Gas Prices - Cuba,MO

Actually, you spending less will help. If we can just get everyone to do what they can. Those of us that have more control should take it. I've been on what I refer to as a miles diet for a long time. I have 20,000 less miles on my van than the national average. My plan is to continue. But my husband on the other hand has to drive a long ways and has no one to carpool with because of the long days he keeps. How many stay at home moms are there that can double up on trips and cut back? Hopefully people will learn that when demand falls so do prices.

Find a different President.

there is no way the "oil companies" can determine the price of oil or gas. (I need to stress when I speak of gas I refer to natural gas not gasoline, a derivitive of oil.) While oil prices are high gas prices are not and wells that produce primarily gas be now be shut in because it costs us more to produce them than we make. Naural gas price in the US is set purly by supply and demand and today supply is more than the demand, this is because we import very little natural gas. Since we do import huge amounts of oil our country has to pay the going price that is set by the world market and since this world market price is stated in US dollars as the dollar devalues the price of oil goes up. Currently this price is also affected by speculators on the commodities market. With unrest in the middle east the speculators are going to bid up the price. Before we throw barbs at the speculators we need to remember that these same people lost huge amounts of money a couple of years ago when the oil price fell, these guys in the commodities over the long haul rarely get rich. The price of gasoline will always be tied directly to the oil price. We hear a lot about OPEC and the oil producing giants in the middle east. The 2nd largest producer is Saudi Arabia and they make every attempt to control the price but they do not have the production capacity to change much, there is a lot of rhetoric but not much effect. Few people realize that the largest oil producer in the world is Russia and they export only a small portion if any of their oil, the third largest producer is the good ole US and they import over 60% of their oil.

I'm trying to think ahead so I can combine trips and not drive as much. I think if everyone cut back it would have to make a difference in the prices. Makes sense; but who knows what's really going on? We should use our own oil, for sure.

I fill up once a week on Sunday. Period. FOrtunately I also work at home and travel minimally around town.

Speculation causes prices to rise - and that's exactly what happened 3 years ago.

Who knows if it will ever go back down - and as for who's to blame - that's an endless game. Don't blame Obama, don't blame Bush - how about some blame square on the American People's shoulders - we bought outrageous gas guzzlers, don't support public transit, have a total "why walk" attitude - we brought this one upon ourselves.

Sucks no matter how you look at it...

What can we do? Pass laws that end oil speculation. Flat out end it.

And place a helluva lot more emphasis on sustainable energy. You can't tell me that technology doesn't exist to make this happen. Oil lobbyists will fight this tooth and nail; they already do. This is why this country hasn't made any significant move in that direction. Too much money in oil. If we'd really buckled down a decade ago, we'd be somewhere today in terms of sustainable energy. And I'm sorry, but I don't agree that the answer is drill on our own soil. Look what happened in the Gulf. The argument that oil drilling on our soil can be done safely and environmentally really doesn't work with me because it's not even being done today -- ONE YEAR after the gulf oil spill. Congress hasn't enacted one single bill to protect our environment since that spill.

But also, do you know how many everyday products are made from petroleum? 6,000. Everything from nail polish, to ballpoint pens, golf bags, caulking, lipstick, fishing rods, surf boards, dashboards, toilet seats, yarn, toothbrushes ... the list goes on and on: http://www.ranken-energy.com/Products%20from%20Petroleum.htm

That's my soapbox.

vote the party in that are not tree huggers & trying to close all our energy down for no good reason. All these type of people push to close down all our energy, pushing bills to make us drive in small compact cars that need to be plugged in, telling 'us' how we are hurting mother earth. BUT then they are flying around in their private jets, Al Gore just bought a huge mansion on the ocean that uses a ton of energy, ride in limos that let out a ton of exhaust, making movies that use enough energy for a small 3rd world country, and I will stop now before I explode with more sarcasm.

Please don't even mention horse & buggy , that's exactly what 'they' want us to do WE MAKE ALL THE SACRIFICES FOR THEM while they make NONE.

Look in your car manual at the recommended gas. Many people are under the false impression that premium is 'better' or that newer cars require premium...this is a myth. If the manual says 'premium', bummer you have to get premium. If your manual doesn't say premium and you get premium because you think it's better for your car and saves you mileage...you are very far from the reality of the situation. Anything other than the kind of gas your car manual says it needs is actually causing poorer performance, even if the title of the gas you are giving says 'premium'. The Octane level is specific to your car engine so look it up!

One other myth is that some gas stations sell 'better' gas. Gasoline is gasoline is gasoline...Shell's unleaded IS THE SAME as Arco unleaded. It might make you feel better to pay a bit more, but there truly is no difference.

Other than what I shared, I agree with many others who feel putting pressure on energy efficient technology to move forward is the policy way to go. Figure out how to outfit your home with energy-saving things and at the very least those monthly utility bills might go down. I know people who collect rain water to use for sewage and gardening to lower their water bill (easier to do in Oregon than Arizona!). I know others who have paid for solar panels, got a huge tax credit for doing so, and end up getting checks FROM the electric company each month! Others purchase hybrid or electric cars.

None of these solutions (short of not using premium if your car doesn't need it and going to the cheapest gas station) will result in immediate savings, but all of them will send a powerful message to policy makers and underhanded gas-gougers that the days of depending on oil are slowly but surely coming to an end. The message is sent through your pocketbook, instead of your pocketbook getting the false message that you have to pay for whatever they want you to pay for.

PS
Don't let anyone fool you. Drilling for our own oil doesn't solve anything....it postpones the inevitable and threatens the great people of coastal towns and economies dependent on a healthy ocean. You don't have to be a 'tree-hugger' or and animal lover to see the very basic reasoning to this. This isn't an 'us' versus 'them' issue in politics, it's a 'you either get it' or 'you don't get it' issue in terms of being economically educated or politically brain washed to go against your own best interest.

Support green technology, stop buying skin/hair/beauty products or other household products that contain petroleum, buy things in bulk when you can or try to buy less things in packaging, buy local when you can, reduce your waste, support your local artisans/farmers so that your food/clothing/wine/stuff doesn't travel so far to get to you, or better yet start composting and growing your own food, and make as much of your own stuff as you can.

Aww hun there isn't anything you can do.

When I was still in school I had to do an analysis of what the data showed was driving the changes in gas prices. Demand didn't correlate at all. This was a couple years ago. After congress started looking into whether oil futures were driving the price increases, well for a while demand drove prices. Now it is back to oil futures driving the price. :(

There is going to be no right answer to this. Everyone was their own mind on the matter. I for one am torn on whether drilling our oil is the right thing. I dont think depending on foreign oil is right either. I wish they would move forward with cars that can be fueled with water. It is a renewable source. And wont threaten humanity if say its rig blows up. I think after watching what happen last year in the Golf it is very irresponsible to start loading our coastal regions with oil rigs. There is to much at risk. Even on dry land drilling. once you have a layer of oil on something, it never is the same again.

We have all the technology we need to switch from oil to hydro or even electric. I dont see why we are still dealing with oil prices.

Given this cant change tomorrow though I think there are lots of things everyone can do to cut back. for now we do local mass transit. Or we ride our bikes. When we have to go longer distances I will drive. I make a trip worth it and do all my distance ''errands'' at once. If I need to go do a big food shopping trip I will add this in to the loop so that i can load the car. When I just need to grab something quick from the store, we walk.

I see my views differ from alot of responses. Please dont come back at me for my opinion.

I agree with Margo, too. My husband said they've found some new gas or oil-bearing layer in the Dakotas, the supply of which is supposed to rival what the Arabians have. He works at an interstate weigh station and he said there's tons of oil equipment heading that direction. Who knows how long it will take to trickle down to the consumer, but hopefully it will make a difference.

I dunno--I think if enough people carpooled or found other ways to cut down on gas consumption, that would hurt their pocketbooks. Personally, I think that's what happened three years ago. The prices went up and consumption went down, so the prices magically went down, too. They will take it as high as we are willing to pay.

My husband and I bought scooters in 2008 when the price of oil was growing. It made a big difference for us. A lot of other people bought scooters, too--you couldn't find one for sale by the end of the year. I like to think it packed a little wallop :)

We bought a Prius about three weeks ago.
It's a hybrid and gets about 50-51 mpg.

The small things we all do are good, but don't help. Our country needs to drill for its own oil, and lift the moratorium on gulf oil drilling.

If we could get everyone in the country to agree to giving up the purchase of gasoline for a single day-it would bring the producers to their knees.

Gas prices in the UK where I am from, work out to be $9 a gallon.
I don't have to say much more about that figure! it speaks for itself. They have always been enormously high, and we drive cars that get better gas mileage accordingly. The car I drove when I lived in the UK got 40 mpg, and that was only the low side, most cars over there get at least that most get more.
My engine size was less than 1 litre, it got me where I needed to go, and as fast as I needed to go.
This is what needs to happen over here to combat the gas prices, stop driving humungous V8 trucks and 6 litre SUV's to drive your kids to school and go shopping, buy smaller more economical cars, and if you don't want to do that, then put up with it I guess.

Oil is a non-renewable resource. We have to practice better conservation before we go off and start drilling in place that 'looks' like it might be a good source of oil.

SLOW DOWN when driving. If a light is changing yellow, coast until the brakes are needed to stop the car. Be sure tires are inflated to proper pressures. Turn lights off when not in use. Unplug devices like DVD players, etc, that have lights on all of the time.

Until we show a little self-control in using petroleum based products, we can't do irrepairable harm to natural resources. All life on this planet is based on a very tenuous balance of our natural resources. Conservation must be a consideration when making any decision about enery usage.

My 2 cents worth. D.

Gas where I live is $4.39 for regular. It kills me when I see on the news that the average is reaching $4. It's been $4 here for a long time.
I ride the bus as much as I can. It's a pain, but I can get into the city and back on $3, round trip, when one gallon of gas is $4.39.
What we need is to find ways to have fuel that isn't dependant on other countries. However, that's going to be difficult because biggety-bigs with money who can afford gas at any cost also make money from their investments and deals with foreign producers.
I could be wrong, but I disagree with a full on boycott helping. Then they will raise the prices because they are losing money.
It's a catch-22. We need to get around and they figure people will pay whatever it takes, but that's not true either. People on limited incomes simply can't just absorb the extra costs. Like I said, it's very complicated and if the oil companies lose money, they will raise the prices to recoup it.
Just my opinion.
All I know is that in California, minimum wage is $8/hour. Gas where I live is $4.39. People are working just to put gas in their cars to get to work with nothing left to show for it.
Prices are rising for everything and a lot of it is blamed on gas prices for delivering goods. Wages aren't rising at the same rate. The number of employed isn't rising along with it.
I don't know what the answer is. I wish I did.

I'm on the road daily with errands and that is just how it is. That said, I just paid $4.10 for premium (my car will only take premium...no choice) and I am excited that I actually got 16 MPG for the first time.

My car is sport luxury and it is part of the price I suck up and pay to drive the car, but I LOVE my car.

I haven't noticed much change in driving habits around us, Dallas burb... continued traffic jams daily.

I want to pressure politicians to end gas tax subsidies. Not likely but I wish I could find a way to *convince* our politicians to get on board w/ this idea!

I'm using the car for local errands much less. I take a shuttle or walk on my lunch breaks to shop for household supplies.