good news/bad news

[arana]

the good news - summer is finally here in the southern hemisphere, perfect weather for some road trips to the beach with the top-down and my long board sticking out.

the bad news - gas is up to US$6.30 a gallon.... maybe i'll walk instead.

[RRoller123]

Why so high? Must be taxes? Even here in MA, land of high taxes, gas is about $3.40 US

[dmwhiteoak]

That is a real bummer. Thats like cutting my fuel economy in half with my spider.The price here is 3.25 a gallon. I'm driving my truck since I have the spider slightly dissembled so I'm feeling your pain.

[124JOE]

gas is 3.35 up here in WI

[grittracing]

well get ready they are talking gas will be over $4.00 by summer

[arana]

Why so high? Must be taxes?

it's partly taxes (sales tax here is 18%) but it's also the feeble US dollar. every time the printing presses at the US mint start cranking out more dollars, my purchasing power in the local currency declines rapidly. At the same price in local currency just a few short years ago, I was paying about $5 a gallon.

note - i'm paid in US$, as is a large percentage of the country, but the trend over the last couple of years has been to switch to the local currency.

[narfire]

Here reg fuel is $1.20/L or about $5.45 / imp gallon and $4.56/us gal. A large amount of that is taxes. Kind of neccesary evil I guess. British Columbia is a bit larger than California, Oregon and Washington State combined with about 4.5 mil peoples total. Have to pay for the road network and ferry subsidies somehow.
Chris

[katsi]

If gas hits $4 bones a gallon, I'm getting a moped to ride to work and back.

[bobplyler]

If gas hits $4 bones a gallon, I'm getting a moped to ride to work and back.

My motorcycle gets 60 miles/gallon.

[spidernut]

Our fuel prices are $3.54 per gallon - $.357 California sales tax, $.129 on "other state taxes", add in the Federal taxes and the total taxes per gallon are approximately $.67 cents per gallon.

My father-in-law owned a gas station most of his career. His total profit was 3 cents per gallon and he had a very lucrative gas station.

What's wrong with this picture? The person who owns and operates the gas station, pays rent, pays utilities, pays a payroll, complies with OSHA standards, pays for benefits, etc., earns 3 cents per gallon gross profit and California earns more than 48 cents per gallon for doing nothing to work for their profits...then Uncle Sam banks three times what the owner/operator earns.

When I hear people say we need more taxes to balance our budgets and fix our roads and bridges, I just scream as loud as I can. It is a fiscal management problem not a funding problem.

I say....drive your car and enjoy it. Fiats are great garage ornaments, but are much more fun when you're driving them!

[courtenay]

"California earns more than 48 cents per gallon for doing nothing to work for their profits...then Uncle Sam banks three times what the owner/operator earns."

Sorry Spidernut - I respectfully gotta disagree with you on this one. California as well the other Local, Provincial and Federal Governments in the US and Canada spend a hell of a lot of money and do a lot of work building and maintaining the transportation infrastructure that we drive on. If they weren't getting money from fuel taxes to fund this work, we would either have nothing to drive on or be paying a lot more in some other form of taxation. At least by getting some of the money needed to maintain transportation infrastructure through gas taxes, the users of the roads are paying for their upkeep.

[Kent124]

Saudi Arabia is targeting $100 oil so we won't find any relief. Its not the Saudi's fault. I would do the same thing in their position.

Bernanke is an incompetent who truly believes economic prosperity comes from money printing and devaluation. If that was case Zimbabwe would be an economic power house instead of a basket case

[RRoller123]

And we have a (fill in the blank) in our White House who rejects the XL pipeline project, regardless of the job creation and energy security enhancement it would provide. I hope our Canadian friends pressure this (fill in the blank) to get the project moving. I heard some strong words from your PM the other day and I can only say BRAVO! Most of us here in the states agree I think. And I am in Massachusetts for Gods sake! Infested with liberals. It would be a shame if we have to wait until next January for a new leader to get the pipeline project moving. All that oil going directly out of BC to Chinese refineries, increasing our dependence on the Saudis and Venezuelans, while we have refinery capacity and the need for jobs here. Absolutely incomprehensible.

[Kent124]

XL is a stunt to get young, naive voters securely on board by voting time.

Same was true with the loans that Steven "No Clue" Chu of the Department of Energy provided to his and (fill in the blank)'s buddies at SunPower, Solyndra, Evergreen Solar, EnerDel, and Beacon Power Corp. Note: all filed for bankruptcy after the loans.

[RRoller123]

The WSJ today has 2 good writes on the XL fiasco. Turns out the permits were already approved by the State Department, in 2010 and 2011. Only now, for some reason, (which actually is obvious to almost all of us) does POTUS want to block it. I will say this one last thing and then leave this for another time and forum, as my blood pressure gets too high. The current POTUS is the greatest fool to ever occupy the Oval Office. A complete fool, he proscribes to the Bellamy philosophy; Utopian school from the mid 1800's. He is trying (successfully so far) to drive us into a Euro-style nanny state. God please help save us from this absolute fool. There I feel better now. On to something else.