Remember that thread asking whether we’d see gas at $2/gallon? It was from about a year or so ago. Well, I never saw $2/gallon gas when the thread was active. But now MSNBC asks…
As the article points out, that would show how bad the world economy really is. On one hand, there would be less incentive to get rid of their gas-guzzling SUVs and cheap gas will delay alternatives and keep us suckling on The Gas Teat (with apologies to Harlan Ellison). On the other hand, if people aren’t spending money on fuel they’ll have more money to spend; thus stimulating the economy.
I don’t think I’ll see $1/gallon gas in Western Washington though.
The free fall in gas prices had nothing to do with the election. Rather, it had to do with the fall in commodities.
I wouldn’t doubt that we’ll see $1.25 or so in the US for the cheap regular. I filled up in Akron, OH tonight at $1.51. To get back to $1.00, you’ll need crude to be about $10/barrel. I don’t think you’ll get that.
I felt like gas would be under $2 a gallon this fall, back when it was over $4 and everyone was chicken littling that GAS IS NEVER GOING DOOOOOWN! YOU DON’T UNDERSTAAAAAND! But now that it’s so low it just feels weird for some reason. I don’t think it’ll last all that long. If we do see $1 gas (unlikely IMO), it will be a brief low before bouncing back up, not the new normal price of gas.
I think back to the mid-to-late 70s when gas crept from .50 towards .75 and everyone wailed that soon it’d hit a WHOLE DOLLAR!! On the other hand, what was minimum wage back then? Was it even $3?
Anyway, on topic - I don’t expect to see dollar gas again. And much as I love filling my tank again for cheap, I would expect the plummeting price of crude to delay further exploration and production till it’s worthwhile to the oil companies, driving the eventual price that much higher.
My prediction is that the low gas prices will last somewhere between 30 and 90 days, then crude oil prices will rise again, driving up gasoline prices into the $2.50 range, where they’ll stabilize (more or less) at least until the economy begins to percolate along again … say, two years or so.
I don’t think we will. With low oil prices, that will give governments the excuse to raise gas taxes. You can’t raise gas taxes at 4.00 per gallon. You can at 1.62 a gallon.
I’m just sayin’, that’s what my inside source at Haliburton says. Yes, I actually have an acquaintance who works for Haliburton. I don’t hold it against him – he’s an intellectual, after all.
Which probably wouldn’t be such a bad idea…take that money and invest in alternative energy. Then, should gas prices rise, they could lower the taxes…but in the meantime, they could prepare for the next time prices rise and then DON’T go back down.
Granted, might not be an easy sell for the public, but as long as sticker shock of over $4.00 a gallon is still in people’s minds, they might be able to keep prices at about $2.50 without a huge uproar.
at the Portsmouth, NH BJ’s Wholesale Club, Regular is $1.66 (member price), ironically, the Lukoil station right next door is $1.65, overall pricing is $1.60-$1.85 depending on location, Maine is more expensive than NH ($1.75-$1.80 Maine, $1.60 to $1.70 NH)
Heh. Price Chopper started an incentive thing during the high prices where the more you spend at PC, the higher you get per gallon off a tank of gas. I’m up to 80 cents off, which could get it below a dollar a gallon. Like I said back when I started driving and it was 98 cents a gallon, it seems way too cheap for something that lets me drive for 30+ miles.
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