T. Boone Pickens, the Delphic Oracle of the petroleum industry sniffed the vapors and said we will "have $4 a gallon gas this summer". Doesn't surprise me and like Alan Greenspan, the fact that Pickens said it may make it come to pass. I think it will be interesting to see what it will do to the local community here. I live in central Oklahoma in what may be the most car centric place on the planet. On my way to work this morning while waiting at a light onone of the major thouroughfares I counted twenty cars go through, only two of which had more than one occupant.

Anyway, if we want the price of gas to go down we should use less of it. Lower demand equals lower price. I am avoiding the gas station as much as possible.

We are also conserving with our one car.
Both my wife and I recently adjusted our driving styles. Less speeding and less fast acceleration.
I decided to start using my bike more for errands. Works great since most errands are within my local town.

I don't know about $4 a gallon. yuck

Currently pondering tossing my one day drive in to work to exchange clothes.

But c'mon! W's gonna write everyone a check for $100! That's the answer! We don't need to lower our demand...

So. You get a check for $100, to give to an oil company, who sinks it into some middle eastern corrupt monarchy/theocracy, who supports monetarily "jihadist" rhetoric to keep the people pissed at something other than their leaders, who then uses the money to fund bombs/bullets, which then kills a soldier who, let's face it, is there for Big Oil.

This is government waste at its finest. Obviously, if Republicans wanted to make "small" government, they'd eliminate all of those bureaucratic steps, and simply blow up our own soldiers in exchange for oil!

I believe the GOP dumped that idea.

I think we'll hover just above $3 per gallon for most of the summer.

They haven't come up with a consumer-focused "product" that would cause less gas to be used, other than a hybrid car, which is expensive and of minimal environmental merit. As a culture, we have no problem with "buying stuff" to solve a problem, but we can't seem to latch onto the idea of "not buying or doing stuff." Everything needs an advertisement and price tag to be compelling to us.

I guarantee, the minute I start talking to someone about all the cool gear they can buy for their bike, their eyes get sparkly and they get excited about cycling to work. Up to that point, it's just "meh, what's the appeal?" Environmental benefits, health benefits, economic benefits -- unless it's sold by someone, it has no value.



EDIT: And that's not to say I don't buy into it myself. Adding new stuff to my bike gives me pleasure. I can't even use environmentalism as an excuse, because I know it's just compulsive consumption that happens to have been channeled into cycling gear. Oh well. So be it. I'm just grateful my consumption obsession doesn't trend toward Hummers or veal or something slightly more evil.

I don't think we'll see $4 unless there is an actual refinery supply shortage -- a major hurricane in the gulf, a refinery breakdown, etc. Depending on the political climate and trading frenzy, oil might get to $80-85 per barrel, but that would probably only bring gas to $3.50 (my reference point: it's $2.99 to $3.05 in the Philly stations where I gas up)

It not just the Reps. Clinton was afraid to address the issue also. Carter was the only pres that had the guts to drive CAFE and help somewhat towards decreasing dependency. Because the Washington govt, it's also environmentalists that have to take some of the blame. They have pushed only natural gas. No hydro, no nuclear, no clean coal, little wind, little solar, no pumping oil from alaska, no new refineries. I don't think gasoline is the major product of refineries.

The only way to have gas prices go down again is to:
1. have 0.00% oil products used for heating
2. have 0.00% oil products used for electricity
3. have government transportation payments directly to commuters for using non-motor vehicles

I haven't bought gas in 3weeks the the price has gone up .35c since the last fill up...sorry. I'm not buying.

In CA it's already over $4/gallon and it's around 3.15/gallon here. My guess is that the price will rise steadily until it's around $6/gallon like in many places in Europe.

Agreed.We need to stop blaming and get going. It appears that China has higher priority on the oils esp. with their ties to Iran...and that new pipeline going dirctly from Iran to China to meet the mfg demands.

Not true. Crude oil are only part of the reason gas is so expensive right now and the increase in crude prices is only partialy demand driven.

The only way to lower gas prices is to lower the demand for gas. Gas prices will rise until demand falls. Hopefully the slide in SUV sales continues, that would be a good first step. Skipping the drive thru would also help as would driving less of course.

Its going up in europe too. The reason why it is higher there is TAXES to pay for the SOCIAL COSTS of automobiles.

You could be right but China is demanding a-lot of oil for mfg

As the US dollar continues its downward spiral against pretty much all other currencies, it will become more and more expensive to import crude, which will drive the cost of refined products up. With every unsustainable suburb, demand for refined products grows. It's sad, and will not change in our lifetimes.