True. The real issue here is not that the price shouldn’t be higher than it has been (it should, I think), but the time frame in which it is rising. It is increasing at an alarming rate.
I suspect Europeans have both higher absolute incomes and typically budget more of it for gas. So when a price surge hits, it hits both sides of the atlantic about the same. Of course this is just speculation.
I don’t think so. They have paid much higher prices for their gas all along. I don’t think the price is rising there at the same rate it is here though.
Umm, if you are talking about the “discussion” that you and I had recently, I never suggested that Europeans are richer and make provisions in their budget for it. I agree with you that would indeed be a fallacy.
As to what our discussion was, I suggest we leave it be.
Today I was at the Gas station, every vehicle there was vans, suv’s, trucks. My 4-cylinder Subaru Front Wheel Drive Impreza was the only car there. For once, I was glad that I have a small car.
It’s nice to say get a compact or take a bus. It’s not possible for a lot of people. Pickups are used for work vehicles and/or farm vehicles. Vans are used for transporting more people than can ride in a Mini. Buses don’t come within 20 miles of my house. In my area, privately owned SUV’s & 4WD trucks have been called into emergency use to transport medical personnel and help with rescues during floods, blizzards, etc.
Not everyone drives the larger vehicles for a status symbol. Not arguing – there is a problem – just stating that there is no simple, easy solution, no easy place to cast blame.
My wife said yesterday on her way to work that prices at the local “gas 'n go cheapo joint” was $2.89. On her way home 12 hours later it was $3.39. A jump of 50 cents a gallon. I do believe they’re getting ready for the big Labor Day Weekend.
The people you’re referring to probably make up less than %5 of the total problem population…
go into any big city in the west and you’ll see what we’re talking about…
You’ll see soccer moms, men with little anatomies, tough-guy wanna-bes, overly image conscious teenagers, all driving their big-ass pickup trucks and SUVs for whatever reason they have…occasionally you’d see a contractor’s vehicle…that’s obviously understandable, but for the greatest part their trucks and SUVs serve no other purpose than to be status symbols or ego boosters ( I mean really, what purpose does an H2 serve? None, it’s a neutered Silverado that gets six miles to the gallon, but come to Utah and you cant go ten minuets without seeing one.)
The population that truly needs their large size trucks and SUVs to get around as daily drivers is so miniscule compared to the total population of truck/SUV owners as to make their sway on the issue nonexistant. If people who don’t need their gas wasters gave them up, the people who truly need them could still use them with very little influence on the market at all.
I’m certainly no ecconomist, but here’s my take:
Then the price of bread, eggs & milk would also skyrocket if these items are going to get to the grocery stores. Then the labor force will start demanding more money so they can continue feeding their families. Then the companies the labor force work for will have to increase the cost of their goods and services so they can make the same profits while paying their employees more. Then Mobil/Exxon realizes that they are one of those companies that have to pay their employees more, so they, too, increase the cost of their product. Then the price of bread, eggs & milk will go up if these items are to continue getting to the grocery store. Then the labor force . . . – “There’s a hole in the bucket,
dear Liza.”
Overly simplistic I know. But, like I said, I’m no ecconomist.
s1m0n et al. are right. Supply and demand are exactly the problem. Demand for oil the world over is outstripping supply quite substantially. Saudi Arabia - the world’s largets producer and exporter of oil - have had the chokes wide open for some time, and simply can’t produce any more than they are at present. If they could, they would, because a high oil price does not do them any favours in the long term as it brings a risk of economic slow-down and crash for their customers. High oil prices is not a US domestic issue, but a global economic one.
Tyler, some of what you’re talking about is why I live in the country!
Closest town is 20 miles, and of the 4 towns within an hour’s drive only one has any public transportation. We do have some Amish families near by – may have to borrow a horse & buggy … soon!
Gas here on Tuesday night was $2.599, Wednesday morning it was $3.099. The really sad part of the price of gas here – there’s a Marathon refinery within 30 miles. We pay more for gas than in the larger cities 150 miles away, where the gas is trucked … from here.
Fuel prices will raise everything. Independent truckers are already in trouble. This will put several I know completely out of business.
With regard to the comparative prices of fuel in the US/UK, does anyone know where you can get a comparison of the cost with the ‘tax factor’ taken out?
The US federal gasoline tax runs around 20%, while here in the UK it runs around 80%.
Which means what we pay in tax per gallon is more than the total cost of a gallon in the USA… according to that article anyway (and I have no reason to doubt it).
Gas in UK is ~ $7.00 a gallon, 80% of that is taxes ($5.60), so the actual cost of the fuel is $1.40.
Gas in the US (in my area) ~$3.10 a gallon, 20% for taxes is $.62, leaving our actual fuel cost $2.48. (Wonder if the state tax is accounted for in the 20%? We get the fun of paying both federal & state taxes on gasoline.)
This has the USA paying almost twice as much for gas as the UK – y’all just pay higher taxes.
Thanks for the info, Gary – you have my utmost sympathy!
Aye. The trouble is, of course, that calculating the actual cost of a gallon of petrol (US or Imperial) is a black art in itself. When asked, the oil companies will blather on about the cost of crude, cost of transporting the crude, refining, transporting the petrol, gross margins, then filling-station mark-up…
And of course the whole lot varies from country to country (so a litre of Texaco petrol costs a different amount to produce in the UK, the USA, EU, Nigeria, wherever).
Heard a rumour today that Katrina will impact the UK’s petrol prices too; apparently, so the rumour goes, the US government aren’t releasing any of their gas reserves…consequently, a fleet of 20 supertankers have been commissioned to carry refined product (petrol) from the UK’s refineries to the US to cover the shortfall in production there. Which means of course that supply in the UK will be hit, which of course means an increase in pump prices here over and above any rise resulting from increased crude prices. But like all rumours, dunno if it’s true!
One of the big gripes about fuel price hikes here has always been that the pump price always seems to rise immediately the cost of a barrel of oil goes up, even though the oil companies are refining stuff they bought ‘cheaper’ and have reserves at the old price waiting to be refined. But the pump price of course never drops when the cost of a bbl of crude drops (‘because we’re still refining the expensive stuff we bought a couple of months ago’, say the oil companies).
