Gas Hovers Under $3.50, Will Go Higher

I was sipping my coffee this morning and watching the news about the earthquake I slept through and I was mildly shocked to hear during a financial update that the national average price for a gallon of gas has hit $3.45, according to AAA.

The real surprise, though, was the notion that it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion we’ll pass $3.50 very soon. I hadn’t thought we’d be there this soon, and unlike surges in gas prices since Katrina, the rise in prices has not seen any real decline since the beginning of the year.

The psychological $4 gallon mark is fast approaching. I expect to see sales of the Ford Focus continue to rise.

Comments

This is one of the best things to happen to our country in a long time.

However, the consequences elsewhere in the world are very depressing. Food riots, etc. will only continue to increase.

At what point do we reach a tipping point?

How is this a good thing to happen to our country? The cost of everything is going up to make up for the cost of shipping everything from food to clothing and the average family trying to pay for these higher gas prices - I even read an article recently that a school district was having to cut certain school funds to pay for gas in school buses. So how exactly is this good for our country?

I don't think LM thinks that the hardships caused by rising gas prices is a good thing, but time and time again, Americans have shown that they are not willing to cut down on their energy usage until the prices go so high up that they're forced to conserve... rising energy prices are the only way to really have people conserve and reduce their usage of energy. Hopefully we can learn to ditch unnecessary gas guzzling vehicles that most of us use for only looks or comfort... but my heart does go out to those with large families, and with people with jobs and small business owners that require large vehicles.

It's good because our country has developed poorly, and people have become wasteful. Now people will make smarter decisions about their impact on the world. The market is the only way this can be achieved, and obscenely low gas prices have for too long allowed for over consumption.

It's unfortunate that other parts of the world will also suffer, but Americans have lived too fat for too long. Long term, this is a good thing. We haven't been asked to think outside of our little bubbles and its long overdue.

I know I will be lambasted for this, but it is a good thing. We will search for sustainable solutions only when the existing way of living becomes too expensive.

thats right!
Someone said long time ago, "car will destroy America". It did. De-urbanization, which is product of car development, is the reason why America is facing "hardships".
School buses? I grew up in Europe, where I went to school on the city/town bus. Think this way. De-urbanization created a school bus and more pollution and spendings.
Some people here actually think having school bus running is a norm! It is actually part of all this de-urbanization process.
If America would live more compactly, the cost of such living for all would be 50% less. Less for heating, less for roads, less for food, less for transportation, less for everything. and also it would be safer to the environment.
Prices of gas should be around $6-7 p.g. now. Technology can do only so much. America needs to start thinking about global public transportation program. And may be some laws that will require every house to have an operating thermal heating/cooling system, which will supplement any existing system. We terribly need to do something. We can inprove MPGs and all other things but those houses in suburbs will still be there and they need energy. Besides, all those lawn mowers pollute 20 times more per hour of operation then any car.

LM, where are people not like that? Even the arrogant euro's would be driving bigger, faster and cooler vehicles if they could.

It's a question of the "haves" and "have nots". If you can afford the gas prices (because you live where there are alternative choices to transportation or you just have the financial resources)you'll obviously say this is good. If your paycheck is stretched as far as it can go and you have a 40 mile commute, one way, to work then you'll say it is not good. Our economy is falling apart and $6-7 a gallon would cause a major depression in this country.

The market creating the "depression" you write of is a correction long overdue. Our government has subsidized our oversized lifestyle for too long. You dont believe me? Mortgage interest deductions and the GI bill after WWII, then the Interstate system, did nothing but encourage our mass-suburbanization. Without those three programs, we'd have much more compact, livable, sustainable cities. There's a reason NY'ers use less energy per capita.

At the same time, Europe was re-building and imposed large taxes on fuel. They use this money to fund social programs (healthcare for everyone) and a robust public transit system that people can rely on instead of driving.

Now, you can say Europeans are arrogant, but if you ask me thinking that $1.50/gas is our birthright is pretty damned arrogant as well.

Ziggy,
forget about yourself. do, not what is good for you but what is good for your country. May be your grand children will appreciate.

don't drive 40 miles! Move closer or find job that closer, or take the train. You pollute and one reason why your paycheck is stratched because your transportation is too expensive for you.
I am not very smart. But I purchaced almost new Suzuki Burgman for $4000. (Of course, if you live in Portland OR it might be not as useful.) I calculated that going to work and to other activities using this vehicle I save good money because my car averages 27mpg and Burgman is 60 mpg. The life of my car will be prolonged because I drive it less and need for the new car will not come too soon. Therefore I can put money into pension plan or CD which will generate money.
Think about

Wow - who'd a thunk you americans go get so namby pamby liberal on us! I'm impressed! And of course, you are all right. Suburbanisation and the effects it's had on the way people live here means that these inevitable price increases on fuel will hit harder here than almost anywhere else.

The europeans have been rather more stoic with high fuel prices simply because there it has been easier to live with it. European cities never expanded in the same ways. there is less sprawl and most towns have always had relatively good public transport infrastructure. The existance of decent rail lines should not be underestimated.

The problem here is in most places the infrastructure does not exist for people to get out of there cars, and the government does not posess the political will to invest in it. Here in chicago they seem to have a hard enough job just keep the potholes filled let alone building proper rail systems etc!

The overt free market capitalism in this country works to an extent, and if there is public will then infrastructure will happen, but it'll happen slowly. What this country needs (but will never get because the public are too scared of socialism) is a government who will take an almost pre-emptive decision to build infrastructure NOW. Even now is too late of course.

But as it wont happen, all any of us can do is buy smaller cars and stop having 4 or 5 kids. Persoanlly I don't feel sorry for people with big families at all. This isnt an era where you could lose two or three of them.

A family of 4 can EASILY get by in a Focus or Cobalt. Having grown up in the UK, the biggest car we ever had was a Mazda 626, and that was when me and my two brothers were teens. We all fit in there fine! You dont need 3 rows etc. Sure, it's NICER, but you don't need it.

I guess my other point, and this is where i sympathise with people who live here for it - its WAY harder to lose something than to have never had it before. For those people who live in their McMansions in the burbs and cruise to the store in their GMC Acadia, going to a semi-detached house and driving to the store in your Civic may seem like hell. However, for the future generations whose first cars will be VW Polos and Ford Fiestas, if they never get anything bigger than a Saturn Aura then it probably won't bother them too much.

I'm rambling...

Actually, the overt free market we live in does not exist. Government has for too long subsidized suburbanization (interstates, home mortgages and that GI Bill which started it all).

America's towns had great public transit infrastructure up until the 1930s. Then we let it go to pot. After WWII, when Europe re-built their infrastructure, we tore it up. The rails were torn out of the streets and dilapidated streetcars were junked. For instance, before BART in the Bay Area streetcar lines were on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge and small towns had public transit lines.

The lack of political will destroyed our chance at having world-class transit in our middle and smaller cities.

If the rising gas price will affect how these arrogant and ignorant people drive, I wouldn't have been flicked off at least 3 times, being cut off just right in front of me for 15 times, and being honked at 5 times this morning.

BTW, please don't tell that joke anymore. The 1999 Ford Focus still on the road wearing a different skin.

There are always those that forget about the working poor that barely survive from month to month. There are some 50 million americans in this situation. They don't live in the burbs and drive large SUVs. Those folks make enough money and can afford increases in gas costs. Many US cities do not have the infrastructure and you just can't get from one side of town to the other without your car. Tony's response is typical of those not affected by this (usually east coasters)- "move closer, get another job or take the train". Buying/selling homes and uprooting a family is not easy and can be costly, sometimes you have to work where the jobs are and "take the train". I don't think trains exist west of Chicago let alone any form of mass transit.

Ziggy,
when did you contact your governor/ representative last time?
I think, those are the folks people need to talk to and tell them what you need.

No Name

FYI I am not a part of this group but have a great concern for them. Between my wife and myself we bring in over 100k a year. I just get tired of those that say how good it will be to see $7 a gallon gas when they don't realize how this impacts people and our economy. Contacting our government officials will not create a transportation infrastructure that costs billions of dollars and it won't lower gas prices!