Return to $1 gas? Energy prices evaporate

[OneBlueSky]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12400801/

Dismal data counteracting usual trend for increased winter demand



Associated Press
updated 4:01 p.m. ET, Fri., Dec. 5, 2008

Oil prices hit four-year lows Friday as employers cut the highest number of jobs in 34 years. The continuing decline in prices is so dramatic and so sudden that it is raising the prospect that gas prices could soon fall below $1 a gallon.

The worst jobs data in 34 years on Friday just added more fuel to the deepening global recession as U.S. employers slashed a far worse-than-expected 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent.

A gallon of gasoline can be had for 50 cents less than it cost just last month, and people are starting to talk about $1 gas.

Granted, gas prices are a long way off from that magic number last seen in March 1999 when prices were at 97 cents a gallon, according to motor club AAA. Prices at the pump fell 1.6 cents overnight to $1.773 nationally, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.

- more . . .

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12400801/

[Lithos]

1. $1.519 here

Nothing has severely changed in the fundamentals save for the loss of easy credit which was the primary driver for unregulated speculation.

L-

[ThomWV]

2. $1 gas today is evidence of the theft that was taking place when it was $4 a gallon

They were robbing us blind and while they were doing it our Congress did nothing and we suffered - even until this day no one has so much as been charged with the theft let alone tried/conviced/jailed. And the theft goes on.

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. Exactly right!

[Gman]

3. It's like the nightmare is over

8 years later and things start getting back to the way they were.

[rucky]

4. Why is my heating bill through the fucking roof?

again

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. Also, food prices haven't decreased as a result of lower oil prices. We were told, that was the

reason for higher food prices, along with using corn for fuel. When will food prices come down? :silly:

[ThomWV]

11. Its more natural gas prices than diesel that drives up food prices and it takes a while

Natural gas is used to make fertilizer and that is a major cost, and of course the price of fuel for machines is a great part of the price of food too and most of that is diesel - which is still very high in price. Anyway it takes just about a year for those price increases or decreases to find their way to you. Basically you're looking at one crop cycle or the equal for meat production for the prices to find their way to you. With meat it trails a little bit more because first the Price increase has to show up in grain (feed) and then be grown into meat, then processed into product.

[PADemD]

14. My heating oil budget plan was reduced by $220 per month

when I called my oil dealer and asked them to recalculate my budget. The old plan was based on $4 per gallon, and I had almost $2,000 in credit on my account. It's absolutely worth a call!

[elifino]

6. Gasoline/diesel prices NW Ga.

$1.539 Reg, $1.639 Plus, $1.739 Premium, $2.449 Diesel

[ellie]

8. What about the hysteria over

Drill, baby drill? Was that, like so many other ideas put forth by bankrupt repukes just a way to whip the base into a frenzy? It is so nice to be right.

[Township75]

9. Bring Back The Hummer!!!!

That will be the best thing about low gas prices. WE can all drive oversized SUVs to the mall again. YAY!

[Telly Savalas]

10. They're just doing it to manipulate the election.

After the election, prices will skyrocket.

[machI]

12. Tell me to adjust my aluminum foil hat but,

It sure seems like a correlation between the United States getting serious about alternative energy sources and the price of oil going down enough to make them uneconomical.

Solar power, wind power, geo thermal power get a boost when oil is at $100 ++ a barrel, but where is T Boone when oil is at $50?

[KharmaTrain]

13. Keep Adjusting...It's A Global Thing...

The lack of credit has dried up a lot of consumer spending, factories have cut down on production, people aren't traveling as they had and business is all but stagnant. You don't need as much oil when you don't have the factories cranking or the tankers loaded...overall it's a "hang-over" of the high prices of a couple months ago. I expect consumption to go up, but as long as the economy remains stagnant, demand will stay low and so will prices.

This country gives lip service, but I still haven't heard of a bigger push toward green technology than there was a couple months ago. When I heard the "Big 3" the other day, all I heard was about 2 or 3 or 5 years down the road, nothing that's out there now or that would be affordable and in such volume to make a real market impact.

This is the time to push even harder to get this country off this awful addiction...be glad the prices are low for now, but that doesn't mean they'll stay that way.