Oil slides toward multiyear lows

Yahoo / AP ^ | 02/12/2009 | EagleUSA

[The Wizard]

the pathetic president

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

Sounds to me like your state is kicking in a tax from a previous legislative year. Many states do this, increase gas taxes to come into effect 1 or 2 years after the tax was voted in.

My own state did this this year also, came into effect Jan, 1. Raised the price by 15 cents, regardless of the market.

[smallbiz]

I live in Calif., so I’m sure we got a new tax.

[NCC-1701]

“...howcome gas is still 2.18/gal here in Seattle???...”

Because of price gouging. No one can convince me otherwise this time around.

[El Laton Caliente]

We didn't until the price rise last summer was followed by people doing one or more of three things...

1. Bought a smaller, gas efficient car (me, a Mini Cooper)
2. Started combining trips and reduced travel
3. Lost their job and/or got in financial trouble

Demand is down 30% to 40% from a year ago...

[rodguy911]

Gotcha, looks like we may be near a market bottom.

[rodguy911]

$1.00 per gallon is huge, I don’t think they could ever get away with that, if they do 2010 will look very good for us IMHO.

[rodguy911]

I know our county is looking at bumping up gas taxes,no end to it.

[RobRoy]

Yeah. I’ve been watching crude prices and as they continue to drop, gas prices are actually increasing.

[rodguy911]

DAm,30-40% is huge.

[TChris]

Yeah. I’ve been watching crude prices and as they continue to drop, gas prices are actually increasing.

That's because there are some other steps involved between crude oil and gasoline. Expecting the two to always follow one another is like expecting the price of cars to follow the price of steel.

Here's an article that explains a bit of what's going on.

[palmer]

Yeah. I've been watching crude prices and as they continue to drop, gas prices are actually increasing

Instead of whining about it, you could just stop driving. There's a serious amount of gimme in this thread.

[Richard Kimball]

When governments see a drop in price, they often jump in with a tax. The argument is that it stabilizes the market, but in actuality, it just increases taxes. They do it when the price drops because consumers don’t tend to notice the tax increase when the relative cost out of pocket remains the same.

[RobRoy]

I had a feeling it was something like that. During the runup in price I drastically reduced all unnecessary driving, combining trips, etc. I got used to it. Meanwhile, it will soon be bike commute time for me so my monthly gas bill should drop to almost nothing.

[RobRoy]

>>Instead of whining about it, you could just stop driving. There’s a serious amount of gimme in this thread.<<

Heh, heh. See my post 74. :)

[TChris]

I had a feeling it was something like that. During the runup in price I drastically reduced all unnecessary driving, combining trips, etc. I got used to it. Meanwhile, it will soon be bike commute time for me so my monthly gas bill should drop to almost nothing.

Yes.

The almost-5-dollar-a-gallon prices in the recent past did a marvelous job of focusing consumers' attention on conserving gasoline. If nothing else, it was a valuabale educational experience.

[mysterio]

$1.95 north of there.

[blam]

"How’s that supertanker stock and float strategy for speculators working? LOL ..."

Still waiting for Bebe to hit Iran.

[cherry]

gas has gone UP the last 3 weeks......it has no explanation.

[Always Independent]

Refiners are restricting gasoline production. I paid $2.44 at Shell in Palmdale on Wed.