[Chris Vais]

Same thing happens here in Danville/Blackhawk. for a long time there were a couple of stations near the intersetion of Crow Canyon Road and Tassalajarra Rd that had some really good gas prices. I think it has to do with where all of the oil company Exec.s live.

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[Rap]

Expensive gas in Ca. is a consequence of the enviromental lobbyists who want higher clean air standards. This comes with a cost. It's interesting that despite all of the investigations that the various Congressional committee's have conducted over the years, they have never found evidence of a conspiracy to jack up prices. It would be wonderful to lay this result at the feet of one party or the other, unfortunately they both have come to the same conclusion over the years. They have spent untold millions to come to the same conclusion. Anyone want to wager how long it will be before one of these Congressional dissassotiates angling for media time starts clammering for another investigation?

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[Chris Vais]

I am a California native, and an environmental professional. Contrary to the commonly held belief that California's strict air quality are the consequence of environmental lobbyists, they are in fact a result of the State regulatory agencies tasked by the State to protect and preserve environmental health and public health. The decisions to impose these regulations were taken by the people of California in order to arrest the slide towards unhealthful air quality in areas where air quality was still pretty good and, more importantly, to reverse the the trend and improve air quality in heavily urban areas such as the SF Bay Area where I live. When I was in high school I was a competative bicycle racer and well remember coming home from long summer training rides on the backroads where I lived, wheezing and short of breath. Kids riding those same backroads today don't have those problems.



If you want an object lesson in what happens with lax regulation look at modern China. Unhealthful levels of air pollution have begun to negatively impact economic growth in China. Worker productivity is being impacted on a mass scale by air pollution related lung disease.



I don't mind one bit paying a fair price for the special fuel we use in California. The problem is the current runup in gasoline costs we have seen lately is neither fair nor justified in my mind. It is the product of speculation. The gas in pumps today was purchased under contracts many months ago when the price of oil was less than it's current trading price, so there is no reason that I can see for such a rapid increase other than speculation and greed. Speculators are betting that the current unrest in the Middle East will result in an oil shortage despite the fact that the current contries where the unrest is greatest, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Egypt, and Tunesia collectively produce a drop in the bucket compared to the total production coming out of the Middle East, a deficit that OPEC could easily make up by opening the tap just a smidge. I believe that if speculation on oil was to be put to an end the actual fair price of a gallon of gas would emerge and the American public would be protected the kind specualtive pricing we are currently seeing.

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[Rap]

Chris no offense intended. Of course the voters in Ca. Voted for their special blends of gas. Supply demand dictates pricing here. I agree with your comments regarding pricing of contracts and futures of oil. There is no oil shortage as yet and unless the Suez gets clogged not likely too. But don't lay all of the blame on speculators. This is what a free market economy does and this is how it operates. By the way, unless all of your savings are under your mattress, you engage in speculating in every investment you make from pensions to your home. As we all do! We live in a country were the actual price of gas is quite benign compared to what folks pay in Europe for example. We are just so used to relatively inexpensive gas that any increase raises our cockles!

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[Chris Vais]

Rap, none taken.



You are, of course, correct that we all engage in a certain degree of speculation with our investments. I just have a problem with betting on the potential for disaster, especially if it has a negative impact on the economic recovery this country desperately needs.

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[sstman]

Well here in the UK we have indeed paid 89/90% of our gas price is taxation, and at present I am paying around £1.40, ($2.25) a litre!! (that's 0.265 of a US gallon) its getting hard to justify using the '68 for 'fun' at those price points.

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[flash]

lol - don't get me started on speculation and its evils

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[ds968]

The problem with oil is really all a matter of geographic discrepancy : the largest oil reserves are in Canada, Mexico, Alaska ..and Russia ( each one exponentially more than all middle east combined ) but unfortunately all of our dipsticks are in Washington D.C. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/dry.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[Chris Vais]

"unfortunately all of our dipsticks are in Washington D.C." ain't it the truth

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[cl42jcg]

If we could export all the dipsticks still here in Oregon over to China we could eliminate the trade deficit.

JG

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[Rap]

Gentleman, please please you all overlook the obvious. Either vote the dipsticks out of office and or bring in term limits!

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[Cloud9...68]

If it were only that simple. Seems that no matter who's in office, regardless of party, things never change a whole lot. Either we have fundamental systematic problems that need to be changed at their core (good luck with that), or, maybe, just maybe, the system we have happens to be the very best we flawed humans can ever expect to create.

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[ds968]

" Seems that no matter who's in office, regardless of party, things never change a whole lot. "



Amen. hmm.. you and I may very well be twins separated at birth - based on not only this, but various other posts <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/rolleyes.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> then again that may be true for a lot of us, so perhaps all of the 968 owners are only 2 degrees of separation from one another <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/blink.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/laugh.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[Rap]

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Novemberwith it's supposed sea change in DC still shows us these dipsticks(nice term actually) are unresponsive and either fail to get it or refuse to once they move to DC. I lived there for a long time and the term inside the beltway is illuminating. Everyone is so overwhelmed with info they become too informed. They have no sense or touch with the reality or how we outside the beltway think. Sorry I'm on my soapbox guys!

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[tamathumper]

OK, so shall be begin the discussion of Keynesian economics?



How about the concept of loaning 10 for 11?



Gunz and gardenz, bitchez!

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[Rap]

Ok you first!

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[tamathumper]

I'm not going down *that* road

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[Rap]

I am building a new garage for the car. If you give me money I will hire people to build the garage and hence lower the unemployment rate! This is the democratic way. Do you need my routing codes? Lol

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[ds968]

we're now at $ 6 / gallon ( 91 octane ) at several stations in the great state of Californi..cation. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/whine.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> Yes folks, not a typo.. $ 6 as in SIX. Ok, $ 5.99 so I was off by a penny <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/glare.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[Cloud9...68]

[quote name='ds968' timestamp='1349476056' post='133412']

we're now at $ 6 / gallon ( 91 octane ) at several stations in the great state of Californi..cation. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/whine.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> Yes folks, not a typo.. $ 6 as in SIX. Ok, $ 5.99 so I was off by a penny <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/glare.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

[/quote]

Wow, really?! Prices have been inching down here in Austin - it's around $3.45 for regular on average, so about $3.75 for 93 octane. Still a lot for the beleaguered American consumer to stomach, given that we don't have a lot of alternative modes of transportation in this country, but nowhere near $6 a gallon. I miss the Bay Area (where I grew up) tremendously, but those gas prices would give me pause about ever moving back there, not that my career choice would allow me to do so.

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