Oil prices have been dropping. In my state, prices have not come down due to a supply problem. But that is not the point of this thread.

What price are you comfortable paying for regular unleaded gasoline? Keep in mind, the price affects future drilling and choices of other energy sources. In particular I'm thinking of coal gasification and oil shale development.

I think somewhere in the $3.00/gallon area is about right based on my own sense of right and wrong. I can live with $3.50/gallon; $4.00 is too much. Not sure what that translates out to in a price per barrel of crude.

Noticed yesterday while taking my son to the dentist gas was $3.22/gal in a city that is 10 miles from our hometown. Back home, noticed the cheapest gas was $3.69. Makes no sense to me at all.

Back to your question. I havn't been comfortable with gas prices in a long time. Matter of fact it pains my azz @ every fill up, especially on the side that I carry my wallet on.

I'd simply like to see it come down to a "reasonable" price, though I don't even know what that is anymore. I do recall back when it was around $2.50 gal and thought that was high, though tolerable.

My best wild guess is that it'll soon level off at just over $3 gal and we'll come to know that as the new, usual, & normal rate.

Ethanol blend was $2.89 yesterday, paid $2.99 for the normal stuff. I could live with $2 gas, and I have this gut feeling that's about the price we SHOULD be at. Probably equates to $70/barrel, and I think that's a high enough price to cost justify a lot of the alternative fuels.

I gave 2.85 for gas late night I'm looking for 2.50.
It is diesel prices that effect us more than gasoline prices.
Most of the time we don't see the cost directly, but fuel surcharges are very high due to the cost of diesel.
Diesel here is currently 3.65 . It makes no sense when it traditionally was cheaper the than gasoline, because it is less costly to produce and it is a high volume market. If they can bring the price of diesel down overall price for all other goods will come down also. An overall lower cost of living would make 3.00 a gallon gasoline a lot easier to take. The low dollar value is a large part of this high fuel price equation.

Pat

Your average voter doesn't use diesel directly. He uses a lot in everything he buys at the store, but he doesn't see the pump cranking away like he does when he fills up with gas. Keep the voters happy and gouge them in the back.

Don't forget, refineries are making low sulphur diesel........it's more expensive to make......and, refineries have to recoup the cost of updating equipment so that they can produce low sulphur diesel........don't look for it to get cheaper than gas......

The gasoline market pretty much baffles me. I used to think their was a straight correlation between the price of crude oil and a gallon of gasoline or diesel at the retail level. Price was up to $150 a barrel and there was not much difference in price from $120 oil. Now, we're down to the $85-$90 a barrel price range. Prices are coming down, but I have totally lost touch with what a correct price should be. It seems more of what the market will bear sometimes which is why the price at $150 was not directly passed on.

Has there been a new law passed that forces the use of low sulfur diesel fuel? When did this happen? As mentioned, diesel was always less than gasoline per gallon. Now it is more.

Clearly a lower price for diesel fuel would eventually reduce prices at the consumer level. It took a while for the price increases to hit, but they have hit big time these days. All you have to do is walk into most grocery stores if you remember prices of only a year ago.

One of the things I expect to happen for non-business use of fuel is some sort of tax credit based on income or use (or both). They have credits for everything else, so why not gasoline?

Starting sometime in 2007 low sulphur was mandated. It's on a sticker on the pump here.

Three years ago we would have screamed bloody murder about $3 gas, now we're happy to pay it............

Probably was the plan along?.........


Casey

I'd love to see $2 gas, but being in a state that is run on oil taxes and working in the industry, I'd rather see oil in the $60-80 bbl range.

Between 80 cents and $1.20 per gallon.

GB

Don't feel bad, it's even baffling to people who make their business in the market.

Something that most people don't realize is the impact that environmental regulations have, especially if you live in an ozone non-attainment area which is almost every big metropolitan area in the U.S.

In winter, refiners can add a lot more volatile components, e.g. butanes, pentanes, etc to gasoline, but in the summer vapor pressure requirements are lowered and it becomes more expensive to produce a gallon of gasoline as these volatiles, which come with crude, have to be dealt with in other ways than blending. Oxygenates help engines burn cleaner, but the best one, and most common - MTBE - was banned a few years ago because, even though it's not really very toxic, some leaked into Lake Tahoe from underground storage tanks that should have been replaced. Now, congress in its infinite wisdom has enacted the Energy Independence Act and mandated more ethanol be blended into gasoline each year.

So if you try to understand the gasoline market from a Free Enterprise point of view, it won't work. Too much government intervention.

Rather than having dozens of different blends of gasoline for many different states, I wish they'd just pick the cleanest burning blend in 87, 89, and 91 Octane and just run with it. Same with Diesel, pick the cleanest ULS diesel and run it everywhere in the country. I fully understand the need for winter blends, I've lived in ND my whole life, so pick a clean burning winter blend and let all the snow-belt states run the same. The dozens and dozens of different blends have to cost us a bundle, seems to me that streamlining would increase supply and decrease costs, but what do I know?

Bingo!

If gas was priced like it is in Europe, the US would have a well developed passenger rail & bus system like Europe. We've had it so good for so long that we've let the whole system fall apart. Here in the wide open west gas prices are killing us with all the miles we have to drive to get anywhere.

You would not believe how much less I drive due to gas prices. I drive the bare minimum now. No drives just because I feel like it. Most of my drives are related to work and I do my errands along the way.

I think $3.00 gas was what was planned all along. It just got out of hand with a couple hurricanes and so forth here in the USA. As I said, I can live with $3.00 gas. But I sure would prefer some stability. I keep waiting for the next rain drop in the Gulf (hurricanes, wars, etc. Depends on which Gulf? Eh) to spark another $50 increase in a barrel of oil.