Do you reflexively 'feel good' to see gas under four bux?

No .......... I know you know that the price of gas at even three bux is nuts. My point is how quickly we get 'used to' a price for gas. So now that prices are backing away from the four buck mark, many of us - me included - realize we're reflexively feeling good about that low price.

A form of Stockholm syndrome?

And expect that we will get royally screwed again starting about December, shortly after the election.

I'll feel better. A coupla' cents isn't going to do it.

Seeing heating oil dropping.

It's the only way Americans will fully support alternative energy ~ and oil people know it. That's why the price is coming down.

This is just too much

Or are you just making stuff up?

The irony is that most oil people know alternative energy is the answer and would even like to lead on it ~ but the old guard at the top is stuck in a short-term profit mindset. Some oil companies are investing more and more in alternatives though, so that's a good sign.

It is still too high.

If people are paying it, they feel its worth it.

I don't get why we feel we are entitled to get cheap gas.

Rather than going at market price.

Going up to the 2006 elections, we had the same thing on DU. It goes up just to go back down again right before the election. While this may be wrong, it is tempting to put on the :tinfoil hat: on the subject.

They are paying it because they have no viable alternatives.

Maybe some people can run out and buy an electric hybrid, but the rest of us suck it up and try planning our trips to be more efficient. Maybe some people can bike to work and back, but for most they are taking their lives in their hands trying to share the road with 1 1/2 ton vehicles that are going 50+mph. Maybe some can switch to public transportation, but have you ever tried to carry home a week's worth of groceries for 4 people on a bus?

It would be different if we knew we were getting full value for what we pay, but the simple fact is most of what we pay goes into profits all along the chain, from the oil producer to the refiner to the distributor. They pay slightly more in Europe, but most of what THEY pay is taxes, for which they get infrastructure maintenance, national health plans, guaranteed living wage.

What WE get is SCREWED.

Aren't they entitled to sell it at whatever price they want to? It belongs to them, not us.

And our oil companies are no longer the biggest in the world. I hear Exxon is like eighth or something.

We no longer control oil. We now have to dance to the world's tune unless we want to use our own sources of energy, and we simply don't have enough oil to make that work.

That is why I think the only solution is renewables, but people aren't going to convert unless they have to.

since last winter. Or it feels like it's been that long, anyway.

While every little bit helps, I wouldn't "feel good" about it.

I'll "feel good" when we have an affordable alternative energy system in place, and transportation systems that make transportation affordable for all.

how conditioned we are. yes i hear you. i got a chuckle at my expense

A chuckle at my own expense ..... well said. :thumbsup:

just had me scratching my head. If it got below $2 a gallon again, THAT would be a dramatic drop.

And continues on! :grr:

It's better for the working poor, and the cost wasn't justified by microeconomic principles. It was manipulated to too high a level and should come down, so we at least reach some reasonable level of pricing and, like i said, it is better for those who have the least.
The Professor

Mmm, there must be an election coming up

are the prices that make me think "bargain!" in grocery flyers.

...... I paid $1.29 for ONE.CRAPPY.LEMON. last week.

A buck twennynine ...... fer a frikkin' lemon.

I thawed trout this morning for dinner tonight.

I discovered I have no lemons. I'm already gnashing my teeth. Jeezus, a buck plus! :(

No bargain, but not over a buck, either.

Evidence would seem to indicate that we have reached, or nearly reached, the point that we are so stupid we cannot hope to fix anything. In order to fix something you have to understand it and we don't understand anything anymore.

A person (or a nation) that stands for nothing will fall for anything.

All sheep share a common destiny.

Still averaging $4.15/gal in Danbury CT.