Top story on CBS San Francisco at 6pm: $6 gas this summer

[Newsjock]

I don't see their online version story of it yet, but that's the propaganda that's being catapulted.

Edit: Here's the CNBC version:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42683030

A dollar plumbing three-year lows is hitting Americans squarely in the gas tank, and one economist thinks it could drive prices as high as $6 a gallon or more by summertime under the right conditions.

... "All we have to have is a couple badly placed hurricanes which could constrain some of the refinery output capacity in some key locations," says Richard Hastings, strategist at Global Hunter Securities in Charlotte, N.C. "If you get weakness in the dollar concurrent with the strong driving season concurrent with the impact of one or two hurricanes in the wrong place, prices could go up in a quasi-exponential manner."

... Hastings sees gasoline having "no problem" getting to $6.50 a gallon over the summer after increased demand and storm disruptions come into play.

Others, though, say gasoline prices haven't needed any help so far from other events—the moves by the Fed to keep interest rates in negative real terms are enough to boost energy by themselves.

[brooklynite]

1. Why is this propaganda?

[notadmblnd]

2. yeah well, the WH said today that they're going to be looking into

Gas prices so let us see what the response from oil companies will be.

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN) -- Prodded by growing public frustration over sharply rising gasoline prices, the Justice Department on Thursday announced the formation of a team -- the "Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group -- tasked with the goal of ensuring consumers are not victims of price gouging.

Gas prices exceeding $4 per gallon or higher are "tough" for most Americans, President Barack Obama told an audience in Reno, Nevada. "We are going to make sure that no one is taking advantage of American consumers for their own short-term gain."

"This gas issue is serious," the president said. "It hurts."

Attorney General Eric Holder made no secret the move is a direct response to public angst, not to current evidence of any illegal conduct.


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/21/holder.gas.prices/inde...

[GiveMeFreedom]

9. Eric Holder

will wind up doing nothing more than proving it's not the Obama administrations fault prices have risen. He's useless!!

[DJ13]

3. Our economy will grind to a halt before it gets that high

Imagine diesel at $6.50, trucking ceases to be profitable.

Air travel will be cut in half as fares double (or more).

Food prices will increase by 30-40%.

Gas at anywhere near that level would lead to unrest.

[ejpoeta]

6. i remember when people were crying when it hit $3.50 and had stopped driving anywhere

unnecessary at $4. now people are just starting to seem to cringe. getting used to it. if it goes up much more i see a lot of cars sitting empty. people had seemed to start going back to the suvs again and i wonder how that will fare. I have a minivan. but then, i am a stay at home mom and can just not drive anywhere unless i have to. we are lucky that my husband drives a company vehicle with a gas card.

i keep wondering at what point are people going to start demanding an actual alternative. every time they start praying if things get better they promise they'll be good and they'll live smarter and then they go right back. grr.sure we have a couple of evs and a few hybrids.

i think you are right that if prices get too high that would be really bad for a lot of reasons. nervous people start getitng antsy and mad.

[notadmblnd]

8. If you google it, I think studies will show that demand in US has declined

while prices have continued to increase.

[ejpoeta]

11. it sure seemed for awhile like people around here were going back to

to old thinking. see a lot of SUVs. just my personal observation around me. and when you get higher prices, then $2.50 doesn't sound so bad. Of course now it's $4 here and you can see people being a lot more mindful. there is no data mind you... this has just been my own sense from those around me that while the prices were still high, they had gone down from the earlier highs.

[al_liberal]

4. Worldwide oil is priced in dollars.

WTF do you expect when Bernanke is printing dollars like they are going out of style? We devalue dollars and guess what, commodities on the world market that are priced in those devalued dollars become more expensive. We never seem to learn let alone understand how the world markets work.

[AsahinaKimi]

5. Prices are high enough

in California, but to have products, goods and services to start escalating? :mad:

[Canuckistanian]

7. We're paying $5.20/gal in Canada RIGHT NOW

I just paid for gas at $1.30/Litre here at a local gas station tonight. With the exchange rate and the volume conversion, it's about $5.20/gal.

And at the gas station, I saw a man from England who said they're paying the equivalent of $6.50/gal. (U.S. Gallon, of course).

Face it, Americans aren't even paying the REAL price of gas with all those oil company subsidies on gas prices.

[Greybnk48]

10. The tourism industry is going to really suffer this

summer. I wanted to do a road trip, but we've already cancelled it. I'm sure we're not the only ones by far. What a shame.

[ejpoeta]

12. we go up to a family reunion 4 hour drive away for 4th of july. we have considered

what the gas prices will do to our ability to do that. we figure if we stay up there longer than it will be doable. we just won't be able to go do anything while we are up there.

[TheCowsCameHome]

13. And when it drops back to five bucks we'll celebrate like we won the war .

Same old bullshit every time we go through these gas price crises.

[Zax2me]

14. propaganda? If this is it, give me more

I don't see anything wrong with the story other than they left out little bush and his Texan clan, who are still active and hurting prices.