Memorial Day brings $4 gas to Jacksonville

[Metro Jacksonville]

Memorial Day brings $4 gas to Jacksonville



This Memorial Day brings record gas prices to Jacksonville. Are the citizens of Jacksonville now more willing to embrace walking, biking, and public transit?

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/802

[jbm32206]

This station has always had higher prices...but it's of course now a real sign of the times, that we're now catching up with the rest of the world with ridiculously high fuel costs.

[thelakelander]

My company will be moving from the beach to Baymeadows this Friday.  I'm going to start biking a few days a week, since JTB will no longer be a part of my daily travel.

[David]

for the majority- nope.

I still hear the good ol boys bragging about how much it cost to fill up their pickups, then proceed to gloat how their trucks only get 12 mpg like it's some kind of accomplishment.

I know it's not true for all, but you know you've heard the type that brags "wheww I tell ya my f350 just cost me 90 bucks to fill up! *p-ting*'

4 bucks a gallon just isn't expensive enough for the average american citizen to change their driving habits.

Feel free to disagree, but the only thing higher gas prices will bring is more complaning and little in the way of a change in driving routines from the masses. It's not like most people have a choice either. At least, not in the short term. We have the same discussion everytime gas breaks another dollar barrier, same happened at 2 & 3 bucks a gallon.

[Lunican]

U.S. gas: So cheap it hurts

Relatively low taxes have kept pump prices far below most other developed nations, which some say is precisely why the current runup is so painful.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite daily headlines bemoaning record gas prices, the U.S. is actually one of the cheaper places to fill up in the world.

Out of 155 countries surveyed, U.S. gas prices were the 45th cheapest, according to a recent study from AIRINC, a research firm that tracks cost of living data.

The difference is staggering. As of late March, U.S. gas prices averaged $3.45 a gallon. That compares to over $8 a gallon across much of Europe.

The U.S. has always fought to keep gas prices low, and the current debate among presidential candidates on how to keep them that way has been fierce.

But those cheap gas prices - which Americans have gotten used to - mean they feel price spikes like the ones we're experiencing now more acutely than citizens from other nations which have had historically more expensive fuel.

Cheap gas prices have also lulled Americans into a cycle of buying bigger cars and bigger houses further away from their work - leaving them more exposed to rising prices, some experts say.

Price comparisons are not all created equal. Comparing gas prices across nations is always difficult. For starters, the AIRINC numbers don't take into account different salaries in different countries, or the different exchange rates. The dollar has lost considerable ground to the euro recently. Because oil is priced in dollars, rising oil prices aren't as hard on people paying with currencies which are stronger than the dollar, as they can essentially buy more oil with their money as the dollar falls in value.

And then there's the varying distances people drive, the public transportation options available, and the different services people get in exchange for high gas prices. For example, Europe's stronger social safety net, including cheaper health care and higher education, is paid for partly through gas taxes.

Gas price: It's all about government policy. Gasoline costs roughly the same to make no matter where in the world it's produced, according to John Felmy, chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute. The difference in retail costs, he said, is that some governments subsidize gas while others tax it heavily.

In many oil producing nations gas is absurdly cheap. In Venezuela it's 12 cents a gallon. In Saudi Arabia it's 45.

The governments there forego the money from selling that oil on the open market - instead using the money to make their people happy and encourage their nations' development.

Subsidies, many analysts say, are encouraging rampant demand in these countries, pushing up the price of oil worldwide.

In the U.S., the federal tax on gas is about 18 cents a gallon, pretty low by international standards.

But those relatively low gas taxes make it hard now for Americans to deal with gas prices that have risen from around $1 to over $3 a gallon in the last seven years.

"Everybody pays more, but the U.S. pays more in absolute terms," said Lee Shipper, a visiting scholar at the University of California Berkeley's Transportation Center. If you're already paying $4 in taxes, said Schipper, then an extra $2 a gallon isn't that big of a deal.

Most expensive places to buy gas Rank Country Price/gal 1. Eritrea $9.58 2. Norway $8.73 3. United Kingdom $8.38 4. Netherlands $8.37 5. Monaco $8.31 6. Iceland $8.28 7. Belgium $8.22 8. France $8.07 9. Germany $7.86 10. Portugal $7.84 108. United States $3.45

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/01/news/international/usgas_price/index.htm

[downtownparks]

I am also going to start riding to work as soon as school ends in the next week or so.

[Lunican]

Maybe $4 is the tipping point for at least some people.

As gas goes up, driving goes down

(CNN) -- At a time when gas prices are at an all-time high, Americans have curtailed their driving at a historic rate.

The Department of Transportation said figures from March show the steepest decrease in driving ever recorded.

Compared with March a year earlier, Americans drove an estimated 4.3 percent less -- that's 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT's Federal Highway Administration said Monday, calling it "the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history." Records have been kept since 1942.

According to AAA, for the first time since 2002, Americans said they were planning to drive less over the Memorial Day weekend than they did the year before.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/26/gas.driving/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

[GatorDone]

Most expensive places to buy gas
Rank Country Price/gal
1. Eritrea  $9.58
2. Norway $8.73
3. United Kingdom $8.38
4. Netherlands $8.37
5. Monaco $8.31
6. Iceland $8.28
7. Belgium $8.22
8.  France $8.07
9. Germany $7.86
10. Portugal  $7.84
108. United States $3.45


Ok, so the 3 powerhouses on that list believe in socialized everything and tax their citizens to death, the rest are not in a place to demand anything less because they are weak politically and/or are also over taxing their citizens. With below average increases in wages since 2000 coupled with drastic raises in home prices (even with the recent decline), food, healthcare and energy costs - something will have to give eventually. I just hope that something is not named Obama or Clinton because no matter how bad it gets, I do not want the government to provide anything for me but the basic infrastructures (i.e., police, schools, roads).   

[chipwich]

I feel the need to infuriate a few people tonight so here it goes...

Gas is still too way too cheap!  I know that sounds awful and out-of-touch, but its true.  It is hurting some spending power and I really feel for lower income households who are trying their very best just to get by.

The truth is that we are at peak oil (give or take a few years) as we speak and drastic measures need to be taken now before our entire economy lies in ruins.  Even with doubling oil prices, oil production has not increased in 3 years!  This is not a political problem or even an OPEC problem.  It is a capacity problem and a demand problem as 3 billion people have seemed to join the world economy in he last few years.  I imagine oil companies ae scrambling to find new oil sources and I am sure there are still a few good discoveries waiting to be found.  I also imagine OPEC is probably at or very near thier production capacity.

Unlike the past 30 years or so, we now need to actually budget for our travels and plan out when and how far we drive.

There are still morons out there who will insist on buying over-sized cars, trucks, SUVs and boats.  There are even those idiots who will brag about how much they spend on filing up.  So for now, it leads me to believe gas prices are still too affordable.  We really need shock and awe in gas prices to wake people up and force different lifestyle habits and technology.  We need gas prices so high that they shut up even the most obnoxious, careless gas guzzlers.  Most people can only afford to change their car once every several years and it is hard to cut daily trips down, so we are for now forced to use oil and pay much higher prices for it.

Trouble is brewing because oil is diminishing.  Oil prices may correct slightly in the short term, but they will stay high and reach higher and higher as world demand continues to increase and supply begins to lag.  If we wait and stay on our current course, then we are are doing nothing more than digging our own economic grave.  Given the limited supply of oil, these current "high" oil prices are the best thing to ever happen to our country.  A quick jump in prices is finally raising some eyebrows and forcing investment into more efficient technologies.  This run up in oil will probably force the US's green revolution and put us on track for sustainable economic growth for decades to come. 

So yah, it is good that we are feeling the pinch now so that we don't have to feel the punch in the future.

[Downtown Dweller]

Rasied Republican, I can take care of myself thank you...

a t-shirt (I own) and have seen no less than five other people wearing it downtown LOL!!!

[Midway ®]

The sad part for us is that if we were to completely stop using all oil, which would lower its cost, the beneficiaries would be the Chinese.

So, it would be better to use as much oil as possible and to drive the cost as high as possible and see which economy is destroyed first.

Kind of like what Reagan did with military spending, drove us to the brink of bankruptcy, but pushed the USSR over the edge.

[Midway ®]

Yeah, I guess your'e right. If we destroyed the Chinese economy there would be no one to lend us money and make cheap crap for :
Wal-Mart

[JaxNole]

Comparing nominal prices seems to be misleading to me.  Would it not make sense to factor in density, mean driving distances and other alternatives to filling up a single-passenger vehicle?

If 25% of a population, for example, relies on mass transit, then $9-gallon gasoline seems to normalize more than strictly comparing prices across cultures and economies.

[RiversideGator]

Interesting commentary here on the real causes of $4 per gallon gas:

Who Is Really Responsible For The High Prices You Pay For Gasoline?

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, May 12, 2008 4:20 PM PT

For the last 28 years, Democrats in Congress and a few Republicans have again and again opposed our drilling for oil in Alaska's ANWR area when we knew it contained at least 10 billion barrels of oil we could be using now.

IBD Series: Breaking The Back Of High Oil

• For the past 31 years, Congress repeatedly prevented us from building any new oil refineries that we now badly need.

• More recently, congressional Democrats defeated and discouraged any bill that would let us drill in the deep sea 100 miles out. However, it's somehow OK for China to drill there.

• As a further indictment of our Congress, since the 1980s it has continually stopped all building of nuclear power plants while France, Germany and, yes, Japan, plus 12 other major nations, did build plants and now get 20% to 80% of their energy from their wise and safe nuclear plant investments.

• From 1990 to 2000, U.S. crude oil demand rapidly accelerated by 7.41 quadrillion BTUs, according to Department of Energy data. And our rate of foreign oil dependency dramatically increased while our domestic oil production steadily declined.

Under the eight Clinton years alone, U.S. oil production declined 1,349,000 barrels per day, or 19%, while our foreign imports increased 3,574,000 barrels per day, or 45%.

During this time, President Clinton vetoed ANWR drilling bills that would have clearly made Alaska our No. 1 state in the production of our own vitally needed oil supply, not only for all Americans but also for national defense emergencies.

So were Democrats and members of Congress together merely short-sighted, with only a few having any real business experience?

Or were they just ignorant about economics â€" the fact that the law of supply and demand determines the price of all commodities such as oil, steel, copper and lumber?

Or were they simply and utterly irresponsible and incompetent in their actions that led us to become dangerously dependent on increasing oil imports from foreign countries?

We think it was "all of the above."

The unintended consequence of the Congress members' poor judgment and meddling micromanagement of U.S. energy policy is that they actually hurt most the very people they always profess to be able to help â€" the average American consumer, lower-income workers and those in the inner city who can't afford an extra $100 a month to drive to and from their jobs.

Democrats kowtowed to the wishes of their environmental supporters over the basic needs of 300 million American citizens.

It is a national disgrace that all they now know how to do is relentlessly criticize, complain and condemn. They always attempt to blame, investigate and scapegoat someone else, in this case U.S. oil companies, when Congress is the true villain of ineptness for constantly blocking and obstructing every effort for us to become more productive and less dependent on foreign oil.

Do those now in Congress really think Middle America's voters are so gullible that they will believe that its latest best and brightest answer to increasing our supply of oil and gas is to slap a 25% windfall penalty tax on oil companies and remove all other incentives for oil companies to drill and explore for oil?

The right time to release oil from, or stop adding to, our Strategic Petroleum Reserve is not now. That will do nothing to increase our ongoing oil supply needs and will have limited affect on oil prices while increasing our national security risks.

Only after we first announce to the world a bold new change in our policy by proclaiming that we intend to begin drilling in ANWR and selected outer sea areas, plus adopt new conservation programs, will the release of oil from our reserves have a major impact on breaking the price of oil.

If our congressional leadership can't muster the courage to begin reversing past mistakes now and allow our companies to drill in ANWR and off-limits offshore areas, and build essential refineries and safe nuclear power plants, what will an even-more-discredited Congress do in 2009, 2010 and 2011, when millions of new city dwellers in China and India will be driving the cars their countries are now producing, thereby materially increasing their already huge demand for oil and gas?

It's wake-up time for America. Maybe we should investigate the blame-throwing investigators in Congress.

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=295485696665472

[RiversideGator]

Sure.  But in the meantime, let's use what actually works now.