S.F. on verge of $4-per-gallon gas

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The age of $4 gasoline has arrived. And it's forcing Bay Area residents to change the way they live.

Sometime in the coming week, San Francisco is expected to become America's first major city to pay an average of $4 for a gallon of regular gas. The citywide average, tracked by the AAA auto club, stood at $3.96 on Thursday.

It's the latest milestone in a four-year run-up at the pump, fueled by crude oil prices that have climbed to their highest levels ever.

When gas prices began their current climb in early 2004, the run-up looked more like a nuisance than anything else, costing commuters an extra $5 to $10 per week. Now, the amount drivers pay to fill up has doubled, and it's enough to hurt.

... San Francisco cab driver Jorge Perez now spends about $50 per day on gasoline. In addition, he has to pay $100 per day to lease his cab, he said.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/17/MNO4107CO5.DTL&tsp=1

[Jane Austin]

1. I paid $4.09 this afternoon for deisel

in Austin, TX.

I do get great mileage, but yikes.

[newfie11]

15. We are at $4.10 for diesel

On the border of Colorado/Wyoming/Nebraska.

[PoiBoy]

2. There's a good discussion here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3171098

lots of good and interesting points made, IMO...

:hi:

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

23. Our gas prices rise as our DOLLAR DROPS! - that's the story folks are missing

Our dollar is dropping dropping dropping.

We notice the price of gas, its just something we measure.

We're in our cars every day, we see that gas gauge every day, we pay at the pump.

When the Euro first came out, you could buy one for .80 cents.

Now you need $1.60 to buy one euro.

[ohio2007]

24. price of rice in the 3rd world is a better benchmark. dunno how much more a Euro buys

but the MSM here isn't covering the fighting in the streets very well.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Many Japanese taxis run on liquid natural gas

I wonder how that could work out for US taxi drivers?

On edit:
It seems like there are already 130,000 LNG vehicles on US roads, with 1300 LNG stations in operation

(Link in Japanese)
&imgrefurl=http://app2.infoc.nedo.go.jp/kaisetsu/egy/ey08/index.html&h=340&w=509&sz=39&hl=ja&start=37&um=1&tbnid=aNYE2NPFtnAIuM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=131&prev=/images%3Fq%3DLNG%2B%25E3%2582%25BF%25E3%2582%25AF%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2583%25BC%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dja%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

[Jane Austin]

4. I paid $4.09 this afternoon for deisel

in Austin, TX.

I do get great mileage, but yikes.

[Hekate]

5. Verge? Here in Goleta it's been $3.99 for regular at the Shell station for a week. For Diesel, $4.55

Granted it's less at the Exxon station across the street, but Christ on a trailer hitch -- what are the truckers who are dependent on Diesel fuel supposed to do? I'm dreading filling up my Accord, but truckers must be having seizures.

And yeah, yeah, I know it costs more in Europe. But as another DUer said, I'd gladly pay more for gas if I could get universal health care into the bargain.

Hekate

[Hissyspit]

6. Hey, America. Welcome to the clusterfuck.

Buy at least gays can't get married and you can go have a beer with Bush.

[Divine Discontent]

7. ha... and isn't that what every good 'murkin hopes to do?

have a toast with b*sh, while talking about how they kept the gays from marrying?

our society's self-chosen ignorance is depressing. hope they enjoy their $50 buck fill-ups! I felt like I was robbed when I filled mine up today, really. I was like, well, I'll never see THAT fifty again!

Bbb.. but, it's not B*sh's fault!

[sansatman]

8. "The age of $4 gasoline has arrived.

And it's forcing Bay Area residents to change the way they live."
Here is a little more insight on the subject.



http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174919

:nopity:

Nation City Price in USD Regular/Gallon
Netherlands Amsterdam $6.48
Norway Oslo $6.27
Italy Milan $5.96
Denmark Copenhagen $5.93
Belgium Brussels $5.91
Sweden Stockholm $5.80
United Kingdom London $5.79
Germany Frankfurt $5.57
France Paris $5.54
Portugal Lisbon $5.35
Hungary Budapest $4.94
Luxembourg $4.82
Croatia Zagreb $4.81
Ireland Dublin $4.78
Switzerland Geneva $4.74
Spain Madrid $4.55
Japan Tokyo $4.24
Czech Republic Prague $4.19
Romania Bucharest $4.09
Andorra $4.08
Estonia Tallinn $3.62
Bulgaria Sofia $3.52
Brazil Brasilia $3.12
Cuba Havana $3.03
Taiwan Taipei $2.84
Lebanon Beirut $2.63
South Africa Johannesburg $2.62
Nicaragua Managua $2.61
Panama Panama City $2.19
Russia Moscow $2.10
Puerto Rico San Juan $1.74
Saudi Arabia Riyadh $0.91
Kuwait Kuwait City $0.78
Egypt Cairo $0.65
Nigeria Lagos $0.38
Venezuela Caracas $0.12

Source: air-inc.com
:nopity:

[ReadTomPaine]

9. In virtually all of the higher priced examples, those costs reflect taxes which provide services...

to the countries in question. Here those prices are simply outrageous profits which are pocketed by the corporations concerned. We are paying European gas prices, but we aren't getting the European social services, public transportation or infrastructure that those taxes help support.

While I agree that sooner we transition to alternative fuels the better, this situation is not the same as it it elsewhere. This money is pure greed gravy for the eager hogs at big oil's trough.

[sansatman]

11. Here those prices are simply outrageous profits which are pocketed by the corporations concerned?

"So, if the oil's coming out of the ground in Saudi Arabia, the North Sea or the Gulf of Mexico, it costs about 50 cents a gallon to bring that out of the ground," Obetz said.

That means it costs $21 to fill a 42-gallon barrel. And with the recent price of $71.43 a barrel (to find out how the $71.43 price is arrived at, click here for a story on the New York Mercantile Exchange and how it works), that means oil companies are making about $50 dollars profit on each barrel of oil. Add in that profit and each gallon of gas rises to $1.70.

When the oil is transported and processed at a refinery, another 40 cents is added on. Now the price of a gallon has gone up to $2.10. And don't forget about 49 cents in state and federal taxes. That rings the total up to $2.59 a gallon.

The gasoline is then pumped across the country through pipelines. Add another two cents per gallon for that. Then, it's trucked to your service station, costing about another 2 cents per gallon.

So, the final wholesale price for Worley and Obetz is $2.63 a gallon. On the day News 8 was there, they were charging $2.73 -- a 10-cent per gallon profit, or so it would seem.

"If you pay with a credit card, which most consumers do, the credit card company also charges us a 2.5 percent fee, which is 7 cents a gallon. So in the end, we end up with 3 cents," Obetz said.

Roche asked Obetz if he's only making 3 cents a gallon, how does he make money selling gas. Obetz said the money is made at the convenience store, selling food and drinks.

"There's much higher margins on that -- anywhere from 50 to 100 percent," Obetz said.

One reason there aren't many mom-and-pop service stations anymore is because it's very hard to make a profit just selling gas." Pennsylvania News

http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/statistics/gas_taxes_by_state_2002.html

[ReadTomPaine]

13. Your link, though a bit dated, is an excellent example of my point.

At ~ .42 cents, our taxes on gas are a tiny fraction of what's collected overseas yet our gas prices aren't very far off many of the numbers you posted previously. That difference is pure profit for the industry here.

While gas station owners and others at the end of the distribution chain may be feeling heat brought down on them by big oil (a situation that's far from new), the corporations themselves have been reporting record profits for years now. They are laughing all the way to the bank.

On edit: Here's more from the article you quoted - I've included the link to that piece as well for others.

"With the breakdown in the pricing structure, the oil companies profit the most. But the oil companies claim they take a large percentage of those profits and reinvest them in oil exploration around the globe."

Emphasis mine.

http://www.wgal.com/news/9336051/detail.html

BTW - please edit your post to include only 3-4 paragraphs of the article you've quoted above as per the DU copyright rules listed here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules_detailed.html

Oh.. and welcome to DU!

[ReadTomPaine]

10. The prices have been over $4 for quite some time...

Here's a thread with photos of the pump prices in the Bay Area from back in February posted by Du'er Bluebear - $4.44


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2940598&mesg_id=2940598

[diane in sf]

12. I want my plug-in electric car, NOW! And it should be under $25k.

Though if things get really bad one could get one of the $3k glorified electric golf carts.

[AndyTiedye]

14. They'll Probably Run It All The Way up to $5, Then Drop it to $3.99 Just Before the (s)Election

which will be enough for all the "swing voters" to say "Happy days are here again" and vote in the Repigs again :(

[CatholicEdHead]

16. Diesel is over $4.00 here and regular is $3.45 or so

If Georgia hits $4.50 in August we could be pushing $5.

[Javaman]

17. shot up 25 cents in less then a week here in north austin. nt

[TommyO]

26. Up fourteen cents overnight here in eastern PA and western NJ

it went from $3.13 to $3.27 at the station where I normally get gas, other stations were right around there. On the way home last night I saw $3.17 on the other side of the highway, I made a U-turn (legal) and filled up knowing that it would be the last time I could get it for that price.

[KillCapitalism]

18. Not too far from $4 in the midwest.

$3.79 in the St. Louis area today.

[AzDar]

19. How long will it take before the economy TOTALLY crashes down around us?

:mad:

[NickB79]

20. I think it's going to be a bleak Christmas this year. nt

[ohio2007]

25. after Christmas bargains will be the way to go

Go with gift cards this year and wait til the "many happy returns" season ;)

[bigwillq]

21. We're getting closer to that in CT

I paid $3.55/gal yesterday..that's the highest I ever remember paying for it.
I am only 30...my parents talk about the gas shortages of the 70s. Not sure how high gas went then.

[Name removed]

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