
01/07/09, 12:33 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 2,963
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Jumped here, too, from $1.47 lowest to $1.59 lowest.
Short answer: Israel invaded Gaza. Gas will rise on any opportunity, rational or not.
Based on oil prices, we should be at $1.40 nationwide price. Google the current oil price (like "oil $40 a barrel") and you will get the old news stories that tell the nationwide gas price back when $40 oil was considered high. We are indeed getting gouged, and the oil companies' profit margin is wider now because of it.
There is some speculation gas will rise to $3 or more in 2009. I doubt it. The world is awash in crude oil now, and the companies are actually storing crude they can't refine in tankers offshore of the US. This is not a situation that will clear up in a few months, though they would like you to think so. I can see maybe $2 peaks, but this is a long slow recovery once we begin it (which won't be for several months yet), so I see no reason to be anxious over it in the short term. Any excessive rise will choke off the world economy, and prevent recovery, so it is a self-reinforcing deal.
ON EDIT: I just checked. Oil is at $44.04 a barrel now. In 2004, when it was $43.95, nationwide gasoline prices were $1.30 a gallon. Nuff said.
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Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates
Last edited by Jim S.; 01/07/09 at 12:40 PM.
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