http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/21/mark...ex.htm?cnn=yes

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Note to self: "Do not laugh at gas pumps."

So that explains the fill-up lines.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

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Just like after Katrina, there's a small panic here in SC with long gas lines. Sigh, you're right, must learn not to laugh...

I can think of three "no-brainer" reasons why gas prices are skyrocketing despite there being no *actual* shortage:

1. China is on a roll. Thanks to Wal-Mart and corporate outsourcing, China has most of the blue-collar manufacturing jobs that used to be in the United States.
2. Bush's tragically incompetent foreign policy makes the oil-producing nations both nervous and trigger-happy.
3. Way too many Americans are driving over-powered, "super sized" land-yachts that get 8-12 MPG. The speed limit's only 65 folks! How much power do you really need?!

Today's GAS prices are not directly coupled to the OIL prices you hear on the news. Crude prices you hear are usually for 30 or 90-day delivery... the price that will be paid in 30 or 90 days when its delivered. So there is a lag.

This particular spate of high GAS prices are primarily for the reasons you hear on the news the past week- MTBE/ETOH changeover and the jinks caused by it.

Spot retail GAS prices started ramping up almost 4 weeks before crude futures did (respective lows were on or about 2/25 and 3/21, repsectively). 2/25 was almost immediately after the EPA ended (on 2/14) the oxygenation requirement for gasoline and ceased providing MTBE liability protection for fuel companies. By the 1st of March the major pipelines ceased shipping winter and MTBE fuels, thus beginning the locality-by-locality scramble to clean and prep for future ethanol mixing at the local terminals.

Now, crude prices, well, that's another ball of wax. I'm using a 'irrational exuberance but in reverse' analogy to explain it for now. Lots of inertia out there...

I'm on the rightmost lane on a six-lane freeway at 6:20 am - it's not that crowded and before rush hour. Some guy in a large pickup truck, decides to pass to my right using the access lane off the freeway. Still going 55-60mph, I eventually catch up to this a$$**** as we are going on an overpass to merge to another freeway. Had my bright lights to let him know what I think of him. He apparently does not care about the price of gas, that he had two legal lane on my left to pass, or anything else.

Some members get upset when I mention such power trucks/jumbo SUVs. Not everybody in them drives so crudely, but I've experienced quite a few of them and so have others. I'll be happy to stop talking about such stuff....when two weeks goes by when these jerks stop whiping by me like a rabid ape.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

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www.cleanmpg.com

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