Oil Prices

In all honesty, this is poetic justice:

High fuel prices are causing the value of used SUVs to plummet, often below what's listed in the buying guides many shoppers use to negotiate with dealers.

As a result, some new-car buyers think they're getting cheated by dealers who are offering them little for their SUV trade-ins.

"The dealer is going to offer a price, and the customer is going to be ticked off," says Tom Webb, chief economist for Manheim, operators of auctions where car dealers buy their used-vehicle inventories. "The guidebooks have not caught up to the market," he says.

That 10 mpg SUV has helped raise the demand on oil and that has increased the prices. Now you are not only losing at the pump, but also at the dealership. Perhaps Americans will start thinking more about a little less car with a lot more fuel mileage.

Why the thanks? Because of this:

BP PLC, Europe's second biggest oil producer, reported a 63 percent surge in first quarter net profit on Monday after crude oil prices soared to an all-time high and natural gas prices also rose.

Isn't it nice to know your family is starving so the oil companies can get richer?

Isn't it also nice to know that two of the presidential candidates answer to this isn't taking on the oil companies, but rather cutting the gas tax?

Yeah that is such a pesky tax that pays for needless things like repairing roads and bridges. It also employees those useless construction workers. They don't need those jobs, when Wal-Mart is hiring!

"A government by the people, for the people" - what a fantasy!

That's some of the new predictions going around - gas could reach $10.00 a gallon. I wonder if American's will finally get pissed off with the way our country has been run then and do something.

That is what oil just closed at. Thank you Dick and George!

As oil prices teeter above $112 a barrel, I have heard recent debates about how the high prices are good for the environment. I have been in debates about this in the past, and while people might consume less oil, it is such a wrong way to go about it.

A couple of years ago, after Katrina and oil prices spiked, I got into a debate on a forum with a west coast liberal about the high oil prices. She insisted how it was good for the environment and needed to be done. As a Midwest liberal, I can safely say that is a very bad way to handle the over consumption of oil. Why? Because it hits the people it shouldn't - the middle and lower class.

Countless cities and states around the country are suffering financially. Think about all the fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, school buses, road repair trucks, etc. that your city and state operate. They are having to fill those vehicles up with this high dollar gas. That means other things end up being cut, or the use of those vehicles end up getting cut. "Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Jones, but your child now has to walk the two miles to school. We can no longer afford bus service". Don't think that happens? It happened here back after the Katrina oil price surge.

How about the family that already has to work two jobs just to stay in their home? Now they are paying a lot more to get to and from those two jobs. A medical emergency hits and their child needs special medical care. They don't have the money to take care of that child, simply because the money that was once there is now in the gas tank.

There seems to be a major disconnect between the coasts and middle of this country when it comes to this point. One of the great excuses I hear from coastal liberals is "take public transportation". One big problem with that - what public transportation? We don't have it where I live, and a lot of middle America doesn't have public transportation.

Another argument is to use alternate transportation, like walk or bike. This one really pains me, as an avid biker, but there are also problems in that. Take people who live in rural areas. They might live 20 or 30 miles from work, or even the nearest store. Are they expected to walk or peddle that far? Unless you ride regularly, I would not advise it. During the summer I can ride 40-50 miles a day without much problem, but this time of year my trips are generally 10 miles a day. After the winter biking hibernation, it takes time to get back in condition. Peddling 30 miles when you haven't rode in years, and out of a reason of need is the wrong answer.

The final argument I hear, that really gets under my skin, is that people in the U.K. pay a lot more than we do. Again the entire facts aren't looked at. In the U.K. a majority of what they pay at the pumps go into taxes. Those taxes are earmarked for things like public services, and public transportation. Here, the higher gas prices mean higher profits for the oil company. The extra money isn't dumped back into the system. If we had a system like the U.K., where people who couldn't afford gas had plausible alternatives, then I would not have a problem at all paying these prices (or more) at the pump. But we don't.

So to the liberals out there that think these high oil prices are good for the environment, this liberal asks that you rethink your position. Yeah people might not burn as much gas with higher prices, but the benefits are disproportionate to the negatives. The people with the big guzzling SUVs aren't necessarily cutting back, it's the average family struggling to survive. Unless we come up with a way to ensure decent public transportation for all the country, we can't price middle America out of their vehicles. They are necessary for life.

Our sinking dollar is causing oil to rise to new records. Today our dollar sunk even lower:

The euro traded at $1.5769 in midday trading in Europe, up from $1.5687 late Friday in New York. The euro rose as high as $1.5904 earlier Monday.

But don't worry. Bush says they are "on top of it". I bet you sleep better tonight.

We might as well brace ourselves for $6.00 a gallon at the pumps:

High gasoline prices and prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal headline Vice President Dick Cheney's trip to the Mideast, but fears about Iran's rising influence will be a key topic of his private talks at each stop.

Mr "closed door energy meetings" Cheney is going there to discuss prices? This guy will fuck us all!

People are turning more the public transportation, and usage is now at a 50 year high.

A new record for oil prices.

Oil reached a new record today, $106.54 a barrel, before lowering back down some. At this rate we will see $110 a barrel in a couple of weeks.

Oil is almost there. It reached $105.96 today. I read something the other day where some analyst predicted $110 a barrel by May. We might hit it by St. Patrick's Day.

Oil hit a record high of $103.95 today. This is going to be one slow travel season if this keeps up.

The great economic news keeps coming.

We are now hearing that gas prices could reach the $4 a gallon mark this spring. The Euro has also gone up to $1.50 against the dollar. All this a day after Bush says that we are not in a recession, but rather a "slowdown". Don't you feel better now?

Glad our economy is doing so well that it can handle this.