Gas Prices Hit An All-Time High
Lundberg Survey: National Average Price For A Gallon Of Regular Is $3.18
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Gas Prices At All-Time High
According to a survey released by Triple-A, the average price for a gallon of gasoline has hit an all-time high, $3.18. Randall Pinkston reports.
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Eddie Engels of Chicago finishes pumping over $83 of gas into his SUV, Tuesday, May 15, 2007, near downtown Chicago as gas prices continue to soar. (AP)
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State-by-state averages, tips to improve mileage and a look at what fuels prices at the pump.
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Motor Away
Things to know before hitting the road.
These days, every trip to the gas station is an experience in sticker shock. A gallon of regular gas costs $3.24 in New York. It's $3.45 in Milwaukee, and $3.59 in Chicago.
This weekend alone, from Friday to Sunday, the average price of gas went up another 5 cents per gallon.
A gallon of mid-grade gasoline averaged $3.29, and premium cost $3.40, according to the latest Lundberg Survey of seven-thousand gas stations across the country.
The price hikes are giving oil companies another banner year. First quarter profits for Exxon-Mobil totaled nearly $9.3 billion. Royal Dutch Schell picked up more than $6.9 billion. The number was $4.7 billion for Chevron.
In a December interview with CBS News, Shell's president defended the industry's high profits.
"The profits are high because the crude price is high, and the cost of producing that crude has not materially changed," John Hofmeister said. "Future investments cost more money."
Oil executives downplay the amount of fuel that can be produced from home grown sources like ethanol.
"I think independence is naive," Hoffmeister told CBS News.
U.S. inventories are at record lows for the pre-summer season – a sure fire formula for higher prices in the future. But many consumers are hurting right now.
To cope with climbing prices, commuters like Denise von Wilke are looking for every possible way to save. She drives more slowly and car pools with a co-worker for her 47-mile trip to work.
Von Wilke also uses the Internet to find bargains. She says she can find the lowest gas prices in all of New Jersey from her desk.
Across the country, the lowest price for regular fuel was $2.87 in Charleston, South Carolina, and the highest was in Chicago at $3.59 a gallon, according to the Lundberg Survey.
Higher fuel costs are driving many Americans to mass transit. The American Transportation Association reports more than 10 billion trips on trains and buses last year – the highest use of public transportation in 49 years.
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See all 108 CommentsAnd as executives get the largest salaries because their decisions can make or break a company, surely they have some responsibility? "With property comes responsibility." - Fulton J Sheen (1895-1979).
Also, if the economy crashes, all this so-called wealth of theirs is going to mean nothing. Now there are many ways these same dudes can retain their power and status without making everyone else suffer with high prices; a spiral that's starting to go out of control: Light rail, hybrids, electric cars (the battery and motor technology has existed since the mid-1960s...). And we'll always need plastic. They will NOT be hurt to let our society move forward again.
What bothers me is how the gas prices could go down so much before election '06 and then get back up within a 6 month period of time. Quite a coincidence, but the Dems' inability (or lack of desire) to do anything about it speaks volumes too. Not that their majority is big or that anything attempted wouldn't be vetoed - after all, it's not often to have a president whose entire tenure consisted of 2 vetos - and only after the opposition party won control (by the slimmest of margins too.)
Think how much we could have saved!
A Republican oilman in the White House = sky high taxes, gas prices at record levels, endless war, huge deficits and gross mis-management at every level.
About the only thing these Republican idiots haven't given us is starvation, but it's probably next.
Brilliant! The Red States want more of the same!!!
I keep hearing people saying "Gas cost more back in the late 60's if you adjust for inflation". Well, I'm no wizard when it comes to that, but I used to fill up a 1965 Ford Galaxie with a big V8 for 6 dollars. It cost about 70 to fill up my Astro today. Adjust for inflation all you want, but it was a lot easier for me to come up with 6 dollars back in the late 60's than it is for me to dig 70 bucks out of my wallet today.
People are complaining about gas prices but not doing a lot to change their driving habits. They are driving 85 mph on the freeways b*tching about the price of gas. Slow the hell down!
LOL note he has an SUV, if he can afford that he shouldn't complain about the gas.
"Von Wilke also uses the Internet to find bargains. She says she can find the lowest gas prices in all of New Jersey from her desk. "
Yeah and then since about 3 companies now control all the raw refineries, she isn't likely to find differences more than 2-3 cents a gallon, so she drives 30 miles and burns a gallon of gas to save 75 cents on a fillup- SMART!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjfoXbyffso&mode=related&search=
Whatever it takes America, don't lose your freedom to drive. Us Brits will be back to driving horses and carts soon.
Mind you, they'll probably just tax the hay instead.
We are close to "peak oil" which means worldwide production will begin to decline. Unfortunately this is only the beginning of a very painful transition away from oil. Demand will continue to increase, supply won't keep up....hence prices will skyrocket.
here are some ideas for you:
buy a honda civic hybrid for about $23000, and you'll get an average of 50 mpg.
find a job closer to home, or move closer to work.
get a motorcycle license.
carpool.
use public transportation.
make one trip to the supermarket per week instead of 15 trips/wk.
tell your congressman to require automakers to build cars that get 50 mpg+, and use green fuels.
now stop crying about gas prices...you're better off than the Europeans.
Someone mentioned that they think this is Bush's connection to oil driving up the prices. Try a little research. Don't believe the hysteria. Oil companies are owned by lots of people. The gas refineries are owned by lots of people - stock holders who like profit. That could be you if you have a 401K/403B, etc....that has oil companies in their portfolios. That's Capitalism. The American way of life. We also like big cars, hate public transportation, and think car-pooling is for other people. Next time you want to look for a culprit for high gas prices, look in the mirror - not the TV.
In other words, take like a man, and smile while being ripped off by a monopoly that gets your tax dollars whether you buy gas or not.
Have you heard about Nigeria? That African country actually supplies us most of our gas, and yet the people are still starving. But I see that Shell and them will buy the people a t-shirt to show their support.
*** Cheney - 2003
And thank you, Bu$h supporters.
small steps that each of us can take to wrestle control back from the Republican neo-con elite that are destroying America %u2026
1) CANCEL YOUR CABLE TV: let the corporate media moguls know that you can no longer support the propaganda .. get your news from PBS .. you learn to live quite nicely without the other cable shows you thought you needed - the truth is more important than cable tv %u2026
2) STOP INVESTING YOUR MONEY ON WALL STREET: %u201Cbut it%u2019s doing so well%u201D %u2026 reason - corporate America is selling out the middle class to the lowest global bidder and using our own money to do it; let%u2019s face it, the financial markets will push for anything that increases profits - even war; especially war %u2026 which is why the stock market is at record highs while a) the middle east is in utter chaos; b) national, trade and personal debt/deficits are at all time, unsustainable highs; %u2026 best to invest your money in land, real estate or gold and silver%u2026
3) SUPPORT LOCAL ECONOMIES !
if possible, BURN WOOD for heat;
GROW YOUR OWN FOOD or support local growers;
implement alternative energy sources (solar, hybrid autos etc ..)
4) DECENTRALIZE ! - the global economy is nothing more than a ploy to centralize power, control and wealth into the hands of an elite few - blinded by misinformation, the American people are buying right into it - the rich get richer and the middle class is quickly becoming the working poor ...
I don't believe they're getting to the bottom of this. Read this article and see if you don't feel like I do at the end of it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18769529/
The gov. is tippy toeing around so as not to do anything that might suggest the oil co. are doing anything bad, even when the numbers don't add up. UBS is an investment firm. You can be assured that they're going to only report things that support the oil companies, not the public.
Not according to AAA!! They said they took a poll and Americans were driving more than ever, in record numbes. Who can we believe?
Go figure.
ST
"Our representatives had become politicians, precluding all hope of justice."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
Don't drive less, drive something else. A car that uses electricity, alcohol, vegetable oil, etc.
It's the only effective thing you can do. Let the oil companies charge whatever they want, just stop buying their product.
That is all. Carry on.
I worked in the same building in the 80's with Bush's oil company (now defunct). What most of his supporters have forgotten..W was an oil man. Not a good or successful oil man, but one just the same. What do you think the war in Iraq (the THIRD LARGEST oil producer in the world!)is really about? Not WMD's, not freedom for Americans, not revenge for 911 (no Iraqi's involved).......oil, just oil.
Fuel prices are the thin end of the wedge. If you let the liberals restrict your right to drive, they will soon restrict everything else.
If you don't believe me, look at the socialist UK.
That statement alone shows your not a Brit. The liberals restrict your right to drive? What the heck are you talking about? If you can't afford the gas, you can't drive, liberal, conservative, or nada!!
How to correct immediately...
1. take off the anti-competitive shackles. Let the warehouse and other stores lower their prices by using their other products to subsidize the lower cost. Once Big Oil stations start to lose business and close, they will be forced to lower their prices to the stations. All it will affect is Big Oil profits.
2. eliminate the zone pricing the oil companies use to artificially inflate the prices of gas and thus their profits
3. eliminate ALL subsidies and tax breaks IMMEDIATELY
4. ensure all future oil leases are pegged on a sliding scales according to the price of oil. As prices go up the money in the US treasury goes up also.
The politicians are all bought off. First is get rid of the Republicans and once they are gone - get rid of the Democrats and strat all over!
I'm a Brit, I live in Salford UK. Look it up.
A working class city, where working hard has got us nowhere.
Why did the earth warm up the other times? Because woolly mammoths wouldn't give up driving, because they insisted on budget flights?
Wake up folks, and smell the con.
We didn't, and now it's too late.
Get ready for the big bend over around August.
A working class city, where working hard has got us nowhere."
Uh huh, lovely. Do you ever get down as far as Chichester? Are do your liberals forbid it?
Chichester, too posh for us factory types. But a very nice place, if you like grass and cows.
:)))))
You looked up Salford yet? I can always invite you for tea and crumpets, and a look around.
I've got to go now, I work shifts, and it's time for bed.
However, nice to converse with you. Good luck, and don't let those liberals wear you down.
Remember, my offer of tea and a look around Salford still stands.
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