Octopus Overlords

I just set a new record at $5.43 for premium. My nephew says regular is going for $7+ in L.A. He paid $85 to fill up his too-big vehicle today.

Last I saw (2-3 weeks ago) ours was around $4.35 a gallon.

Looking at the fuel finder map...

REG - $4.15
MID - $4.45
PREM - $4.75
Diesel - $5.09

We just completed a 1,200 mi opening half of a road trip and compared the cost of Tesla's recently bumped Supercharging vs gas. Came out to about $2.65/gal equivalent if we had been driving a 25 mpg SUV instead. So still not bad relative to gas.

Wanted to do the calc after hearing co-workers bitching about expected Memorial Day road trip costs and realizing I hadn't done the math lately. ($135 in Supercharging costs for 1,275 mi, at 383 Wh/mi for the X.) Assuming 25 mpg (a high estimate for a comparable 7-seat SUV), that'd be 51 gallons of gas. $2.65/gal would eat the same cost as our charges.

Caveat: of course home charging is a fraction of these costs.

Shame Tesla couldn't use solar to power their chargers and give charging away free. That would really boost their sales.

Had to wait in line for gas at the Speedway like it was a Costco. That's probably not a good sign. Good thing I don't drive much any more.

Yeah I think I hit a record for filling my car up - $53. I drive a 2005 Toyota Corolla, so I'm used to getting out of there for around $35 on a bad day.

I'm just about at that point where I'm going to punch two leg holes through the floor of my Honda Civic and Fred Flintstone this MF around town.

Its $4.13 here. The marinas are even worse. News was showing $5.99 per gallon at the docks.

News this morning: "Gas prices went up 5 cents a gallon overnight."

Local discount gas station: Jacks prices 45 cents a gallon.

I've got about a quarter of a tank left in my car right now. The trip odometer for this tank just hit 1000 miles and I'm supposedly getting 130.4 mpg. I may be able to stretch this tank through the summer if I can keep trips under 20 miles and keep the battery charged!

you guys are cute, Here in California we are around $6.40 a gallon. My costco is about 50 cents cheaper, but I'm still paying around $90 to fill up.

Went home for lunch yesterday and gas was $4.99
On the way back to work 30 minutes later? $5.55
And we havent even hit the "summer blend" months yet!!
Things are going great!!

Well a day ago it was $4.13 here. Today its $4.39 By the time my check comes Friday Ill have to pay $5. That will take any savings I had planned...again. Always something.

Paid $5.20 for regular at a Delta Sonic in Oswego. That's 20 cents cheaper than E-88 at the Casey's near me. Still, higher than it was yesterday by a good 30 cents.

Between gas prices and Biden's low approval Im very worried about the midterms. People forget who started bad prices and who took them over and such. Its the here and now they count. Once the GOP take it all then nothing will get done until a new Pres.

Daehawk wrote: Wed Jun 01, 2022 5:04 pm Between gas prices and Biden's low approval Im very worried about the midterms. People forget who started bad prices and who took them over and such. Its the here and now they count.

Here's a helpful refresher courtesy of the Washington Post, which provides a date-by-date timeline showing precisely "what the top economic officials in the White House and the Federal Reserve were saying and doing about the problems as they developed, and how they fell behind:"

U.S. policymakers misjudged inflation threat until it was too late

$4.47 is what Ill be paying today. So instead of like $25 to fill it'll be like $50...so dont think Ill fill it..though I need it.

Anonymous Bosch wrote: Wed Jun 01, 2022 7:44 pm

Daehawk wrote: Wed Jun 01, 2022 5:04 pm Between gas prices and Biden's low approval Im very worried about the midterms. People forget who started bad prices and who took them over and such. Its the here and now they count.

Here's a helpful refresher courtesy of the Washington Post, which provides a date-by-date timeline showing precisely "what the top economic officials in the White House and the Federal Reserve were saying and doing about the problems as they developed, and how they fell behind:"

U.S. policymakers misjudged inflation threat until it was too late

It's paywalled but the timeline is pretty well known.

Oddly enough in all cases, things are opposite of what they seem as Powell was Trump guy. Out of control Inflation, already due after non existent interest rates and QE going back to overstaying its need decade ago was going to be a known the moment we decided (correctly, IMO) in 2020 to infuse trillions of dollars into the system to make it easier for people to stay at home in 2020. This paying the piper. It sucks. Maybe payment can be done better than it is being done now (I'm not that smart to understand), but it has to happen. The problems we are feeling today began under Obama's fed and Congress and then were sent into overdrive under Trump's fed and Congress. We're paying for give aways that persisted (unnecessarily IMO) in 2012 and then actually accelerated (way out of line in None Dare Call IT QE) in 2017.

We won’t finish paying until crypto has cratered. All that money is going into a nonproductive hole.

Luckily, miners don't have the clout to get a bailout.

Zarathud wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 9:08 am We won’t finish paying until crypto has cratered. All that money is going into a nonproductive hole.

That's an interesting take that sounds reasonable in a conversational way and yet I don't understand it. I'd like that walkthrough for dummies.

When rich people pour their investment money into something that is based on ‘nothing’ but the game of investing, it undermines the true engine of the economy.
Certainly kills the idea of ‘let rich people have their money so they can invest in more business, which helps all of us’

LordMortis wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 8:09 am

Anonymous Bosch wrote: Wed Jun 01, 2022 7:44 pm

Daehawk wrote: Wed Jun 01, 2022 5:04 pm Between gas prices and Biden's low approval Im very worried about the midterms. People forget who started bad prices and who took them over and such. Its the here and now they count.

Here's a helpful refresher courtesy of the Washington Post, which provides a date-by-date timeline showing precisely "what the top economic officials in the White House and the Federal Reserve were saying and doing about the problems as they developed, and how they fell behind:"

U.S. policymakers misjudged inflation threat until it was too late

It's paywalled but the timeline is pretty well known.

Not if you use the Bypass Paywalls Clean add-on/extension -- here's the Firefox version, and here's the Chrome version.

I try to respect advertising revenue generation. If pay-walling is that important to them then I don't tend to go around them. I do tend dislike google showing top searches that are paywalled. I need to go to a better search engine one day. One where it's easy to curate top rated searches I don't want to see. I remember the halcyon days when google had the perfect link for everything you searched for within the first three hits. Now you have scroll through their top things wholly unrelated to your search to get to a half page that may or may not contain the links you are looking for.

$40 got me 3/4th a tank...about 9 gal.

Just paid 4.95... This is starting to actually hurt now. Thankfully my wife recently got a decent raise which will pretty much totally offset this nonsense for now. We get to the heating season and I have to pay 5 dollars a gallon? Pain... Lots of pain...

Everywhere was past the $5 mark on my morning walk today. In a week it went from $4.39 findable if you took the time to look to $5.09 being ubiquitous. Glad I don't drive much any more, though gas going up drives everything else up. So it's coming for me soon.

For a long time I was kind of mad gas prices went down right after I bought a BEV. Now of course they are skyrocketing and... I don't drive anywhere. Anybody want a REALLY low mileage Model 3? Not quite 17k miles in FOUR YEARS!

coopasonic wrote: Mon Jun 06, 2022 4:09 pmNot quite 17k miles in FOUR YEARS!

Even mowing gas hurts me. Its time to fill up after the next mow so Im hoping it comes down by then. That will be like 4 weeks away.

Daehawk wrote: Mon Jun 06, 2022 4:43 pm Even mowing gas hurts me. Its time to fill up after the next mow so Im hoping it comes down by then. That will be like 4 weeks away.

Battery powered mower FTW.

You should probably be mowing more frequently.

It's going to keep going up -- or, at best, stay high -- for as long as the war in Ukraine lasts. The EU has agreed to halt Russian tanker deliveries by the end of the year. That means they're going to be buying elsewhere. China and India get discounted Russian oil, while the rest of the world competes for non-Russian oil.

Opening Iran's taps could provide some welcome relief, but that agreement is hung up on our refusal to take the Revolutionary Guard off the terrorism watchlist. Biden is being pressured to go hat-in-hand to Saudi Arabia but is resisting.

What I don't understand -- and maybe this is too political for this thread -- is why the administration doesn't use the Defense Production Act to force US oil companies to reopen closed wells.

Some alien looking from the outside in would wonder why the US doesn't take over all world supply . Boy wouldn't that be a pickle.

Kraken wrote: Mon Jun 06, 2022 4:50 pm It's going to keep going up -- or, at best, stay high -- for as long as the war in Ukraine lasts. The EU has agreed to halt Russian tanker deliveries by the end of the year. That means they're going to be buying elsewhere. China and India get discounted Russian oil, while the rest of the world competes for non-Russian oil.

Opening Iran's taps could provide some welcome relief, but that agreement is hung up on our refusal to take the Revolutionary Guard off the terrorism watchlist. Biden is being pressured to go hat-in-hand to Saudi Arabia but is resisting.

What I don't understand -- and maybe this is too political for this thread -- is why the administration doesn't use the Defense Production Act to force US oil companies to reopen closed wells.

The world wide economic pressure to put a bullet in Putin’s head must be off the charts by now.

Well, for the non oil-selling part of the world.

Isgrimnur wrote: Mon Jun 06, 2022 4:48 pm You should probably be mowing more frequently.

I fill a two gallon gas can once a year, mowing my lawn once a week. No idea how many feet but it takes shy of an hour to mow. Of course I have shorter mowing season but my mower seems to sip gas. I'm sure it's a gotta be a cup or less (maybe a lot less) every mow.

Kraken wrote: Mon Jun 06, 2022 4:50 pm It's going to keep going up -- or, at best, stay high -- for as long as the war in Ukraine lasts. The EU has agreed to halt Russian tanker deliveries by the end of the year. That means they're going to be buying elsewhere. China and India get discounted Russian oil, while the rest of the world competes for non-Russian oil.

Opening Iran's taps could provide some welcome relief, but that agreement is hung up on our refusal to take the Revolutionary Guard off the terrorism watchlist. Biden is being pressured to go hat-in-hand to Saudi Arabia but is resisting.

What I don't understand -- and maybe this is too political for this thread -- is why the administration doesn't use the Defense Production Act to force US oil companies to reopen closed wells.

Last new report I saw said the India is buying every last drop of oil having the tankers go dark and then re-emerge with new ID selling oil to... everyone, US inclusive.

Also what I hear is that we don't have a production problem so much as we (the US) have refining and logistics problems that we're not working on. Energy don't want to invest capital. Energy investors consider capital investment verboten at this time and want returns instead. This is why opening the reserves hasn't even contributing to denting the price. So, all I can do is use less plastics and drive less.

LordMortis wrote: Mon Jun 06, 2022 8:44 pm Also what I hear is that we don't have a production problem so much as we (the US) have refining and logistics problems that we're not working on.

We're in hurricane season now. I can only imagine what's going to happen to prices if one rips through production platforms in the Gulf over the next 4 months.