The gas price at a Shell Station leading into Christiansburg was $3.84 as we drove into the town Thursday afternoon.
When we drove out three hours later it was $3.89.
At a gas station in Roanoke last week, the price was $3.75 when I started pumping the gas and changed to $3.79 as soon as I finished.
It will most likely be $4 a gallon in our area by early next week and in some places, it is already headed for $5. The photo here was taken by the Associated Press in Redwood City, California on Thursday.
It’s interesting that when the price of a barrel of crude oil rises on the international market, the price at the pump increases immediately. But when the price of crude drops, it takes days or even weeks for the reduction to show up at the pump.
Our gas credit card bills are now our largest monthly cost, surpassing electricity, food or health insurance. Meanwhile, oil company profits continue to reach record highs while oil executives come up with the same tired excuses.
What is the old line about the rich getting richer while the poor gets poorer?
The Friday before last, I noticed that one of our local gas stations was selling Regular for $3.59, and that evening for $3.79. Almost exactly at the same time, refilling an emergency gas can I had, I remembered that I’d last filled it seven months before–when gas was exactly $1 per gallon cheaper.
Fortunately my mileage is almost non-existent. I may take the money I save to buy a bike, which would mean I might only need to drive one day a week. *Ponders*
Or maybe it’s ostriches finally pulling their heads out of whatever they’ve been hiding them in. We had a real handle on this back in the 1970’s when I could buy several cars with respectable gas mileage. Then we let it go because OPEC was flooding the market with cheap oil. Now demand is up, the price is up, and the supply may well be dwindling. We’re back to what Pogo said.
Some of us have been conserving all along. That’s right, my 35 mpg Ford was subsidizing all those 15 mpg land yachts for 13 years before it broke its leg and I had to shoot it. For roughly the same money, I got another 4-cylinder, 5-speed, 5-passenger car that somehow never gets better than 33 mpg. We’ve been going backwards.