Gasoline may hit $2.50 by Memorial Day, $3.00 in California

[Moooooo]

 Gas to hit $2.50 by Memorial Day, experts say

The U.S. average is already running above $2.15 a gallon, well beyond last spring's peak. California prices could zoom close to $3.

Regular gasoline pump prices in the United States may average as high as $2.50 by Memorial Day, shattering the records as futures prices climb to new peaks, analysts said on Friday.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P113906.asp

[Moooooo]

I dont know about you guys, but gas is absoultley burning a whole in my pocket. 

I have a 1997 Cavalier z24.  I filled up 2 days ago.  $30.00

[A18]

Get a hybird.

[Moooooo]

Get a hybird.

You paying? 

[Dave from Michigan]

it's 2.15-2.35 depending where you go here.  I filled up on saturday for 25 dollars at  $2.19.  at least I only live 3/4 a mile from work.

[danwxman]

$2.09 here....although off the highway and in the city it's as much as $2.19.

[opebo]

Looks like there is a pretty good chance of some economic troubles by 2006! 

I mean the newsflash kind, not just the continuing ones.
We may yet see Peak Oil, the housing bubble collapse, the final collapse of the dollar, and double digit interest rates.

Thank goodness I drive a motorcycle.  I wish I didn't have to return to the land of the Buick.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

It's already close to $2.50 here.
Some gas stations might be charging more than that already.

[A18]

I mean the newsflash kind, not just the continuing ones.
We may yet see Peak Oil, the houseing bubble collapse, the final collapse of the dollar, and double digit interests rates

Do you even know what currency devaluation means?

[Richard]

Clearly, the war was all about oil.  Just look at the low oil prices.

[Lunar]

Clearly, the war was all about oil.  Just look at the low oil prices.

Obviously low oil prices wouldn't have been the result even if the war was completely for oil.  Breaking up OPEC would have been a much more significant goal than simply increasing supply.  Anyway, it's pretty hard to deny that oil was a least a factor in motivation (you can't separate Iraq and oil), and we DID get it, so obviously there's some other agents at work.

Anyway, I always find it amusing that there seems to be a serious lack of competition between the oil companies.  Out here in rural California, it should be MORE expensive than the bay area, due to transportation and quantity sold, however it's far cheaper here than gas stations right across from the oil refineries on the coast.    If true competition existed, someone would charge less and force prices down.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Clearly, the war was all about oil.  Just look at the low oil prices.

In case you hadn't noticed, the Iraqi insurgents are not cooperating with oil pumping.

[??????????]

Get a hybird.

You paying? 

They are cheaper then most regular fuel guzzlers.

[opebo]

I mean the newsflash kind, not just the continuing ones.
We may yet see Peak Oil, the houseing bubble collapse, the final collapse of the dollar, and double digit interests rates

Do you even know what currency devaluation means?

Yes, it means you become poorer relative to other countries.

[opebo]

Clearly, the war was all about oil.  Just look at the low oil prices.

What makes you assume that to be 'about oil' automatically means to be about lower oil prices? 

The war was about seizing control of oil and the middle east in general, but this has nothing to do with the price of oil.  In general the cabal of interest groups which backs Bush and the GOP has no problem with high oil prices.  If you just seized something, wouldn't you like it to be worth more, not less?

[A18]

I mean the newsflash kind, not just the continuing ones.
We may yet see Peak Oil, the houseing bubble collapse, the final collapse of the dollar, and double digit interests rates

Do you even know what currency devaluation means?

Yes, it means you become poorer relative to other countries.

So in other words, no.

[opebo]

I mean the newsflash kind, not just the continuing ones.
We may yet see Peak Oil, the houseing bubble collapse, the final collapse of the dollar, and double digit interests rates

Do you even know what currency devaluation means?

Yes, it means you become poorer relative to other countries.

So in other words, no.

Explain how a holder of dollars does not become poorer when they go down in value relative to, say for example Euros, or better yet Thai baht.  The holder of dollars has been getting drastically poorer relative to the foreigner for years now.

[A18]

You're confusing curreny devaluation with inflation. The former is only an issue if you travel.

[opebo]

You're confusing curreny devaluation with inflation. The former is only an issue if you travel.

No, it is also an issue if you import, obviously.  Which happens to be practically all the proles back home do, even if they are too xenophobic, broke, and starved of vacation time to travel.

[Jake]

Not suprising with all the things going on in the world.  Hell, consider yourselves lucky. Europe pays out the nose for gas plus they get taxed to no end.  I do see a leveling off coming up here. My hope is it levels off around 3.00 dollars average. 

[opebo]

Not suprising with all the things going on in the world.  Hell, consider yourselves lucky. Europe pays out the nose for gas plus they get taxed to no end. 

Yeah but they have an infrastructure - public transportation.  Most of the common people aren't saddled with the burden of car ownship and gas purchase as in the US.

[Jake]

Unless you're braindead, you realize of course that the US has alot of public transportation also.  Alot of people just don't use it at all.  Now for me, sure, I would have to drive, but people who live in suburban areas should be taking the metro, carpooling, etc.  Hopefully, 3.00 gas will teach people to be better fuel consumers.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Unless you're braindead, you realize of course that the US has alot of public transportation also.  Alot of people just don't use it at all.  Now for me, sure, I would have to drive, but people who live in suburban areas should be taking the metro, carpooling, etc.  Hopefully, 3.00 gas will teach people to be better fuel consumers.

Buses will be raising prices due to this.
And anyways, a lot of areas of the country - particularly red areas - have sh**t for public transportation.

[??????????]

Unless you're braindead, you realize of course that the US has alot of public transportation also.  Alot of people just don't use it at all.  Now for me, sure, I would have to drive, but people who live in suburban areas should be taking the metro, carpooling, etc.  Hopefully, 3.00 gas will teach people to be better fuel consumers.

Buses will be raising prices due to this.
And anyways, a lot of areas of the country - particularly red areas - have sh**t for public transportation.

Yes, because not everyone lives in the cities. And I can't imagine buses driving 20 mile routes into the middle of nowhere to pick up   3-10 people. Sorry, it's just not very pratical to do so.

[phk]

First of all, prime responsibility for the oil crisis has to go to the fact that consumption exceeds production. Oil is a finite resource. Why are the consumers uninformed? Why are they so irresponsible?

Of course, one could go on and on about what's wrong with the media, one could mention critical theory: spectacular society, the culture industy, etc. One could say, simply, that it is a biproduct of liberal ideology. Or one could say, again, that the deficiency in the media (an apparatus of the ideological superstructure) reflects the limits of the economic base and so it functions to reproduce the means of production upon which the mode of production relies.

Thus the status-quo is reproduced. Whatever one wants to say, clearly the responsibility is structural, not individual. Forget about the paint and plaster. Forget changing the juridico-political superstructure. That'll have to change too, but that's not the goal. It doesn't matter who is in office. We have to have a revolutionary change in the relations of production rather than some simple political revolution, rather than some change in government. What we need to solve this problem is a revolution in the economic base that can then be followed through into the superstructures. It is the structure that has to go. And if the structure doesn't go, its going to fall down on top of us.

An energy crisis of this magnitude goes beyond the normal contradictions of capitalism.

The crises of the Capitalist business cycle cannot be overcome by either Keynesianism or Monetarism, but can only be postponed by imperialism. However, even if that weren't the case, the question of peak oil creates a different issue.

Do you think that the fundamentalists and Zionists who are in charge of global energy are particularly interested in the problem of the end of oil, in the face of the approaching end-times, which they welcome. Do you think your average level-headed and selfish (in the Ayn Rand sense) oil tycoon cares if the oil is gone after he dies, so long as he can make bank now?

History shows us that these people do not care about the future, that they are myopic, and so are consumers - the majority of whom are held in check by the media machine, the advertising state apparatus, and the culture industy. From the floor the dog can't see that he's only getting scraps. He thinks that's all there is on the table. He can't see that he isn't be treated justly. That he's being decieved. He only knows what he's told. Contrary to the Trotskyites' utopian wishes, the masses of the people are not by nature so wise and benevolent and will not rise up in an international, millenarian revolution. The birth pains of a new socialist society will be protracted, there will be false starts and missteps, and it will be accomplished one community at a time. But it is necessary.

Of course peak oil is a crisis resulting from the contradiction between productive forces and relations of production. Thus I hold that only through a planned, nationalized, socialist economy can this energy crisis (and it is a serious crisis), namely peak oil, be averted. Goff makes this point in his book, Full Spectrum Disorder - a book I highly suggest you read. Imagine the concequences of an end to oil without a planned and managed transition to a more sustainable energy source (wind or hydro-power for example). Do you think the anarchy of "free competition" is capable of making that transition? I don't, and we are all quickly running out of time. Can society "evolve" to fix this in fifty years? I very much doubt it. Can we make the revolution in fifty years? I think, and hope, that we can. At this point, socialism is survival. We simply must adapt or die.