2012 Set Record For Most Expensive Gas In US 430
An anonymous reader writes "According to data from the American Automobile Association, the average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. was higher in 2012 than in any year before it. Nationwide, gas averaged $3.60/gallon, up from $3.51/gallon in 2011. 'The states with the most expensive annual averages for 2012 included Hawaii ($4.31), Alaska ($4.09), California ($4.03), New York ($3.90) and Connecticut ($3.90). The states with the least-expensive annual averages included South Carolina ($3.35), Missouri ($3.38), Mississippi ($3.39), Tennessee ($3.40) and Oklahoma ($3.41). The highest daily statewide average of the year was $4.67 in Calif. on Oct. 9, while the lowest daily statewide average was $2.91 a gallon in South Carolina on July 3.' Bloomberg reports that fuel consumption is down 3.6% compared to last year, while U.S. oil production reached almost 7 million barrels a day recently, a level that hasn't been reached since 1993. AAA predicts gas prices will be cheaper in 2013."
Dear America, (Score:5, Insightful)
Stop it.
There is no sympathy from the rest of the world. Here in Canada "cheap" gas is 4.50USD/Gallon, in Europe its way worse then that, no one wants to hear about it any more. Pick some other non-issue to cry about like how expensive starbucks coffee is or how horrible it is that the millionaire hockey players aren't playing.
2012 Set Record For Most Expensive Gas In World (Score:4, Insightful)
2012 Set Record For Most Expensive Gas In the World
would have been more interesting since gas is still relatively cheap in the US.
Re:Dear America, (Score:5, Insightful)
in Europe its way worse then that
... and even despite that, it costs about the same per kilometer to drive in the EU and UK than it does in the US, thanks to their comically inefficient vehicles.
Re:PEAK OIL! (Score:5, Insightful)
It would cost about another $4 or so per gallon to cover the cost of the road system in the US (or you could come up with some other solution. Technology would allow most roads to be toll roads). Of course, if this huge tax payer subsidy is removed then other forms of transportation would immediately become viable. In other words, trains and buses would become cost effective and the US would get an environmentally friendly transport network.
So, I support you totally in your efforts to tell your socialist representatives to stop subsidizing roads with tax dollars. Please feel free to post copies of the letters you send to them here (or elsewhere).
The average price for just about anything... (Score:5, Insightful)
"the average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. was higher in 2012 than in any year before it"
Huh? The average price for just about anything in the U.S. was higher in 2012 than in any year before it...
Re:Try moving to Sweden! (Score:5, Insightful)
Try moving to Sweden! You pay $3.51 a gallon we pay on average $7.65 a gallon! All because of your wars!
And it has nothing to do with your government soaking you for $4 a gallon in taxes.
Re:It's called inflation (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't every year a record year for gas prices? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:About the same as 1980 in real terms (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:PEAK OIL! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm disappointed that someone who feels that the free market will provide is using roads that are provided by the tax payers. We should cut this budget cost and move it to the road users.
Great! Because in the US, cars are a net revenue producer [dot.gov] for the highway system. I guess we need to seriously bump up the costs of planes, buses, and trains however to make them also pay for the costs of using the systems provided by the tax payers...
Re:Price (Score:2, Insightful)
they seized ExxonMobil assets and kicked them out, making their refineries state-controlled, which is really wonderful.
FTFY. Keeping a Venezuelan resource in the country, providing a benefit for Venezuelans rather than some mega-rich foreign corporation, is not a bad thing.
Market capitalization of Exxon: $396 billion USD.
Venezuelan GDP: $316 billion USD (2011).
Re:Nah... (Score:3, Insightful)
Good luck driving a car without roads.
(Hey, my look! My knee can jerk too!)
Re:Price (Score:0, Insightful)
Cuba is impoverished because of the systematic campaign of military, political, social, and economic terrorist waged against it by its nearest neighbour, the world's superpower, for the past half a century or so.
Even then, at least it manages to provide medical care for its people.
Re:Price (Score:5, Insightful)
I think that near 2007~2008 they seized ExxonMobil assets and kicked them out, making their refineries state-controlled, which is really awful.
Why is that so bad? Far better to take the profit for the country than simply give it to a foreign company.
Except that the next big multinational that comes along might decide that it's not worth building those assets if the government may simply come along name their own price and take it [washingtonpost.com].
Just because you're picking on a bad guy doesn't make it fair.
Re:Price (Score:0, Insightful)
Speaking of ignorant populaces, the folks who elected Obama fall into that category. From Obama bucks to Obama phones, they all had one thing in mind...to jump on that givernment (not a typo) gravy train.
The class of people in the U.S. who feel they are owed this and that just because they happen to have been born will take the U.S. down. Not now, maybe not even soon (although, sooner than you may think) but the crushing burden of debt and the yearly deficient that fuel it is/are unsustainable.
Throw in the moron Democrats who openly solicit illegal aliens and encourage them to enroll in government benefits and it just makes things happen all the faster.
When the money runs out and the urban centers run out of food and services, look out rural folks, they will be coming for you.
Re:Well duh .... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds very sensible to me. Raising gas taxes gradually will:
- Minimise disruption to life and allow people to gradually convert to more efficient vehicles;
- Encourage R&D into alternative technologies, which WILL be needed sooner or later, as well as potentially resulting in a new industry America can dominate in;
- Lead to higher tax revenues, hopefully doing at least a tiny bit to help with the obscene debt the nation is in.
Seriously what's the problem here? The US currently has some of the lowest gas prices (i.e. lowest gasoline taxation rates) of any OECD nation and has ample scope to benefit from raising them gradually, without things becoming too disruptive for the population.
Re:Price (Score:5, Insightful)
It's really wonderful in the short term. In the longer term when the current production wells dry up and billions of dollars are needed to discover more oil in Venezuela, I hope the country has the capital and the expertise to develop those new wells, because there's no way any foreign oil company or investor will even dream of getting involved.
Re: mass transit = mass brainwashing (Score:5, Insightful)
What's the alternative? Seriously, what is a more efficient alternative to moving that many people over that distance on a regular basis? It sure isn't automobiles. Try driving around LA or Houston during rush hour if you think that a city that size designed around automobile travel is more efficient.
The fact is that if you live in a major metro area like DC and want to maintain the suburban Midwestern lifestyle you're used to while regularly visiting the city center for work and play, you're going to have to pay for it in time and money. There's just no way around it. I mean, how far are you commuting? West of Fairfax into DC? That's a pretty damn long commute. You can't really complain that the service is poor when you live that far away.
Re:About the same as 1980 in real terms (Score:4, Insightful)
It's interesting, without shortages and lines at the pump, how much less threatening it seems.
It is less threatening, because the price is a fabrication. There's no shortage of oil today, only massive collusion in the form of price fixing, and what the market will bear.
Re:Price (Score:2, Insightful)
The government is very corrupt there, though, and the average person never sees a dime of the money coming out of the ground.
So, much like the USA then.