Speakeasy forum: Pump Price Rant

I know they're your words.

WHY are you saying it?

Prices are too high AND should Lower taxes.. And Don't ruin it.

Why complain about the price and want lower taxes . And then say don't complain because it's part of the greatest civilization

Ruin? What's to ruin?

Last Thursday is was 99.6 ltr

Today $1.068 ltr

I only fill up once a month so $45 a month.

It's always the other guy isn't it?

... will benefit. American car companies will go the way of the Flintstone-mobile.

Yaba Daba Dooooo !

Make it impossible for people to live? Remember everything; food, clothing, medicine is delivered by motor vehicles. Raising gas prices even more would make that stuff all more expensive.

Or maybe you could exempt commercial carriers? Good luck on making that one work.

I really think this is a temporary thing we can get over.

And we have to stop listening to the eco-nuts and build some nuclear power plants. Drill in Alaska and other places. Increase the supply. It can be done. It should have been done long ago, but NOW is a good time to start.

The "poor" have been the hardest hit by the escalating gas prices already. Food costs have risen noticeably, transportation costs too. It is the people who lack large amounts of discretionary spending power who have been feeling the pinch as soon as gasoline prices went over $2.00 a couple years ago.

Higher farming costs? For the small, working farmer this is a concern. For the large farmland owners who collect government subsidies hand over fist ? Not so much. A local doctor here collects farm subsidies for land that hasn't been worked for 20 years. Before we talk about cutting taxes, we should really examine some traditional federal government entitlements that have literally been around for 50 years... outliving their original purpose decades ago.

It is not a question of the working poor "eventually" facing higher food costs. They already have and they noticed it a long time ago.

BTW... everyone should always tip the delivery guy. It's just the right thing to do.

it drives the price up anyhow. Look at the results of Hurricane Katrina. It didn't affect the supply as much as people thought it would but the people's panic that it might drove the price through the roof.

Right now there is a shortage of refining capacity and climbing prices reflect that. If we don't curtail demand within supply capacity the higher prices and rationing you speak of will become a reality.

Everyone should be punished with higher prices, not just the wasteful.

Class envy and name-calling is really what that's about.

There's no legitimate reason that I should pay more for my gas because someone else wants to burn 1/2 gallon to the mile to pick up groceries. I personally know of a high school kids that drives daddy's H2 to school. I don't envy them at all and I certainly don't think that kid will learn the value of a buck with a first car like an H2. They are entitled to their toys but there's not reason the extra demand they cause should effect me at all.

FWIW, the electric companies do a fine job of separating the wasteful. Everyone pays the same rate for the first quantity of KW Hours and a demand rate if they go over.

In Georgia our county has introduced a tiered water bill with 4 tiers. Those that use the most will pay higher rates for the excess they use because of our drought.

This country is seeing a similar drought at the pumps and all you keep advocating is to let everyone use as much as they want no matter how it effects others. I'm certainly glad our Water Management Authority doesn't share your mentality.

I'm not all that crazy about that water and electricity thing either. I can understand the water because there actually IS a drought and rationing is probably temporary (I hope). But am I right that the water utilities and electric utilities are state sanctioned monopolies? That in itself is immoral.

What's next, now that a precedent has been set? Home heating fuel seems a likely candidate. Mr. Jones has a bigger house than is necessary, so we can penalize him. Mrs. Smith went over her grocery allotment this week. Fine her! Thirty days in the clink! She has too many kids! Take one away!

Is this the direction we want our society to take? Haven't others gone down this path with disastrous results?

On the more practical side, I can see a thriving black market in gas popping up. Might even try my hand in that myself. Get a crappy econobox, fill the tank, sell the gas for less than the state approved gouge to a rich maroon with an H2, go to another gas station and tank up again...I guess they'll need to start a special police squad to catch people like me...

Douglas County Georgia has already gone to a tiered billing structure. One price per thousand gallons for the first 6000 gallons, a second for the next 3000, a third for the next 3000 and a fourth for 12,000 gallons and above. Water patrols are also roaming the county at night and cutting off anyone's water they find watering their lawn. It's amazing how wasteful some people can be

I hope they are checking first before cutting off water to insure the lawns aren't being watered from private wells or private bodies of water, such as ponds. For instance I have a property in Florida with it's own well, now no longer potable water, but still good to wash car or water lawn with. The water usage there would be below the limits on the bill, but I'd still not want to have rationing that would willy nilly cut off potable water supply simply because someone cruising in a car saw lawn being watered. I guess if that becomes a problem I'd put up a sign stating all lawn watering was done from private well and not public water supply.

....relying on the EPA data. In fact they are changing the way mileage is determined specifically because of the lying EPA figures on the Prius. In actuality the Prius usually averages about 49 miles per gallon.

Also, the Prius can no longer officially get that kind of mileage under revised EPA figures. Yours must be a super super hybrid, the only one of it's kind.

In fact, I have some personal knowledge for the mileage on a Prius and I can guarantee this one has never gotten 60 mpg since the day it was bought new till now.

James --- I am sorry to learn that, based on your some personal knowledge for the mileage experience on your 2004 GEN II Prius, you have never been able to get it to deliver 60 mpg since the day it was bought new till now. As my 2007 GEN II sits in my garage after my last local shopping trip, the MFD displays 63.2 MPG-FE.

Let me clarify something. I am not relying on the EPA data. My (measured) means measured by the tank refill method and averaged over time, not the old 2007 EPA Fuel Economy Estimates. I have over 12,000 miles on my fuel-sipper and the onboard MFD computer calculations have continued to track and remain in nominal statistical agreement with my running measured MPG Fuel Economy numbers. The old 2007 EPA numbers are 51/55/60. The new 2008 EPA numbers are 45/46/48. I have never gotten gas mileage numbers as low as the new 2008 EPA FE numbers, but regularly meet and surpass the old EPA 51/55/60 FE numbers.

Maybe the Prius can no longer officially get that kind of mileage, but I can assure you that I am unofficially getting 60+ MPG sans A/C use and get 55 in the summer or when I have to run the HVAC.

I call your attention to my original (NT) Buy A Prius And Hypermile. Mine Gets 60+MPG (Measured) post. I am a Hypermiler, to be precise, I am what I call a Psuedo-Hypermiler.

I call your attention to this link to an e-article on Hybrid Hypermiling http://www.home.earthlink.net/~poliakonia/id12.html It discusses Pseudo-Hypermiling For Non-Hypermilers and how by simply applying some basic knowledge about hybrid powered cars along with some top-level elements of Hybrid Hypermiling Driving Techniques, any Hybrid Owner-Driver (like you) can improve the miles-per-gallon/liters-per-100 kilometers fuel economy delivered by their hybrid vehicle.

HAPPY PSEUDO-HYPERMILING! JP

what kind of insane panic would ensue if there were a real crisis!

As I pointed out before, compared to most other countries the price of gas in the US is not all that high. Imagine if you were paying $5/gal or more. Come on!

We really don't need to INCREASE the pain, and we certainly don't need lunatic Soviet style rationing schemes. If conservation is called for, or carpooling or taking shorter trips or combining chores, people will do it without coercion.

I pointed out some solutions. Drill in Alaska. Use more nuclear. Hunt for and drill for more oil.

In due time better engine technology and alternate fuels will come into play. Internal combustion engines have not been around that long; cars even less, and there have been massive changes in the technology. Why on earth anyone would think that generations to come will be using the same methods we do is beyond me.