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Purveyor

(29,876 posts)
Tue Jul 26, 2016, 05:39 PM Jul 2016

Gasoline Prices Continue To Plunge; U.S. Crude Oil Supply At 86-Year High

Gasoline nationally is the cheapest since April and the lowest on this date in 12 years, AAA reported Monday:

"National pump prices have fallen for 43 of the past 44 days, dropping 22 cents during this span.

"The national average price for regular unleaded gasoline sits at $2.21 per gallon, which is the lowest mark since April and the lowest price for this date since 2004.

"Today’s price is five cents less than one week ago, 15 cents less than one month ago, and 56 cents less than the same date last year.

MORE...

http://www.ohio.com/blogs/your-business/your-business-1.567844/gasoline-prices-continue-to-plunge-u-s-crude-oil-supply-at-86-year-high-1.699904

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Gasoline Prices Continue To Plunge; U.S. Crude Oil Supply At 86-Year High (Original Post) Purveyor Jul 2016 OP
During the Summer? abetterkid Jul 2016 #1
Crude glut and reduced gasoline demand. Cars in the US are getting much better mileage. tonyt53 Jul 2016 #5
frack, baby, frack 6chars Jul 2016 #9
US gasoline demand is NOT reduced. It is forecast to hit an all-time high this year! NickB79 Jul 2016 #20
- Bigredhunk Jul 2016 #24
Low gas prices. That's a good thing in an election year. bluestateguy Jul 2016 #2
So much for that peak oil, I guess. MADem Jul 2016 #3
Peak Oil was the only hope we had to avert Catastrophic Climate Change NickB79 Jul 2016 #21
I think technology will do what that fiction about peak oil couldn't. MADem Jul 2016 #23
Technology amplifies our, for lack of a better term, unsustainability The2ndWheel Jul 2016 #28
Peak Oil was Trump level quackery Sen. Walter Sobchak Jul 2016 #31
in 2012, Newt promised $2.50 a gallon for gas Yavin4 Jul 2016 #4
I remember thinking he was crazy. EL34x4 Jul 2016 #12
Prices are not falling in California onecaliberal Jul 2016 #6
Just gassed up here for $2.25 a gallon near Modesto ansible Jul 2016 #7
2.70 yesterday in Clovis onecaliberal Jul 2016 #8
$2.69 PasadenaTrudy Jul 2016 #15
Then why are airlines continuing to get away with fuel surcharges? Initech Jul 2016 #10
maybe it's based on their effective hedged cost BadgerKid Jul 2016 #11
It's because they can. Yavin4 Jul 2016 #14
It's $1.85/gal at the store 3 miles from me in East Tennessee, lower in some of the bigger towns N/T Ghost in the Machine Jul 2016 #13
As soon as it's in the news, it goes up AwakeAtLast Jul 2016 #16
Damn you, Obama. How dare you use your nubian muslim black powers to do this? Feeling the Bern Jul 2016 #17
Election year JesterCS Jul 2016 #18
Gas prices plunged in 2008 Charles Bukowski Jul 2016 #26
Gas was $4.10 at this time before bush left RandiFan1290 Jul 2016 #29
Yes, and market commentators were projecting prices nearing $6 by Fall. HereSince1628 Jul 2016 #35
$2.10 at the pumps today in the Four Corners. bluedigger Jul 2016 #19
The number of DU'ers who think this is a good thing is horrifying NickB79 Jul 2016 #22
I feel the same way. Scruffy1 Jul 2016 #25
At this point, individual American MPG being 15 or 35mpg is irrelevant. Socal31 Jul 2016 #27
Thanks to petrol prices I bought a new to us pickup. ileus Jul 2016 #30
$2.48 gal/reg last time I pumped in CT bigwillq Jul 2016 #32
The price just dropped .10 cents/gallon overnight here... Ghost in the Machine Jul 2016 #33
"And it's ALL PRESIDENT OBAMA's FAULT!!!" John Poet Jul 2016 #34

NickB79

(19,114 posts)
20. US gasoline demand is NOT reduced. It is forecast to hit an all-time high this year!
Tue Jul 26, 2016, 11:06 PM
Jul 2016
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2016/07/21/u-s-gasoline-demand-reaches-record-levels/#35aac29376c4

Motor gasoline consumption is forecast to increase by 130,000 b/d (1.5%) to 9.29 million b/d in 2016, which would make it the highest annual average gasoline consumption on record, beating the previous record set in 2007 by 0.1%. The increase in gasoline consumption reflects a forecast 2.5% increase in highway travel (because of employment growth and lower retail gasoline prices) that is partially offset by increases in vehicle fleet fuel economy.


Thanks to cheap gas, sales of hybrid and EV cars have plummeted: http://www.autoblog.com/2016/06/03/may-2016-green-car-sales/

June gloom appeared to come a month early for makers of hybrids, plug-ins, and diesels, as US green-car sales last month plunged 32 percent from a year earlier to about 36,600 vehicles.

While the new Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in continues to see increased demand, plug-in vehicle sales declined 5.5 percent to about 9,700 units. In fact, factoring out the stop-sale of Volkswagen diesel vehicles – which generated 7,900 sales units for May 2015 – May's green-car sales were still about 9,000 units short of a year earlier.


Once again, cheap gas means idiots start buying up trucks and SUV's. It never fails. If we gave a flying fuck about the climate, we'd enact taxes that would ensure gas never fell below $4/gal. ever again, and use those tax proceeds to incentivize rail lines, bus routes, and tax breaks for hybrid and EV vehicles. But I have no hope we'll see that happen anytime soon.

Bigredhunk

(1,346 posts)
24. -
Wed Jul 27, 2016, 12:33 AM
Jul 2016
Once again, cheap gas means idiots start buying up trucks and SUV's. It never fails.

THIS. This is why I hate it when gas gets cheap. People look short-term, as if low prices are going to last forever, and start buying gas guzzlers again.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
3. So much for that peak oil, I guess.
Tue Jul 26, 2016, 05:49 PM
Jul 2016

There will come a day when oil is used as a quirky, historical adjunct--to run those antique cars, and show people how oil lanterns work, etc. The sooner the better!

I can remember paying four bucks a gallon under Bush and feeling like I was living in Europe!

NickB79

(19,114 posts)
21. Peak Oil was the only hope we had to avert Catastrophic Climate Change
Tue Jul 26, 2016, 11:13 PM
Jul 2016

A lot of us who believed we'd hit Peak Oil saw it as the last brake on human civilization, the only thing left to stop us from consuming the resources of this world.

But now that we've figured out how to frack the shit out of the once-inaccessible hard oil reserves (and deplete precious fresh water reserves at the same time), we've guaranteed our children and grandchildren will get to live a very bleak, painful life as the ice caps melt, droughts and floods seesaw across farmlands, and oceans swallow the cities. Apparently we as a species can't stop burning oil no matter what the consequences are. It's our heroin, and we are about to OD on it.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
23. I think technology will do what that fiction about peak oil couldn't.
Wed Jul 27, 2016, 12:18 AM
Jul 2016

I mean, really--who wants to pay a guy to come with a truck to your house and pump a flammable fluid into a tank in your basement, IF you could get the same results from our good friend Mister Sun? Energy from solar and wind used to be terribly expensive but those costs are plummeting and making those options HUGELY competitive.

We're also getting smarter about how much energy we USE--LED light bulbs are amazing--I can't believe how much less energy they burn that incandescents or even the squiggly neons (which I was using over in Europe years before they took off in USA).

Battery tech for vehicles isn't quite there yet for long distance driving, but even with gasoline engines, they are getting more and more efficient. I am astounded at the MPG some of these cars get. And hybrid cars do well, too.

I don't like fracking and I am lucky as I live in a state where we don't do that. Water is a precious resource and we shouldn't mess with it. Also, those earthquakes aren't happening outta the blue.

Hopefully we'll get to the point where we are totally onboard with renewable/sustainable modes of providing energy to ourselves.

Many of the peak oil folks I heard from were insisting that we'd be sitting in the dark, freezing our asses off and everyone would DIE, I TELL YOU, DIE!!!

MY POV on oil? I think it is having its last hurrah. Buggy whips on sale--get 'em while they're hot!

It may take longer for China to get with the program, but maybe not, too. If they can make a buck selling solar on a wide scale, they'll get the spirit. And that top-down government will basically whip the shit out of anyone who doesn't play ball. Right now, that coal and oil they use is dirt cheap, so that's how they're rolling, but one day they'll see the utility (and the profit potential) of taking another path.

The2ndWheel

(7,947 posts)
28. Technology amplifies our, for lack of a better term, unsustainability
Wed Jul 27, 2016, 06:35 AM
Jul 2016

We don't advance technology so that we can use less. That would be a waste of time and energy. We can use less by using less. We don't need technology to do that for us, not that technology could do that for us anyway. The whole point of technological advancement is to get more access to more stuff for more people.

Like any good corporation, we privatize the profits of the planet, and socialize the costs. The cheaper the energy is for us, the more the rest of life on this planet pays for it, one way or another.

 

Sen. Walter Sobchak

(8,692 posts)
31. Peak Oil was Trump level quackery
Wed Jul 27, 2016, 08:41 PM
Jul 2016

Fracking in various forms has been around as long as commercial oil production has been.

 

EL34x4

(2,003 posts)
12. I remember thinking he was crazy.
Tue Jul 26, 2016, 07:21 PM
Jul 2016

Honestly, I never thought I'd see gas below $3/gallon again in my life.

Just filled my tank for $1.92 here in Jacksonville, Florida a couple of days ago.

 

ansible

(1,718 posts)
7. Just gassed up here for $2.25 a gallon near Modesto
Tue Jul 26, 2016, 06:11 PM
Jul 2016

I've never gas that low in the middle of summer

AwakeAtLast

(14,112 posts)
16. As soon as it's in the news, it goes up
Tue Jul 26, 2016, 09:03 PM
Jul 2016

Hopefully not this time?

I guess I gotta fire up the Humvee now....

 

Feeling the Bern

(3,839 posts)
17. Damn you, Obama. How dare you use your nubian muslim black powers to do this?
Tue Jul 26, 2016, 09:07 PM
Jul 2016

Think of the poor Big Oil exec struggling to pay for their yacht, their mansion, their mistresses and hookers and their golden toilet bowls!

Damn you, you black ninja!

HereSince1628

(36,063 posts)
35. Yes, and market commentators were projecting prices nearing $6 by Fall.
Fri Jul 29, 2016, 07:47 AM
Jul 2016

I still wonder how much energy prices and consumer fear figured into the timing of the crash. Borrowing was over-extended and there were a lot of folks who weren't going to be able to heat their homes, eat, and put gas in their cars.

Of course that would be perspective of the privileged who had mortgages and cars to be underwater with.

bluedigger

(17,077 posts)
19. $2.10 at the pumps today in the Four Corners.
Tue Jul 26, 2016, 10:47 PM
Jul 2016

Prices tend to run above average out here in the middle of nowhere. So we got that going for us.

NickB79

(19,114 posts)
22. The number of DU'ers who think this is a good thing is horrifying
Tue Jul 26, 2016, 11:15 PM
Jul 2016

Every time I see the price of gas fall, I see my daughter's future slipping away as morons around me buy new SUV's and pickups, and the global temperature gets hotter, and hotter, and hotter.

Scruffy1

(3,239 posts)
25. I feel the same way.
Wed Jul 27, 2016, 04:31 AM
Jul 2016

Both cheap natural gas and gasoline are inhibiting the growth of sustainable energy. Fortunately it's a very short cycle in a long history. This bubble will collapse eventually.

Socal31

(2,484 posts)
27. At this point, individual American MPG being 15 or 35mpg is irrelevant.
Wed Jul 27, 2016, 05:19 AM
Jul 2016

The MASSIVE rising middle class in China will more than make up for our efficiency gains over the next 30 years.

It's easy to feel better about one's own reliance on fossil fuels by point to a more egregious example. But in the end, we all either get behind the economic and practical push for alternative energy, or we all share the consequences.

Cheap gasoline does make that push much more difficult. Fracking pushed the world back 30 years+.

ileus

(15,396 posts)
30. Thanks to petrol prices I bought a new to us pickup.
Wed Jul 27, 2016, 08:31 AM
Jul 2016

2005 Screw f150....I call it my river truck. Needed something to haul the kayaks in.

Of course it sits in the driveway until the weekends, so petrol could be 4 bucks a gallon and not bother us. I figure 1500 miles a year tops.

 

bigwillq

(72,790 posts)
32. $2.48 gal/reg last time I pumped in CT
Wed Jul 27, 2016, 08:50 PM
Jul 2016

CT is usually higher than the national average because we have such high taxes, yet still awful roads and bridges.

Ghost in the Machine

(14,912 posts)
33. The price just dropped .10 cents/gallon overnight here...
Fri Jul 29, 2016, 02:31 AM
Jul 2016

The store near me, as posted above, had been at $1.85/gal for about 2 weeks now. Wednesday evening it was still at that price, but when I went there Thursday morning it was down to $1.75/gal... Last Fall, it got down to $1.18/gal before going back up.... let's see how low it gets now...

Peace,

Ghost

 

John Poet

(2,510 posts)
34. "And it's ALL PRESIDENT OBAMA's FAULT!!!"
Fri Jul 29, 2016, 02:39 AM
Jul 2016

Or, not necessarily more accurately,

"It's ALL THANKS to PRESIDENT OBAMA!!!"

I love saying that to my very few Republican friends when the subject comes up... LOL

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