Spike in gas prices could begin as early as today

dakotanative said on February 21, 2012 at 9:05 PM

So what happens when electric cars start to pop up everywhere? We have a power structure that will never maintain the load. Imagine the rolling blackout covering the whole country. Sorry boss, I cannot make it in today. My car didn't get charged last night. Can't even get to the station for generator gas if your car is dead. I am all for clean energy, but I don't think we can build an entire new electrical system for the whole country to accommodate the demand. We are already overloading the system. It isn't like we have room to spare while the system is reinforced. And every house that used electricity will end up paying more than they spend on gas now. This could be a major disaster.

shoreline said on February 21, 2012 at 6:54 PM

savvydude, with my charging cost statement aside, I still clearly pointed out the math for your Nissan Leaf purchase doesn't pencil out, even at $5.00 per gallon gas which isn't likely to stay that way over the course of car ownership. Neither does your supposed "solar power". In fact, it becomes very clear that all you manage to do is try to convince us how rich you are with your Nissan Leaf, Lexus CT, $35,000 solar set up, 1100 sq ft beachfront vacation home in San Diego. You CLEARLY aren't one of us "regular" folk who actually need to worry about our everyday expenses. You hide behind your "carbon footprint" rightousness because you can AFFORD to. You're NOT in the same game as most Americans. You are however a self absorbed, horn blowing snob based on your posts. Personally, I think you're all talk, and if not, you're comments don't carry much weight for the majority of people here.

savvydude2003 said on February 21, 2012 at 5:47 PM

It doesn't matter what I say anyway. I can be here showing how to help our world and I will be criticized for having the money to do the things I do. My neighbors are criticized for their huge homes with huge power bills and driving their gas guzzling Hummers and Suburbans. I am criticized for having solar power defray my electric usage on my large home. I am criticized for saving fuel. I hear how much those who do not have money hate those who do. Like somehow it is my fault that you are poor and I am not. I went to college and earned my degree in computer science. I used pell grants and student loans and worked 2 part time jobs with family to support. I put in the effort and it paid off for me. But then people have the nerve to tell me that they do not have the same opportunities I have had. Really? You cannot get a student loan, pell grants and do whatever it takes to be successful? Waaaa we are entitled to have what you worked very hard to obtain because we are entitled! Sickening

WhoMe said on February 21, 2012 at 5:44 PM

Come on people gas prices are being manipulated by the oil companies plain and simple. The fire here in Wa. was at a refinery that produced primarily jet fuel from what I have heard. And today our largest export in the US is gasoline. Yes that right gas and with demand lower that it has been in years and the fact the oil companies are exporting oil and keeping prices artifically high here so prices still rise. The oil companies recently have said publicly that Obama will pay a price at the polls because of his not signing the pipeline deal. If you don't think the oil companies are trying to get gas prices so high it will effect the election yoru asleep. It is time to break up these huge oil companies and get our political system out from under their collective thumbs.

Daytrader said on February 21, 2012 at 5:30 PM

I wonder why gas prices never went up after the Valero fire and tragic loss of life?

savvydude2003 said on February 21, 2012 at 5:29 PM

dakotanative - I am waiting a couple of years to shake see how the Tesla Model S shakes out. I will just give the Leaf to my then 17 year old daughter to drive. I want to see how well the Tesla does first before I buy the 300 mile model. I could care less about you whiners and 5 or 6 dollar a gallon gas. "Hmmmph for the cost of these worthless electric cars I could buy alot of gas with that" The more people who go to electric cars and highly fuel efficient hybrids the lower the demand on gas. Supply and demand. Huge supplies produce lower prices. Nothing but whiners. I spent 35000 dollars having a home solar system set up. When there is excess power produced, my meter runs backwards. I got the system in March of last year and received 80 to 90 dollar credits on my electric bill until October when my energy demand went up. I still have a 120 dollar credit. Ooooh I could buy a lot of electricity for 35000. Yeah make fun of anyone who really makes a difference in their carbon foot print.

fingerpick said on February 21, 2012 at 5:19 PM

Sounds to me like this was a planned event so after gasoline goes to $4.75 or higher we will think $4.00 is cheap I can seem the oil execs sitting around the table talking " Ok all of us are gonna raise prices starting Tuesday" Give me a break do the oil companies take us for suckers? Oh yeah that's a rhetorical question.

savvydude2003 said on February 21, 2012 at 5:10 PM

xjokerz - Very well said.

dakotanative said on February 21, 2012 at 5:09 PM

Electric cars are a gimmick at this point. Employers will pay for charging until more employees start driving them. Then there is the batteries. They will last about 50k. Then you spend $4k for a new one and another grand for the specially trained techs to install it.

savvydude2003 said on February 21, 2012 at 5:04 PM

Ooops I did it again. Liberals will call me on my spelling since their logic cannot defeat mine. Sorry Silverado I said lease when I meant leash

savvydude2003 said on February 21, 2012 at 4:55 PM

silverado - Well your comment is interesting to be sure.Not sure how I have a lease around my neck since my wife has a Lexus CT. I feel sorry for you that you decided to have your vacation home located in Washington. My vacation home is much too far to drive to comfortably especially with 3 kids. Although my wife’s Lexus CT Hybrid could make the trip without issue (It gets 42 miles to the gallon), we always fly to the San Diego international airport and rent a car to drive to our place in Imperial Beach. Although the place is only a 1140 square foot two bedroom beach house, it is right on the beach. The kids sure love it. I guess I am glad you are able to drive to your vacation home on a tank of gas.

savvydude2003 said on February 21, 2012 at 4:51 PM

shoreline - read my post before you show your idiocy. My job has a rapid charge station. They are paying to charge my car, not me. In the last 3 weeks I have not had to use any of my own money nor electricity to charge the thing. What a moron u r

duanesworld said on February 21, 2012 at 4:37 PM

Why not. Nobody complains ...

Blondie said on February 21, 2012 at 4:08 PM

The only ones who will gain from the gas prices will be the big oil company's who will still make billions as the consumer we are screwed they are cutting bus service forcing people on to the roads and taking money out of our pockets and into the oil companys and this is just one more thing to stall our economy. Save your money folks you will need it to get to work or go look for a job

shoreline said on February 21, 2012 at 4:03 PM

savvydude, yeah, you're a financial genuis! Let's see... a new Nissan Leaf is $30,000 AFTER the tax credit. A new Ford Focus with 35mpg is $20,000. Even with gas figured at $5.00 a gallon (and it won't stay that high for long), I could drive AT LEAST 70,000 miles on the money I saved by NOT buying an overpriced, under-performing, short-range EV. With gas at $4.00 a gallon, I could drive 87,000 miles. That doesn't even figure in your increased electrical cost when you plug in every night at home. Forget driving from Seattle to Leavenworth, Vancouver, Portland or anywhere in E. Washington in your Leaf without at least a 6 hor recharging time. My Focus will ALWAYS get 35mpg. Your Leaf's battery becomes less efficient the older it gets until you have about 60% capacity left. EV's are NOT a better financial option yet. Who's the sucker???

supercrownking said on February 21, 2012 at 2:52 PM

Let the Federal Reserve throw a couple trillion dollars more in this phony economy, you will see "gas prices rising even more" - making the value of the dollar even less. Who ever controls the money supply - controls the economy and that is The Federal Reserve.

kbbcoop said on February 21, 2012 at 2:42 PM

Gas prices are skyrocketing out of the atmosphere, and Obama gets a complete pass. Unbelievable. Every time gas went up during the Bush years all we heard was Texas President what do you expect, Halliburton, etc etc etc...Im sure there are some still blaming Bush for this round of gouging we have to suffer.

taylorwood said on February 21, 2012 at 2:18 PM

Look at where gas prices are now from a year ago at this point. Look back through the tenure of this administration. I'm not asserting that this administration's culpable for this rise, but it sure would be nice if they were held to even half of the standard the previous administration was held to. Remember CONSTANTLY hearing about Bush & Cheney lining the pockets of their rich oil buddies ("cronies") in Texas every time there was a spike? Remember CONSTANTLY hearing the phrase "blood for oil"? The double standard (fueled...(no pun) by the mainstream media) is truly appalling.

dakotanative said on February 21, 2012 at 2:03 PM

The whole oil and gas deal is a complicated issue. Sure we have enough oil to last 200 years. Should we wait 200 years to wean ourselves? People want us to drill more oil. The oil companies say they are already operating the refineries at full capacity. More refineries, not more oil is needed. However the oil companies say that environmental people won’t let them build more. Some say that Canada is selling to China because Obama stopped the pipeline. The purpose of the pipeline was to send oil to the gulf to be shipped out to, yep, China. Now they are just going to send it out of BC instead. $5 gas is going to hurt a lot of people. If everyone dropped one day of fuel consumption per week, prices would drop to under $2. But that would hurt people too. There would be less work for the producers and delivery folks. We can’t win.

zaxxon7469 said on February 21, 2012 at 1:36 PM

What other company out there, has a fire a fire and then get to charge its customers more to make up for it. I seriously think that BP (British Petrolium) for those not in the know, should be fined to to near bankruptcy for causing the worst ecological oilspill and having the worst saftey record at its refinories. I wish I could aford an Electric car, but they are not cheap, not for the charge range I need. Not to mention, some of us depend on needing the haul capabilities of a truck. I remember topping off my '79 Mustang, and getting a soda and snack and still have change left over with a $20. now, $20 gets me about a 1/3 of a tank.

kbbcoop said on February 21, 2012 at 1:11 PM

China is already talking to Canada after the chosen one (obama) but the brakes on the Canadian pipeline. What a complete doofus, remember this come election time. This guy is in wayyyy over his head.

sargemcc said on February 21, 2012 at 1:04 PM

@ronulus, Washington is run by Democrats. Why are we still getting forked by them if they're so much better than Repubs??

xjokerz said on February 21, 2012 at 12:59 PM

Well, all this means is people need to cut out garbage like soda and McDonald's to help make up that extra few bucks at the pump during a fill-up. Maybe not going to the bar so much will help as well. I'm not without a car (I drive a Camry with 30 MPG) but it's only a 15 minute ride to work on my bicycle and 10 minutes to my college. It gets me exercise too. There are ways around things, but people love to whine.

ronulus said on February 21, 2012 at 12:47 PM

Threaten to take away their tax welfare and prices will come down fast.

ronulus said on February 21, 2012 at 12:45 PM

Remember we are an exporter of gasoline, shipping millions of barrels out of the US market. The serfs don't understand it has nothing to do with supply and demand or drilling in the US,etc. It is pure and simple manipulated by a cartel of multi national companies that should have been busted up decades ago. Any drilling in the US goes to the world market. Refined products go to the world market.

ronulus said on February 21, 2012 at 12:39 PM

Expect repub/neocons who run the oil cartel to jack prices as much as possible before elections. Their operatives will keep tensions high with Iran, run the futures markets up, create some refinery fires etc for political sport. The only issue is will the sheep fall for it or punish the cons. Great new book out titled The Fox Effect which shows how they fool you.

sargemcc said on February 21, 2012 at 12:00 PM

Diesel jumped 20 cents overnight to $4.29. Diesel is a by-product of refining gasoline. It's cheaper to make that gasoline, yet the oil companies are allowed to rape truckers, driving up the cost of every item that needs to be transported. Bankers and oil companies never take a loss in profitt. They need to be stopped.

mmullvain said on February 21, 2012 at 11:01 AM

Every event in the world seems to be used as an excuse in order to drive gas prices up for higher profit gain by oil companies. I'm so sick of it. It's not like BP is the only refinery up there and oil isn't on its way overseas in tankers. Let me put it this way: When we had a mad cow disease pandemic a few years ago, the price of cheeseburgers remained the same price. So why are prices increasing when supply and demand remain level?

josh_iii said on February 21, 2012 at 10:07 AM

Ever notice that when there are problems with supply, the prices sky rocket within a day, yet even when the supply comes back, it takes months for the prices to come back down to where they were. This is making electric vehicles look better and better. My next car will be the Tesla S. 300 miles on a charge at pennies to the mile instead of dollars/mile. The internal combustion engine is the oldest piece of tech we have. You can thank the oil companies for this. They get richer and we get poorer. It's time the combustion engine went the way of the Dodo.

cohofisherman said on February 21, 2012 at 9:40 AM

ever notice how when there is an accident at the refinery in wash the gas prices go sky high never here about gas prices going up elsewhere related to accidents ie fire never here about other refineries having fires like the 1 in wash does

silverado said on February 21, 2012 at 7:53 AM

@savvydude.....hope you like the leash you put around your neck. I'm driving to the coast tomorrow to spend a long weekend at my vacation home. I'll get there and back on less than a tank of gas. I've made the trip quite a few times and I don't remember seeing any charging stations along the way. But oh well...I guess some people just like being tied to the city. I'll be thinking of you as I'm cruising down the highway at 60 mph without a care in the world.

aziza said on February 21, 2012 at 7:34 AM

Jackwong, at this point I agree. Gas prices are projected to go to $5 a gallon according to NBC-Today. That will put our household over the edge with set salaried incomes. The only problem is that we were once upper middle class, and now we are barely making it. We don't have cable, we get our books and movies from the library, we don't eat out, we don't have credit card debt, car payments, student loan debt, our mortgage was locked in and affordable 15 years ago, and we shop a thrift stores. I guess its time to start setting money aside now for higher gas and food prices. And we are the fortunate ones, we have jobs! I really feel for people who have less than we have, how on earth can anyone make a living these days?!

collegeguy said on February 21, 2012 at 7:15 AM

Ah, I was already watching gas stations raise their prices yesterday. It has already happened King5. So sad that you are too late already with this story.

sportmom72 said on February 21, 2012 at 7:01 AM

Why we are getting our oil from other countries is absolutely stupid!!!! My husband works for a company that makes above ground tanks for oil drilling companies. He was saying that a couple months ago an inspector from Alaska was at his shop and was saying that there is enough oil in the United States for a couple hundred years. If that is the case there is no reason to be getting it from Iran or anywhere else other than our own country. What good does it do us to sit on our own resources because honestly I think within the next 100 years we won't need gas anyway. Let's use our own resources and take care of helping out our own people.

sc206 said on February 21, 2012 at 6:46 AM

So sick of this never ending cycle. Hopefully it'll be like 2008 all over again and there will be a huge drop off down to $1.49/gal after a spike. I wish I lived close enough to work so I could bike or walk, and say goodbye to gasoline. It is outrageous how dependent we still are on fossil fuels in the year 2012.

Elmer120 said on February 21, 2012 at 6:42 AM

When Gas prices were under $2 Bush got ripped by Glen Farley. Now the price is going to nudge $5 and not a word about the administrations actions. Obama is determined to put you in an electric car or a bus. Must be nice for the news media to have all these phony targets to keep the light from shining on Obama's miserable energy policies. Let's just start with the keystone pipeline. The bias in the news is losing all it's camo.

subaru said on February 21, 2012 at 6:21 AM

well here goes another recession !

tabsea said on February 21, 2012 at 3:59 AM

Lucky you live USA- I paid nearly $7.00 USD/gallon to fill my VW Polo here in Switzerland last week. 1.83 Swiss Francs per liter. I will never complain about US gas prices again.......

savvydude2003 said on February 21, 2012 at 12:13 AM

Oh ya...seeing more and more each day the wise choices people are making when purchasing vehicles. Few days ago saw a almost new Jeep Rubicon next to 520 with a guy walking back with a gas can in his hand and today saw another winner in a very nice Mustang blocking traffic in downtown Woodinwille pouring gas into it from a gas canI see all of these idiots buying new gas guzzling cars because for a short period in time the price has gone down. Good luck on selling those gas guzzlers when the gas is over 5 dollars a gallon. I am sure to see alot more people walking with gas cans for their expensive, high end machines and very soon. Have compasion for them, feel sorry for them? Same amount of compasion I have for the idiots who took out ARM mortages at 125% of the value of their home in 2005/2006 who are now daring to whine that they cannot afford their under water home and the government should bail them out. People are MORONS!!

savvydude2003 said on February 20, 2012 at 11:34 PM

Excellent!!!!! This will clear out all the of the suckers clogging up my way to and from work. Please go past 5 dollars a gallon...love my new Nissan Leaf. Hahahaha suckers!!!! Make 520 bridge 5 dollars each way and I will have it made in the shade. So cool that my office in Seattle has a rapid charging station for my Leaf!!!! Life is good!!!!

jackwong said on February 20, 2012 at 11:04 PM

President Obama needs to put in price controls for of gasoline for the low income.

seattle98125 said on February 20, 2012 at 10:41 PM

The US is exporting gas and oil now at an alarming rate because we are not using enough. There is no shortage. We are being taken for fools by big oil and our own local and federal governments. Fire smire.

crzyppl said on February 20, 2012 at 10:18 PM

I can't say I'm surprised. I am surprised that it has taken three days for the prices to jump though. I agree with you @jonjuan. Somehow the decision makers see the glass (or oil tanks in this case) as 1/2 empty rather than 1/2 full. Very sad.

jonjuan said on February 20, 2012 at 10:04 PM

Why the tanks at the refinery are still nearly all full.

skok_cush said on February 20, 2012 at 9:45 PM

$4.93 in Los Angeles, and coming our way, bein we are CA Jr. . . .Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less.

seamikey said on February 20, 2012 at 9:01 PM

I guess I'll start stocking up on peanut butter and Kraft cheese slices...

chuckstr76 said on February 20, 2012 at 8:18 PM

Gas prices are controlled and determined by the presumption of how much is available and how much the consumer will use. NOT by the cartel or any other country. We have a 4-6 month surplus sitting in tanks as we speak.

gladimoved said on February 20, 2012 at 8:05 PM

The oil cartel and oil companies have us by the......... Why does the price go up on gasoline which is still in the underground tanks? Oh, I know so the retailer can pad their profits! Rip off the public........that's all.