I always pump my own gas.

But I'm getting tired of it.

Arrived in Palm Springs CA today--gas prices close to $1/gal more than in Arizona. At least there's a Trader Joe's nearby...wine is cheaper there.

I paid $3.16 at Costco today. That's cheaper than most of the other gas stations. In NJ, it's about 5-10 cents per gallon less than that.

$3.11 here.

Ah the Jersey economy....$2.93, but that's why our roads suck. They hired the engineers who were last in their class. They came cheap....like the gas.

$3.19 a gallon here. We can't even bend over to grab our ankles because everyone is too sore from shoveling all the darn snow!!! So, we Illinoisans are taking it standing straight up! GRRR!

That was yesterday.

Today it's $3.08

they hired the same caliber guys(gals) to do the state EZ pass system, too

$3.20

$3.49 in my area!

This must be G.W. Bush's fault.

After all...it was the last time.

May 2007:

"Come on guys. Another year and a half, Bush and Cheney are out of jobs. They need this money."

"What do we buy that has 50% price increase in 4 months? Nothing; not electricity, not phone rates, not natural gas, not coffee, not toilet paper, not milk....nothing. ONLY GAS. Why? Because as Boy George says "We're Addicted". What he didn't say was that our government are the pushers. We have an economy and society that is based around travel - individuals in cars. Bend over, spread your cheeks - we're being screwed and Boy George is lovin' it."

November 2007:

oh, and BTW, does anyone know how much investment $$ Bush and Cheney have in the oil industry?

Oh, and by the way...we ARE addicted!!!

Two and a half weeks later and the price rose 22¢. Now $3.55 a gallon .... next stop four dollars.

"We send a billion dollars to foreign nations every single day and we are melting the polar ice caps in the bargain,That has to change."

-Barack Obama 2008

"In ten years, we can reduce our dependence so that we no longer have to import oil from the Middle East or Venezuela. Number one, we need to expand domestic production."

-Barack Obama 2008

"Weaning the country from imported oil would require tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development."

-Barack Obama 2010

"The administration will not allow offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as part of the next five-year drilling plan.

- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (2010)


National average gas price 2009 - $2.67 a gal.
National average gas price 2010 - $2.67 a gal.
National average gas price 2011 - $3.28 a gal.

U.S. Retail Gasoline Prices


"More than two months after the Obama administration lifted its ban on drilling in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico, oil companies are still waiting for approval to drill the first new oil well there. Experts now expect the wait to continue until the second half of 2011, and perhaps into 2012. Offshore oil production will fall 13% this year from 2010 due to the moratorium and the slow return to drilling: a loss of about 220,000 barrels of oil a day." - Energy Information Administration


Can you say $4.00 a gallon by May?

Oil is finite. It is a mistake to concentrate efforts on more and more drilling, as the BP gulf spill should have taught.

Putting our money and efforts into alternative sources is our only choice. We're complaining about $4 a gallon. What have our friends in Europe been paying for years? They drive smaller, more gas-efficient cars and they walk and bicycle way more than we do. Granted, they don't have the sprawl that we do, their population density is much higher, but they also have superior public transportation to their people.

We need to get our fat behinds out of our cars, we need to spend money on infrastructure and improve public transportation, we need to make hybrid vehicles more affordable and we need to make alternative energy like solar attainable to someone making less than half a million a year.

That would be a start.

We have been paying through the nose for fuel (gas) for years here. If it wasn't for the fact we do need a vehicle for the family i would consider getting rid of our car. I walk or cycle to work and my wife can get the bus to work. We used to be a 2 car family but got rid of one due to the sheer expense. however as Babe says, US a tad larger than us

While I agree with what you say about exploring alternative sources, I don't agree that putting our money and efforts into alternative choices as being our ONLY choice. We NEVER should limit something that effects the nation, especially of this magnitude, as being our ONLY choice.

There is no doubt that we need to concentrate more on exploring and developing alternative methods to produce energy and fuels. And we need to start doing it NOW! But at the same time we must ALSO find ways to use our own resources to provide our country and it's people with our OWN oil. Finding alternative sources is definitely a must, but unfortunately that kind of exploration takes time to develop and implement. And while we begin to concentrate on exploring and developing alternative sources for energy and fuel, we need to address the bleeding that is going on right now, at this moment. Allowing more drilling right off of our shores can help to stop the bleeding, or at the very least control it, until we are able to develop and use the alternative sources that we may eventually find useful.

Many thought and believed that the Ethanol alternative was going to solve all of our gas and fuel problems. All it wound up doing was drive the price of Corn through the roof.

Theoretically it was a great idea. However I believe, in fact I know first hand, that it was implemented way too quickly without careful and proper economical studies being made.

People in this country are hurting RIGHT NOW, at this moment. And while many of the alternative plans that this President has mentioned and presented may be great and will probably help this country in 5, 6 or 10 years, in the short term offshore drilling can provide a substantial amount of relief to the country while we are spending the 5, 6 and 10 years to explore, develop and implement the alternative methods.





Yes, that definitely would be a start. But in this economy, right now, where do we get the money from to build new infrastructure and improve public transportation?

Once again to make these things happen, and I agree that they NEED to happen, it is going to take a lot of time and money. So until our government can set this kind of plan in motion and hopefully implement it over the the next 5 to 10 years, until we can come up with the money to do these things, what do we do in the short term to stop the rising cost of fuel, oil and energy?

We start drilling offshore.

Drilling offshore for our OWN oil will allow us to breath a bit better, allow us to get away from depending on those foreign countries who are gauging us with their oil prices. Not to mention that the cost of drilling offshore for our own oil will be done at the expense of the private sector. It will produce an abundance of jobs which will in turn provide more income through payroll taxes for our government to put towards developing and creating better infrastructure, more efficient and reliable public transportation and the exploration of alternative fuel and energy!

$3.37 today. I bet it hits 4 bucks before May.

Nahh, SC and I both disagree with you!

Gas was up to $3.49 today.

We had another 10 inches of snow yesterday.

By the time I filled the plow truck, two five gallons gas cans for the snow blowers and then filled up my personal truck I was out $178.00

By the way, Syracuse was over 168 inches so far this year and by our home in Camillus we have over 185 inches if not more because of the bands of snow comming off the lake.

Funeral home heating bill was over $1400 last month. That is for one month. And then add another $175 in salt for the sidewalks and parking lot.

And we are just hitting March this week.

$3.21.

$3.52 - $3.57 in my area.




TIS

I'm predicting it will hit $4.00 here on April 1st.

No fooling.

Sorry, DC. Offshore drilling will lead to disaster.

The technologies I mentioned already exist - solar and hybrid technology. What about the new Nissan Leaf? Why haven't we made them so ridiculously financially attractive that more people aren't driving a Prius? Give people interest free loans subsidized by the government if they buy a hybrid or electric vehicle.

As for solar technology, we looked into it several years ago. It was prohibitively expensive, and we were limited by how many panels we could put on the roof. However, the technology has improved and the newer panels produce twice the kilowatts. At this point, though, the government has no more subsidy programs for the purchase and installation. Why not?

How about if these panels are produced in the US and the companies provide jobs locally, they receive incentives? If you buy them, you receive tax credits. You must help people because the technology is so new that it's too expensive for most people.

As for the infrastructure, FDR helped this country get back on its feet with the WPA. Why can't we do something similar?

so are half the people on TV-

Solar technology is a wonderful thing, and the research should definitely continue. It will also be years & years before it is considered a feasible source of energy. Meanwhile, life goes on and civilization cannot sit on hold while we figure out how to harness the power of the sun (which in itself is a bit dangerous) .

The oil available should be drilled and used. It is a driving source of the economy, the world over. Until we take advantage of the vast sources here in the U.S., we will continue to be dependent on the Middle East and Venezuela (thank you, Joe Kennedy) and destined to whine about gas prices every time there is unrest.

The oil found in the US or offshore will not necessarily end up in US refineries nor will those refineries necessarily sell it for distribution in the US.

US oil barrel imports(x 1,000):
CANADA 2,064
MEXICO 1,223
SAUDI ARABIA 1,076
NIGERIA 1,024
VENEZUELA 825
IRAQ 336
ANGOLA 307
BRAZIL 271
ALGERIA 262
COLOMBIA 220
ECUADOR 192
RUSSIA 158
KUWAIT 125
UNITED KINGDOM 124
ARGENTINA 85

Babe, the Nissan Leaf cars you mentioned are being made in my area where Nissan has a massive plant. They are predicting great things for these cars in the coming years. Jury is still out though i reckon....

Sorry, SB, all offshore drilling will not lead to disaster. Guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.



Why can't we? Why haven't we? Why don't we? I ask you the same questions!

You're preaching to the Choir.



Thank you Apple. If history has taught us anything, it's that we cannot keep sitting around letting this go on and on each decade saying " we're gonna explore this, and we're gonna create that, and we're gonna implement it in 15 years" while the rest of the oil world continues to manipulate us because we remain dependent on them for our oil. I was in the business for almost 23 years, been through many scenarios be it wars, shortages, disasters, embargos or whatever. And for all 23 of those years, every time price have shot up or the markets became unstable, all we ever heard was how we need to explore different alternatives to create fuel and energy......and here we are, many years later finding ourselves in the same situation regarding rising fuel and gas prices, and another administration along with the same environmentalist groups are STILL sitting here singing the same old tune about exploring and creating alternative methods.

You know how the story goes about the man who was drowning and kept crying out to GOD to save him, don't you?

We have had the same problems for how many administrations now and they never ever do anything but stand up and give pretty speeches and tell us that we need to do this and do that and then we would be independent from foreign oil.

But how can we when the family of four who used to have one or maybe two cars, now have four or even six cars among them. And of course a boat, two snowmobiles and every other gas driven device know to man. So how can we ever catch up on our oil consumption.

And the dreams of mass transit to move the masses is a dream outside of major cities like New York or Boston. Almost all bus companies are losing money and if it wasn't for the money government sank into them they couldn't survive alone. Let's face it, no one wants to ride a city bus no matter how cheap it is. Even if it is the only transportation for some. It will never be the major way to get around no matter how much gas prices go up in most places. We all love our cars to much.

The following are the goals set by President Carter to be met by 1985:

--Reduce the annual growth rate in our energy demand to less than two percent.

--Reduce gasoline consumption by ten percent below its current level.

--Cut in half the portion of United States oil which is imported, from a potential level of 16 million barrels to six million barrels a day.

--Establish a strategic petroleum reserve of one billion barrels, more than six months' supply.

--Increase our coal production by about two thirds to more than 1 billion tons a year.

--Insulate 90 percent of American homes and all new buildings.

--Use solar energy in more than two and one-half million houses.

Since then, oil consumption has increased by 20%.