I filled up my gas tank today and it cost more than $60.
Gas here is almost $3.70 per gallon. OPEC has us over the barrel, don’t they? It is a perfect storm. They won’t increase production. We use more and more oil and now India and its 1.2 billion people and China and its 1.3 billion people are all our fellow consumers of natural resources, buying cars and sucking down petrol. My bet – gas will be more than $4 per gallon at the pump by the time the new President gets sworn in. The oil companies will have record profits each and every sequential quarter and then the new President will figure out how to tax the oil companies on their excess profits. This is not a pretty cycle. For my next car, I am definitely buying some kind of hybrid.
An interesting view of the automotive industry. Where do you see the future of the industry, will it ever recover or will there be major casulties?
thanks !! very helpful post!
Ted, you can be happy that you don’t live in Germany. Gas is very expensive ins Germany more than in the USA.
Ted,
I’m shocked that you espouse the propaganda line when it comes to oil, gasoline, dependency, and the like on this topic. Does one really care what fuel costs when they drive an Aston Martin DB9 convertible up and down the GW Pkwy back and forth from the VC? Not saying they should, but why act like you feel it?
I plan to have one too – my brother in law asked me if my BMW M5 used more gas in the sport mode!! – duh – who cares – I’m willing to pay for it. I create jobs and a demand in our free market using it. That aside, other commentary has covered some basic truths that you don’t seem to agree with or want to acknowledge. The environmentalists and the left have steered and maneuvered to literally put us in this position they complain about. The USA has not built a new gasoline refinery in this country or modernized for over 30 years, but there are more than 100 of the less viable ethanol refineries in production right now. Ethanol is not as efficient as gasoline, it wears out the engines faster, it is more costly to make, and it will drive up food prices – and even more basic commodity than gasoline! Stupid! We are the ONLY major industrialized nation in the world that is not fully utilizing its own resources (ANWAR). You want the price of gas to drop overnight? Just pass a bill allowing ANWAR to be tapped in about 2,000 of the over 19.2 million acres (0.01% of the land) to get at the reserve. Energy independence starts with using our own resources while we develop better sources of energy or put the better sources we already have into usable, consumable commodities. I for one, will not put my family in a hybrid. Not because I’m against conservation, but I won’t support the farce that is being perpetrated on America just to appear PC or concerned for the wrong reasons. The Green Crowd won’t debate the topic on real terms, they just say it’s a fact and are not intellectually and honestly challenged with the details or the reasons why we are where we are. They are allowed to get away with it and they will destroy our economy in this BS. In the meantime, our subsidizing leaders like Chavez and OPEC because we buy their oil instead of using our own means we are directly and indirectly supporting efforts against our own country (communism and terrorism).
NHL and Greenlife? Give me a break. 2007 was one of the colder years, colder than any of the closer recent years we’ve been being duped with around the “Global Warming” myth. Explain that away. Explain away that the Mars median temperate was rising in the same periods – man cause that too? The earth’s south pole is actually becoming larger – it’s called cycles. The inconvenient truth is that we are being lied to by the left and most of America is buying it under a feel good premise – “I’m doing something about it!” Learn something, conserve where it makes sense, for the right reasons, but know the facts.
Another comment correctly put oil profits into perspective. It’s a very small percentage of the cost of a gallon of gas and it is a fairly constant percentage (< 10%). Want gas to drop in price? Remove the gas tax that just stuffs government coffers for more misuse of funds and don't buy foreign oil - use our own. The price of a barrel of oil and the tax on a gallon are the direct contributors to the price of a gallon of gasoline. Oh, and by the way, when the media report oil company profits - they report it to the American public as if all that profit was "gouged" from the USA consumers - it's profits on global business. That should be put straight too.
Shocking Ted … absolutely shocking. I don’t know why but this struck a chord with me. I generally respect most of what you opine. Not this. This comment is probably too long to get your look.
Strength & Honor…
Over here in Sweden, we pay around $2 per liter, and it takes 3.78 liters to get a gallon. So consider yourself lucky
I felt bad about wasting gas when I took my SUV off-roading this weekend. Probably as bad as the guy filling up his Ferrari for a joyous weekend ride to the golf course.
I have no doubt that the USA announcing they would allow companies to begin surveying ANWAR for oil drilling areas would drop the price of oil by 10%. There’s more oil under there than there ever was under the middle east.
All that said, the supply of oil (and coal, etc.) is finite, and we do need to find some other source for energy. Using corn to produce ethanol is fine to start, but why use something that can be used in other ways? Why not use other biomass to make ethanol? I am sure there are lots of folks in the south who would love nothing more than there being a market for kudzu. Cut some of that stuff up, chop it into a pulp, add water, yeast and you’ll get ethanol.
Also, instead of getting the oil companies on this project, how about we ask some of the companies that already make a lot of ethanol to work on the problem…I bet Anheiser-Busch has worked out a lot of logistics for ethanol production (ditto for Miller, Jack Daniel, Jim Beam, Seagram’s, etc., etc.)
Uh, Huh..
Democrats swear they are protecting the environment by not drilling on the 1% of the land in ANWAR.
It’s supply and demand, and the Dems are squeezing supply.
buy a Russian Machine, they never break.
It’s going to get worse before it gets better.(sigh)
It’s just crazy!
imagine the cost for us that dont own a hockey team. you can just short ovie a few nickles and he wont even notice it.
Ted, I hope our next president will put forth a real effort to bring alternative fuels into the mainstream. Without them, we are going to have to choose between eating and driving.
ok, let me comment on the right blog post….lol Hey Ted, when you buy a new car, can I have the one your driving now??? lol
The old gas-guzzling SUV’s wont even be on the roads in 10years.
Public trans all the way!
We the consumer are the only ones who can bring down the gas prices. If we reduce our dependency and the inelastic nature of the demand, OPEC will have no choice but to lower prices. We should all try and reduce our use of our cars. We don’t need to use our cars as often as we do. Even if we all decided to not use our cars for a day each week, I believe it would already do a lot. The thing about a market based economy is that ultimately the consumer has all the power, we just need to realize that.
My brother owns a Prius, I believe he only needs to refill about once a month or so, and he does do a considerable amount of driving daily. Its a great car for city driving.
Maybe there is a future yet for Leonsis Automobiles, dependable, low cost, and efficient non-petroleum cars. Hey, if it came in Cap’s colored sport edition I’d buy it.
Hybrids are a good idea, but MPG is still MPG — which means there are a number of cars out there that actually get better mileage than hybrids, and hence are more sensitive to the environment.
Plug-in hybrids would be even better — but that would mean having to electrify America’s fleet of autos. In turn, that would mean building a lot more non-emitting electric generating capacity — like nuclear, solar and wind.
If that’s the case, one may be better off using a combination of Metro and a car-sharing service like ZipCar to get around.
BTW, when I was in DC to watch Training Camp back in September, I noticed ZipCar vehicles outside a building in on N. Fairfax Drive in Ballston. Do they have vehicles out by Tyson’s Corner, McLean, and Loudoun County?
And whatever happened to this ‘Purple Line’ that would’ve made a Metro version of the Beltway?
Two words: Tesla Roadster
Ted,
While agree on the pain, please do not get caught in the PC hype of bashing Big Oil and their massive profits. don’t look at the dollars, look at the percentages. Oil makes less than 10 % profit on their product. If we are to limit profitability, then apply it equally to all companies. I for one will love it when I see a bottle of water go from one dollar to 25 cents a piece once the profit caps are in place.
Hey maybe you can have a hybrid give away night. Like Oprah. I bet it would fill the seats.