Anyone else concerned about rising gas prices?

I have been lucky I own a hybrid only fill up once a month the gas prices going up has nothing to do with oil prices - it has to do with the very low USD right now.

People were laughing that I spent an extra 3k for a hybrid - but by the looks of it I should have that paid for NP

 

I drive a Mini 75 miles round trip a day, pay $4.29 right now. It hurts.

I think there's a couple of factors in play right now with oil prices.

People are saying cut demand equals cut in price. I dont agree. OPEC exists solely for that purpose. If demand reduces, they SUPPLY will go down, per OPEC agreement. Price might drop a little, but not back to the $1-2/gal we used to see.

Whether it feels like it or not, the global economy is slowly picking up, which means demand for oil is steadily increasing as well. Unless we see another recession, demand will not be going down short term, and I dont think anyone wants to see another recession right now.

Speculation (futures markets) has a huge role in oil prices. What alot of people dont realize is that while the speculators tend to drive futures higher, it's the big companies that use the future markets to "hedge" their oil prices against further price increases. And so when alot of big companies start to aggressively hedge oil at a certain point (think airlines, shipping, manufacturing... LOTS of companies), and that point for alot of people was $100/barrel, that hedging creates an artificial "floor" to the futures market.

Add in the social unrest in the middle east, and you get a good sense of where oil is heading.

I agree with another post about natural gas... cheap, plentiful, and much cleaner than oil. To top it off, the USA has some of the worlds largest natural gas reserves. In 20-30 years, we could be the "new" middle east.

 

I drive an old Suburban with a 44 gallon tank that has to run premium because of a custom tune. Last time I filled up think it was around $4.21 a gallon here. It really sucks having to stop and restart the pump two to three times because they can only clear $75 per pump.

 

Over $4 per gallon up in NH. Don't plan on it going any lower through the summer months...

 

1.42 per liter up in montreal...pretty sure that's almost 6$ a gallon lol. doesnt hurt me direcly as i live in town and have not driven to work once in the past 3 1/2 but food costs are going up very fast(avacados from MEXICO!!!).

 

Check out Water4gas.com. Very simple, yet proven effective, way of improving your gas mileage. You can either build one yourself (less expensive), or buy one.

 

Sorry to say that's a fraud. I'll keep the reasoning short. From their site:

"HHO production is a product of the amperage draw. Our baseline testing always uses 12 amp current draw and the DC450 produces 800 ml of HHO per minute at this level."

You're putting energy into the production of oxyhydrogen, and incurring efficiency losses along the way. You won't get out 100% of the energy that you put in to creating HHO, and thus it would actually hurt your mileage.


Back on topic, I drive a CR-Z, and can either get 45+ or ~28 depending on how the car is set and how I drive. I moved to drive much more in Eco mode since the prices went up. Before the prices started jumping, I drove in Sport nearly constantly.

 

Here in New Zealand its currently NZD$2.189 per L for standard petrol. Thats USD$1.754/L or USD$6.65 per gallon! And I know we are not the most expensive in the world. Ridiculous!!!

 

the price of gas sure doesn't seem to be stopping people from using it... :-/

 

we NEED it(society, not me personally). just like for a junkie, the withdrawal would be so horrible we have to keep using. we all know we would be better off without this serious addiction but we...can't...STOP!!!