Gas Wars: How much are you paying? w/ video

While you're crying at the pump, here's a little entertainment -- at the expense of House Republicans -- for your viewing pleasure.

Me? I paid $3.49 for the cheap stuff in northern Colorado. While it's 18-cents cheaper in Cheyenne (and I can pick up some cheap illegal fireworks while I'm there) am I willing to drive 50 miles out of my way and blow a gallon of gas to save a little money?

Ask me when gas hits 4 bucks a gallon.

•  I don't own a car

  and I don't know how to drive. S, I don't pay for gas.  At least, not directly.

  by plf515 on Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:40:30 AM PDT

  •  I wish I didn't need a car

    I drive as infrequently as I possibley can.
    
    
    ````
    peace
    
    

    by peace voter on Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:42:13 AM PDT

    •  Well, I live in NYC

      which makes it pretty easy

      Being blind in one eye, and with a lot of visual spatial impairments on top of it, driving would be dangerous

      by plf515 on Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:45:05 AM PDT

  •  Wow, I thought I was the only one.... ;-)

    No car, no license, and no real desire to get either.

    To be fair, I live in a region (the Washington, D.C. metro area) with a pretty solid public transportation infrastructure. But I still hear from my friends and coworkers how they "need" cars all the time, and how there's just no way they could function without it. I guess it's easier for me, since I never drove to begin with, but I bet well over half of these folks really don't need cars at all. Not everyone can get by without them, of course (especially in more rural areas), but I'd wager that the number is a lot smaller than most people expect, even in a country as automobile-centric as the United States. Given enough time and continued high gas prices, I suspect we'll see this to be the case.

    by seancdaug on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:07:51 PM PDT

•  $3.81 per gallon

  was the least I've paid recently.
  
  
  ````
  peace
  
  

  by peace voter on Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:41:16 AM PDT

  •  Milwaukee

    Paid $3.799 last time I filled up, local station at $3.859 this morning.

    Starve the corporate beast, buy local!

    by EthrDemon on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:21:54 PM PDT

•  I think I last paid...

  ...$3.99 around here for premium. Regular was going for $3.79 last week. I haven't checked since then.

  by dennisl on Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:42:16 AM PDT

•  I bent over and took it to the tune of

  $61.15 to fill my tank.

  $3.95 / gal for Premium in Montegomery County, MD.

  I could have saved $2.75 if the gas tax was suspended.  YIPPIE.

  by Ex Real Republican on Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:42:30 AM PDT

•  3.73 in NW Montana for 87 octane. n/t

  by MTmofo on Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:43:50 AM PDT

•  0 dollars when I pedal

  Being able to bike to work past 4 gas stations rocks!

  by Norm in Chicago on Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:47:23 AM PDT

•  Close to $5 a gallon in British Columbia

  I don't wanna hear your whining!  :)

  It's expected to go to $1.40 or $1.50 a liter this summer, which works out to around $5.70 a gallon.  Needless to say, I'm glad I don't have to drive a whole lot.  

  The current price is 1.269 CAD/liter.  Eek.

  by ssmt on Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:49:33 AM PDT

  •  If you do the conversion from liters to gallons..

    ... and dollars, it's about $8/gallon in Europe.

    by Plutonium Page on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:03:30 PM PDT

    •  I stopped complaining about prices after...

      ...touring Europe last fall and seeing the prices in places like Norway, Ireland, England and mainland Europe.  Especially England.  Hollleeeee cow!

      My car still gets 30-35 mpg and I don't have to drive much, so it's not really impacting me as much as others.  It does kinda make me rethink a summer roadtrip, though.  

      And touring in the fall?  The band may be having more overhead expenses than usual.  (not my band, I just work for them)

      by ssmt on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:06:29 PM PDT

      •  just bought 400 liters of fuel

        we use rationed gas cards...200 liters at a time. I paid $456 for both. The diesel was 250 of that...euro 98 is cheaper (go figure)

        But if I were to pay at the pump it would have been $165 to fill the tank on my Dodge Grand Caravan. (that's the roughly $8 per gallon mentioned above)

        Our other car is a VW Golf---50 MPG...a much cheaper drive, even with the higher price.

        by karlawithaK on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:28:12 PM PDT

•  $4.29 in Humboldt (Premium)

  With the exception of a few boutique gas outlets, Humboldt has always had the highest gas prices in the nation. With rising prices, the difference is less though.

  by wezelboy on Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:49:58 AM PDT

•  $0

  by terrypinder on Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:58:42 AM PDT

  •  bike nerds rock!

    by Plutonium Page on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:03:45 PM PDT

    •  e-bikers rock more

      check these out...

      http://www.evworld.com/...

      http://www.aerorider.com/...

      by racerx on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:09:28 PM PDT

    •  and my helmut is freaking sexilicious

      by terrypinder on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:24:21 PM PDT

•  Find cheaper gas

  @ www.gasbuddy.com

  Of course, at some places (like above, Humboldt)... yer just skrewwwed.  

  by Orj ozeppi on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:01:33 PM PDT

•  about $3.50/gal in Albuquerque

  At least our hybrid gets decent mileage, and we try  not to drive too much... but ABQ is so spread out that we have to drive to most places :-(

  Our bikes are arriving in a few weeks - uh, that is, if Customs releases our stuff in a timely manner.

  We'll ride to as many places as are practical then.

  I need a way to calm down when I see huge-ass cars.  Let the air out of their tires?  Stick "global warmer" stickers on them?  Or simply make up names for them, by adding "anal" to the car name, like "anal Explorer"?

  "Anal Sequoia" sounds painful.

  by Plutonium Page on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:02:49 PM PDT

•  $140 to fill up my Audi A4 in England

  That is just a regular size tank.  Ouch!

  by Last Best Chance on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:02:54 PM PDT

  •  :O

    That used to be my fuel budget for months when I was 19!

    by ssmt on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:07:26 PM PDT

  •  YIPES. n/t

    by anna on Wed May 07, 2008 at 01:06:58 PM PDT

•  $3.87 west of Seattle. ouch. n/t

  by TheWesternSun on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:03:57 PM PDT

•  $4+ and that's not high enough

  If you think people will begin to really cut back on fuel usage without high prices, then I have some Hillary stock to sell you.

  Global warming is real, and one of the bst things that can happen right now is the escalation of fossil fuel prices.

  by racerx on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:07:28 PM PDT

  •  The unfortunate fallout

    I don't disagree with you one bit about needing to curb fossil fuel usage, but it's a shame the United States and lots of Canada has arranged their cities and living spaces to force people to be so car dependent.  As cars become more expensive to drive, it's going to hurt a lot of lower classes.

    They're stuck in a system they didn't create and lacks good solutions.  Most people aren't even aware that global oil production would peak in their lifetimes, ya know?  It's not a good situation for all involved.

    by ssmt on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:13:01 PM PDT

    •  Unfortunately, it had to happen

      cheap fossil energy built our economies, and it will kill the planet if it continues. Our economies can adapt, especially when you see stories about $7.5 gas in the news.

      Goldman Sachs analyst Arjun Murti predicted Tuesday that the price of crude oil could hit $150 to $200 a barrel in six to 24 months. ...  if crude jumps to $150 or $200, how does that translate into prices at the gas pump. Here's the scary part.

      If crude hits $150 a barrel, we could be looking at $5 a gallon or so for the retail price of gasoline. That's based on Tuesday's $3.61-a-gallon national average and the rule of thumb that, for every $1 increase in crude oil, the pump price rises 5 cents a gallon.

      If crude hits $200, the retail price of gas jumps to $7.52 a gallon. (Plus or minus a few cents)

      by racerx on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:29:09 PM PDT

      •  No doubt people will adapt

        It's just a matter of exactly what sort of lifestyle will exist afterwards.  It could be an ugly transition or if people would actually start dealing with Peak Oil realities, it might not be as difficult as other arrangements for transporting food and people are made.

        I think we may have to rethink entirely our method of "economy" from an ever expanding capitalistic one (which ultimately isn't realistic since we live in a finite realm) to one that actually allows stability in the environment.  I have serious doubts that this will happen willingly.  Too many people will always put making a buck ahead of preserving the planet.

        by ssmt on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:38:04 PM PDT

•  tips for gas money

  I drive a VW and it cost me $45 to fill up. Public transportation sucks so bad here I have no option but to drive. Waaaaah...

  by em dash on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:09:09 PM PDT

•  $3.51 in MA

  One of the stations on US 1 in Danvers.

  by dmonahan on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:10:48 PM PDT

•  $3.43-8 in SE MN this week

  I do what I can to keep driving to a minimum, so I only need to fill up my 17-year old car about once every 4-5 weeks. When I filled up two weeks ago, it was just before the latest set of jumps, plus I had coupons adding up to 16 cents off per gallon from the Cub grocery store. So it wasn't as scary as it might have been, but it was still $3.16/gal  after the discounts!

   
  We both have older cars (17 and 11 years) that don't do very well for gas mileage any more. We're starting to look at getting a new, more fuel-efficient car for the day to day stuff. I'm leaning towards a Prius. I'd rather not pay that much for a car, but at current gas prices it would certainly help pay for itself. (Many of the online estimates of how long it would take to break even are based on $2/gal gas.)

  We still need to do test drives and all that good stuff. The local Toyota dealer has about a 6-week wait for a Prius, but that's not anywhere near as bad as it was a couple years ago.  Bummer that they're no longer eligible for alternative-fuel vehicle tax credits, though!

  by Lashe on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:16:56 PM PDT

•  In / MI --- $3.86 !!!!!!!

  We all notice things , even so subtle , when things change in front of us . How often to we notice what is not there ? Did you notice the absence of gas commercials on the tube . I was just figuring that they probably don't need them anymore , so why waste money . I also got the idea that they know a day of reckoning will come to them after January 09 and they are jacking up prices to make up for their possible future potential loses . The sad part is if they don't affect any more increases they would probably break even to 2015 .

  by ArtfromMI on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:32:13 PM PDT

•  I knew a Shell Oil

  junior executive casually a few years ago... mid-90s...  and during a period when gas prices were rising and people were complaining (it was likely averaging $1.75 per gallon, or so, nationally), I asked him why Shell or oil companies in general charged higher prices for gas in Northern California.

  His reply was, "Because we can."

  by ceebee7 on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:32:48 PM PDT

  •  similar experience

    Had an acquaintance that worked at BP.

    When I asked how the company determined gas prices, he remarked that they write down a range of prices, tape it to the wall and throw a dart. Literally.

    by em dash on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:59:53 PM PDT

•  $3.38 in outstate Missouri

  I live about 55 miles of Kansas City.

  I can walk or bike to work, and I do almost everyday.

  There have to be a lot of people hurting because this is a far bedroom community for people who work in KC. The hour commute is not stressful, but gas is now a growing expense.

  by MoDem on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:51:15 PM PDT

•  cheapest in my neck of the woods

  is about 3.50.  and that's WITH the 10 cent discount i get from my local grocer.

  and i'm in friggin' texas!!  usually we are 10 cents less than everywhere else, but not any more.

  by anna on Wed May 07, 2008 at 01:06:25 PM PDT