RcticMax

Uhhhhg!

05/07/2001 - Updated 08:38 AM ET



California, Chicago brace for gas to hit $3 a gallon

By Dina Temple-Raston, USA TODAY

Shell and Chevron dealers in California and Chicago say they have been told by regional company representatives to get ready for the possibility of $3-a-gallon gasoline this summer. Bob Oyster, who owns 26 Shell and Chevron service stations in northern California, says representatives from both companies told him to "be prepared for $3 gasoline the early part of the summer." More than 20 service-station owners in California and the Chicago area contacted by USA TODAY say they also have been told to expect prices in the $3 range. The oil company representatives were not specific about which grade of gasoline would be $3, they say.

MAXAL25

It's all nothing but BS politcs!!! I say let's protest get all maxima owners and drive to the nearest congressman or representative and complain. We are all suffering from this f****** crisis. If not gas, then electric storage. What the hell is going on?

MaineI30

Well the electricity is an easy answer -- the buffoons in the California PUC are 100% to blame for that (and, by extension, the citizens of California.) I don't feel sorry for them at all (I know I said this before) but they created their OWN energy crisis.


The fuel issue is more complex, but it's not politics. The first problem is taxes. About half what you pay for a gallon of gas is tax. The other problem is consumption. It's higher than ever -- most refineries are working at 99% capacity!! It's simple supply and demand. There's no significant price gouging or any of that stuff going on. We suck the stuff down like crazy, then complain when the price goes up.. funny.

Green_2

It's not really politics, but it's the fault of the gasoline companies. Think about it, all the big petrolium companies posted record profits last year. Yes, they are selling more, but they are also selling at an inflated price. They claim that it cost them lots more to produce the "clean" gas that the government wants, but in fact, it might cost them an extra 2 cents per gallon while they mark up 20 cents per gallon.

The numbers are pure speculation on my part, but I'm willing to bet that the current situation is played out along these lines.

Green

RcticMax

Yep, that's one of the primary reasons. If one of our refineries goes off-line, we're screwed. The unfortunate parts is, I believe, that since these things cost so much money to get on-line, the companies don't necessarily want to make the investment. I could be all wet on this so don't quote me, just speculation.

I tell ya, any of our "adversaries" ever wanted to hit us where we live, that would be the place. Sure hope the security is tight around those places.

tb420

1. if you can afford a maxima, you can afford to pay something closer to the REAL cost of a gallon of gasoline.

2. if you can't you wont and that means less cars on the road, which means more road for me, & a safer road for me, & less pollution for all of us.

bring it on,

yeah ok, that seems a bit elitist, but an automobile is a luxury, not the god-given right of every blue-blooded american as the big three would have you believe.

there was this guy on the moon who after looking at earth through a telescope for a few years proclaimed to all the other moon-folk that the dominant species on the planet appears to be an odd 4 wheeled creature.

[maxi-overdose]

iTrader: (3)

they should design a car that u can pee into the "urine" tank....it burns off ur pee, save cash on gas, electric...and u can make all sorts of it...from low ammonia concentration to high by adjusting ur water ingestion.

cant produce 16 gallon of it? u can always ask family members or neighbors to help....


gas price rocks sky high....maybe I should push my maxima.

Green 2kSE

An automobile may be a luxury in Europe, but except for a few major US cities with decent public transport system it is a necessity for most people. The higher gas prices will hit the lower and middle class alot more than the rich folk. The consumers were caught in a bind this year as new EPA regulations (blame it on the government) kicked in, requiring a significant percentage of the gas to be refined in a more environmentally-safe way. The patented method for this refining is expensive for the gas companies, and attempts to circumvent it have been fined. This problem is in addition to the failure of the gas companies to plan for higher fuel demand (blame it on the gas companies). With all the advances in car industry, the average mileage has actually gone down, so we (as consumers) are to blame for it. There are simple laws of supply and demand, but more important are factors that influence that "demand", such as flashy advertising, keeping with the Jones, etc. So you see, we can blame everybody (except for the VW TDI and Honda Insight folk) for the upcoming $3/gal.

Maximizd

Considering that the 2K Max is pretty crappy with gas mileage, I am concerned with how fast prices have already gone up. It wasn't that long ago that here in NY I was paying about $1.55 for Premium, and now this weekend the numbers hit almost $2. It cost almost $30 to fill up my tank the other day - YIKES!!!! That's gotta hurt, whether you have money to burn or not!

KennyLau

Golly gee, Mr.-Man-In-Charge-Of-The-Oil-Companies, I feel so bad that I've been paying so much less than the rest of the world for gas all my life. Could you please raise the price to match everywhere else so I can feel better as a human being?

Sheesh! Stinkin' gas prices!!!!

KennyLau

A few years back, there was a guy who claimed he was able to make water into some kind of usable fuel for cars and stuff. It was in the news, but then it went away. Just think if that was real and there is some chemical that can be added inexpensively to water to make it into a usable fuel. The gas companies would go berzerk. Maybe that's why the guy disappeared. Maybe he was taken out...ALL the way out, you know what I mean?

Mike H.

This past weekend I gased up a freakin' $2.10 here in Torrance. That's like 30 bucks for one tank!!! All I can say is this... Get rid off all those freakin' SUVs out there (especially here in LA) and that would get rid of the gas crisis. On top of that, the oil refinery fire a couple of weeks ago didn't help either.

Mike
My .02

PS. I agree with Green 2KSE. Here in Los Angeles, it's definitely a necessity!!!

[maxi-overdose]

iTrader: (3)

oops....did I say I am gonna turn unrine into fuel??? I never say tat!! well, just watch over me...if u dun see me at this forum for couple days.....probably I am neutralized by some secret agent =)

well, Even though they take out those SUV and trucks. Still, they can just reduce oil production and mark the price high again. Reducing the production benefits them, they lower the cost on labor and machineries. And they gain the same profit.

Just wait till all the middleeast countries drain their oil to nothing. US will sell them some expensive stuff. Well, by the time, probably maxima is on the 19th generation with a v12 and quad turbo....

MaineI30

Yeh, it's the big companies' fault!! LOL Always blame the company, it's never the fault of the gluttonous American consumer....

Go have another tankful

MaineI30

I would imagine it's mediocre at best.

But it's pure speculation on my part.

RcticMax

You really think we've got Barney-Frikin'-Fife pulling guard duty at the refineries? Terrific. God help us all.

They should hire Richard Marcinko to hook them up with an anti-terrorism defense plan.

http://itscool.com/roguewarrior/

95GoldMax

it sucks alright, but I cant complain. We are still paying less than what people in Europe pay. Consider this, I was just in Greece for 2.5 weeks for Easter. The gasoline prices there are ridiculous. Prices range form .70 to .90 cents a LITER, not a gallon like we have. Figure that 4 Liters is 1.05 gallons that makes the price range in US $$$ to be between $2.80 - 3.60 cents for a gallon. And yes, prices will go up for the summer there also. That is why car engines there are 1.4L, 1.6L, 2.0L. I put 700 kilometers in 2.5 weeks and only filled up the car once.

jman965765

iTrader: (1)

We import half of the oil we use every day - so we are very vulnerable to global supply crunches. But we(Americans) don't really seem to care that much because we are still buying SUVs and not carpooling and living farther away from our jobs - some guys in my office commute 50 miles each way every day. Yesterday I saw the cutest little sign on the pump of a small independent gas station. The sign said "We are sorry for the inconvenience of not having gasoline for the past few days, but we are boycotting the high price of gasoline". Of course, the sign really should have said "We have no gasoline because we are going out of business because we can't make money selling gasoline at the current prices because the big companies are subsidizing the prices at their stations and we can't sell at the cheap prices they are."

MaineI30

Let's put it this way: I know people who have snuck onto nuclear missile silo facilities because of lax security. I can't imagine oil refineries are under heavier guard.

MaineI30

Exactly. If Americans really want lower oil/gas prices, they should stop sucking it all down

NYCe MaXiMa

iTrader: (9)

.. if we can afford to buy oversized SUVs, which a lot of the people buying them don't even need a monster like that, if u want to haul your dog, 4 kids and wife around buy a van, or get 2 economic cars, most definately cheaper to maintain, cheaper overall and more environment friendly.
I think Bush is right for not using our own oil, it won't last long anyways, all you'll do is lower prices for a minimal amount of time and screw the environment, this oil can be useful when fossil fuel supplies are very small, incase of an emergency, let's just say...
Cars are transportation, too many people are driving when they don't need to, buy cars bigger then needed etc.. and America got the nerve to ***** about gas prices... I realize it sucks, but nothing can be done, oil is limited, and it's amount is decreasing everyday faster then ever, reserves are allready at an all time low.
Forget trasportation, what about heat and electricity, we still depend on oil for that for the most part.. Ride a bike, walk, get a horse... whatever.
There are other means of making energy, oil can actually be produced from trees, the govt can use all that open space for planting some, the gasoline produced with trees actually burns cleaner then oil..
it doesn't even matter, I only see the prices growing bigger in the future, unless technology discovers a different source of energy very soon.
I will be driving a 99 Corolla that's in my family's driveway and never used, 28 mpg city.. not bad

Y2K1MaximaDevil

Aren't we sitting on one of the biggest underwater oil "hot spots" in the world? I mean, we've got SO much oil sitting RIGHT under us all over the U.S. I know that the Bush administration is taking a lot of heat from environmentalists, but seriously, this energy crisis is only going to get worse. And since we're importing SO much oil into this country everyday, we're very susceptible to the world market. The only way we're going to be able to cut prices at the pump is to A: Stop consuming so much, or B: Increase domestic production. And since the latter seems to be the more feasible solution, I say we start drilling for more now. I'm sure, with new technologies that are available to us, we can get the most amount of oil, and cause the least amount of harm to the environment. Regardless, something needs to be done. This is getting ridiculous!

jman965765

iTrader: (1)

Maybe, but drilling and setting up production and distribution would take years - no help for this summer.

Pmp-n8a

you guys should watch the news more....the reason gas prices are so high is because the MAIN refinery in the US exploded

warrlocked

I have read and seen on the news and other programs several times that the global oil reserve is predicted to be gone (or extremely limited) by the year 2050. When you think about how many vehicles there are in the world consuming massive amounts of gasoline every day of ever year..it's all going to run out sooner or later. We have probably hit our peak of the "cumbustion engine" era. Hold on tight for the downward slide.

RcticMax

From CNN's Wolf Blitzer (please note that what lies at the other end of this link could change... for now it goes to a story about the gasoline situation).

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/wolf.blitzer.reports/

The transcript from 05/07/01's show segment can be found here:

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0105/07/wbr.00.html

MaineI30

Or both.

And run out of oil faster.

Green_2

"IT" baby!!!

A little bit about "IT"

Green

warrlocked

I almost forgot about "it"!

I have heard that Kamen, the inventor of "it", has had meetings with CEO's of the "Big Three" domestic auto builders.

Dave B

Well guys, I work in a field very closely related to oil exploration and I can tell you there is no true "shortage" of oil. The oil is limited to how much OPEC wants to pump out and sell.

As of last year, there is a 100-year reserve of oil sitting in the current wells throughout the world. This is not including the other estimated 100-year reserve not yet tapped in to. The oil is there, it just takes time to locate and tap into it. The US has a 8-year reserve stored off shore throughout the country. We also have the Alaska pipeline.

Prices for oil will ultimately go up with peaks and valleys making an upward trend. Most of us have been blind to the fact that we have very cheap gas. Oil could be cheaper, but the "gathers" and "makers" of the stuff are the ones that truely have the final say. The increase in the price of oil will hopefully end this woefully sick display of the SUV. I'd venture to say that about 90% of the private owners of fullsize trucks and all SUVs don't need them. They just want the image. I honestly don't know how someone can rationalize buying a 5000lb SUV that is basically a truck, gets 17mpg at best, and is unsafe. Sometimes I do wish I lived in Europe where people are true car euthusists, like driving MANUALs, and fuel efficent cars.


Dave

MaineI30

Dave, good post, good info.

Wouldn't you say the issue right now, though, with gas prices specifically, is due to refineries at maximum capacity? I've seen no spike in oil prices, but a spike in gas prices. This tells me the refineries are at 100% capacity, and the increase in demand is causing the spike.

You think??

jman965765

iTrader: (1)

Refineries are probably running at about 98% right now. The problem is that we are supposed to be building inventories now ahead of the summer driving season, but there haven't been huge builds and inventories were very low to begin with.