Gas Prices Low! FOR NOW...

[hybridy]

Was it just me or did I see gas for $1.88?

It was $1.89 at a station across the street so I was not seeing double.

This was on Woodward near Clairmont... Any other sitings of this?

This one aged like milk!

[Jimaz]

Here's an aerial view of oil tankers stacked up outside of Long Beach, California. It's an independent video of what we're hearing in the news.

Thanks to a massive reduction in oil usage, oil tankers have started piling up off the coast of California near the port of Los Angeles. To see how the oil tankers look from the air, I flew my helicopter beyond the harbor on Sunday April 26th 2020. This is an update to the videos I’ve posted flying over Los Angeles.

[MikeM]

Here's an aerial view of oil tankers stacked up outside of Long Beach, California. It's an independent video of what we're hearing in the news.

Prices by me went up a dime over the weekend.

Looks like about two dozen tankers, although some might be carrying fuel/chemicals and not oil.

[royce]

Surprised to see this thread so high up when no one has posted on it since May 2020. Since I did want to comment about gas prices rising, I guess this is as good a spot as any. Basically, the media is saying that gas prices have shot up 60%. Since May 2020, it definitely has and then some. However, over the past six months have they really increased that much? Over the summer I remember paying as low as $2.99. Then it went up to $3.09 and in some places $3.19. Yesterday I paid $3.05. The increases to me have been normal. How do the rest of you see it?

[Danny]

Time to buy a EV car.

[Jimaz]

...Basically, the media is saying that gas prices have shot up 60%. Since May 2020, it definitely has and then some. However, over the past six months have they really increased that much?...

According to this graph at DetroitGasPrices.com, I calculate that Detroit rose about 13%, Michigan rose about 16% and the U.S. rose about 12%.

Could it be that you heard 16% as 60%? Easy mistake to make since they sound similar.

Note the periodicity in the Michigan data. I sometimes use that to time fillups {although it makes little practical difference in savings}.

[CassTechGrad]

I just moved to Cave Creek Arizona a few months ago, filled up yesterday, best price I could find on GassBuddy anywhere near was $3.75 and it was $50 for the full tank. "Ouch"

[MikeM]

According to this graph at DetroitGasPrices.com, I calculate that Detroit rose about 13%, Michigan rose about 16% and the U.S. rose about 12%.

Could it be that you heard 16% as 60%? Easy mistake to make since they sound similar.

Note the periodicity in the Michigan data. I sometimes use that to time fillups {although it makes little practical difference in savings}.

Could it be that he heard gas - as in natural gas - prices are up 60%? That makes more sense.

Add oil prices to your chart, and recent gasoline price increases look mild.

[Richard]

Could it be that he heard gas - as in natural gas - prices are up 60%? That makes more sense.

Add oil prices to your chart, and recent gasoline price increases look mild.

Agreed at the pump is a small window into totally energy costs.

I various vehicles using different fuels where $40 gets me less then 10 gallons,then factor in DEF that goes down.

Overall energy costs including gasoline,Diesel,propane,electricity have added over $200 per month in the last 6.

The other hidden factor is everything we consume is delivered now with a higher fuel cost.

On top of that I still have an additional $6.85 fuel charge on my electricity bill that was never removed when the last time pump gas hit $5 per gallon.

I pay over $6 for a quart of oil,in comparison in 1992 when I had quick lube centers,I used to buy name brand bulk oil for .69 a quart and deliver a full service oil change for at times at $17.95 and still make a profit.

Now I am spending $80 to change it myself.

[oladub]

Surprised to see this thread so high up when no one has posted on it since May 2020. Since I did want to comment about gas prices rising, I guess this is as good a spot as any. Basically, the media is saying that gas prices have shot up 60%. Since May 2020, it definitely has and then some. However, over the past six months have they really increased that much? Over the summer I remember paying as low as $2.99. Then it went up to $3.09 and in some places $3.19. Yesterday I paid $3.05. The increases to me have been normal. How do the rest of you see it?

The number I've most recently seen is 59% in the last year. Although my proclivity is to blame it mostly on policies that shut down oil fields and pipelines, one through Michigan, causing a reduction in supply, there was also an increase in demand after the streets emptied because of Covid a year and a half ago. There are also reports in trade journals that Biden is selling off some of our strategic petroleum reserve to Asian nations whatever long term good that might do.

I heard a different view from a stock broker last week. His view was that oil had long been underpriced and was now catching up. He said that the oil companies had been rewarding their CEO's for how much oil was pumped instead of profits. That led them to pump like crazy resulting in low profits per barrel no matter how much they overproduced. Oil companies are gradually shifting to paying CEOs on the basis of profit rather than how much oil they extract. Some these oil companies had run up a lot of debt between Covide diminishing the market and low oil prices and must address their debt.

Biden's pick for a currency job at the Treasury Department, Comrade Omarova, has stated,“Troubled industries and firms that are transitioning. Here what I’m thinking about is primarily coal industry, and oil and gas industry. A lot of the smaller players in that industry are probably going to go bankrupt in short order. At least, we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change, right?”

[Richard]

Low grade was cheaper during Covid but I was still paying $3.75 a gallon for premium.

We did go from being energy self sufficient without depending on imported oil about as fast as it takes to move 5 spaces in order to use your get out of jail card.

And we are exporting more then we did by far,the national reserve was established so we did not have to relive the gas lines of the 70s,sense fuel costs are directly related to everything one consumes and hits the pocketbooks of everybody,it is questionable as to why we are removing everything that gives people a direct hedge against higher costs elsewhere.

If I spend $300 in fuel for a day on the boat,it does not bother me because I can pass that on as a business,it is the lower middle class and the low income that are bearing the cross of all of this and paying the price.

For alot of people,$50-$60 a month extra in energy costs is a really major deal.

There is no gently slide that rug out from under people,it’s grab that sucker and yank on it.

There is a bit of irony in playing the nice guy,look you now get $15 per hour,6% increase in Medicaid and 15% on SSI or what ever it all is,while behind your back everything else gets jacked up 50%.

[Mind field]

I just moved to Cave Creek Arizona a few months ago, filled up yesterday, best price I could find on GassBuddy anywhere near was $3.75 and it was $50 for the full tank. "Ouch"

Have you people complaining about gas prices heard of electric vehicles?? There are literally dozens of models at all prices points, with an increasingly robust used market.

[Richard]

Have you people complaining about gas prices heard of electric vehicles?? There are literally dozens of models at all prices points, with an increasingly robust used market.

Because most of were raised not to depend on other taxpayers to pay our way.

If I am truly and honestly looking to save the planet,I am going to be committed to be doing it at my expense and not holing my hat out while asking others to make the sacrifices that I personally committed to.

Until then I am going to drive my car that I worked to pay for and put gasoline in said vehicle that I also worked to pay for while driving it on the roads that I also worked to pay for so it can be taxed to fix those roads.

When they feel ready to anyways.

Soon EV owners will be complaining about the high cost of electricity that is needed to charge their vehicles.,or the extra road tax that will be required as less and less fossil fuel car motor about.

Do not fret,the free ride will be over,just as soon as the honeymoon is over.

This is just the carrot they are dangling in front of you,after they sucker you in,you will have no options but to pay whatever they demand.

I guess if push comes to shove,some boots were made for walking.

A country that has been around for over 200 years and has spent all of that time building different products in order to provide options to the consumer,is now saying this is your only option.

Because we said so.

It’s the economy and basic math,you cannot erase something that has been built up for ove 100 years that employs millions and simply wish it away over 10,without a plan other then saying look it works.

There is no need to build millions of EVs,by the time you get them to market,you have taxed the buyers so much to get you there,they will not be able to afford them.

I would not worry about the current pandering and fall into that trap,it’s all based on free money,when that pot dries up,so does the dream.

Anybody actually believes that the world can even produce enough automobiles by the claim of 2030 in order to meet that 40% goal?

That’s in 8 years.

As we are seeing right now,you may be able to build them,but all it takes is one piece of that puzzle,in this case,less then the size of a dime,to make that entire automobile a boat anchor.

So why play the gas game now?

Less then 2% freeloading EVs are puttering about in this country now,you cannot suck enough money out of the taxpayers in this country fast enough to meet that goal.

In case people have not noticed,all of those saying that we need to switch to EVs and EVs only,are billion and now trillion dollar companies,that build EVs .

I guess if I was looking to build EVs I would also be saying,if you do not switch to EVs now,everybody will be dead in 10 years.

There seems to be a pattern in all of this,if you do not do this you will die.

How do they know everybody will die ? It’s not your leg will fall off or you will start losing your hair when you get older,you are just going to flat out die.

So why spend trillions of dollars when in 7 years everybody is just going to keel over and die,who is going to be left to even drive the cars?

My guess is the ones that will survive are the ones who told you do this or die in the first place,because it always boils down to trillions of dollars,and they will be insulated by all of that cash they sucked out of your pocket before you died.

[softailrider]

Have you people complaining about gas prices heard of electric vehicles?? There are literally dozens of models at all prices points, with an increasingly robust used market.

At this juncture EV's are great for back and forth to work vehicles, or around the town grocery getters. If you want to take a long weekend road trip, or a longer then that road trip, it might be way easier with a gas vehicle.

[Ray1936]

I shudder at the thought of taking my annual drive from southern Nevada back to Detroit in an EV.

[Richard]

^ you could always volunteer to be the first to fly non stop in a EV airplane.

[Richard]

At this juncture EV's are great for back and forth to work vehicles, or around the town grocery getters. If you want to take a long weekend road trip, or a longer then that road trip, it might be way easier with a gas vehicle.

One can do that right now with a $7000 Chinese model or even a 1919 model,which would draw more attention then a Tesla at 1/2 the cost.

The first electric car was actually built before ICE was even developed,1830 and here we are how many years later and it is Yay we can drive 100 miles further then they could in 1830.

Down side is they are saying if you use the A/C or heat it reduces the battery length by 40%,so not even really practical if you live in hot or cold climates.

Unlike a EV,our ICE vehicles actually care about us because they like to keep us comfortable while not freezing to death while sitting on the side of the road while waiting for a portable 8 hour charge so we can be in our way.

[Wheels]

One can do that right now with a $7000 Chinese model or even a 1919 model,which would draw more attention then a Tesla at 1/2 the cost.

The first electric car was actually built before ICE was even developed,1830 and here we are how many years later and it is Yay we can drive 100 miles further then they could in 1830.

Down side is they are saying if you use the A/C or heat it reduces the battery length by 40%,so not even really practical if you live in hot or cold climates.

Unlike a EV,our ICE vehicles actually care about us because they like to keep us comfortable while not freezing to death while sitting on the side of the road while waiting for a portable 8 hour charge so we can be in our way.

If the weather is cold enough you can loose 40% before you even turn on the heater. Batteries don’t do well in cold climates. Never have and never will.

https://blog.evsolutions.com/how-to-...ather-and-snow

[oladub]

My 2020 Bolt is rated as having 259 miles of charge. Like you say, EV batteries hold more charge in warm summer weather just as lead acid batteries do in gas engines. Anyone who has ever had a difficult start or a dead battery in cold weather with their lead acid battery knows the latter. My Bolt's range in Wisconsin when fully charged last winter was as low as 219 miles and as high as 292 miles last summer.

I'm at deer camp at the moment. I drove my Colorado here instead of the Bolt just in case we had to haul around some deer to the Richland Center locker. One of the other guys used to come in his Ford Explorer but came with his hybrid Ford Fusion to save hundreds of dollars of fuel RT from Kansas City. If an EV doesn't work for someone, a hybrid seems a good choice.

[Richard]

I do not have an issue with EVs ,the issue is with the way it is being implemented,you just cannot throw 15 million Americans out of work while taking on trillions in debt in order to systematically do that.

You are also removing 23% of the GDP in the process,that is a massive reduction.

The story of Detroit and the auto sector will be the story across the country.

It’s a flat out lie to tell people in the fossil fuel sector that they can go build solar panels or EVs,what about the people that are already working in those sectors that are going to be losing their jobs.

Uhaul does not offer moving service to China.

In order to compete with technology,technology will be used to eliminate one of the biggest flexible costs- labor.

So now you have to figure out how those 15 million are going to live,and come up with trillions more in order to support them.

They could have easily transitioned into EVs through the use of hybrids,but in a few years hybrids will be obsolete,because they went straight into EVs and nothing else,hybrids are also on the hit list,because they still consume fossil fuels.

Nobody is going to continue wasting RD on them because they are not the ultimate goal,and no incentives will be offered for them.

Two things just happens

Tesla’s computer thingy went down - Tesla’s across the country became immobile,a fancy brick sitting in the driveway.

Russia just took out a satellite with a missile.

Satellites control EVs and the future grid,when we focus on one straight line train of thought,we are not in control of our country anymore because we did not provide options.

It is also a matter of National security,our military runs on fossil fuel,even now when we see the price of fuel at the pump rise,that translates into billions in increased costs to power our military that protects the country.

If the United States and Germany are balls to the wall anti fossil fuel and have set goals of alternative energy.

Why did the United States now reverse the Nordstrom multi billion dollar Russian pipeline that is designed to move millions of gallons of fossil fuels?

The exact same country that spends its waking moments looking for ways to destroy us and we give them a 10 billion dollar Christmas present?

Shut the oil production down in the United States and throw hundreds of thousands out of work while turning right around and allowing another county,who is your enemy,to put up a pipeline that directly competes with our GDP.

If all this was actually about saving the planet,there could very well be an argument for it,but as it stands now,it is a worldwide massive cash grab for the minority paid for by the majority by weaponizing emotions.

The government funded Silicon Valley in order to win the space race,they are not funding EVs in order to save the planet,they are using EVs and the technology as a vessel to the ultimate goal which is AI.

AI gives us the advantage in conflict,it allows a cluster bomb to be dropped over a city and each little bullet seeks out and destroys individual targets,you can drop one explosive device over a city and it will hover until it picks out that one person out of millions to target that person only.

They are also using it for aircraft and ships,driverless,no longer need pilots or ship captains or ship crews.

EVs are just the real life testing platforms.

It has little to do with what it is claimed,everything after that is cause and effect.

How many auto related engineers in the state of Michigan and what is their economic impact?

Guess what,with AI they are no longer necessary,with AI you could literally run a automotive manufacturing company with less then 10 employees.

Germany already proved you can do that,the reason they did not,because it would put to many out of work and they figured the impact was not worth the advance.

Anybody actually believe the same stance would be taken in this country?

Unlike Germany ,Consumers in this country have already proven they do not care who makes a product,or where it comes from,as long as they can have it now and cheap,that is all that matters.

Imagine the profits when you can build products with no labor or legacy costs,if you were a manufacturing company would you support that future road to go down?

A corporations sole reason for existing is to provide a return to its shareholders,that is basic business 101,so who actually benefits the most ?

Last time gasoline went to $4 per gallon in this country,public transit ridership increased over 40%,knowing full well that is where this is all headed are we investing in public transportation now,no.

If this was a play on Broadway,we have completely skipped setting the stage and went directly to the performance and are basing on we will figure it out as we go along.

The problem kicks in when they realize there are 350 million in this country alone that will be suffering the consequences,at least with a play you can choose not to buy a ticket,as it stands right now,we are just along for the ride but will be the ones that pay the price when that ride hits the wall.

[royce]

I paid $2.93 at a Mobil on Michigan Avenue and Howe this past weekend. There's a BP on Michigan and Mason that always has sales on gas. I haven't been able to get in there because it's always so crowded and tight to maneuver. It was selling gas at $2.83 last weekend.

[Zacha341]

Sure there are EV's about but they're far from wide use. Hybrid yes-full EV no.

Especially for those purchasing used cars under 10K [increasingly in this economy]. I considered purchasing a used Honda Prius, till I researched that a replacement 'generator' [they don't use alternators] is over $500 [including cost and labor of the engine removed - not the one hour two-bolts-and-a-belt of a standard alternator swap out].

Additionally, replacing the battery [well over 1K even refurbished]. Far more than a fast visit to Autozone for a $100 battery I can put in myself! I'm prepared for the usual repairs on a used car - but not the exclusively high price/ labor of a USED EV. Nope. We chose an ICE car.

Outside of the smaller-economy sized jobs, full-sized sedan EV's remain out of reach of many drivers and will remain so for a while. The ability to fuel them not on every corner either. The handy, convenient 'incentives' [government subsidies for exclusive unit buyers] remain reserved for the higher end expensive models [purchased by those with matching high incomes who purchase them - funny how that is]. Not so much for the purchase of say a more basic Nissan Leaf EV.

Interestingly, I saw a Tesla at a gas station [WSU area], quarter panel badly crushed - rear right wheel bent, splay-out angled 25+degrees. Driven to the station for some stuff inside I guess!

Looked like someone didn't have full collision insurance coverage [otherwise who drives car that badly damaged after an apparent wreck?]. Probably a total right off. But salvageable for that precious battery!?

Have you people complaining about gas prices heard of electric vehicles?? There are literally dozens of models at all prices points, with an increasingly robust used market.

[Wheels]

Have you people complaining about gas prices heard of electric vehicles?? There are literally dozens of models at all prices points, with an increasingly robust used market.

There will never be a robust market for used ev’s. The platforms and running gear in an ev are cheaply made and wear out quickly. The initial cost is driven by the batteries. Used ev’s are a sucker market.

[Zacha341]

^^^ Yep. Indeed! What trips-me-out with the Tesla EV is that they put all of the detailing and effort into that battery power train - the rest kind tin-ny. The hood seams don't even line up. Nice logo! But ridiculously low level of engineering at the basic exterior body assembly gap-toleration level - duh! Look at the trunk line and hood gap inconsistency! I don't even want to know what other corners where cut under the hood. And this ain't no cheap car.

I've taken a careful look at Tesla's online - reviewed a few [models over the last two years]. And I've spotted a few parked. I recently saw a pretty one - with that lovely full-glass top. Nice but I'd imagine that broken fast on our freeways per rocks flying off gravel haulers. I'd not pay that for such fit and finish when I know and have excellence on my older standard sedans.

[Jimaz]

Biden administration to release 50 million barrels of oil from strategic reserve

The Department of Energy will release 50 million barrels of oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the White House announced Tuesday, as the Biden administration seeks ways to control rising costs at the pump.

Of the 50 million barrels, 32 million will eventually be returned to the strategic reserve over the years ahead once fuel prices come down in a bid to ensure the reserve remains stocked, officials said.

Another 18 million barrels will be released as an acceleration of an oil sale Congress had already authorized.

Tuesday's announcement was made in concert with China, India, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom, which will also tap into their own strategic reserves....