Deja vu – Pain at the Pump II. When will we learn?
Posted By RichC on April 3, 2011
My son borrowed my Honda Pilot this weekend (just after I filled up – but I received a “Thanks Dad” text message from him), so I’ve been driving his Volkswagen GTI … fun. Of course the fuel tank is exactly where most college students keep their cars – empty – so I ended up filling another tank. Ouch .. $50 to fill it with midgrade gasoline ($3.68) on Saturday night. The pinch from the high price of gasoline is starting to hurt considering how much fuel we use each week.
It wasn’t but just a couple years ago that I was posting about the low price of fuel. About the time of the 2008 elections the slow economy caused oil inventories to rise and gasoline prices to drop. A couple of goods things about the recession (and election) were the lower fuel prices and lack of inflation. Above was a photo I took at a local station just after the presidential election in November of 2008. Wow, what a difference from the prices we’re seeing today … or the one I saw in Orlando (regular unleaded $5.299) last month.
On a similar note, several articles, mostly right leaning editorials, pointed out that gas prices have doubled since President Obama took office. Although I’m not politically aligned with our President or the Democrats legislating a bigger government, higher taxes and their socialist leaning programs, the rise in oil it isn’t entirely Obama’s fault. On the other hand, his policies shutting down domestic drilling do little to secure our nation from the political unrest (or unscrupulous oil countries) in the Middle East. Unfortunately without American production, we are once again forced to pay the prices of overseas import oil — will we ever learn?
About the same time,
Feeling pain at the pump? Gas prices have doubled since Mr. Obama took office. According to the GasBuddy gasoline price tracking web site, the price of a gallon of regular gas was around $1.79 when Mr. Obama took office. Today the national average is $3.58. The lowest average price in the continental United States is $3.31 in Tulsa Oklahoma, the highest is $4.14 in Santa Barbara, CA.
Four-dollar-a-gallon gas has arrived on average throughout California, and a number of other states are headed in that direction.
Consumer price index (CPI) figures from February show an unadjusted 12 month gasoline inflation rate of 19.2%, but in the last month alone prices jumped 6.8%, probably because of oil price increases due to instabilities in the Middle East. If the trend continues, gas prices would double again within a year. 100% gasoline price inflation is nothing to brag about, but imagine Mr. Obama going into the 2012 election having to explain why gas costs $7.00 a gallon. I’m sure the White House would spin it as one of their “Green” initiatives.
Comments