These gas prices sure do hurt

**Easto** · 09-18-23, 09:29 AM

The best price we can find for Top Tier gas is at Costo. Today they want $5.25 for regular unleaded. What also hurts is that Mrs. Easto's job is moving 20 miles away and it's going to be all stop and go freeway traffic. Fortunately the Accord can hold it's own as far as MPG goes but still... we'll be filling up weekly as opposed to every other week. That's an additional $60 - $70 out of our pocket each week.

**YeOldeStonecat** · 09-18-23, 10:05 AM

Gonna be a hunned bucks to fill up the pickup again....

**Easto** · 09-18-23, 10:54 AM

Fortunately the Accord will only take about $70 to fill. It's the car that gets driven the most. The new Pilot is going to be closer to $90 to fill up. The mileage on the Pilot isn't that great, maybe 18 mpg averaged. The thing is that the Pilot only gets driven occasionally and usually for short distances so a fill-up for it can last me 2-3 weeks.

**YeOldeStonecat** · 09-18-23, 07:21 PM

Today, around shoreline CT....regular peewater unleaded is in the high 3.80's/low 3.90's.
Our premium is approaching 5, I think I saw a gas station or two above 5...but most are still just below it.
My F-150 truck, the 5.0 Coyote V8 in her is flex fuel capable, and when it's > 60 cents cheaper it's worth it. I get more power and better accel if I run flex fuel (E-85)...but oddly enough, mileage is a little poorer. So when it's < 60 cents cheaper like it was for a while, barely 35-40 cents...it wasn't worth it.

**Humboldt** · 09-18-23, 11:03 PM

$5.69.

**Philip** · 09-19-23, 11:58 AM

$3.70/gallon for regular gas down here in FL.

Just bought a Honda HR-V for the wifey.. 4-cyl engine, not a race car, but good mpg on regular gas, and Honda quality hopefully. Had to wait a couple of months for dealer to get one in stock though.

**Easto** · 09-20-23, 08:04 AM

This morning at Costco I paid $5.47. Costco is on average $0.40 a gallon less than anywhere else.

**Easto** · 09-20-23, 08:12 AM

Several years ago I saw a report on TV from a watchdog group that monitors various refineries. This report was published right after there was a statement from one of the oil companies saying that they had to shut down one of their lines due to something or the other. Well, this watchdog group measure particulate and chemicals that are being expelled into the atmosphere from various refineries. There was one particular chemical that is only released into the atmosphere when the refinery is actually producing gasoline. This watchdog group said that there was never any cessation in this chemical for the entire time the refinery claimed they were shut down. Basically they were claiming they were shut down and not producing when they actually were.

**MadDoctor** · 09-20-23, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by banned user

In such cases, regulatory agencies such as blabla spam spam....

Okay.

Costco rules.

**Mark** · 09-21-23, 04:36 AM

ya gotta love Bidenomics huh

**Easto** · 09-21-23, 08:57 AM

Personally I don't think the price of gas has much to do with any administration's economic policy. Yes, it may be a reaction to a political crisis i.e. 1973 oil embargo etc. but with "policy" I'm not so sure. I think it has to do with a political climate in general and having politicians that are afraid to stand up against "Big Oil". If you're a Senator or Congressman with a refinery in you district there is no way in heck you're going to rock the boat. They know they've got all of us by the short hairs. Every several years we see a big jump in prices and then the oil companies bring the price back down from its all time high (but still much higher than what we were paying 1 year ago) and everyone is so thankful that the price went "down". This has been going on for as long as I've been buying gas.

In the State of California the oil companies spent more than $34 million last year to lobby the legislature and various agencies. There's got to be a whole lot of that money that isn't seeing the light of day and going right into someone's pocket.

**YeOldeStonecat** · 09-21-23, 04:48 PM

We need to make more oil, make America self sustaining.

In 2020...America made more oil than America consumed.
We produced 18.4 million barrels per day, and we consumed 18.12 million barrels. We imported 7.86 million barrels per day back then too.
source...a rather independent source...
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/amer...e-import-crude

The ratio has gone down since then.

In 2022...America consumed more oil than America made. Now..let's take a look at the gas price charts over these past 3 years....hmmmm.....

Yes...the power of the big oil lobby has a lot to do with prices. And...the kind of oil that the US produces....is not all the best oil for making gas.(refer to article I linked above) But so does our own production volume...versus our own consumption. We need to produce more (not less...like current legislation is trying to do so they force us over to overpriced electricity/batteries and feeding that money grabbing scam machine...yes..the electrical lobbying will become just as big and powerful and evil as our current oil lobby)
But..back on 2020...let's just recall those nice numbers and prices...America producing more oil than we consumed, and...those nice low gas prices...low to mid 2 dollar range...oh yeah....good times...

**Philip** · 09-22-23, 07:47 AM

US Oil production today is more than it was in 2020 (it is the most ever, actually):
2020 - 19.27 million barrels per day
2022 - 19.99 million barrels per day
We've decreased our imports from OPEC and the Persian Gulf, and increased imports from Canada over time.
Yes, we consume a bit more over time too.
Yes, we import some ~8 million barrels, but we also export about the same, so it's a wash.
We produce as much as we consume, it's been like that since ~2019. If you go back to 1975 all the way to 2007, we were producing about 60% of what we consumed, yet gas prices were cheaper, even adjusted for inflation, so the numbers tell me price is not related to energy independence (even though we achieved it), and all that political talk for the past few years. We do have some influence on crude oil prices per barrel, but OPEC has more control on supply, they export much more than us.. Ultimately it's a global market driven by supply and demand.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/...nd-exports.php

Yes, gas was cheap back during Covid as global and US consumption dropped sharply, the Oil futures went into negative numbers for the first time in history.

There is $2 difference per gallon between CA and FL right now, now that's difference in taxes.

**Humboldt** · 09-22-23, 10:56 PM

If I felt safer I'd gladly bike the 14 mile round-trip to and from work.

The roads are not good odds in my opinion.

I'll stick to the woods on my bike rides and pay for the convenience and safety of a gas vehicle.

**YeOldeStonecat** · 09-25-23, 02:46 PM

I'm not seeing any neutral (independent...non-.GOV biased sites)..that report we made more in 2022 than in 2020.
Go to 5 year view here...and there's a noticable dip 'tween '20 and '21
https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_cr...e%20year%20ago.

Go to 5 year view here too....similar chart curves as above one.
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-...oil-production

CA is showing what the rest of the country can look forward to if newsom goes for POTUS.

**Philip** · 09-25-23, 05:40 PM

Well, I was quoting the eia.gov side I linked.. In any case it was very close, and twice as much as 10 years ago. If you want to be exact, looking at all those charts the huge drop in production was March 2020, because of the pandemic (under Trump)... Then it has been increasing back up steadily. Yes, it went up and down, but it is trending up. I see the big relevance to the pandemic, rather than the administration. And if you go further back like 20 years, we didn't have "energy independence" with both parties, we had less than half the production, we were producing 60% of what we were consuming, etc. and it wasn't reflected in prices at the pump. Also, more crude production doesn't seem to reduce price at the pump, since it's a global commodity and we export as well. We produce as much as we consume, yet prices are high. The times prices at the pump were low are when there was pandemic (sharply reduced consumption), and 20+ years ago when we weren't "energy independent"... So "pump baby pump" doesn't seem to do much for prices, ok, yes, it is nice to be energy independent politicly, but it is not reflected by prices at the pump.

**Easto** · Today, 08:00 AM

$5.69 at Costco this morning. It cost $86 to fill up 3/4 of the tank on the new Pilot. Fortunately, the Pilot pretty much lives in the garage. Almost 1 year old with less than 4k on it. Although we really enjoy driving around in it the avg mpg is only about 18, so the Accord which can be 28mpg usually gets picked when we're expecting to put on my miles that day. Regardless of the type of driving the Accord can easily get 10-15 mpg more than the Pilot.