Gas to hit $4 a gallon in August

That's the prognosis from a CNN financial expert that was just on. Hmmmm. I never knew Lebanon was such an important oil producing nation. :

 

It could be $10 eventually.

Time to bury a 12,000-gallon cement tank in the back yard.

 

Ah, but it is the "tension in the Middle East" that's causing prices to rise.

Of course, there has been "tension in the Middle East" every day for 58 years, but what the hey.

 

Very transparent, isn't it.

 

Can the oil company execs just come right out and admit they're jacking up prices because they haven't gotten a decent blow job lately?

Or find anyone who's willing to let them go ass-to-mouth?

 

I can't afford to fill up more than once a week, so I'm trying to work from home a little more so I can stretch the gas.

 

I've got an ongoing argument with two of my closest friends - a doctor and a lawyer, who are doing quite well financially, obviously. They are both rooting openly for gas prices to continue to rise, because it will force people to abandon SUVs, look into alternative fuels, etc. Short term bad, long term for the best, they argued.

My answer was that's all well and good, but in the meantime average people are getting really, really screwed. Skyrocketing gas prices pinches people, particular in non-urban areas where there is little or no public transportation and people generally have to travel farther.

Further, I argued, while I'm usually a free-market kind of guy, this was a time the government should step in. Not just the public interest of helping consumers, but more important it will continue to have an adverse affect on the economy: People have no choice but to buy gas - and there are no "Pay less" cheaper alternatives like there is for even food - and when it gets too expensive they curtail other things, and that will affect more areas of the economy. They'll skimp on vacations, on food, on entertainment, and on and on.

Any thoughts?

 

I can imagine the oil company guys sitting around their TVs, tuned to Fox News (my guess is they aren't the CNN types) and high-fiving each other every time something comes on about some trouble in the Middle East. "Something blew up in Iraq? There's another $5 billion." "Iran's got nukes? That's gonna be great for our returns." "So, how can we make North Korea's missile test fall under 'tension in the Middle East?' "

And no way the government steps in while the GOP is in control. The whole party is in Big Oil's pocket. They'll make false gestures that they're concerned, but they don't care.

 

I'm fortunate to be in a job where my gas is paid for two or three times over by the company thanks to a fair mileage rate. I live a half mile from the office, so just about every bit of my commute is paid for. I'd hate to be one of those people who moved to Fredericksburg, Va., just because housing was cheaper than it was closer to D.C. I imagine that 110-mile round-trip commute every day kills those profits ...

 

That's a legitimate argument, that it will take a shock to the system to accellerate things. Right now alternative fuels are not economically feasible, nor can they handle the huge scale of consumption needed. And it will take a major spike in gas prices to make them economically feasible.

Yes and no. There is no "cheap gas". But a car that gets 50 mpg --- along with the sensible driving it takes to maximize your mpg --- makes your gas, in effect, three times cheaper than someone driving a car that gets 17 mpg.

I can't do anything about my home being 22 miles from my work. That's 1.8 gallons, round trip, in my current car.

But I can change cars if I want and make that 44 miles consume only 0.8 gallons.

At least I do have that choice.

 

Well, it already has happened to an extent.

Hybrid cars are not considered pure folly anymore.

The tide has begun its shift.

Biodiesel will be the next item to make such a transition in the perception game.

 

You get 44.5 cents a mile?