What if gas cost $10 a gallon?

[chengyushen]

I was told that the current high oil price has at least some bubble in it. There are lot of "hot money" got out from the housing market and find commodity being their next profitable place.

Think of this: The oil price has doubled in the past year, but has the world comsuption/demands for oil also doubled in such a short single year?

[kuney1]

There would be a lot of unemployed politicians.

[Phaedrus]

Allow me to swim upstream, if you will.

Let's take the example of the pizza delivery guy, as I was one once, and can speak to specifics.

A "typical" delivery night is 50 miles. Provided you drive a reasonable car, at $3 a gallon, total fuel costs for the week would be $25. At $10, it would be over $75.

Not a deal-breaker, in my book.

Basically, the article is talking out of it's butt, money-wise.

Gas is over $10/gallon where I live, and zombies haven't taken over yet, and neither has a comet hit the earth.

[Iastfan112]

Kinda off topic but we need a betting thread on whether it'll hit 4 dollars by June. Driving back to Wartburg yesterday I had the honor of filling up for a cool 3.65.

[ISUCyclones]

I would form a mercenary for hire organization out of all the countries unemployed truckers, then I would proceed with the take over of the middle east and destruction of OPEC.

[besserheimerphat]

Originally Posted by delt4cy

When price/barrel gets up in the higher 100's the same thing will go for Canada's massive oil tar fields.

The Canadian tar fields will become profitable to extract oil and if/when it comes to that, Canada will potentially be one of the largest producers of oil. (I think they already are but their influence will become much greater)

They are doing this as we speak. I believe Suncor and Syncrude started working on the tar sands (in northern Alberta) in the 70's or 80's. They are getting gobs of oil out of the sand right now. I was up there last October - my employer sells equipment to refineries/oil & gas companies. The town of Fort McMurray, where two of the largest operations are located, have grown from ~10k people to over 80k people in the past 5 years due to the oil boom. There are people living up there in tents year round because they can't build the houses fast enough. But they are paying >$100,000 per year for the "Bubba's" to build pipe.

[isuno1fan]

There are worse things in the world than $10 gas. There is an opinion out there that $10 gas or higher will be good for us. I somewhat agree.

It will definitely drive change.

[CyinCo]

Why is that Diesel, a less refined oil product, is now at an even larger price premium over gas? I don't understand how Diesel can cost nearly a dollar a gallon more? Does the US have enough refineries producing diesel?

[akclone]

I am pretty sure we havent built a new refinery in this counrty since the late 70's. So it doesnt matter if OPEC pushes out more oil or we drill in our own back yard we have no way of increasing the flow from refineries to stations.

[travman23]

I would change my driving habits but also I think you can also cut down on other things that are not necessities to make up for the price as well. People complain now about the $3.56/gallon gas yet buy a $3-5 premium cup of coffee at Starbucks every morning. There is about $15-$20 a week you can cut back on. I'm sure I could find several things like taking lunch to work instead of going out that I could do if I really get in a pinch for gas money.

Heck people pay around a $1.50 or more for a 20 oz bottle of water which is around $10 a gallon. That is for water that you gan get out of your tap for pennies for a 20 oz portion. Even buying a water filtration for your tap or something. Just proving that per gallon, some of the things we all use every day costs much more than a gallon of gas and I could do without some of them if I had to just to get from point A to B in my car.

[Phaedrus]

Originally Posted by travman23

I would change my driving habits but also I think you can also cut down on other things that are not necessities to make up for the price as well. People complain now about the $3.56/gallon gas yet buy a $3-5 premium cup of coffee at Starbucks every morning. There is about $15-$20 a week you can cut back on. I'm sure I could find several things like taking lunch to work instead of going out that I could do if I really get in a pinch for gas money.

Heck people pay around a $1.50 or more for a 20 oz bottle of water which is around $10 a gallon. That is for water that you gan get out of your tap for pennies for a 20 oz portion. Even buying a water filtration for your tap or something. Just proving that per gallon, some of the things we all use every day costs much more than a gallon of gas and I could do without some of them if I had to just to get from point A to B in my car.

+10000

If you take the amount of gas you buy over a year, subtract what the "over" is on what you used to pay, and the dollar amount difference is much smaller than, say your car payment, or the cost of that big screen, or the cost of eating out, or heck, your annual tax bill...

But it hurts a little more when you pump that tank full, and it feels good to gripe about "big oil".

[everyyard]

Although a lot of that sounds bad...some of it sounds very good and progressive:

Originally Posted by Dave19642006

Car-pooling, hybrid vehicles, scooters and inline skates would swing into vogue. And telecommuting, rooftop vegetable gardens, home cooking and recycling would proliferate.

And cities might sprout to life as people planted vegetable gardens on their roofs and balconies and in vacant lots.

Small plastic bottles of water would disappear. Glass and metal containers would make a comeback. And recycling would explode. Families might even have nine bins in the hall to separate their trash, as they do in Japan, where consumer recycling tops 90%.

[TykeClone]

Originally Posted by CyinCo

Why is that Diesel, a less refined oil product, is now at an even larger price premium over gas? I don't understand how Diesel can cost nearly a dollar a gallon more? Does the US have enough refineries producing diesel?

I remember hearing a couple of years ago that there was a new EPA rule going into effect to reduce or eliminate sulfur in diesel fuel. In doing that, they changed the formulation enough to reduce the lubricant effect of the fuel in the engine and presumably had to add that back in.

[besserheimerphat]

It takes more diesel to run a country than it does gasoline. All the semis, construction equipment, ag equipment, some trains, etc. And none of them are getting "good" mileage.

[bellzisu]

Originally Posted by travman23

I would change my driving habits but also I think you can also cut down on other things that are not necessities to make up for the price as well. People complain now about the $3.56/gallon gas yet buy a $3-5 premium cup of coffee at Starbucks every morning. There is about $15-$20 a week you can cut back on. I'm sure I could find several things like taking lunch to work instead of going out that I could do if I really get in a pinch for gas money.

Heck people pay around a $1.50 or more for a 20 oz bottle of water which is around $10 a gallon. That is for water that you gan get out of your tap for pennies for a 20 oz portion. Even buying a water filtration for your tap or something. Just proving that per gallon, some of the things we all use every day costs much more than a gallon of gas and I could do without some of them if I had to just to get from point A to B in my car.

I see your point on the water and the Starbucks, but that represents only a small portion of the population. I could easily cut out $10 or even $20 a week but I still don't think its going to create a dent if gas got to $10 a gallon.

Seriously, food prices in the last year have gone up almost 40%. If gas goes up to $10 then food prices with easily double to trible where they are now. Can you afford that??? Unless, you have a strick veg diet and grow your own, good luck affording meat, milk, eggs, and some of the other basics.

Ok... Now shopping locally sounds like a good idea also, but lets think about this. Products in those local stores will also suffer price increases. I know some people already buy expensive cloths from American Eagle, Gap, Buckle, and others, but what happens when Levi and Wrangler and other companies get that expensive.

Seriously, I can cut back on a few things, but not enough to counter act the worse case situation of everything.