Fill ’Er Up with Premium Hopenchange: Gas Prices at the Pump Still Zooming Up, Despite Drop in Oil Prices (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on May 7, 2011
This is what “hopenchange” looks like… fill ’er up, Sparky:
Chart: Monthly gasoline bill for month of April in 2009, 2010, & 2011 | Source: CNN Money
Reported by CNN Money, Your monthly gasoline bill: $368:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Round-trip airfare from New York to Los Angeles. More than a dozen dinners for two at Applebee’s. Two 16 GB iPod nanos.
These are just a few of the things you could have bought if you weren’t spending $368.09 a month on gasoline.
That’s the average amount American households spent on gas in April, according to an exclusive analysis of data by the Oil Price Information Service for CNNMoney.
Crikey, this news opening is hitting my buttons in all the wrong places, so permit me to interject with some hard-core realities about the cash-strapped spending habits of millions of American families.
Forget the spendthrift luxuries of iPods and cross-country round-trip airfares, CNN: $368.09 would buy a heck of a lot of discounted groceries for a struggling family, and they’d still have some money leftover to buy several pairs of gently used secondhand shoes and pants for their growing children.
CNN Money continues…
The study, which compared average gas prices with median incomes nationwide, also showed that U.S. households spent nearly 9% of their total income on gas last month.
That’s more than double what the average American family spent just two years ago, when gas prices were hovering around $2.05 a gallon.
“Gas prices have just skyrocketed,” said Fred Rozell, director of retail pricing at OPIS.
After surging nearly 30% this year, the national average price for regular gasoline is less than 2 cents away from $4 a gallon. That’s still below the all-time high of $4.114, but prices in many parts of the country have already risen to new records well above that level.
For drivers in some states, the pinch of high gas prices is particularly painful.
Mississippi tops the list, with the average household spending over 14% of their total income on gas last month.
Associated Press: As Oil Tumbles, Gas Prices See Little Relief
Where we stand right now on retail gas prices, by region:
Retail gas prices, by region, through May 2, 2011 | Source: EIA DOE
From Chicago Tribune, Indiana residents: Gasoline prices are forcing us to park our cars:
SOUTH BEND, Ind.— Indiana residents say record-high gasoline prices are forcing them to park their cars, stay home more often and ride their bicycles.
“They’re killing us. It’s too expensive,” said Luis Loredo, a 31-year-old painter from South Bend. “Sometimes I can only buy $5. Five dollars is nothing now. If I don’t have to go, I don’t go nowhere.”
Five dollars was getting drivers a little more than a gallon of regular gasoline as prices hit record highs in Indiana. The AAA Hoosier Motor Club reports the average price of a gallon of regular gas was a record $4.25 on Wednesday, surpassing the mark of $4.19 a gallon set a day earlier. The previous record high was $4.17, set in September 2008 after Hurricane Ike disrupted some oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.
“It’s shocking,” Russell Faeges, who teaches sociology at the University of Notre Dame, said as he filled his 1991 Ford Escort with gas that cost $4.29 a gallon.
[...]
Many Indiana drivers are searching for ways to save on gas. Jason Lapadat, a 23-year-old who runs his own lawn-care service in South Bend, said he stays home more often, estimates he drives about half as much as normal.
“I just don’t go nowhere,” he said. “I sit at home and miss out on things.”
Lapadat said in recent weeks he’s raised the basic price of cutting a yard from $20 to $35 and so far he hasn’t lost any customers.
“They’ve been understanding,” he said.
Daniel Johnson, a 28-year-old construction worker from South Bend, said he drives his Ford Expedition sport utility vehicle much less than usual, sharing a Chrysler minivan with his wife instead. He also says he, his wife and their five children ride their bikes whenever they can.
From Casa Grande Dispatch, Arizona gas prices still on the rise:
PHOENIX (AP) — Gasoline prices around Arizona remain are on the rise.
Officials with Triple-A Arizona said Thursday that the average price around the state for unleaded regular gasoline is $3.75 a gallon at the pumps this week. That’s up 4 cents from last week.
From KPRC Houston, Gas Nearly $4 Per Gallon:
According to AAA, the national average is $3.99. Texas drivers have it a little easier, paying an average of $3.86, but the average in Houston is $3.88.
Some analysts have predicted that gas could cost $5 per gallon in the summer months.
The soaring prices are putting a strain on many drivers’ bank accounts.
“It’s ridiculous. Sometimes I have to walk where I need to go,” driver Kevin Bonner said. “It just feels like a crisis.”
Drivers said they are trying to get all their errands done on one trip to save money.
“Got to put less in and driving less,” driver Chad Wilson said. “Can’t afford to fill it up no more.”
Some drivers are paying $75 to $100 each time they fill up their tanks.
On the spiking gas prices, Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio blames Team Obama for making it more difficult for America to tap into its own rich oil resources and for being so dependent on foreign sources. Rubio is right.
Sen. Marco Rubio Talks Gas Prices & Domestic Oil Production
From VentureBeat, Could Gas Prices Fall This Summer? Don’t Count On It:
There’s generally a lag of several weeks between oil-price declines and falling pump prices, as the cheaper oil has to work its way through the refining and distribution process.
And no decline in oil prices is ever particularly simple to explain. In aggregate, more expensive gasoline cuts consumption as car owners drive less. That reduction in demand, in theory, reduces the price over time. Poorer and more rural drivers, particularly in the Southeast and West–where driving distances are longest–have indeed cut back on driving in recent months as gas prices have risen.
Data from the Department of Energy and other sources suggests that gasoline consumption is 2 to 4 percent lower this year compared to a year ago, despite a slightly better economy this year. Last year at this time, gasoline was fully $1 per gallon cheaper.
Changes are imminent, although still not clear. Some states are discussing tacking on extra fees to electric cars to pay for road fees. Electric cars with a range of more than 100 miles are the exception, not the rule. Charging stations at condo complexes have barely been hammered out. For most people who are struggling in this economy, buying an electric or hybrid vehicle to save money isn’t a realistic option because they are still far too expensive.
And while gas prices are going through the ceiling, so are electricity prices. Something that Pres. Obama neglected to mention two weeks ago when, at a townhall in Pennsylvania, he chided Americans who were anguished about the rising cost of gasoline and suggested that cars getting 8 miles to the gallon should be traded in for hybrids — although, except for the presidential limo, even gas-hogging SUVs have better fuel efficiency than 8 mpg.
Reported last week by CNET News, Study: Electric cars, hybrids too expensive for most:
Despite rising prices at the pump, many consumers are still reluctant to purchase vehicles with alternative power trains because of cost and misunderstandings about the new technologies available. That’s according to the J.D. Power and Associates “2011 U.S. Green Automotive Study,” whose primary findings were released today.
The J.D. Power and Associates study was conducted in February and included interviews with over 4,000 U.S. consumers planning to buy a new vehicle within one to five years. It estimates that alternative vehicles will make up less than 10 percent of the market by 2016 despite the plethora of models expected to become available in the coming years.
The study found that attitudes toward the adoption of alternative power train vehicles, which includes plug-in electric, plug-in hybrid, hybrid, and clean diesel engines, were mainly dependent on affordability. Over 75 percent of those consumers surveyed said the main reason they would consider an alternative vehicle car is to save on fuel. But consumers were not willing to pay a premium to be green unless it resulted in a cost benefit to them personally in the form of significant fuel savings, according to the report.
“While consumers often cite saving money on fuel as the primary benefit of owning an alternative power train vehicle, the reality for many is that the initial cost of these vehicles is too high, even as fuel prices in the United States approach record levels,” said the report.
Remember when liberals bashed Pres. Bush for prices at the pump? This photo was taken the month before Obama’s inauguration, the cusp of “hopenchange.”
Gas prices in December 2008, Mobil gas station in Long Island, NY
And this is Washington, DC’s gas pump horror — photo taken yesterday, May 6, 2011:
Gas pump horror in Washington, DC: Exxon gas station, May 6, 2011
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