Gas $4.00 a gallon?

[beam me up scottie]

Announcement to be made at 4:00pm?

This is the rumour my co-worker just heard.

We're in Kentucky, anybody else hear anything like this?

[Verve]

1. Actually I heard 5 or 6 bucks. Fill up while you can! n/t

[whistle]

2. Where? What part of the country? It's $2.699 in Orlando FL as of

....this morning

[beam me up scottie]

4. Kentucky.

Apparently this came from a "source" in the DOT, FWIW.

It was $2.76 here this morning.

[Verve]

5. According to CNN last night, with the Texas Refineries being down it's

estimated that gas prices could reach the 5 or 6 dollar mark across the country. Even, if they aren't damaged in the storm, it takes several days to get these refineries turned back on.

[kywildcat]

3. I'm in KY as well,

who made this announcement? the press? the oil companies? It will hit 4.00, probably by monday, 5 plus by the end of next week (katrina+ rite+ nigeria=venezuela)but not at the government/press say so.

[caligirl]

6. filled up our minivan today at 2.95 a gallon in the bay area. 1st

time it was under 3 a gallon in awhile.

[KharmaTrain]

7. "Short Term" Spike...Yeah Right...

The reason is that the refineries will have to shut down to ride the storm out, and that alone will cut the flow of gasoline for several days.

The cruel joke here is Katrina took about 30% of the petroleum refining capacity offline and put the load on the Houston area...now that 30% is shutting down...all that's left is Long Beach.

If there's a major hit on these refineries like there were in the ones around New Orleans, we could be in for a very cold, long and gas-less winter. The scenario is the Texas refineries will have little damage, but know one knows. We still haven't learned the extent of the damage to the New Orleans facilities. This is no short term problem, this has the markings of a long-term supply/demand problem that will keep prices high for some time to come.

The real squeeze could be on Natural Gas and Heating Oil...those facilities are also in peril and shortages on this front could add to the mess on the limited number of refineries.

I've heard reports of gas being as high as 4.50 a gallon by next week...and it could stay in the 3.50-4.00 range for the next 6 months. How can people assorb this kind of shock? This is like having everyone's taxes raised...I still see the Hummers filling up at the self-serve. Maybe for not much longer.

[beam me up scottie]

9. Some of us can't afford it.

Seriously.

I'm one paycheck away from being homeless.

There is nothing else I can cut from my budget to make up the difference.

I don't have tv so my computer is my only link to the world and I consider it a necessity.

Even if I were to cut out the internet, it still wouldn't be anywhere near enough money.

I went grocery shopping last night and had to put food back because I needed to have a prescription filled.

[KharmaTrain]

11. You Are Far From Alone...

I am fighting with you and hoping you can keep strong as the times get tough.

I'm in a suburban area where cars are the lifeblood. Many comute upwards of 100 miles a day round-trip and the expense is killing them. Rapid transit isn't really an option...and as more people start taking the few trains that are around, that's creating delays on those lines.

The silent "killer" in here is the creep these prices have throughout the entire economy. The nearly doubling of oil prices over the past 2 years is now showing up on your grocery store shelves and in the many products you need to live on. And this doesn't count the mess that's been created in the wake of these storms that are hitting critical port and oil areas.

The biggest victims here are the poorest and silent in our society. The elderly...who won't see their benefits increase enough to pay for their heating bills this winter...and now the Repugnican assoles are talking about delaying the screwed-up Medicare benefit to pay for one part of the "reconstruction". The nerve!

We're all suffering from 5 years of total Repugnican control...and 20 years of letting the corporations and the wealthy plunder all the best resources of this country for their own profit. Now are enough people pissed off and ready for a change? I'm not sure yet.

[beam me up scottie]

13. I work with

freepers and they're even starting to complain.

Not about the poor people, of course, or the victims of Katrina, but because they're having to dip into their golf money to fill up their gluttonous SUVs.

I hope they choke on their fumes.


The reichwing thugs have managed to cripple rail systems and cut funding for community bike trails so that mass transit and other alternatives aren't even an option for most of us.

[KharmaTrain]

14. They're In Absolute Denial

I hear every excuse about why they need to drive those tanks. The moms need it so their two neurotic kids don't drive them nuts. The men need the testosterone fix of the big engine. And it's what "everyone else does".

I have a 5-speed that clips at about 30mpg and have had the last laugh at a lot of these people in recent years. These people are still numbed to how long they've been led into the mess we're in and are in total denial about being lied to. They just don't have the character to question...they want to live in their little world and let others sorts things out.

Whenver I run into someone who dares to waive RNC talking points or even admits they voted for asshat or any Repugnican...I call them immoral. They knew they voted to give a "mandate" to this regime that had lied and deceived them openly to start the Iraq war and now is in full plunder. They get no sympathy or pity from me...just disgust.

Cheers...

[readmylips]

8. Some places in Cal: 3.75/ AZ 3.09 and up....

I don't understand. If this is a crisis, why are the oil companies making the crisis more difficult? Should they also suffer and sacrifice? I take it, my doctor since he's in such high demand, should also double the prices of my visit. God Bless the Nation of Greed.

[beam me up scottie]

10. Four words: RECORD OIL COMPANY PROFITS

We'll be reading plenty of stories about people freezing to death in their homes this winter, I'm afraid.

[MadHound]

12. And you know what the real kicker is

That's the fact that these gas prices are going to rise due to the price of futures in the oil market. All of those prices we're hearing about, barrel of oil rising etc. etc., those are all futures prices, the price for a barrel of oil thirty days from now. The gas that we're pumping in our tank today, and this weekend is all refined from oil that was bought before Hurricane Katrina even hit the Gulf, much less NO.

Record oil company profits indeed, the bastards are bending the American public right over that oil barrel.

The only silver lining in this is that the gas prices are finally forcing the American public to wake up and start conserving. SUVs are quickly becoming a vanishing breed, and people who would have never ever been caught dead without their Ford 350 Penile Compensator are now motoring around on motorcycles, hybrids, carpools and other such measures.

But sad to say, it is going to be the poorest among us who bear the brunt of this change. They can't afford the energy prices, and they can't afford to outlay the money it would take to start conserving. Crony capitalism at its finest:eyes:

[beam me up scottie]

15. "Ford 350 Penile Compensator"

BWAHAHAHAHAHA !!!

Thanks, I needed that laugh!

Seriously, though, I'm originally from Vermont and I am really worried about people freezing to death this winter.

Or dying in house fires caused by the use of kerosene or space heaters.

Or going without medicine because they need the money to pay for heating oil.

Goddamn it all to hell.

[MadHound]

16. Well, let me put your mind to rest concerning a couple of things

I used to be broke enough that I was heating with space heaters and kerosene, and even twenty years ago the technological safeguards on both types of heating are much much better. You have automatic shutoffs on kerosene heaters, and electric space heaters use enclosed oil now, not those orange glowing electrical filaments.

But you're right, people could very well freeze to death this winter, and that is a goddamn crime in this country. And it is only going to get worse in the coming years. That's one reason why I'm going to wood heat next year, I could barely afford my propane pre-guy this year, and who knows what the prices will be next year.

Welcome to the decline and fall of the American Empire. Please strap yourself in and put your seat in an upright and secure position, it is going to be a really, really bumpy ride.

[beam me up scottie]

20. Many people in Vermont

are going back to burning wood this year.

But I just read that the price of seasoned wood is already a third higher than it was last year and that many sawmills are running low.

People will start burning green wood before too long.

For years my only source of heat was a wood stove.

[VolcanoJen]

17. I'm in Cincinnati, and I've heard no such thing.

Who makes "announcements" about gas prices? Individual owners set their own prices.

I don't see this happening. Interesting rumor, but I'm pretty sure that's all it is.

[beam me up scottie]

19. That's exactly what I thought.

"Announcing" it would be guaranteed to cause panic and create real shortages out of fake ones.

[VolcanoJen]

21. And who would make such an announcement?

The Governor of Kentucky (asshole) or something? It just doesn't make any sense. Must be some rumor started by some jackass on the radio.

Again, I'm in Cincinnati, right on the Kentucky state line, and I haven't heard a word about an "announcement" that gas prices will hit $4.00.

[beam me up scottie]

22. *snort*

Yeah, I think the guv'ner of Kentucky has other things on his mind right now.

Like pardoning everybody else on his staff before they can be charged or even indicted and fink him out.

[DS1]

18. If I didn't walk to work I'd likely be in a negative-cash flow

situation at $5 per gal.