$5/gallon gas this summer?????

[Fman]

I just heard an expert on the news today talking about crude oil going up to $135-$140 barrel this summer, which works out to be about $5/gallon.... even worse at the lake would be $6/gallon! Gas never dropped at all in California this winter, we at $3.25/gallon right now...... this would crush the economy, and put us 10 steps backwards from any recovery at all!

I hope he does not know what he is talking about! $240 fill ups would be very painful.... ouch! :mad:

[doofus]

Oh my god, petrol in the states must be insanely cheap.....$2.97 a gallon....We haven't had petrol that cheap in Australia for the last 8 years or so.


Here in Australia we are currently paying $1.38 per litre, and as there is 4.55 litres to a gallon, that works out to $6.28 per gallon. And as the Australia dollar is currently on parity with the US dollar, that quoted figure of $6.28 per gallon represents what it would cost in US dollars...

A day on the water here in Australia running full ballast in the boat can soon start to eat into your hip pocket and cost big $$$$$$

I would give anything to have petrol prices as cheap as you guys do....

[DAFF]

Here in the great north, where most of the US oil comes from any way the price is $1.10 a litre. This is mostly taxes and government greed.

Doofus you are converting to the metric gallon. The American gal is a tad smaller at 3.79 litres to gallon. Never the less I'm with you. We are all paying too much in tax for fuel.

[michael hunter]

This will definitely hurt the industry and slow the economy to a crawl. Maybe it was a bad decision to stop the off shore drilling. Kinda funny how you never hear about any oil shortage driving prices up. Now its the environment and global warming as the excuse to gauge. This is the price you pay for voting in collage educated tree hugging liberals.

[tg0824SSVGG]

All this while the oil industry makes RECORD SHATTERING profits? right ...

[jet]

Yes, the prices are artificially being driven up through FEAR of shortage so they can line there pockets with our money. I knew a guy back in the day that had a 454 4x4 chevy truck that got like 8-12 miles to the gallon. He converted his to alcohol and made his own in the backyard. I know converting the engine isnt hard but how would you make your own alcohol?? Is this something that would be easy?? Jet

[cadunkle]

Oh my god, petrol in the states must be insanely cheap.....$2.97 a gallon....We haven't had petrol that cheap in Australia for the last 8 years or so.


Here in Australia we are currently paying $1.38 per litre, and as there is 4.55 litres to a gallon, that works out to $6.28 per gallon. And as the Australia dollar is currently on parity with the US dollar, that quoted figure of $6.28 per gallon represents what it would cost in US dollars...

It's all tax dude. You pay about $1.48/gal in gas tax from what I can figure. Here in NJ I pay about $.23/gal in federal and state tax, which I don't think is unreasonable if the funds were actually used solely for road maintenance/repair and those repairs were done cost effectively. Most countries that are fairly socialist have extremely high gas tax, registration fees, taxes on higher HP/displacement engines (they do this is several European countries), etc. These funds generally go into a big slush fund and are pissed away lining politicians pockets and the pockets of tree huggers.

I'm all for doing what I can (and what I *want*) to minimize my toll on the environment, but I should never be forced to do it. The more they mandate and tax, the more I either ignore it or stop doing anything voluntarily. Seriously, they banned idling vehicles at convenience stores now or you will be fined. I used to stop up the street for coffee or whatnot some morning before work, and in the winter since it's only a couple blocks away I'd just start the truck and let it idle to warm up at the store. Now I just start it and let it warm up a bit in the driveway before I leave. If anything, it idles more if I start the truck and go back inside before leaving. There are many unintended consequences with these environmentally motivated policies and taxes.

Basically the rich get richer and the poor and now middle class gets stiffed with more taxes. This forces middle class people out of things like motorsports, wakeboarding, etc. It's sickening, but it is what it is.

I remember at one point I was driving about 170 miles/day round trip to work. When gas hit $4.50/gal I quit my job because I was working over half my day just to get to work and back. I could have got a little econobox to get to work but it wouldn't have made sense due to registration fees and insurance costs. NJ is highest state for insurance and it despite the fact that I can only drive one car at a time my insurance would nearly double to add an econobox, negating the fuel savings. It doesn't make sense to have multiple vehicles to "save on gas" because you don't really save. They even raised registration fees on motorcycles here. Used to be weight based. My truck was $75/yr and bike was like $15/yr. Now it's $70/yr for the bike. Yeah, a 500 lbs bike is gonna put as much wear on the roads as a 6000 lbs truck. They tax you to death to deter you from using less fuel and having a smaller environmental footprint.

Sorry if that got too political, but that's what these taxes boil down to. It's frustrating but it won't stop me from doing what I love. I figure the money saved from buying an old Supra instead of a new whiz-bang wake boat buys me a lot of gas for the Supra!

[cadunkle]

Yes, the prices are artificially being driven up through FEAR of shortage so they can line there pockets with our money. I knew a guy back in the day that had a 454 4x4 chevy truck that got like 8-12 miles to the gallon. He converted his to alcohol and made his own in the backyard. I know converting the engine isnt hard but how would you make your own alcohol?? Is this something that would be easy?? Jet

Alcohol production is not too complicated but is illegal in most states since you *might* consume your own alcohol that you produced yourself, and not pay liquor taxes on it. Meanwhile government subsidizes ethanol (alcohol) heavily to artificially lower the price for E10, E15 and E85. This has the unintended consequence of raising food prices as farmers divert land and equipment to grow corn for ethanol. Either way, if they didn't get you for liquor taxes (you'd either have heavy fines or jail time) they would get you for not paying road taxes on the fuel you were burning. They're going after people that produce biodiesel (for personal use) for not paying road taxes, since biodiesel doesn't contain alcohol they can't get you under liquor laws. it's all about money.

If you do any alcohol or biodiesel production be sure to only use it for your own vehicles and you'd be wise to only make it if you live in the sticks away from prying eyes, and mix it with regular gas or diesel so you get some of the dyes in it in the rare event they ever check.

[Fman]

I agree this will drop a hammer on the economy, and hinder any recovery that was beginning to develop. I heard we (United States) are using less oil now than we did 4 years ago. Its a total monopoly and scam, because everyone needs oil to survive. The boating industry will take a major sock in the gut with $5/gallon gas prices. I know I will be spending less time on the water this year if it happens, $240 for a fill-up would be rediculuous!

This is what started the last recession, maybe we need to tell people in China to start riding bicycles again... apparently they are consuming more and more fuel each year.

[ScottnAz]

Simple supply and demand, right? Supply goes down, price goes up..... supply goes up, price goes up...... oil exec needs a new car, price goes up.....big oil spill in the gulf, price goes up.... You get the idea. No matter what, the consumer pays, and pays some more!

Yeah, $5+/gallon will be pretty crippling for our economy. Makes me a little glad I sold the 3/4 ton for a 1/2 ton last summer, as well as ditching my wife's Tahoe and putting her in a VW EOS. Better gas mileage all around, but does it really matter when gas is $5+?

As for the lake and boat, it's the absolute best and most peaceful time in my life when I'm on the water with my wife and girls. $10/gallon isn't going to keep us off the water. The time spent on the water is really the only time I'm not thinking about the business and employees and tax payments and credit payments and advertising costs and marketing ideas and......
I'm sure we'll spend more time floating around at the lunch spot instead of surfing with 3k in ballast weight, but it won't keep us off the water :)

I, personally, think there's a much larger problem with our work force these days, but that's a whole different story and discussion

[Mani]

You guys do realize that those oil execs you're talking about don't profit near as much as the US government does on each gallon of gas. If you want to nail someone down about how expensive oil is, start with OPEC and work your way over to our government.

My dad logs about 45K miles a year for work (we work together). We're going to feel this if it happens.