General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGasoline 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.
"Todays 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
abetterkid
(47 posts)What is spurring the decline in prices this time???
tonyt53
(5,737 posts)6chars
(3,967 posts)NickB79
(19,114 posts)Thanks to cheap gas, sales of hybrid and EV cars have plummeted: http://www.autoblog.com/2016/06/03/may-2016-green-car-sales/
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.
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.
bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)nt
MADem
(135,425 posts)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)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)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)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)Fracking in various forms has been around as long as commercial oil production has been.
Yavin4
(35,357 posts)EL34x4
(2,003 posts)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.
onecaliberal
(32,489 posts)ansible
(1,718 posts)I've never gas that low in the middle of summer
onecaliberal
(32,489 posts)PasadenaTrudy
(3,998 posts)is the lowest here in S Pasadena.
Initech
(99,915 posts)BadgerKid
(4,541 posts)Or they do it because they can.
Yavin4
(35,357 posts)They don't give a rat's ass about the consumers.
Ghost in the Machine
(14,912 posts)AwakeAtLast
(14,112 posts)Hopefully not this time?
I guess I gotta fire up the Humvee now....
Feeling the Bern
(3,839 posts)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!
JesterCS
(1,827 posts)I remember it happening during Obama/McCain in 08
Charles Bukowski
(1,132 posts)for all the wrong reasons though--the economy was in freefall.
RandiFan1290
(6,206 posts)HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)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)Prices tend to run above average out here in the middle of nowhere. So we got that going for us.
NickB79
(19,114 posts)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)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)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)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)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)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)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