Better get used to gas at $3 a gallon

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100403/NEWS01/704039911/0/rss04

>snip<
Gasoline prices are up in Washington state, reaching an average of $3.01 for regular as of Friday afternoon. The comparable Seattle-metro area average was slightly lower — a fraction of a cent above $3.

Averages slowly edged up above the $3 mark as the Easter weekend approached, movement that’s fairly typical for holiday weekends and springtime.

The national average was down two cents to $2.80 on Friday.

For now, prices appear to be holding just above $3 in Washington state.

But chances are, the cost will go a little higher before it goes lower.

More at link...

$2.80/gal would be beautiful!

I thought we were supposed to get used to $5 a gallon? Then $4 a gallon, now you're telling me it's $3 a gallon?

And $5 a gallon won't be the end of it.

It's that simple.

IOW, we never do any unnecessary driving at all. Gas prices going up means we eat less as we have been down to enough to eat, keep our vehicle on the road (insurance, gas, registrations, repairs) in order to work, and cell phone in order for customers to find us. We sleep on a friend's couch (God bless him, we'd be on the sidewalk without him). Higher gas prices means less to eat. It's that simple.

Higher gas prices are not necessarily a bad thing.

They may remind people of their use of fossil fuels and of the own carbon footprints.

Maybe higher gas prices will cause some people to re-think how and when they drive their own cars. It may cause some people to consider car-pooling or even public transportation.

And it may cause local governments to put more money into affordable, clean, and safe public transportation.

There are all sorts of good things associated with higher gas prices.

Something will have to be done to get workers to work. With today's wages for many workers $3 a gallon will not work.

My husband and I never start the vehicle unless it is to get to a job site. Errands wait until a day we have work and we do them on the way home. Rising gas prices will help strangle the tiny signs of recovery in the economy. With every tiny uptick the speculators enter the market again and make sure they get the bulk of the growth. This means less chance of the recovery growing much. The other side of this is less driving means less people going out doing any spending that might help spur some growth. Money you used to take the family to a movie last month now goes in your gas tank and does nothing to help the economy.

I'm all for people driving less but the real effect here is less money for people to spend to help businesses get back on their feet and that means unemployment stays where it is. Yeah, high gas prices sound great to some people but the laws of unintended consequences bear some scrutiny.

As they say; we can't win, we can't break even, and we can't get out of the game.

:hi:

. . . the more a gallon of gas will cost. That's my prediction.

And that drives fuel efficiency.

They should be charged with murder. Killing off our planet.

and yes, it has been that way for MONTHS too...

2.75 down in the Carson Valley...so you drive over the ountain to fill your tank when you csn

I am just so done with being gouged on all fronts...food, gas, etc...


maybe it is time to fond my place off the grid and just let the rest of the world go to hell in the handbasket

the mostly republican gang on wall street is trying to keep the price up so they can slow any recovery to the economy. My son about five or six weeks ago said this would happen. That the bidders on wall street would drive the price out of sight to get the economy stalled. AND THEY ARE DOING IT.

I really truly think in more ways than one, wall street is the on of the main problems confronting this country today.

Then they can get out, and do it again in 2012. What a racket.

That and good old fashioned greed! I heard a month or more back that the WH wanted to make anyone buying oil take possession of the oil instead of just making the trades on paper in order to try and prevent wall street from jacking prices up, but I have heard nothing more about that. If he WH and congress want to put a stop to this kind of manipulation they should crack down hard and do it now. If they don't then as you said it will affect the recovery, which the right wants in order to make the presidents progress look bad as far as the economy goes. If congress had any brains at all they would be working on this since it would work out well for them in November if they could stop the manipulation of oil prices by wall street!

:wtf:

that it came down from its high of $4 and hasn't gone back up there yet.

It has been $3.16 a gallon for gas and $3.28 for diesel in north central Washington for almost a month now! I live north of Wenatchee where it's always about 15 to 20 cents higher than Wenatchee, but I heard it was at or slightly over $3 in Wencatchee. I am going there tomorrow so I will see what it is when I top of the van.

If congress took this on, they could put a stop to the manipulation of oil prices by wall street investors who are just trying to make a killing, once again, off the people of this country who are trying to make ends meet on a day by day basis. The greedy bastards on wall street don't really care, and as was mentioned in another post, the right wants to stop the recovery, and higher gas prices "will" hurt the economy!

the final push over the cliff back in 2007. People were burning through their credit cards and savings just to fill up the tank and keep going to work.

Everyone who was *just* able to make ends meet was pushed over the edge when gas skyrocketed. When your choice is between gas to get to work today or making the mortgage payment late, people put off the mortgage. BAM, there went the housing bubble...and everything went to hell from there.

I'm not going to bitch about paying a third or a fourth of what they do.

I'm tempted to bump both of those figures by another .50, but am hoping that they will still be concerned enough with the upcoming elections to show some constraint.

while I don't think that's impossible, I don't think it will happen by years end, barring any unforeseen circumstance.

I'm not saying it won't happen but I don't believe this year.

I believe the national average will top out at about $3.30. which is about 100+ per barrel.

Rather than in '08, it will be a very slow creep this time.

As the economy "improves" and more and more people go back to work (hopefully), the demand will increase and the price will go up.

Note: there were roughly 162,000 jobs added last month and the price of oil and at the pump both increased. I'm not saying this is a trend, but it certainly is a possible peek into the future.

Due to increased consumption. Hopefully in the fall things will go back to normal.

Several different times. Then the price will go back down and then they will gouge the hell out of us once again, rinse and repeat.