Gas Costs Hit Record High, More Hikes Seen

Mar 21, 9:46 AM EST

Gas Costs Hit Record High, More Hikes Seen

By GARY GENTILE
AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Nationwide gas prices soared over 12 cents during the past two weeks to reach a record high and an analyst predicted more sticker shock at the pump in the days ahead.

Prices should continue to rise in the next few weeks on strong demand and supply problems caused by the transition to cleaner-burning gasoline mixtures as summer approaches, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country.

"There are not any gas price factors that indicate anywhere but up," Lundberg said.
The average retail price for all three grades increased 12.74 cents to $2.13 per gallon between March 4 and March 18, according to survey results released Sunday.

The most popular grade - self-serve regular - was priced at $2.10 a gallon, while customers paid $2.20 for mid-grade. Premium averaged $2.29 a gallon for the period.
That is the largest price hike since the run-up to May 21, 2004, when prices hit a previous record of $2.10, Lundberg said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GAS_PRICES?SITE=NYITH&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

I wonder if that wasn't what this is really about. You don't think Delay is feeding at the oil trough? Let's make a federal case out of a family matter so people won't notice oil companies are ripping them off. And when this dies down, gas will have already been over $2 for a few weeks so it won't be such a big deal. What will the do when it makes the jump to $2.40?

Than Terri Schiavo.

It's those damned liberals and their damned refusal to accept the End Times! The reason gas prices are going up is "problems caused by the transition to cleaner-burning gasoline mixtures" - and this is all those damned liberals' fault!

The Emperor of Chimptown gets his cover...

I feel a certain sense of satisfaction when
I see the monster trucks plastered with
Bush/Cheney stickers filling up at the
local pump.
People get the government and gas prices they deserve...
BHN

$3.29 per gallon. I'd like to be a fly sitting inside their monster truck then.

Wouldn't you?

I pretend to fuss with the window washing
stuff sometimes just so I can get a gander
at the total on their pump...UNbelievable what
it is costing them to fill their toys with go juice.
BHN

They're sucking down my gas too, and making it more expensive for everyone. I see a Hummer filling up and I just want to cry.

as schools plan spring breaks around Easter
They will be up for the next two weeks then drop (some) then hit record highs for Memorial Day through Summer.
Screw the middle class again.

...you can simply follow the words "caused by" with HORSESHIT HORSESHIT HORSESHIT HORSESHIT. I don't want to hear their excuses anymore. Anyone with a brain knows what the real cause is.

see they don't take a hit when prices go up - they don't even just pass on the increases to the consumers... I believe that they keep the same level of "profit" (percentage wise) so that if the barrel cost goes up by 10% (say - from 50.00 to 55.00) their markup goes up just as much - they don't just pass on the cost of the increase and maintain the same level of profit (eg pass on that 5.00) they likely pass on an even higher price. Let's say they do a fifty percent markup (I have no idea what their markup is - so this is just for example) - before they get 25.00 profit per barrell; now they get 27.50 per barrell).

That is why, during the last round of spikes, they were recording record profits. It is also how they can get around having negative impacts (eg people cutting down on consumption) - they let things float as high as they can ... when - and only when - there is a drop in the level of consumption - they take a tiny bite out of their profit margin and maintain the price at just below the point of diminishing returns. A little bit of gouging anyone?

last month, Exxon-Mobil reported record profits that were mostly attributable to the high cost of a barrel of oil ...

is it just possible that our oil company government and the MSM they control don't want us focussing on such things ??

is it just possible that the longer the instability in the Middle East lasts, the more money these corporate terrorists will make ??

when will the Democratic Party take a stand on this ?? our entire foreign policy caters to trans-national corporations at the expense of the American people ... and soon many Democrats will vote, right along with the republicans, to give bush more money to continue his war ...

instead of letting the oil companies "corporatize" our government, why don't we "nationalize" them ??

after years and years of indoctrination - pro privatization of all that moves and everything else reeks of godless commies?

Nah- the best we can hope for in the near future - is action that makes corps more transparent (notice how little talk of collusion there is these days per the price hikes - just one company could take a HUGE chunk of business away from others by taking just a little less in profits and lowering their prices... but the don't.) Or, in the extreme, a little price-control action - which for all their belly aching the admin finally supported during the tail end of the west coast "energy crisis" (that was a direct result of... yup - market manipulation.)

Commuting is a test of survival, a daily battle on expressways full of crazy drivers and on trains crowded with cell phone addicts.

But it's a test many of us accept because we judge that lower housing costs, a piece of semi-rural tranquility or an abundance of space are worth it.

Now gasoline prices, which in the Midwest last week averaged $2.05 a gallon for regular, up more than 40 cents from a year earlier, are threatening to eat away at that benefit.

"Gas prices above $2.50 might start to kick in a slowing of the outward movement of housing in the Chicago area," said real estate analyst Tracy Cross.

People might decide to continue to rent closer in rather than buy farther out, said Cross, president of Tracy Cross and Associates in Schaumburg. He noted, though, that consumers often economize in other ways before altering their housing choices.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0503210220mar21,1,4790701.story?coll=chi-business-hed

Gasoline prices, probably not, have to have that whereever you live, but cost like Rent? Utilities? I could see those costs becoming negotiable.

"What do you mean you're raising my rent to $500? How about if I move? You got anyone battering down your door with $500 in their hand? No? OK then, in fact, I think you ought reduce my rent to about $350 a month, because that's what I need to remain cost effective renting from you. Don't want to? OK, hope the County finds you some nice Section 8 folks who just burned down their LAST place to rent off of you..."

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/newsfinder/pulseone.asp?dateid=38432.6765236343-833411689&siteID=mktw&scid=0&doctype=806&

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The average retail price of gasoline in the United States rose by 5.1 cents last week to a record $2.149 per gallon, the Energy Department reported Monday. The price has risen nearly 11 percent in just the past five weeks. The average price of regular gas rose by 5.3 cents to a record $2.109, while premium gasoline cost an average of $2.292.

...very short newsblurb...

you ungrateful sob.

young kids starting out, and then the congress votes to not give the poor bastards working for minimun wage a raise, we are so screwed. The station where I get gas said there have been so many drive offs that they have to station someone at the pumps to collect money.

I just paid $2.49 a gallon for regular here in Santa Barbara, California. It's been a long time since we've seen "only" $2.15!

was shut down by auto making companies in the 1940's. My parents bought stock in it and it went nowhere. The greedy bastards have known how to make alternative-powered cars for ages.

http://www.renewableelectricity.com/carfight.htm