Opinion: America, quit whining about gas

[mollywobbles867]

London (CNN) -- Petrol prices might have breached the $4 per gallon mark in the US, but there won't be much sympathy for the American plight in Europe. In fact, that US price of £2.52 a gallon looks highly affordable compared to the UK's current average cost of £6.22 ($9.85).

In some places here you'll pay an eye-watering £7.27 ($11.52) for a gallon

Comments

[asinbumble]

Yeah, I have no problem with higher gas prices. I think they might be the only way to wean us off of irresponsible gas guzzlers.
Granted, I rely primarily on public transportation, but my parents drive cars, and they feel the same way.

Also, your Maggie Smith GIF is wonderful. :)

[lisasimpsonfan]

So then you are OK with everything going up in price as a result of the higher gas prices? Because unless you only buy local goods, which is pretty impossible to do anywhere, everything you buy is shipped from someplace else and that higher gas price is going to be reflected in the final price you pay as a consumer. It would be great if we could be weaned off of fossil fuels but not at the expense of having it drive up the price of necessities like food.

[roguebelle]

This is what I'm really dreading. I live close enough to walk to work, so I only drive once or twice a week, and I generally only have to fill my tank if I'm leaving town, but food costs? The last time gas spiked this ridiculously high, I was still at school on a meal plan. Food prices have inflated quite enough already in the past two years as it is. I am cringing at the thought of what $5/gallon gas will do to the very few necessities I live off of.

[romp]

It's not like we're voting on it--what you describe is what's going to happen. It's be nice if people recognized that and acted on it rather than counting on lower gas and food prices than much of the rest of the world has.

I remember when I had a car that got almost 40MPG in the '80s. When I went to get another car around 2000, most had a MPG of about half that! Everyone had forgotten the oil crisis of the '70s and went with SUVs, something I *never* would have predicted. So, yeah, we do need to roll back on this.

[nikoel]

The thought of paying $140 per tank of gas makes me want to cry! I cannot imagine. I already take the light rail to work, but my husband drives because he has to work late a lot and on the nights he doesn't, he comes home on his lunch break to let our dogs out to pee. Plus it would take him two buses to get to work there's a 20 minute gap between them. *whine*

[sankaku_atama]

I wouldn't be so peeved about gas prices if,

a) I didn't have a 30 minute commute every day (and that's *if* I miss traffic), and
b) if Kasich hadn't been a dick and declined the light rail system money the government had allocated for the state.

I would have no problem taking light rail or public transportation anywhere, but there just isn't any that connects where I live with, well, anywhere else.

[brennessel]

I think a big part of the reason the US systematically underinvests in public transit infrastructure is that driving is too cheap. Obviously, jacking gas prices up to $11/gallon tomorrow would create a lot of hardship for a lot of people, since transit infrastructure doesn't sprout up overnight, but if we expected/planned for a high-gas-price equilibrium in the future, those plans would include a lot more transit infrastructure and a lot less car infrastructure.

People like John Kasich who run for office on anti-transit policy platforms are only able to build support for those platforms because lots of people are (wrongly, IMO) confident that driving will be cheap forever.

[hellaine]

Seriously. I have to care about gas because I live in Columbus Ohio where basically I can't get anywhere without a car :(

[beoweasel]

Thinkprogress did have an article earlier, mentioning one of the reasons for price of fuel going up, isn't because Americans are consuming too much of it, but because American consumption of fuel is going down, and this isn't a recent trend, but one that's been going on for the past decade.

As the drop off continues, Oil Refineries in the United States are being forced to close, as the drop off in gasoline consumption, coupled with the rising cost of crude oil, is leading to smaller and smaller profits.

But you don't need a glorified double bed powered by a throbbing great V8 to do that.As someone who lived in the South, I think this is a serious overstatement and dismissive of actual problems. Most folk I worked with as a carpenter, didn't drive big and expensive pick-ups, they drove trucks that were utilitarian and often 10, 20 and 30 years old. They needed that space for tools, equipment and to haul just about anything their job required, like plywood, lumber, piping, and so forth

[hinoema]

As the drop off continues, Oil Refineries in the United States are being forced to close, as the drop off in gasoline consumption, coupled with the rising cost of crude oil, is leading to smaller and smaller profits.

Everyone needs to read this part. It's market manipulation to artificially inflate profits at the expense of the general public.

[tigerdreams]

Yeah. Somehow I thought that, in the magical ~free market~, a decrease in demand led to a decrease in cost...

Because you know that if gasoline consumption spiked, the oil companies would be all, "Oops, the demand is too high, we can't keep up, that's why your costs are increasing!" Anything that happens in the market is an excuse for them to jack prices.

[sankaku_atama]

Anything that happens in the market is an excuse for them to jack prices.

It's amazing how that works. That gosh darn magical Free Market, eh?

[lux_roark]

Higher gas prices wouldn't bother me if we had a smaller car. My dad is loaning us his 1996 Ford Aerostar (huge ass van) and it's almost $80 to fill up each time we do. Last year we made below the poverty limit, but weren't driving much since my husband was out of work. Now his commute is 30 minutes each way and thankfully he doesn't encounter much traffic with his work schedule (12:30-9PM). We're saving money to get a more economical car, but we also have a ton of debts to pay off in the process because my husband was unemployed for over 2 years.

[romp]

I've lived that. At a certain point, a heavy car is just not worth driving.

Maybe you'll get light rail before gas goes up much more...

[lux_roark]

Considering the fact that I can't have over a certain amount in the savings account and I really do not trust hiding money in my apartment I think we'll be stuck with the Aerostar for a while longer. My MIL did tell us that she's going to be buying a new car soon and when she does she'll give us her old car and it's a 2-door Toyota so at least it's smaller than the Ford.