Gas is $4.15/regular and $4.97/diesel at the Shell station on my corner

How badly are you getting screwed in your area?

Santa Barbara County has the highest gas prices in the state, and San Luis Obispo County comes just after us.

The oil companies don't like us. They pump huge quantities of oil from land and sea locally, but the Board of Supervisors keep trying to (gasp!) regulate them.

Too bad oil and other natural resources aren't nationalized. Just too bad.

Hekate

when people literally will not be able to afford gas to get to work? I honestly think that day is coming.

It's happened before.

35 cents a gallon.






Plus tax.

Meanwhile, our leaders are flummoxed......our GOP has the sound of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS when it comes to meaningful solutions...mostly empty language and band aid shit.

We knew it was going to happen. We were warned by Al Gore and others. We just didn't imagine that Bush and Cheney would hasten the day with such rapidity.

The Auto and Oil Industries have absolutely no intention of changing a damned thing about the way they do business unless they are forced into it by the President and Congress. Not until the last drop of oil is wrung from the Earth.

We had to buy a new car last year. The Tercel was 24 years old. So Mr. H took over the 18 y.o. Camry wagon, and we got a new Honda Accord for me to drive. It's the first sedan I've ever driven, and what kills me is that the gas mileage is no better than the elderly Camry. Every time I fill the tank on my brand new "fuel efficient" Accord I am bitterly reminded that Big Auto and Big Oil are working hand in glove.

Sunday we drove over to our daughter's for dinner -- at 10 miles, it's a little far to walk. Along the route we took was a row of vehicles parked nose to tailpipe along the side of the road, all with For Sale signs on them. They were SUVs, trucks, and an RV/camper. They all looked fairly new, too. I imagine they are getting too expensive for the average person to fill up.

I was proud of myself for getting a car that's pretty good on mileage and I was hoping to keep it 20 years like the others, making it in effect my last car (I'm 60). I am beginning to rethink that. Mr. H has a short commute, but I am the errand runner, shopper, and all the other household stuff. I make a big loop when I go out, always have. Bus service here sucks for the kind of driving I do -- and since Mr. H teaches at night, bus service isn't such a great alternative for him either.

We need mass transit solutions. Los Angeles, our gigantic neighbor a hundred miles south of here, is actually cutting bus routes as a cost-cutting measure just as thousands more commuters are giving it a try. Excuse me, but this is insane. This is where a rational federal government would step in.

I am hoping and praying that our next president can bring about the necessary changes in legislation...

Hekate

resulting in an Information Underload.

One person canardly see the larger picture....series

for Citgo Reg outside of ATL

4.35 for mid grade

And even if we give up driving and ride bicycles, virtually everything in our society depends on transportation and the burning of fossil fuels, from the electricity I'm burning right now on the Internet with my computer to the food I bought from the store that came from who knows where. I know it sounds absurd, but I've even been looking into filing an application with the federal government to operate a small still in my side yard to manufacture my own ethanol and to change the rubber hoses and seals in the fuel system of one of my old cars to run on alcohol. It wouldn't be so bad if I was making more money commensurate with the rises in the costs of living. But things are going in reverse for me and business has been getting slower and slower.

Diesel is the same price here as well.

But driving to work everyday is killing me. It's crazy because I drive a small little saturn. I can't even imagine what it would cost if I was driving a big vehicle. yikes....

it cost me $3.97 a gallon for regular at the cheapest station in the area.

I am not sure what the wholesale price is but it keeps going up along with gasoline. And as it does, everything in the grocery stores will continue to go up as well. Happy Days are gone forever.

is that it is the fuel of war. In addition to heating the NorthEast with it, we are now shipping tons of it BACK to the middle east to fuel our war. Add to that the fact that big oil wants to discourage the imminent influx of clean diesel vehicles due to arrive in the next few months. The new VW Jetta is labeled in the 50s for highway mileage. BMW has several coming over that will make the gear heads I work with think again about performance vs economy.

Why is the trucking industry not out protesting? The talk of a 50 cent hike in tax made them threaten to shut everything down. That was when diesel was 1/4 the price it is today!

:popcorn:

:bounce:

Her husband is an Independent trucker. She told me her husband put $500 of gas in his truck today and didn't even fill it up.:(
Frogs in a boiling pot. That is where we are.

Oil profits are what we are fighting for.

But I only buy gas at Citgo now. Luckily, I can walk to work, and only have to drive to the grocery store. But, still.