Despite rhetoric, gas prices not near record

[Rspaight]

I hate it when the media talks about an "all-time record" price for something without adjusting for inflation. Check this out:



Source.

Adjusted for inflation (note the projections in the graph for 2004 are a bit low -- we're at 180 cents average, last I heard), we're at about the same level we were at in the late 50s/early 60s, and not even close to the prices we had in the 30s and late 70s/early 80s.

The all-time low gas price was in the late 90s, when the SUV boom hit. Anyone wanna buy a used Suburban?

Ryan

PS - Countdown to snarky Patrick comment about my car: 10, 9, 8...

[Patrick M]

PS - Countdown to snarky Patrick comment about my car: 10, 9, 8...

I didn't realize you were still reading things I write.

[Rspaight]

I'm still reading -- I just have a lack of witty rejoinders at the moment. I'm hoping that damn UPS guy shows up today with a fresh supply.

I think your tracing project is making you more crabby than usual.

Ryan

[Patrick M]

Price of Oil Hits Highest Level Since 1990

NewsMax.com Wires
Monday, May 3, 2004

WASHINGTON – The price of oil rose to its highest level in more than 13 years on Monday as traders responded to the weekend killing of five Westerners working for an oil contractor in Saudi Arabia.

The wholesale price of gasoline also reached a new record, signaling the likelihood of even higher pump prices by Memorial Day, which marks the beginning of the summer driving season.

Crude for June delivery gained 83 cents on the New York Mercantile Exchange, settling at $38.21 a barrel, the highest price since Oct. 16, 1990, when oil was valued at $38.89 a barrel.

The rally in oil prices was largely triggered by the violence in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, when four men opened fire on the offices of oil contractor ABB Lummus Global Inc. Two Americans, two Britons, an Australian and a Saudi died in the attack. All four attackers, who police said were Saudi brothers, were killed.

"This is the second consecutive weekend that key Mideastern oil installations have come under assault," said Tom Kloza, director of Oil Price Information Service, referring to an attack a week earlier against Iraqi oil facilities.

On Monday, unleaded gasoline futures increased 2.7 cents to $1.263 a gallon, the highest settlement on record since the contract started trading in December 1984.

"We've gotten ourselves into a big-time speculative market," said Ed Silliere, an analyst at Energy Merchant LLC.

Silliere said speculators buying oil on Monday cited growing fears that terrorists who wish to topple the Saudi government could escalate their attacks against the oil industry and potentially disrupt supplies.

The run-up in oil prices makes it more expensive to produce gasoline, which already averages $1.84 a gallon at the pump nationwide, according to the Energy Department.

Analysts say motor fuel supplies are tight because of strong demand, limited domestic refining capacity and government regulations requiring more than a dozen different blends of cleaner-burning gasoline for summer.

In other Nymex trading, the price of heating oil for June delivery rose 2.3 cents to 96.79 cents a gallon. Natural-gas futures soared 35.8 cents to $6.22 per 1,000 cubic feet.

© 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[lukpac]

CNN is running this story on their front page:

Gasoline jumps above $2 a gallon

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Don't look now, but $2 a gallon gas is here.

The average price for regular unleaded gasoline jumped to a record high $2.017 a gallon nationwide, the government reported, up 7.6 cents from the prior week and 52 cents from a year earlier.

Of course, this bit isn't mentioned until halfway down the page:

While $2.017 is a record for gasoline, adjusted for inflation the price hit $2.99 a gallon in March 1981, according to the Energy Information Administration, the department's statistical arm, which surveys service stations weekly.

[Patrick M]

http://www.gasbuddy.com/

[Rspaight]

http://www.gasbuddy.com/

Mebbe you can explain this for me. I've been seeing these sites and tools popping up all over the place as gas gets more and more expensive. I don't get it at all.

I mean, the difference between the cheap stations and the expensive stations is about 10 cents a gallon, once you take the handful of ultra-expensive stations out of the mix. Back when gas was $1.20 a gallon, the difference between the cheap stations and the expensive stations was about 10 cents a gallon.

Why are people so interested in saving $1.50 on a 15-gallon fillup *now*, as opposed to saving $1.50 on a 15-gallon fillup a year ago, when it would have been much more meaningful in terms of a percentage of the total cost? "I didn't care about that extra buck-fiddy back when gas was cheap, but now it's expensive so I'd better drive all over town to save that same buck-fiddy."

People don't understand math.

Ryan

[Patrick M]

Gas prices are eating up a larger % of discretionary income and are therefore getting people's attention. That is, of course, assuming salaries have not increased to match the increase in gas prices, which I think is reasonable for most people.

[lukpac]

Is this page causing anyone's browser to scroll to the side? The only wide thing I see is Ryan's image at the top, but the page is showing up as significantly wider for me.

[Rspaight]

Yeah, it's doing that to me (1024x768 screen). I tried to make the image at the top skinny enough to not cause that (it was only 769 wide), but it did anyway. My bad. I fixed it.

For more cheerful reading, check this out:

http://tinyurl.com/2l7p6

Ryan

[Patrick M]

I've about had it with this chicken little liberal fear mongering. If you dope smokin' hippies would let me and my kind drill in ANWR, we would have all the oil we need!*

* for 6 months