regular self-serve gasoline rose 5.9 cents in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area this week, the eighth consecutive weekly increase, moving within 20 cents of the record high, the Auto Club said today. Tight supplies combined with concerns about stability in the Middle East pushed the average price to $3.205 today, 41 cents more than last month and 47 cents more than a year ago, according to the latest survey of the region’s gas stations by the Automobile Club of Southern California. (from CNS)

What should we be doing about these prices? Hit the COMMENT button and speak out!

Comments

[zb]

HMD, You're a fool. You don't have to drive a car to feel the impact of high gas prices. I'm on SSI for a disability. People on SSI count too! I cannot even afford to take Greyhound now because it is too expensive and that is because of gas prices.

[Michael L]

The truth is we don't tax gas enough. It is still too cheap. Roads and everything else cost a lot of money. Everytime gas prices go up people start talking about new technology and I think that is a good thing. If America wants to stay relevent in the future then it needs to hurry up and find out what we are going to power our world with that doesn't destroy it. Eventually there won't be enough oil for everyone in the world and the people who have figured out how to survive without it will be the superpower. So I say keep raising the price of gas and learn to innovate.

[Richard]

So high gasoline prices are the fault of corrupt politicians in DC, the treehuggers, the illegals, and the Roman Catholic Church.

I can see where this discussion is going...

Since Gas prices are higher in Frisco than anywhere else, lets blame the Homosexuals, too.

[bg mendell]

Sol, CONSERVE?
Conserve for whom? Once upon a time in a land I once knew, I conserved things so my children would have them; today, I use as much energy, food, clean air and water as I can get my hands on before the wetbacks (and, it
is a real word according to Webster's Desk Dictionary of the English Language 1983 edition on page 1022 as found in the Library of Congress: "wetback" a noun "a Mexican laborer who enters the U. S. illegally.") canget their hands on them. Of course, today, these people are not necessarily laborers; they can be found in our schools speaking Spanish at our expense, in our emergency rooms at our expense, in the five cars without insurance immediately in front of me on the street (unless they are in a wreck in which case they are fleeing up the embankment never to be seen again), in our jails and prisons, and using food stamps at the check out counter (so they can use their cash for beer) at our expense.
It is not my responsibility to house, feed, and cloth Mexicans.
They chose to have 11 children and wave a green, white and red flag in my face. It is the responsibility of Mexico (and the Catholic church).
Furthermore, if you are someone who is in a Global Warming cult, you can cool down America 98.6 degrees at a time by sending a wetback back to Mexico.
I feel cooler already.

[Steve Chase]

Hey - It's over $6 a gallon in the EU. They deal with it.

[Sal]

If it helps people conserve gas, I don't have a problem with $8/gal gasoline.

[bg mendell]

Republicans = corruption?
LBJ must have been a closet Republican
(Bobby Baker, Billy Sol Estes).
Hillary Rod-man Clinton = closet or not
(Warren Buffett has never done so well playing the futures)

[bg mendell]

add to poor Richard's almanac.
No new refineries.....
let's say: you are single;
you live in a one bedroom apartment.
(you do not lock the doors)
let's say: you get married;
you live in a one bedroom apartment.
(you do not lock the doors)
let's say: you and your wife have twins;
you live in a one bedroom apartment.
(you do not lock the doors)
let's say: your neighbors you have never met from down the street move in
(you do lock your doors);
you live in a one bedroom apartment.
let's say: your neighbors you have never met from down the street cousins (and their cousins) move in
(you do not locked your doors);
you still live in a one bedroom apartment.
let's say: you are out of toilet paper, milk, bread, eggs,
and beer before it is time to go to the store--
this has never happened before
(you do not locked your doors);
let's say: you no longer recognize your one bedroom apartment;
can longer afford your one bedroom apartment...if you wanted to.
(you longer have your doors to lock).
California is still living in a one bedroom apartment
(feel free to substitute the word "refinery" for "one bedroom apartment")
poor Richard......

[Tom A.]

@ Bob:

And I suppose every single Democrat and Independent in history should be nominated for sainthood? Please, as far as corruption, greed and self-interest are concerned, there's no such thing as party lines.

[HMD]

Higher gas prices = conservation.

It's what we need.

[marie]

Now that the housing market has peetered out, the hippy/yuppy is seeking a new playground: price of oil per barrel. Those ol' fogies will drive the price into the stratosphere and not give a hoot about the average struggling American worker. Nothing matters more to the baby boomer than their fat cat portfolios. They have no problem filling their RV's even at 5 dollars a gallon. Hey, make it 6 while your at it. Who cares when someone else is paying your medical and pharmaceutical bills.

[Richard]

-mendell

So if California just built new refineries, the price of gas would fall to say $2 a gallon or lower?

I rather doubt that. If the oil companies don't import gasoline then they'll need to import the crude oil to feed the refineries that produce the gasoline.

Petroleum is not produced in sufficient quantities in the United States to satisfy demand for petroleum products here. That's where OPEC has stepped in.

Also petroleum is probably the most heavily taxed substance in the world. Most of the price of gasoline is government taxes either U.S., foreign, state and local.

End all taxes on gasoline, U.S., State and local, if you want to lower the pump price of Gasoline. But then where would the money come from for highway maintenance and construction? All those cars would be going over some pretty bumpy roads after a while.

I'd rather hug a tree than kiss asphalt.

[lgvgn]

damn tree huggers...they ruin EVERYTHING.

[Bob]

Hmm... constricted supply of a product creating an artificial shortage in order to charge higher prices for that product with government non-enforcement of fair trade/free market practices doesn't sound like Enron at all does it? Suspicious how Bush/Cheney et al, are experiencing problems while our oil dependent economy experiences price spikes (Scooter Libby conviction, Iraq war looking more and more like Vietnam including major drop of support in continuation of status quo with calls for troop withdrawals; subpoenas of top Republican administration officials: chiefs of staff, White House counsels, Attorney General, ala Watergate; innuendo of illegal government contract activity involving Vice President ala Spiro Agnew, etc.) Am I the only one who sees parallels between previous profiteering scandals and a federal government that looks the other way while its citizens pay the price? I'm not making this stuff up, it goes all the way back prior to government officials in the Bureau of Indian Affairs embezzling and profiteering from the government purse. Republicans = scandals/profiteering/corruption on a grand scale.

[Norm Ezzie]

quit acting so surpised on this gas business....for more,and I do mean more,log on at: www.storminnorm.com "its all there,every damn bit of it"!

[bg mendell]

Let's go over this one more time:
Supplies are not tight; we have ample supply. (not the problem)
Political unrest in the Middle East is merely an opportunity
to successfully play the oil market. (not the problem)
Here's the $64 question? Name the year that the last new
refinery in California was opened? (here's the problem)
No new refineries; no new relief in sight. (here's the problem)
Don't blame $4/gal. for 87 octane on the oil companies.
Blame the tree hungers; California is getting what we asked for.
(What's the problem?)