Gas Survey
• What’s your current price for Unleaded? $3.83
• What did you spend on gas last month? $420.85
• Where do you live? Clinton, Michigan
• How high do you think it will reach in the next 18 months? $6.75
• What’s your solution to this problem? Get off oil all together.
May 13, 2008 at 9:31 am
Getting off oil altogether is a nice thought, but it’s not going to happen for a long time. The problem right now is supply and demand. Countries like China and India are growing rapidly, consuming a lot of oil, thus increasing demand and the price. What we need right now is a larger supply.
But as long as the Democrats (and some Republicans) continue to bend over for the radical tree huggers and refuse to allow the oil companies to seek out new sources of oil in North Dakota, Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, we will have this problem.
Get used to spending a lot of your income on fuel!
May 13, 2008 at 9:37 am
@P&C I’m cool with drilling and using every avenue we can to relieve this pressure, but as long as people keep thinking that getting off oil is a “good idea” and don’t actually make steps in that direction (serious steps) we’re going to have major problems.
I also think that if the oil companies saw us making valid steps in that direction they’d lower the prices immediately.
We’ve had the technology for decades and have been fat and happy while the supply was there. Now it’s biting our collective laziness in the butt.
May 13, 2008 at 10:13 am
I’m not trying to sound like a conspiracy theorist or anything, but why do you think that the technology that we’ve had for decades hasn’t been put into wide use?
Partially, it’s because the tech is still impractical and inefficient, but I think that the main reason is that the research is being suppressed. There’s no monetary incentive for any of the major players to invest in a more efficient energy source.
What we really need is Mr. Fusion.
May 13, 2008 at 10:16 am
• What’s your current price for Unleaded? $3.89
• What did you spend on gas last month? $480
• Where do you live? Ypsilanti, Michigan
• How high do you think it will reach in the next 18 months? $5
• What’s your solution to this problem? Drill in Alaska….if you want to see animals go to the zoo!
May 13, 2008 at 10:25 am
@phillip: I agree. It has been quite suppressed. Why? Greed.
@superman1224: I’ll continue on the thoughts I had with P&C… drilling and more supply is only a band-aid (and a weak one at that). We need real solutions.
As for the animals, I do think that PETA and the like are way overboard BUT, there is something there. Who wants to live in a society with nothing but concrete? That won’t happen during mine or Tanners lifetime, but that’s the direction we’re going when we constantly rape our environment to please our instant gratification society.
We really need to think farther down the road.
May 13, 2008 at 10:40 am
• What’s your current price for Unleaded? $3.78
• What did you spend on gas last month? $200 (drive a prius and carpool)
• Where do you live? toledo, ohio
• How high do you think it will reach in the next 18 months? $5.50
• What’s your solution to this problem? personal responsibility. people need to drive less, carpool more, and use their brains when making a decision on what kind of car to purchase. it’s easy as pie to blame the oil companies (and don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of blame to go around) but if you willingly drive a car that gets less than 30mpg and have the means to change that, then the jokes on you. i’m tired of seeing people driving around sports cars and hummers for their large families of one and complaining about gas prices.
additionally, i agree with you that we need to get off oil altogether. until that happens though, i stick with the personal responsibility idea.
May 13, 2008 at 10:44 am
@joshua: Personal responsibility is huge! And I can’t believe I didn’t know you lived in Toledo!! I thought you lived in columbus or something. We definitely need to hook up dude!
May 13, 2008 at 10:59 am
yeah boyeee.
don’t forget, patrick henry hughes is this weekend! you guys should come down, we’ll get some coffee between services or something
May 13, 2008 at 11:23 am
What’s your current price for Unleaded? $3.83
• What did you spend on gas last month? ask Brent - he does the bills
• Where do you live? Medford, OR
• How high do you think it will reach in the next 18 months? Definitely in the 5 dollar range
• What’s your solution to this problem? My personal solution? I think we as a family are doing as much as we can. We’re driving a lot less. What else is in my personal power? This is about greed IMO, from a much higher source than me. Big oil companies can’t post their billions of dollars of profit and tell us we’re hurting. Someone’s making lots of money here and they should be sending us thank you cards.
May 13, 2008 at 11:35 am
It’s easy, but misguided, to bash Big Oil. Obama has talked about taxing oil company profits, and his disciples cheer as they have an Obamagasm. But as George Will points out in a recent column:
“ExxonMobil’s 2007 profit of $40.6 billion annoys you. Do you know that its profit, relative to its revenue, was smaller than Microsoft’s and many other corporations’? And that reducing ExxonMobil’s profits will injure people who participate in mutual funds, index funds and pension funds that own 52 percent of the company?”
I certainly agree that we should be more responsible and pursue other technologies (and add more nuclear power to the mix). But in the meantime, we need more oil. And there’s plenty of it out there. China is already getting oil that we could have obtained from the Gulf of Mexico thanks to Jeb Bush who would not allow the oil companies to drill there.
May 13, 2008 at 11:43 am
Oh boy…
Hot topic:
What’s your current price for Unleaded? $3.79
• What did you spend on gas last month? Don’t even want to look
• Where do you live? Denver, CO
• How high do you think it will reach in the next 18 months? $4.50 tops
• What’s your solution to this problem? Stay home on the weekends & drill wherever necessary while finding a gas-free solution.
May 13, 2008 at 11:49 am
I thought this was a great post with a pretty good link at the end to another good article…
http://caffeinatedfaith.com/?p=234
May 13, 2008 at 11:59 am
I like baby oil.
Oh wrong kind of oil?
Gas prices aren’t really all that high. Factor in the prices of other premium liquids. And it’s average at best. sure it hits us pretty hard, but only because we’re not USED to spending over 3 bucks per gallon.
It is funny though that I hear a lot of people who drive large vehicles complaining about gas prices. If you don’t like it, walk.
Solution? Too many to land on just one. That’s the beauty of the world we live in. Eventually, the best one will rise to the top.
Most people don’t realize it, but just 150 years ago we were a very “green” nation. When necessity demands it, we’ll get that way again.
Problem is, as “expensive” as oil is becoming it’s still cheaper than anything else.
May 13, 2008 at 12:29 pm
@P&C: I was browsing your site earlier this morning. You’re a big fan of that term Obamagasm’. Did you coin it?
May 13, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Ha! I wish! It is just a very apt phrase for the rabid followers of B.O. In their eyes, the man can do no wrong (see Mark Elrod’s blog for evidence of this).
I actually think that B.O. is probably a great guy. But his ideas are terrible. I will do everything I can to see to it that he’s not elected President. Even if it means voting for Crazy John McCain!
May 13, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Gas here is about $1.25 a litre. That works out real close to $5.00/gallon.
May 13, 2008 at 1:17 pm
• What’s your current price for Unleaded? $3.79
• What did you spend on gas last month? $126.86
• Where do you live? Rochester, NY
• How high do you think it will reach in the next 18 months? $4.85
• What’s your solution to this problem? Be a single-car family. Live strategically (ie, within 5 miles of work, shopping and play). Pre-plan commute, travel and errands to maximize efficiency. Use public transportation, walk or bike whenever possible.
May 13, 2008 at 1:55 pm
We defied the most powerful empire in the world to become a nation.
We overcame our greatest sin of slavery despite unrest that almost split us in two
We championed the cause of the working class and became the largest economy in the word while giving all our citizens the highest standard of living the world has ever known
We rallied together to build the greatest armed force in the history of the world and ensured peace and freedom for a generation
We cured diseases that devastated the world.
We developed technology that will change the landscape of humanity for 100 years.
We found a way to make peace and end the cold war without a shot being fired.
Don’t tell me what is too hard and what we can’t do. Don’t feed me numbers and talk about what is practical and realistic. I believe in the America I’ve read about not the America I see right now. My grandparents wore one pair of shoes for a whole year and ate meat 3 times a week. Everyone says our generation is too lazy and self centered to sacrifice for a cause. I say we are made of the same stuff as the old generation, we’ve just never been challenged.
People who say we can’t stop using oil aren’t really telling us what we can’t do. They are telling us what they don’t have the guts to stand up and ask us to do. To me, that’s the most un-american thing I can imagine.
May 13, 2008 at 1:59 pm
@Brandon: Yeah, but what I really wanted to know is what you are paying for gas.
(Well said friend. Well said.)
May 13, 2008 at 2:04 pm
well I didn’t want to get all snooty, but I can’t remember cause I haven’t filled up in about a month. I work about 10 miles from work and ride my bike 75% of the time. (yes I can)
May 13, 2008 at 3:27 pm
P&C - Help me understand this. The injury it would cost share holders would be financial right?
And I think I’m (we’re) more dependent on oil than Microsoft. I don’t see how those two relate to the other at all in terms of comparing profit. I understand a business is in business to make money. that’s the American way….but 40+ billion in profit when the majority of us struggle every day to make ends meet, depending on oil, as they laugh all the way to the bank…
i think there’s a lot more behind this than we will ever know.
May 13, 2008 at 6:12 pm
• What’s your current price for Unleaded? $3.83
• What did you spend on gas last month? I don’t keep track…partially b/c of naivety and the other third is b/c I don’t want to kill anyone
• Where do you live? Cleveland, OH
• How high do you think it will reach in the next 18 months? If “they” have anything to do w/ it…$5.25 at least! If I have anything to do w/ it, it will be back to where my grandparents could fill their car for a quarter!
• What’s your solution to this problem? Why don’t we put two problems together to find a common solution. Two negatives make a positive, right? So, why don’t we take all of the non-bio friendly water bottles everyone is letting lie for eons in a land fill, and create some type of energy from those suckers? eh?
Two birds. One stone.
You’re welcome.
May 13, 2008 at 11:46 pm
For kicks I went back a few years to see how April compared…
2008 — $420.85
2007 — $332.16
2006 — $442.14
(Seemed like an anomaly here. We spent $405.56 in March and $344.21 in May that year)
2005 — $250.66
2004 — $197.20
May 14, 2008 at 10:05 am
• What’s your current price for Unleaded? $3.65
• What did you spend on gas last month? $250 (for both my wife and myself)
• Where do you live? George Bush country
• How high do you think it will reach in the next 18 months? The Moon.
May 14, 2008 at 10:12 am
I would like to get a little scooter to drive. Keep the car parked unless I need to cart something. I don’t drive a whole lot but work is pretty close, but not close enough to bike… ok, maybe it is but it would take me 30 minutes as opposed to 10.
May 14, 2008 at 10:37 am
hey mud puppy…thanks to those stats…i just puked a little
May 14, 2008 at 12:36 pm
wow mud. you spend a lot on gas.
we have a 250.00 budget for both of us together. for a whole month.
that’s all we can afford. when we run out we have to take from other sources. like, grocery or medical. argh!!!
breathe tam. breathe.
May 16, 2008 at 10:41 am
Had to fill up today, so I’ve got the figures for you:
• What’s your current price for Unleaded? $3.79
• What did you spend on gas last month? $85
• Where do you live? The recession-proof land of the SUV (Texas)
• How high do you think it will reach in the next 18 months? Not high enough to make most people buy new cars.
May 16, 2008 at 12:10 pm
@Brandon: Two questions…
1. What is your mass transit costs for the month
2. Does that amount include your wifes gas consumption as well?
May 16, 2008 at 1:56 pm
The transit pass is $60 a month
That gas total doesn’t include my wife’s commute. She runs her own business that requires her to drive quite a bit for delivery.
To be clear though, my efforts to use less gas are not for financial reasons. My savings are pretty minimal.
May 16, 2008 at 1:58 pm
@Brandon: Gotcha. I just wanted to get a clearer picture here. My totals include my wife’s commute to and from Ann Arbor each day, as well as my shorter commute to Tecumseh and back.