As gas prices creep above $4 a gallon, what are you thinking?

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I'm thinking it may be a GOOD THING--it's going to make less polluting, non-imported, renewable energy sources PRICE COMPETITIVE. Hopefully, the latter energy sources reach a critical mass re economy of scale and we no longer need to go back to oil.

Alternatives to oil:

Algae-based hydrocarbons
Waste-eating bacterias that produce hydrocarbons
Solar energy
micro hydro
Tidal energy
etc etc
 


Jondoe0069 said:
I'm thinking about getting a big ass V8 4x4 truck. They can barely sell these things these days, so they're becoming dirt ass cheap. Saving $10,000 will make up for the 10MPG drop.

25mpg over 100,000 miles at $4 a gallon = $16,000

15mpg over 100,000 miles at $4 a gallon = $26,667

Getting more pussy because I don't drive a pussy ass car- definitely worth $667.
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Why not keep your small car, and buy a trafficked eastern european woman to keep in your boot? Then you can have all the pussy you want, whenever your want, AND be kind to the environment.
 
In all honesty who cares. Just make enough money that gas prices don't matter.

You think an Exec who's got his own Jet is worrying how much maintenance he's going to have to pay on that jet? I doubt it.

In the long term the market will adjust and oil companies won't be able to jack up prices like that.

For now if it really worries you sell that SUV and drive a 1.6 liter car that gets 35mpg. You'll be paying the same price for gas that you did 2 years ago.
 
shithappens said:
Okay, 58% raise... gas prices went from what to what in that time in the USA?
Gas in May 2002: $1.40
Gas in May 2008: $3.99

Okay... so who wants help me w/ my math? i'm sure that isn't 58%...
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I go to the Netherlands most often. Gas has gone up in price there since 2002. It just has not gone up as much recently. m0rtal said it hasn't changed much in Poland since last year, he didn't say it has not gone up since 2002.

U.S. Dollar to Euro in May 2007: $1.35
U.S. Dollar to Euro in May 2008: $1.58
About a 20% increase.

U.S. Average Gas Price in May 2007: $3.18
U.S. Average Gas Price in May 2008: $3.85
About a 20% increase.

Something interesting that I noticed a few weeks ago when I was last in the Netherlands is that many gas stations are installing LPG/Propane filling stations by the normal gas pumps. You can get a conversion done so your car runs on LPG and the cost of the fuel is about 1/3 of the price of gasoline there. My brother inlaw had it done to his car and I noticed no difference while driving compared to a gasoline powered car. He says his mileage and power seem about the same as before to him. The car starts on gasoline then automatically switches over to LPG once the engine is running and at a certain temperature. He has used 1/2 of a tank of gasoline in the past year since the conversion. The LPG tank fills the space where the space tire usually sits.
 
Netphase said:
Something interesting that I noticed a few weeks ago when I was last in the Netherlands is that many gas stations are installing LPG/Propane filling stations by the normal gas pumps. You can get a conversion done so your car runs on LPG and the cost of the fuel is about 1/3 of the price of gasoline there. My brother inlaw had it done to his car and I noticed no difference while driving compared to a gasoline powered car. He says his mileage and power seem about the same as before to him. The car starts on gasoline then automatically switches over to LPG once the engine is running and at a certain temperature. He has used 1/2 of a tank of gasoline in the past year since the conversion. The LPG tank fills the space where the space tire usually sits.
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For those not in the know, LPG is liquid petroleum gas. It's a waste product from the oil refinery process and is usually what you see burning at the top of the stacks at a refinery. Smarter refineries are harvesting & compressing this gas instead of burning it off, and selling it as a fuel.
It's also highly coveted by the Protoss and Zerg...
Because it's a waste product, supply is actually rather limited as most refineries continue to dispose of it for some asinine reason.

LPGs been common enough in Australia for about 2 decades now.
Two problems with people going ape about though.

1) LPG tanks come in 150L and 300L varieties (most commonly) and people will lose a lot of boot space (or spare tyre space) on install. That's not the problem though. The problem is that that you will use all of this to fill an LPG tank, because although the tank mileage is similar to petroleum and gasoline engines, the consumption rate is a LOT higher.
I get about 26.8L/100km on LPG, versus 11.7L/100km on 98 octane petroleum.
It still works out to be a saving, but not as much as you'd think.

2) The price is low now, but as more people get it installed, and people start using it, the price will go up.
LPG was about $0.40/L here this time of year, two years ago. Last year, our federal Government offered a cash incentive for people to convert to LPG.
Prices are now around $0.80/L where as petroleum is $1.40L
It's gone from being 35% the price to about 60%, because demand has skyrocketed.
The cost per km is now roughly the same as diesel, which is only marginally better than petroleum (as they've bumped the cost of diesel recently as well).

Watch it happen in a market place near you!!
 
It won't be too long before we see an affiliate offer for a DIY Oil Well in your backyard.. All know things are bad at that point.

The gas prices don't bother me personally driving my cars, it's the domino effect for everything which is impacted like food prices, clothing, consumer goods, and other stuff that all adds up. If those greedy bankers didn't loan all those losers out their who had no money for houses they couldn't afford the us dollar wouldn't be dragging along causing these unsubstantiated gas price increases. Those pricks at OPEC could care less about the US, I say open up our reserves and start drilling in Alaska and wherever else and tell all these 3rd world countries to stick in their ass.
 
It doesn't affect me really. I fill up every 3 weeks since I close to work and stay home mainly doing AM stuff.

Sure the gas prices have gone up but they're still way lower than some parts of the world like Europe.
 
Oil is up because of inflation - THE HIDDEN TAX. the neocons are straining at the leash to invade Iran which will mean even more debt, and even more inflation.

Soon this will be the "new energy solution".

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You guys are at least getting gas no matter how much it costs.

Here in Nepal, my friend parked his car at home since last 10 days in home because he will have to stay in queue for two days to get a drop of gas. And taking a cab in double price is easier than lining in a queue for two days.
 
I'm on much the same page as Johndoe0069. I've been keeping a close watch on the papers for gas guzzlers that are being given up for either shit-cheap or take over payments. There's money in them, if you're not in a place with psychotic licencing rules for car dealers. Back during the economic downturn after the S&L collapse I made some of my first money buying Jags, MBs and highline Bimmers off of failed would-be yuppies and turning them over at a moderate profit. I've been seeing some seriously good prices out there, as we have a couple of whammies hitting the economy driving people to push these behemoths to the curb and take whatever they can get for them. It's the "local-to-online" strategy on which many eBay fortunes were built, applied to the vehicle market.

As far as the effect of gas prices on me directly, it's moot -- I work from home and my wife is on more or less permanent vacation, so we don't drive much. We have a baby tank that we just recently bought to replace a mere normal sized SUV (traded in an Explorer for an Expedition) but the benefits to a family of four + a teenager who stays with us during the summer far outweighs the cost of gas anywhere under $10 a gallon.


Frank
 
this help me put it in perspective a bit, we arent the highest or the lowest, so we should just suck it up and realize that we should really be paying $75 a gallon for gas since it is a nonrenewable resource, we pay more for coffee than we pay for gasoline. maybe if it cost more we wouldnt waste it so much, and put more effort into finding alternatives. heaven forbid we get a bike or walk, *gasp* maybe we wouldnt be the most obese nation in the world if that were the case.
 
Even better:

Fuel tax - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Especially for those who don't understand why Euros pay so much for gasoline.

Recommended reading for those who want to think about the future of gasoline is The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy by Huber & Mills. The book has a silly title, but I can only assume that the people who savage it in the Amazon reviews section have never actually read it, because they go on and on about "advocating irresponsible policy" and that kind of thing while the authors actually go out of their way to stay out of policy issues. The book is really a fascinating read, especially the bits that get technical about how energy is produced and distributed, which explain very well for the lay reader.


Frank
 
Also worth mentioning is Fuel Bank : lock in your price for gasoline This or a similar operation could be a huge boon to gas conusmers. Some fleets use similar purchasing arrangements already -- not really a new thing, just not something that is done on the consumer level very often.


Frank
 
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