Gas tumbles, but don't get used to it

[w4rma]

Lundberg Survey: Pump prices fall nearly 15 cents a gallon, but colder weather will drive them back up.
October 8 2006: 5:23 PM EDT

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Gas prices declined an average of nearly 15 cents a gallon in the last two weeks, but are expected to begin rising as the winter approaches, the publisher of the national Lundberg Survey said Sunday.

The national average for a gallon of self-service, regular gasoline was $2.28 on the Oct. 6 survey date, compared to $2.42 two weeks earlier - a decline of about 14 cents, Lundberg told CNN.

Gas prices declined a whopping 75 cents during the eight weeks between Aug. 11 and Oct. 6, she added. The average gas price on Aug. 11 was $3.03 a gallon.
…
For the latest survey period, Des Moines, Iowa, had the lowest average price for a gallon of gasoline, $2.03.

The most expensive gas was in Honolulu at $2.91 a gallon.

Here is a sampling of other cities: Atlanta $2.06; Dallas $2.13; Baltimore $2.17; Milwaukee $2.20; Albuquerque, N.M., $2.28; Long Island, N.Y. $2.36; San Francisco $2.57; Los Angeles $2.58.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/08/news/economy/lundberg/i...

[Kool Kitty]

1. "Don't get used to it", is right.

Five minutes after the final vote is counted on Election day, the price goes right back up.

[bobo4u]

I think they'll wait at least a day before raising prices again.

They've got to wait a day lest we Amerikuns begin to connect the dots. But alas, we've all got short memories. The elections will be a distant memory by Nov. 4th.

Was it Gore Vidal who coined the phrase, 'The United States of Amnesia'?

[pooja]

8. They'll wait until after Christmas... there is a lot of stocked up items

sitting in warehouses that Americans can't afford to buy. They need to dump this stuff and quick before a real recession hits that they can't manipulate with numbers.

[Javaman]

19. You mean the 8th right? nt

[saigon68]

9. Just long enough to let the sheep vote for the Boy Chimpanzee

And the rest of his Neocon enabling War Criminals

[Vexatious Ape]

2. I paid $1.99 A gallon

in suburban Atlanta the other day. I think some of the people are seeing through this ploy.

[RebelOne]

16. I just paid $1.98 a gallon at a Citgo

up here in Woodstock, just northwest of Atlanta. Citgo has the cheapest price in this area.

[gatorboy]

3. Why would the winter drive up prices?

Winter time see's the least amount of driving.

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. Increased heating oil demand increases petroleum demand; prices go up.

Especially if there's a cold winter.

[silverojo]

7. There's a lot of driving in the winter

People reunite with families for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

[primative1]

14. Thats Simple ...

For the same reason shtting down the Alaskan Pipeline led to a big price drop. Its called a "free" market.

[SoCalDem]

5. The whole "crisis" was created so we would happily accept $2 gas

I said that on day one, and I say it now.. Gas was a bargain for too many years and the oil companies wanted more money.. plain and simple..

they claimed that "refining capacity" was the culprit, but with those HUGE profits, did they buy land and build new refineries?? hell no!!

they CLOSED refineries to create an artificial shortage..

[Robb]

11. No, no, silly

Environmentalist tree-huggers imposed too many restrictions on new refineries, what with their majority in congress. Didn't you get the memo?

[WePurrsevere]

12. Agreed! My DH & I call it the "it's only" scheme...

The prices go wildly high for a short time, we are stretched to breaking, then the prices drop and you catch yourself driving past a gas station saying/thinking "oh look, it's only $2.70". Then they drop it to $2.25, they hope you are fooled into feeling like you're getting it "cheap" and most will probably start driving more again... until the cycle starts again.

Thankfully more and more people I talk with are catching on to this but a good part of that is because their incomes are NOT keeping up with even the so called "cheap" prices of fuel. Ours sure hasn't. Thankfully we don't need to drive anywhere more then once a week for supplies however this Winter is looking very cold up here again if the heating fuel costs are too high.

[pampango]

20. I have heard that it is hard to find a place to build an oil refinery,

because, like with nuclear power plants, no one wants one in their back yard. Any new one would have to be near a major port to handle the importing of so much oil and would risk major air and water pollution. I can understand why people near a major port would not want another source of pollution.

If the oil conspirators were really, really smart they would have manufactured the "crisis" years ago (in 2001 they could have blamed it on OBL) without waiting for a hurricane to finally follow the right path up the Gulf to cover their actions. Just imagine all of the excess profits they have missed out on. Perhaps I should give them some credit for being patient enough to wait for just the right moment.

[SoCalDem]

22. The Oil-freaks OWN plenty of land.. I am SURE

there are plenty of places where they could build refineries if they really really wanted to.

and where is our "leader"?... Did he go on TV and explain tot he public that the ONLY way to have "affordable gasoline/heating oil" was to immediately set up regional (perhaps state by state) new refineries, and show us locations in each region/state where nationalized refieries were to be built so that we would always "be prepared" with affordable fuel for our needs..? I must have missed THOSE speeches.. We never miss the speeches where he blames the out-of-power democrats for everthing up to and including the agony of psoriasis..

[Javaman]

21. The whole raising of the price was to test the threshold mentality...

when gas got up and over 3 bucks in parts of the country, there weren't the riots, fights and down right bitching as there was back in the 70's, however what there was was a jump in demand for fuel efficient vehicles, ridership on buses and trains, cutting back on driving and less traveling. The consumer society fought back the best way they could, by tightening their budgets.

Then the price of gas dropped and detroit in their infinite wisdom, chose to continue to push SUV's at us and people stopped snapping up Japanese cars.

While the price of gas was high, various people on different boards (including DU)ranted and raved about how GM produces more 30+ MPG cars than the Japanese imports, that maybe correct, but the shift in consumers buying the imports had more to do with image and opinion of GM's various practices than it did with the cars themselves.

I believe there was a public belief that GM and the oil giants were inherently linked and therefore both part of the problem.

Much like the iPod revolution, the Toyota Prius revolution represented something that appeals to the concept of forward thinking.

GM may have more 30+ MPG cars but that alone doesn't change their image. You can have the best widget on the shelve but if you don't package it correctly, it will sit there forever. This old image of giant smoke belching plants turning out one SUV after another is the image that GM has to change if they want to be a money maker again. Their obvious connection to the oil giants haven't hasn't helped them out either. The oil giants themselves are stuck in that same sort of image abyss as well and it appears that they haven't figured that out. Nor have the many that taught GM's 30+ mpg cars.

As prices are dropping and demand for SUV's once again jump, this feeds right into my theory that I stated weeks ago as to why all this is happening.

Link here:
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Javaman/75

And sure enough it is coming to pass.

[0rganism]

6. we should start a betting pool for when gas hits $3/gal again (nat'l avg)

I'm picking January 11.

[MadHound]

10. Tide has already turned, gas is already on the rise here in Mid Mo

Bumped up ten cents over night last Friday, after OPEC announced that they were cutting supplies. Fortunately I lock in at the cheap price for the gas that I'm storing over the winter.

[WePurrsevere]

13. The lowest gas price fairly close us in NNY is $2.48.

Even with the work we've been able to afford to put into cutting out drafts and heat loss, this Winter's oil heating bill is still really going to hurt... in more ways then one. ::sigh::

[0007]

15. What else is new?

Neocon enabling War Criminals

[high density]

17. Yeah I saw it in NH yesterday for $2.12/gal

That's the lowest I've seen it for quite a while.

[Javaman]

18. "expected to begin rising as the winter approaches..." or

after the election season is over. expect a jump in price on, oh lets say, NOVEMBER 8TH!

[bullwinkle428]

23. "Searches for Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Slow; SUV Searches Rise"

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/10/09/024466.ht...

"Happy days are here again! Thank you Republicans!"



I swear...I think a significant portion of the American population has the attention span of a frigging amoeba!!!

[DinahMoeHum]

24. The gasoline prices today are volatile, NOT cheap. . .

One political, economic, military, or natural disaster fart - and the prices could zoom up again.

[RedG1]

25. get ready for prices to rise

three minutes after the voting booths close...

you own the store...you set the price