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See the original image at nytimes.com

At $100 for Tank of Gas, Some Choke on ‘Fill It’

nytimes.com — Owners of large vehicles have hit an uncomfortable price milestone and are cutting back on recreational driving.

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  • ninesky01, on 07/06/2008, -27/+12and it's people like these that were just eating up gas earlier in the decade. and now we are all paying for it... thanks, bras...

    also, thanks to the baby boomer gen... if more of you would have just offed yourself, we wouldn't have such a resource shortage. now we have to deal with your old asses and your thirteen brothers and sisters, well, getting old, and high gas prices at the same time... dang it!

    what am i going to do now?!!!
    • Kanele, on 07/06/2008, -6/+4you shall start by cutting the crap
      Capitalism (the way it was developped) is more responsible than the people.
    • UltramegaOK, on 07/06/2008, -1/+11Bras? Where?
    • TheCash, on 07/06/2008, -3/+25I suggest killing yourself, thus leaving the rest of us your share of gas and making the world a happier place at the same time. Its a two-fer.

      Honestly though, if you can find me a honda accord that can haul 2 tons of livestock feed and a 3 horse trailer I would be happy to trade in my truck. Seeing how that vehicle does not yet exist, I'll just continue chocking up my higher gas bill as one of the few drawback of my rural life versus an urban one.
      • hansonc, on 07/07/2008, -4/+4No one (sane) is saying you shouldn't drive a truck. Would it be nice for all of us if your black smoke spewing diesel were more efficient and cleaner, yes but you're not the one people should be shunning, it's the soccer mom driving by herself all over town in the Excursion when an Accord would do her just fine.
      • marx2k, on 07/07/2008, -2/+3hansonc: But then she wouldn't be safe from other soccer moms driving Excursions. We can all blame the first soccer mom who purchased an Excursion!
      • CyberSol, on 07/07/2008, -4/+1howbout you buy another car, and only use the truck when you have to.

      • TheCash, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2Actually it's a V8, and thank god seeing how diesel is almost 6 dollars where I live now. If you want to complain about black smoke, perhaps you should check out where the power for your home that allows you to comment on Digg comes from. I'm willing to bet it's not an alternative energy source.

        And Cybersol, how about you buy another car for me if you are so concerned, or maybe resist the urge to jump to conclusions regarding how many and what types of vehicles I own?
      • queenstarsha, on 07/07/2008, -1/+3people who legitimately have to buy a lot of gas should be angriest of all at people who drive big trucks just to make themselves feel like real men.
      • TheCash, on 07/08/2008, -0/+2Which is why pimped out trucks with fancy dual exausts and overly raised/lowered suspensions generally irritate me Queen. That is, till I remember guys that do ***** like that are usually compensating for a one inch ***** and have to do *something* to feel like men, seeing how they don't have the elementary education required to become Digg trolls or Ron Paul supporters.
    • Chompy, on 07/07/2008, -3/+4I suggest living within your means. Also, perhaps electing some politicians who put citizens>corporations(hah!).
    • JointVenture, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4Stay in your moms basement where its safe.
  • Masternajee, on 07/06/2008, -37/+8Funny how many people who claim to be environmentalists are the same ones driving around in an SUV. Can anyone say Al Gore?
    • yellowcakewalk, on 07/07/2008, -3/+21Genuine environmentalists take the bus, walk, or ride a bicycle.
      • Hangly, on 07/07/2008, -2/+15Genuine environmentalists ride a moose to work so they can fertilize the crab grass with its dung.

        Sorry, it's really late and I'm in a dumb mood.
  • smcgrath, on 07/06/2008, -2/+96FTA -
    Colleen Hammond of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, loves packing her three kids and all their soccer gear into her 2000 GMC Yukon XL. But she hates paying $160 to fill the 38.5-gallon tank. Last month, she parked the Yukon in her driveway and borrowed her friend’s Toyota Land Cruiser.

    “I don’t know if it gets better gas mileage, but I like her car because it costs $100 to fill it,” said Ms. Hammond, 40. “I think $100 for a tank of gas is cheap now.”

    These are the kind of people I want to walk up to and smack. Going from a Yukon to a Land Cruiser in not helping things!
    • drgkstep, on 07/06/2008, -1/+56And she's a moron for thinking that how much a tank costs has anything to do with fuel efficiency! DIFFERENT TANK SIZE MORON!
      • dood, on 07/07/2008, -1/+5I thought Toyota drivers got a discount.
    • dangerousLEH, on 07/07/2008, -4/+55“I think $100 for a tank of gas is cheap now.”

      That is the dumbest, most american statement ever. I drive a honda civic, and I'm still pissed when I have to spend $40 to fill it up. When I first got it, $20 would pretty much fill the entire tank.
      • cvindustries, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2You youngins...why, in my senior year high school, my honda civic cost $6.30 to fill up. $0.70 a gallon in May 1998, combined with a fuel efficient car. People older than me may have gotten gas for less (though I remember $0.91 even in 1990, so you gotta go back a ways), but not with the combination of a fuel-efficient vehicle to boot.
    • Hangly, on 07/07/2008, -1/+77I moved up from a land cruiser to a land destroyer, and finally to an imperial land-dreadnought. It costs about $5200 to fill the tank(s) but I need all the extra cruise missile capacity.
      • marx2k, on 07/07/2008, -0/+9I'm actually surprised that there isn't an SUV called "dreadnought" yet
      • WELLDOITLIVE, on 07/07/2008, -0/+7Yea? Well I traded in my Prius for a Badonkadonk Land Cruiser and now I can drive anywhere I want in a straight line, avoiding those gas-eating inefficient turns. It's nice when you can make your own roads.

        http://www.amazon.com/JL421-Badonkadonk-Land-Cruis ...
      • AdamFromMyspace, on 07/07/2008, -0/+7I'm giggling in my office from your comment
      • blackdude, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3Impressive, you win :]
      • KLBP, on 07/08/2008, -0/+2"imperial land-dreadnough"

        I'm dying with laughter. Stay away from biplanes with torpedoes.
    • MikeSobe, on 07/07/2008, -0/+14I went to Chagrin Falls high school and this quote perfectly describes 80% of the town.
      • TheMidnight, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5Much to your chagrin, I bet...

        *starts digging his own grave for the terrible pun*
    • pakruse, on 07/07/2008, -0/+21One driver plus three kids all fit in a sedan or coupe. What sort of soccer equipment are they using that it would not fit into the trunk of a car???

      I'm failing to understand why she went from SUV to SUV and not from SUV to sedan.
      • MattB123, on 07/07/2008, -0/+13Maybe they bring their own field?
      • ngmcs8203, on 07/07/2008, -2/+3I can only assume that they carry a bag of gear and soccer balls. If you have a sedan with a good sized trunk (see: Lincoln and Cadillac) then yah it would all fit. But in something like an accord, a soccerbag and 3 kids would be a very tight squeeze, if at all possible.
      • NekoFever, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5This is why I never understand the need for massive things like that to take 2-3 kids around. When I was growing up my dad had an old Ford Escort and it never occurred to use that it wasn't big enough.

        If you're driving a whole football team, the turf for the pitch, the goalposts, etc, fair enough...
      • Duositex, on 07/07/2008, -0/+6My family and I (five people) would drive 250 miles in my parent's 1991 Hyundai Excel without difficult. WITH our luggage. I fail to comprehend how a family of four cannot fit into a smaller car just to go to a soccer game.
      • eengineer, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4When I was in high school I had a ford probe and it fit me and 3 friends in it every week when we went to play hockey. That's three people all over 5'8 with hockey skates, gloves, sticks, helmets, pucks, tape and other crap. There is no way this woman can't fit herself and three children with SOCCER equipment in a mid size car. No reason she NEEDS an SUV.
    • Gumby_Mac, on 07/07/2008, -1/+9She's obviously one of the idiots who shop for a car by monthly payment. ANY monthly payment is possible given the right down payment and length of term. Somebody ought to install motorcycle gas tank underneath her landraper and then she'd think she's getting a REAL bargain at the pump.
    • queenstarsha, on 07/07/2008, -1/+4i've heard parents talk like they need a massive SUV the second they have an infant. but... but.. the stroller!

      back when i was a kid, parents had small strollers that fit in the goddamn trunk.

      my mom hauled three kids around in a toyota corona:
      http://thrashcar.com/articles/data/95/corona2.JPG

      and besides my penchant for internet ranting, we turned out just fine.

      now get off of my lawn.
  • themaestro18, on 07/06/2008, -10/+3Time to get a hybrid vehicle. http://www.bestsnippets.com/post/38062934/toyota-d ...
  • drgkstep, on 07/06/2008, -29/+60SUV drivers are finally suffering for their excesses! I've been saying for 10 years that it was ridiculous to drive these monsters, and we wouldn't be in this fix now if it weren't for them. I have ZERO sympathy for drivers who pay $100 or even more to fill their tanks. Families with multiple children, which is selfish and wasteful as well, got by just fine before the advent of the Chevy Suburban. People got groceries just fine before the could load up pallets of chicken nuggets at Costco. ***** you SUV drivers, I'll be riding past you stuck on the side of the road in my economical car or on my scooter and NO you can't car pool with me, assholes.
    • TheCash, on 07/06/2008, -27/+18No one is forcing you to drive an SUV, so the hell are you complaining about? And what the hell is so selfish about having multiple children? I hope you and your scooter get hit by a bus you jerk.
      • thebigbradwolf, on 07/07/2008, -1/+21He's complaining because when demand increases, the equilibrium price increases, and as a consequence, everyone pays more, including him.
      • Pissoff, on 07/07/2008, -0/+10Yeah, but everybody's a jerk. You, me, that jerk.
      • Rikkochet, on 07/07/2008, -5/+13The world is completely overpopulated and the industrialized world has shown lower birth rates for decades now. Still, some families insist on having 3, 4, 5, 6 children.. Why? I don't have an answer. What the *****, people? WE DON'T NEED ANY MORE!
        America grew as a nation of excess (look at the way the city sprawls were built and the roads and commutes required, if the house and vehicle and belly sizes didn't already give it away) - now some people are waking up and realizing that that level of consumption is unsustainable. It's more infuriating to those people when they look around and see people who still DON'T. GET. IT.
        We need to smarten up. Al Gore is right, and crying and calling him a hypocrite isn't helping (that's a general statement, not related to your comment, TheCash) - he's saying WE need to stop doing what we're doing, even though we're still doing it. It's the first way to start change.
      • marx2k, on 07/07/2008, -4/+1"And what the hell is so selfish about having multiple children?"

        Whenever, in the future, you get the urge to ask this again, just repeat to yourself: "It's not a clown car"
      • duewydo, on 07/07/2008, -2/+2.
      • sgxyay, on 07/07/2008, -2/+4Industrialized nations including the US have a birth rate about 1:1 with the population (every one person creates an average of one offspring). The population is still going up in these countries because people are living longer and not dieing as much, and in the US, there is still plenty if immigration.

        The third world countries are the ones that are exploding with huge birthrates and contributing the most to population growth. Gotta get those kids to work on the farm!
      • SouthernGuy118, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2problem is, industrialized nations aren't 1:1. The U.S. reproduction rate is somewhere at 2.5. so, its 1:1.25. That might not seem like alot but you arent talking about 1 person. Youre talking about 300 million. So, 300,000,000 x 1.25 = 375,000,000. Lookie there, the population just went up by 75 million.
      • Pissoff, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2@SouthernGuy118

        No, industrialized nations do not average 5 kids per household.

        I'm pretty sure you meant 2.5 to 2, or 1:1.25, which is close enough to the 1:1 figure sgxyay offered.





      • thebigbradwolf, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1It's 2.1

        https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world ...
        with us coming in at #127.

        According to the CIA.
    • Nayson, on 07/07/2008, -17/+6Having multiple children is selfish and wasteful? How do you work that out out drgkstep?
      • marx2k, on 07/07/2008, -1/+7resource consumption and exponential population growth
      • boot20, on 07/07/2008, -2/+4Gluttony comes in all forms.
      • queenstarsha, on 07/07/2008, -1/+2people have gotten hyper-judgemental about this in a real hurry, which hurts me 'cause i have a sister with four kids and she's not a bad person. if you don't want four kids, don't have four kids. i sure as hell won't, because yeah, simplistically, people in africa are starving, and my third kid would take food right off of some african kid's plate.

        but it's fascism to make other people's reproductive decisions for them in either direction. no one's calling african women who have lots of kids "gluttons." and they shouldn't. if you've had all the educational and birth control opportunities in the world, you make one decision. if you've been taught only that god wants you to have 18 kids, you make a different decision. my sister was somewhere in the middle. next generation, hopefully american kids will know better than to have too many kids. but the message won't get through by talking about goddamn clown cars.
    • TremorX, on 07/07/2008, -14/+5Someone sounds jealous that his mommy wouldn't buy him a shiny new Jeep.
    • plarp, on 07/07/2008, -9/+2hi kettle.. me stove.. you'r black
      • dafragsta, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3Well if that isn't the stove calling the kettle black.
    • DaDrake, on 07/07/2008, -6/+7"we wouldn't be in this fix now if it weren't for them"

      That is the most retarded thing I ever heard. Gas consumption, right now in the US, is going DOWN. Problem is, there is 2.4 billion consumers thirsty for oil (China and India). If you don't buy it, they will.
    • Icetype, on 07/07/2008, -2/+5I enjoy that drgkstep chose the world's oldest 'SUV' in his rant. The Chevy Suburban has been around since 1933. Yes, back in 1932 before the Suburban people got their groceries just fine, dunno about the Costco nuggets tho. :D
    • DangerCollie, on 07/07/2008, -1/+6When everyone else was driving bigger, I opted for a sensible 4 cyl sedan that gets 33 mpg on the highway. I don't feel a bit sorry for people who bought monster pickup trucks and SUV's the size of a Bangladesh apartment.

      Heck, it cost me $46 to fill up my little tank. I noticed looking around at the other pumps there were a lot of $15, $20, $25 purchases. People putting what they could afford in the tank. No wonder that station is busy all the time, people are driving on the installment plan.

      We were insulated from rising prices for a long time as we have a farm tank that I filled up @ $2.89. That really hurt back in February, now I could afford another tank if I could get the gas for that price again. Going back to the gas station again this summer was major sticker shock. Bu-ya!
      • Pissoff, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1I don't understand that, don't most people get paid bi-weekly?

        Why stop every day or every two days, it's more driving, and more starting and stopping
      • thebigbradwolf, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1gas doesn't ride with you for free, it weighs about 6 pounds per gallon.

        So, yes it's starting and stopping, but if your station is near a stoplight where you'll likely have to stop anyway and/or on a road with a low speed limit, you're probably saving gas that way.

        The only real way to know is to measure your gas usage...
    • duewydo, on 07/07/2008, -1/+3What I find interesting is how there are people that make comments like these, and it sounds as if there are just a handful of these wasteful ignorant people, who drive large cars, pop out babies, are wasteful, and they are the problem. When in reality, there are probably more of these people then any other category and that this person, with this opinion, is only one of a small handful of the population. Not that I am trying to say he is wrong, (maybe he could be a bit more tactful in his wording) we are wasteful idiots, (and yes we are), but it is like a Jew in Nazi Germany, telling a bunch of Nazi officers on the streets that Hilter is an asshat. Regardless that he is/was an asshat, that guys is only going to get creamed.

      What I am trying to get at here is that there must be a better way to pass the message along.

      • queenstarsha, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1i agree that insults don't move us forward. but they are fun. you do realize you just called anyone with three kids or an suv a nazi, right?
    • jebus123, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4Giant SUVs use alot of gas, news at 11.
    • DickMasterson2, on 07/07/2008, -7/+3You are a ***** dick rider! Get off your high horse *****. I hope you get what you deserve when an SUV crashes into your piece of ***** car and blows the ***** up. EAT A DICK!
      • queenstarsha, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1awww. you just got back from the gas station, didn't you? poor little (tiny) thing in your giant suv.
    • bwebb, on 07/07/2008, -8/+3Wow. You have to be one of the most self-righteous, smug, arrogant ***** I've ever seen post anything...ever.

      Did you know that the best way to lower your carbon footprint is to stop breathing entirely? YOU'RE NOT DOING EVERYTHING YOU CAN YOU *****...WITH ALL OF YOUR EXHALED CARBON DIOXIDE!!! WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US!!!! GIVE IT A TRY!!!! FOR THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      People like you just ***** blabber all day long about how much better you are than others because you're supposedly "doing" something. I wonder what studies would tell us about the environmental impact of all the unnecessary self-aggrandizing blather you and your friends spew to one another to make yourselves feel important rather than actually trying to find a workable solution. I can see you sitting around in a Starbucks somewhere yammering so much about being better than everyone else that you actually have to gasp for breath every 30 to 60 seconds. Stop using my oxygen.

      It is not necessary to be a *****. All people like you make me want to do is buy an old 1979 Bronco that gets 8mpg and plow through your prius or whatever other stupid ***** hybrid piece of trash you own. In fact...I'm going to go drive around the block a few times RIGHT NOW just because of you. You are the specific cause of that additional pollution to the environment just for being a dick. GOOD JOB!
      • queenstarsha, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2lot of rage you got there.
      • bwebb, on 07/08/2008, -0/+0I just kept going because it was relatively funny. I was done after the 3rd sentence but I was on a roll.
    • samarisi, on 07/08/2008, -0/+0Some SUV drivers can't help it. My truck is a 1995 Chevy Tahoe, it has a 30 gallon gas tank and gets around 12 miles a gallon on average. Even though i would like a new, more fuel efficient car, my truck has almost no trade-in value, so i cant afford it, and i definitely cant afford to straight up purchase a new car. So when you say

      "***** you SUV drivers, I'll be riding past you stuck on the side of the road in my economical car or on my scooter and NO you can't car pool with me, assholes.",

      it just means you are either wealthy enough to ignore these issues, or you are very under-informed.
  • duddy, on 07/06/2008, -1/+22I haven't filled my tank on my Mazda3 in months. I've been living on $10 at a time.
    • thebigbradwolf, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1I have a Mazda3, but I fill it about every other time, to help me tune my drive efficiency (measure fuel economy).

      Gasoline has to weigh at least 5 pounds a gallon after all..
    • dukeochutney, on 07/07/2008, -6/+1always good for the engine to suck the dirt/grit at the bottom of ur tank. enjoy not getting 150k outa it
      • MacEnvy, on 07/07/2008, -1/+6Modern gas tanks all suck from the bottom of the tank all the time, so sediment generally never builds up. You're repeating an old wives' tale.
      • woozlewuzzle, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Your car always draws from the bottom of the tank. That's where the pickup tube is.
    • MattB123, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5My bike is always full (unless I need to pump up the tires or something like that).
      • queenstarsha, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2ha! i'm procrastinating a flat repair at this very moment. but i looooove my bike. i've bought about two tanks of gas this entire year, for long trips home to see my family.
    • DangerCollie, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2Feels good, doesn't it? Hehe.
    • xutopia, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1The Mazda3 isn't a gaz guzzler though.
      • duddy, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1Yeah, but I'm not a "money maker" either.
  • coffee200am, on 07/06/2008, -44/+39• "We can't drill our way out of our energy crisis."

    Actually, we can. As we've noted before, conservative estimates put the total amount of recoverable oil in conventional deposits at about 39 billion barrels. Offshore, we have another 89 billion barrels or so. In ANWR, 10 billion barrels.

    In oil shale deposits, we have more than 1 trillion barrels of oil. In perspective, that's about four times the total reserves of Saudi Arabia. And if estimates of shale reserves as high as 2 trillion barrels prove true, we'll have about a 300-year supply of oil just from shale. This compares with current estimated total U.S. oil reserves of about 21 billion barrels.

    ANWR alone is expected to yield 1 million barrels of oil a day. Now make the highly conservative assumption that we're able to get a like amount of oil from the other sources — for a total increase of 3 million to 4 million barrels of oil a day.

    That's an enormous rise in oil output. Today, we produce just under 8 million barrels of oil a day from domestic sources. So we could, in effect, boost our energy output 50%, and thus our energy independence, by bringing an additional 4 million barrels of oil to thirsty world markets each and every day.

    By the way, those calculations don't include the trillions and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas found in the same locations, which, along with nuclear power, could be used to fire our power plants.

    By 2030, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, we will need at least 30% more energy to fuel our economy. Nearly 85% of that increase will come from oil and gas, even with expected gains for alternative energy. Can't drill our way out? In fact, it's the only way out of our energy crisis.

    • "Oil companies are sitting on 68 million acres of oil leases and refuse to drill."

    This is yet another slander of "Big Oil" by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — one that has become a major talking point for Democrats in Congress. It's completely dishonest.

    Oil companies have spent billions of dollars for those leases. Drilling has increased by more than 66% since 2000. They are searching for oil even as you read this. Some parts of those 68 million acres will have oil, some won't. But at $145 a barrel, you can bet oil companies have plenty of incentive to find it.

    That said, 68 million acres is in fact a minuscule amount. Some 94% of federal lands — 658 million acres — remains off-limits to exploration. Another 97% — or 1.7 billion acres — of federal offshore properties likewise remains off-limits. These lands contain tens of billions of barrels of recoverable oil. It's there for the taking, now.

    How much energy is there? Federal lands, according to the American Petroleum Institute, hold 651 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to fuel 60 million households for 160 years. They hold at least 116 billion barrels of oil, maybe more. That's enough to fuel 65 million cars and provide fuel oil for 3.2 million homes for 60 years.

    As such, it's the height of irresponsibility for Congress to leave these lands off the table. It ensures we remain vulnerable to pariah petrostates like Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iran and others who wish us ill.

    • "Even if drilling works, it'll take a decade or more for the oil to flow."

    This is quite an argument coming from the Democratic Party, which has made keeping oil off the market a linchpin of its energy policy for decades.

    If President Clinton hadn't vetoed the idea of drilling in ANWR back in 1995, we'd have that oil on the market today. Ditto if Congress had approved ANWR drilling in 2002, when President Bush requested it.

    Even so, the larger point is false anyway. New oil will be flowing in some cases within three to four years, according to industry estimates. But the impact on prices will be immediate. Why? Because markets would suddenly have to discount future oil prices for the expected gain in oil supply. That would cause oil prices, especially in futures markets, to drop.

    By the way, this isn't just conjecture. President Reagan, within a week of his inaugural in 1981, removed domestic controls on oil. Energy prices began tumbling almost immediately, with oil falling from $34 a barrel in early 1981 to just $11 by 1986.

    It worked before, and it'll work again.

    • "Record profits by big oil companies are the reason for soaring prices."

    It's true that oil company profits have never been higher. But put into perspective, oil company profits are high because the price is high. As a share of revenue, profits aren't so high.

    The average profit, as we've noted before, is around 8 to 9 cents to the dollar. That compares with about 7 cents to the dollar for manufacturers and more than 15 cents to the dollar for computer makers.

    In short, oil profits aren't out of whack with the rest of industry.

    What doesn't get said is that while oil companies have profit margins of about 8%, about 12% of the price of a gallon of gas goes to the government in the form of taxes. When indirect taxes are included, the share is even higher.

    So who are the real price-gougers?

    From 1981 to 2006, the oil industry made $867 billion in profits. Yes, that's a lot. But over that same time, they paid total taxes of $1.2 trillion, Energy Department data show. And that doesn't include taxes of $519 billion paid to foreign countries.

    Please remember that the next time a politician vows to hit "Big Oil" with a windfall profits tax or some other idea. The tax won't be paid by the oil company; it will be paid by you, the consumer.

    • TheCash, on 07/06/2008, -5/+21Coffee, you make far too much sense to be a digg user.
    • pintomp3, on 07/07/2008, -9/+12drilling offshore and in ANWR would saving us a whopping 3-5 pennies per gallon, 10 years from now. a much larger part of the cost increase is speculation.
      • JBrown99, on 07/07/2008, -3/+4Did you even read his post?
      • serif69, on 07/07/2008, -3/+4Source?
      • TheCash, on 07/07/2008, -2/+1Clinton used that same "in ten years" argument when he vetoed opening ANWR 13 years ago. Ironic, huh?
      • cvindustries, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Source: US Department of Energy. Revised May 2008.
    • MalDON, on 07/07/2008, -12/+7Were you hired by McCain?
      • ngmcs8203, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3He makes too much sense to be hired by McCain. He sounds like one of the lobbyists we all saw in Thank You For Smoking.
    • blaker00, on 07/07/2008, -5/+16if you stop printing excess money and starting wars with countries in the middle east, than you would watch the price of gas drop considerably. ANWR isn't going to do anything. There are larger oil fields in montana than anwr. We don't have a problem with 'actual' supply right now, we have a problem with currency risk and 'speculative' problems with supply by possibly invading more middle east countries.


      1) pay back out debts
      2) Stop our imperial ways
      3) Have congress veto useless bills
      4) develop alternatives

      .:. watch the price of gas go back to 50 dollars barrel or less.
    • hansonc, on 07/07/2008, -2/+10a couple of problems. The ANWR number is at best a wild ass guess.

      Shale oil is worth exploring but the problem is, if someone figures out a way to get it out we're going to have to strip mine the shale fields. It's not like liquid oil that we just drill into the ground and pump it out.
    • strad2, on 07/07/2008, -2/+8Who would have thought that the American Petroleum Institute would suggest that we drill in our national parks... thankfully, no ulterior motives are at play here, so these figures can be viewed as rock solid.
    • strad2, on 07/07/2008, -2/+6Please read the U.S. Department of Energy's 2008 report... they project much larger timeframes for ANWR to make an impact, and even in the best case scenario, that ANWR will not have a large impact on world oil prices.

      "With respect to the world oil price impact, projected ANWR oil production constitutes between 0.4 and 1.2 percent of total world oil consumption in 2030, based on the low and high resource cases, respectively.1 Consequently, ANWR oil production is not projected to have a large impact on world oil prices."

      http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/anwr/pdf/sr ...

      Or, you could keep consulting the American Petroleum Institute... your call.
    • TheSwashbuckler, on 07/07/2008, -3/+5You forgot to add "This message was brought to you by the lobbyists for the oil industry..." at the end of your message.
      • TheCash, on 07/07/2008, -4/+1And you forgot to add "This criticism was brought to you by the eco lobbyists" to yours.
      • strad2, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4TheCash - Your post, although likely an attempt at humor, doesn't hold water. Coffee quoted lobbyist figures directly and used them as evidence. Swashbuckler did no such thing... he just called Coffee on it.

        Coffee's mistake is akin to someone arguing again him/her saying something along these lines: "According to the Peaceful Protector's of Mother Earth, federal lands contain few natural resources worth extracting, and what little there are would be astronomically expensive to exploit."
      • TheSwashbuckler, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2"And you forgot to add "This criticism was brought to you by the eco lobbyists" to yours."

        Nope, recognizing that he's shilling for the oil industry doesn't make me a shill for the eco lobby.
    • mleh, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2That's great and all, but the sun can provide us energy for a few million years and doesn't harm the environment, much unlike drilling for oil.
  • coffee200am, on 07/07/2008, -4/+27It shouldn't be a Democratic thing or a Republican thing. It should be about Americans as whole first. We have the ability to Drill/Nuclearize/Alternative and bring about "change" to our energy crunch. We have the ability to make it environmentally safe to bring all this energy we have in our backyard online while not making some kind of major "sacrifice", live in the dark, eat bugs, rationing crap laws. Screw the oil in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela. Time to make them stop being a pain in the ass by the only way possible...cut off the money supply. I'm tired of having to go through this ***** every ten years or so. Build American energy!
    • Hangly, on 07/07/2008, -2/+5If we stop buying from the middle east and drill ANWR instead the price would be about 10x what it is even now, there wouldn't be enough to go around, and it would last about three years.

      I don't like the situation any more than you do, but that isn't the answer.
    • RomeyRome, on 07/07/2008, -4/+1As long as there are no labor unions involved in that plan. Otherwise, our oil industry will do as well as our auto industry is doing; $2 of every gallon will go to someone's retirement plan.
      • queenstarsha, on 07/07/2008, -1/+2heaven knows no one wants grandma to live comfortably in her old age.
      • RomeyRome, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2Not if grandma didn't do anything meaningful with her life & ended up pushing rivets for the rest of her life.
        Ford vehicles carry a $2,000 premium per vehicle for grandma. No wonder the quality of our cars is *****. You can't make a quality car for the same price point as Toyota & turn a profit. That's OK though. Our automakers are going under & all those union faithfuls will be un-employed.

        Life is what you make it.
      • byleth, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Maybe you should tell us what your idea of "meaningful" work is. Grandma doesn't deserve to retire because she was pushing rivets all her life? Why, exactly?
      • strad2, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1RomeyRome - Keep in mind that there are often many reasons for a particular outcome. Yes, our domestic car manufacturers carry a burden that foreign companies do not share. But foreign companies like Toyota and Honda are careful to remain competitive with domestic, union-backed manufacturers, and yet remain profitable.And many European countries are far more socialized and unionized than the U.S., and yet their auto makers are not suffering as ours are.

        Domestic manufacturers bet heavily on large trucks, and enjoyed juicy profit margins off of those vehicles for many years... Unfortunately for them, the tables have turned, and fuel efficiency is now much more desirable, which is the Japanese auto-makers forte. Even today I cringe when seeing domestic auto TV advertisements... they are all for large trucks, and have been reduced to gimmicky "lock in 2.99 gas" plans to try to woo consumers. It's really sad.. they are such pathetic, backwards facing companies.

        Plus, the quality is simply lower. You can't really get around that... American manufacturers are not competitive in this sphere any longer. Their history is based on fun, inefficient cars. Now the most fun and fuel-efficient cars (of same or higher quality) are built by foreign companies.
    • zacharytelschow, on 07/07/2008, -3/+1"It shouldn't be a Democratic thing or a Republican thing..."

      And yet... The first two things you mention after that statement (drill here and nuclear) the Democrats vote against with obscene regularity (80%+ of the time). And as far as alternative energy, the Republicans aren't against it, they just don't want to subsidize it. Alternatives should make it off their own merits especially with oil prices so high, not because bureaucrats decided upon it (see: ethanol).
    • eavesdrop, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1I agree, the best solution wins, keep politics out of it.
  • Tinu, on 07/07/2008, -0/+19Seems I couldn't have picked a better time to eliminate my commute and keep a home office.
  • Molnies, on 07/07/2008, -13/+5I filled my Chrysler Stratus (13 gallon tank) for $120 the other day...
    • Hangly, on 07/07/2008, -0/+19Filled it with what, Chanel No.5? Jesus Christ.
    • Chazzer3, on 07/07/2008, -1/+3Filling up a 90l tank in the UK, common in any vehicles such as large saloons, (A6. 5-series and larger), has been costing over £100 for quite a few months, that's about over $200, so, lucky you!!
    • COlson87, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5So you payed over $9/gallon?

      When they said higher gas prices helped the environment... ah, nevermind.
      • Eccles, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3Diesel in England was ~ 1.30.9/liter last week. 1.30 * 1.97 dollars/pound * 3.7854 liters/gallon = $9.75/gallon.

        Yup.
    • Pissoff, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2So you paid $9.23 a gallon? Or $3 a liter? Where do you live?

    • qber, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3If you're paying $9 a gallon, I'm guessing you're not American. Your usage of "13 gallons" as opposed to "50 liters" confused me.
  • Nayson, on 07/07/2008, -3/+12I swear they are watering down petrol. When i put £20 worth in my car i used to be able to do about sixty miles. Now i struggle to get forty five. The bastards.
    • permaremote, on 07/07/2008, -1/+2You only get around 12mpg? That's pretty bad. £20 runs to almost 200 miles in my petrol Clio.
    • grumpychris, on 07/07/2008, -1/+5They are diluting it, but not with water; it's that low energy density ethanol that's to blame.
    • subliminalurge, on 07/07/2008, -0/+8Don't forget the "magic" fuel pumps.

      I went to get gas for my lawnmower yesterday, and amazingly was able to pump 8.3 gallons into my 6 gallon gas can.

      Pretty *****' impressive if you ask me.
      • insertAliasHere, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4Pumps are supposed to get inspected every so often to ensure that doesn't happen. If it's happened to you several times, maybe you should expose it to your local news station. I remember a report where I'm from a few years ago when an investigative news team went to a bunch of gas stations and did this test. They found several stations that weren't properly calibrated and the owners got in a lot of trouble.
    • bullox, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2Maybe you need a tune up.
  • HeatherH88, on 07/07/2008, -4/+7I wish I could afford a new, fuel-efficient car... I have an old, 3-colored '93 Jeep Cherokee and the mileage is just horrible. With all of the money I'm spending between gas and school, I'll never be able to save up! =/
    • marx2k, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2Spend $1000 to $2000 and buy a motorcycle or a scooter
      • ngmcs8203, on 07/07/2008, -1/+2I think I can safely say, current motorcycle riders do not want a sudden increase in the amount of "new" riders hitting the street. I'm sure emergency service employees want to keep the "brain buckets" to a minimum as well.
      • marx2k, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1I'm a scooter rider. I'd much rather get into an accident with another scooter rider than Excursion soccer mom
    • grumpychris, on 07/07/2008, -1/+7If you'll paint it to have only one color, you'll double your mileage.
    • asnider, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2You could probably sell it and buy an OLD fuel-efficient car.
      • HeatherH88, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Whoops - by new, i meant "new to me", but you're right. My only reluctance is in that I, myself, rebuilt this car about 4 years ago- including half of the engine... and because of that i KNOW that its reliable. (Not to mention what I sunk into it for parts... which is why I ended up doing the labor myself -and its just a good skill for a girl to have-)

        Of course, I'd be saving a lot in gas =/ Even $40/fillup would add up fast! That'll be a big priority when I graduate for sure..
    • eengineer, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Been there. I was out of school for like 3 months before my car, which sucked alot, finally died. I spent so much money over the 4 years I was in school just to keep it running that I could have probably bought a newer car. I needed to fix it to get to class and my crappy part time job, though. It gets better though man.
    • queenstarsha, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1buy a bicycle. $100 gets you a decent ride.
  • cavie2002, on 07/07/2008, -6/+23just siphon gas out of police cars, they get free gas
    • Hosalabad, on 07/07/2008, -5/+8Uh no, your taxes pay that.

      Well not really,I imagine you don't pay too much in taxes at your burger flipping job.
      • samuelmcm, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5Well then, hes just taking back what's his ;)
      • cavie2002, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1shut the ***** up u work at walmart in the garden section i could buy your family if i wanted you ***** *****
    • Pissoff, on 07/07/2008, -1/+4Brilliant!
    • PocchieTheMan, on 07/07/2008, -1/+2Good luck with that.
  • vinceislegend, on 07/07/2008, -10/+9Cut out the part about gas, and this is a porno tagline.
  • mephitix, on 07/07/2008, -2/+40"Mark R. Price, founder of the Illiana Hummer Club in the Chicago area, owns three Hummer H1s, which get about eight miles per gallon"

    Bet this guy feels like a champion.
    • rald84, on 07/07/2008, -0/+15can't you read? he owns THREE of them so obviously he gets 24 miles per gallon
    • RomeyRome, on 07/07/2008, -9/+1A bigger champion than you'll ever be.
    • stoopie, on 07/07/2008, -9/+1I pretty sure he'd still rather be him than you.

    • StinkBait, on 07/07/2008, -1/+5Someone's compensating.
      • RomeyRome, on 07/07/2008, -4/+1That's just a tale that the little people came up with to make their under-achieving ass feel a little better about themselves. I'll take a toddler penis any day if it comes with a $20 million dollars in the bank.
  • Merendino, on 07/07/2008, -2/+10OMG, title should have read, "NO *****!"
  • whiterice0, on 07/07/2008, -3/+3I have not filled my SUV in three weeks. I only drop $40 per station visit because I can't bear to spend $80 everytime I fill it.
    • Buckeye17, on 07/07/2008, -1/+6You do realize you aren't saving money by doing that, right?
    • marx2k, on 07/07/2008, -1/+4But... that just means you fill it up twice as much.... Almost the same logic as the dimwit from the story with the Yukon XL
    • ngmcs8203, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1$80 for your SUV? Jesus H. Christ that's a bargain. We pay about $110 per 25gal tank. Thankfully that's only every other week.
  • Eccles, on 07/07/2008, -3/+0I managed to spend over $100 on a tank for a 1.9L diesel-powered vehicle. It's a lot easier to do that in Europe (England in this case.)
    • ELCad, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4The stations there accept dollars?
    • excession, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2The benefit of driving a diesel is better MPG. Without being particularly careful, I can do 40mpg round town in my 2007 VW Golf 2.0TDI, and ~55mpg on the way to and from work. Long motorway journey, with serious concentration, I've had almost 70mpg over 100 or so miles...
  • phogasmic, on 07/07/2008, -4/+20I feel bad saying this.. but I have little sympathy for SUV owners, especially Hummer owners. Sorry but It wasn't necessary to buy those huge cars, not even when gas was relatively cheap. They were always harmful to the environment. The more I read about less SUV drivers on the road, the better I feel. I only wish there weren't so many of them dragging down the rest of the economy because of they're 100$ tanks.
    • Pake, on 07/07/2008, -4/+7You shouldn't feel bad about saying the truth. SUV owners are majority of the reason were in this situation now. I personally don't even allow people who own SUV's mention gas prices when I'm around them. I'll tell them straight up that as long as their driving a gas guzzler, they have no room to complain.
      • Buckeye17, on 07/07/2008, -8/+4Yeah because it's so easy and cheap to sell your SUV and get a fuel-efficient car... idiot.
      • phogasmic, on 07/07/2008, -1/+8didn't have to buy them in the first place. unless you got 4 or 5 kids I don't see the point.
    • Qeveren, on 07/07/2008, -0/+8I'm not sure why you'd feel bad saying that. You make your bed, you lay in it.
    • Jethris, on 07/07/2008, -1/+1Hey, I'm doing my part to contribute to Alternative Fuels. If you think that we could or would do anything if gas was at $2.00/gallon, you'd be kidding yourself. So, driving my Expedition (alone), I'm increasing demand, which will raise prices to the point that alternative fuels can become a reality.

      Seriously, my Expedition (which I keep to cart all the neices around, and as a tow vehicle, doesn't get driven much anymore. The wife and I drive a Prius.
    • Bronowyn, on 07/09/2008, -0/+0I have a simpler reason for liking not having SUVs on the road. I couldn't see over them!

      I had a neon, then a civic, and now a prius... Sometimes if someone came up on your left to make a left turn, you would have to wait for them to get out of your way or else you could get hit by on coming traffic.

      I wonder if there was more accidents because of less visibility because of the hummers and yukons and whatnot.
  • fireman8871, on 07/07/2008, -0/+8The Aptera, 300 MPG car is almost here
    http://Apteraforum.com
    • quakken, on 07/07/2008, -1/+4Things gonna be too expensive to be worth it anyway, I can guarantee it. Supply=low, demand=high, price=you could fill up a hummer for 15 years before it would be worth it to buy that thing.
      • MacEnvy, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Well, at least now I have your guarantee that it won't be worth it. I'll cease being excited about it. Thanks quakken!
    • asnider, on 07/07/2008, -1/+2Why do these "cars of the future" always have to be so ***** ugly. Can't you make a car that looks like a normal car and still gets amazing fuel economy?
      • cdubd, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Aerodynamics are part of the reason it gets such good fuel economy..... thus the design....
      • asnider, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Yeah, I thought of that after I posted. But, still, there's got to be a way to compromise...then again, if everyone was driving space-cars, I guess it wouldn't matter.
    • eengineer, on 07/07/2008, -1/+0It may be horrible, but I can't wait to see the first pictures of this thing in an accident. It just looks like that rear pointy thing is just going to crush right it.

      Anyway, if it can get 300 mpg, have decent acceleration and cost me less than 40k, then id commute in it.
  • giogalindo, on 07/07/2008, -12/+2just one more thing that obama will fix.
    • matthines, on 07/07/2008, -1/+1yea right, how? windfall taxes, read up on when jimmy carter did the same thing...gas went up even more...
    • zacharytelschow, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1That's true. After all, "Obama is against high gas prices." He has no plan pertaining to the current situation, he's just against it.
  • BOFH2, on 07/07/2008, -3/+12I bought the vehicle, I pay for the gas. Why bitch about it?
    • ScottMitchell, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Because how else would your elected officials know that they need to enact some sort of spending or stimulus bill if you didn't complain and complain and complain?
  • Spanq, on 07/07/2008, -1/+27“It’s a huge inconvenience,” said Dr. Walter Bahr, a chiropractor in Cape Coral, Fla., who drives a Dodge Ram 2500 pickup and pays $130 per tank.

    You charge people $50 to spend two minutes popping their back. I don't want to hear it.
    • mustafya, on 07/07/2008, -1/+14Not to mention I'm almost 100% sure a ***** chiropractor doesn't need a dodge 2500 which is a half-ton truck made for towing big *****.
      • MacEnvy, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4You should see the size of his billfold ...
    • MattB123, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4And why does a chiropractor need to drive a big truck? I could accept a construction contractor or similar needing one, but this seems like maybe it wasn't the best vehicle choice for commuting.
    • Namakemono, on 07/07/2008, -1/+2Chiropractors are snake oil salesmen so I have no sympathy for them when they boo-hoo about getting ripped off. They can go whine with the faith healers, homeopaths, and other thieves.
  • Hosalabad, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3This is par for the NYT. It's not the tank size, it's the miles you drive.
    • Buckeye17, on 07/07/2008, -1/+1Ya rly. People could drive a Honda Civic with a 50-gallon tank... they'd be paying more than $100 for a fill-up.
  • HaSatan, on 07/07/2008, -4/+0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytCEuuW2_A
  • RAT-Man, on 07/07/2008, -0/+6Let him come to California. That $109 stuff for a full tank wont fly here. He'll really be dead when he calculates the cost based on our prices.
  • Owwmykneecap, on 07/07/2008, -2/+5I know Dollars are worth less than Euros, but your petrol is much cheaper than ours...so that begs the question

    How big are your tanks?

    a typical car here holds 40-50 litres @ €1.30/l that's nowhere near a €100 tank.
    • pjpete, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1The price is relative. It's not cheaper than Euro gas. Depending on the size of the car, it's 10 - 20 gallons until you get into SUV's and larger vehicles.
    • Kbriggs, on 07/07/2008, -4/+1FAIL
      • Owwmykneecap, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2It's a question it can't fail.

        You are a tool. - now that is a statement but won't fail due to accuracy.
    • dcm1101, on 07/07/2008, -1/+0Well, the article refers to 30+ gallon tanks, which would be ~113 liters. At the price/liter that you quote, filling up one of these SUVs in Europe would cost $230.

      I would laugh my ass off if Hummer drivers had to shell out that much here.
    • nosliwm, on 07/07/2008, -3/+0Dude.

      Double conversion (currency, volume). Can. not. compute. Brain exploding. aaaargh
    • Rotzooi, on 07/07/2008, -0/+11.30? More like €1.65 here.
  • trying2hide, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4I have a nice roomy non hybrid. It is a pontiac. It is a 6 speed manual.
    I fill it twice a month and at $4.19 as it was this weekend, it costs around 43.00.
    • bullox, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2A ten gallon tank? Not likely. Sounds like you didn't fill it all the way from empty.
    • AdamFromMyspace, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Solstice..? Roomy..?
  • dejay181, on 07/07/2008, -1/+3hahahahahahahahahahaha.......no sympathy...they knew what they were buying. maybe we should all grab all this hope thats supposedly floating around....
  • dinostabOMG, on 07/07/2008, -0/+17FTA: 'Bryan Carisone, a heating and air-conditioning contractor in Raritan, N.J., “absolutely loves” his new GMC Denali XL, an extra-large sport utility vehicle with televisions built into the leather seats. But in June, one week after he bought it, he pulled into a station on a near-empty tank and watched the total climb higher and higher — to $109.'

    What, you want my ***** sympathy? You are complete idiot, Bryan Carisone, and you deserve what you got.

    • zacharytelschow, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3My favorite part is that the GMC Denali XL mentioned is new.
  • CrazyFinn, on 07/07/2008, -2/+6I'll start to feel sympathy towards US consumers, when they have to pay €108 to fill a 70 litre tank. (That's about $169 for 18.5 gallons for metricly challenged.)
    On the upside, I've never been in better shape. About mile and a half to the nearest store on foot ain't even that hard anymore.
    • fuzzlog, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2Good idea, maybe US consumers will start getting in shape
  • rationalbeats, on 07/07/2008, -0/+7Next there will be articles about how this years Christmas shopping season will be lack luster because everyone is strapped for cash because of all the money everyone is spending on Gas, and home heating bills.

    Then there will be articles about how no one envisioned the DOW going below 10,000, and the housing slump seems no where in sight.
  • BufordT, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5"Steve Burtch bought a Dodge Ram truck last year, when gas cost $3.75, because he thought gas prices had peaked and would start coming down. Instead, he pumped his first $100 tank in June. “I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to keep this up,” said Mr. Burtch, 43, who lives in Marion, Ohio."
    I have owned a Dodge Ram truck for a couple years now, and started paying over $100 to fill the tank when gas hit $3.00 I think this guy is full of *****, unless he fills it at 3/4 or a 1/2, but then what is the point of quoting him? They should only be using references of people who are filling the tank from near empty.
    • duewydo, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4There is a lot we don’t know, that could be considered. Maybe he has a smaller tank than your truck does? I drive a late 90s chevy pickup, 350. I don’t know what size my tank is. I cannot remember when I had to fill it from empty, because I usually don’t let it get less than half full, and I hardly ever drive it, (own it because I live in the country and need it for trash and hauling large equipment now and then) I just filled it from just under 1/2 and it cost about $45. That still doesn’t say much because the price of gas has a wide gap. West coast I see is nearing mid $4 while I can fill up at $3.64.

      Even more, he could have a diesel. Basically semantics so I don’t think you could call *****, maybe *****…
  • erhanaltay, on 07/07/2008, -4/+6Oil is still cheap, stop your complaining. In Turkey petrol is over $10 a gallon and turkey has a GDP Per capita that's 1/4 America's. Gas is still cheap historically as a percentage of income.
    Here is the evidence:
    http://www.economistblog.com/2008/03/09/gas-prices ...
    • bullox, on 07/07/2008, -3/+2In relation to the prices we used to have, no, it's not cheap.
      • CedEx, on 07/07/2008, -0/+0In Turkey I believe the price of gas just doubled in the last year, while their income obviously has not doubled.

        Price hikes just suck all around.
  • RomeyRome, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3Ha! I just started driving to work again (instead of the bus) because there's much less traffic now.
  • alphonseragusa, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4I had a conversation with a good friend of mine who just got back from Afghanistan. He insisted that speculators where to blame for current prices. He also said the entire system was a "pyramid scheme" and we need not worry because as long as people are coming in behind you, the system will always pay for itself. So we don't need to worry about debt,

    I figure he has PTS so we just ate cookies.
  • WNW3, on 07/07/2008, -3/+5My truck runs on Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator! It's exciting, like riding a pony...a 300 foot tall pony covered with chainsaws!
    • grumpychris, on 07/07/2008, -1/+5Brawndo has what your truck craves; electrolites.
  • blogosphear, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4So how can I buy a barrel of gas?
  • Nemisys, on 07/07/2008, -4/+15I HOPE GAS PRICES REMAIN HIGH FOREVER!!!!!!
    It's about time something finally kicked people in the pants to start CONSERVING!!!
    Less cars on the road, less pollution, less in our landfills. This is exactly what our country needs.
    • erohen, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4The problem is for people that cant conserve, like shipping companies and such. The added cost of this will just get tacked on to end products.
    • frepnog, on 07/07/2008, -4/+0***** you, hippy. some people have jobs that they have to drive to, some people dont drive retarded huge cars, and some people are going broke buying gas.
    • shanealeslie, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3I bought an electric assist bike ( http://blueavenue.ca/SunriseElectricbike.html ) - I got it in March when there was still snow on the ground so I got 20% off so he could make room for the new models. If you look at the bottom of the page you will find

      *COST OF RECHARGING BATTERIES: Under 6 cents per day of hydro or $ 21.50 per year.

      I ride about 10 miles to and from work each day, takes about half an hour to 45 min, and I can ride about 8 months of the year - for a transit savings of about $960. A guy that lives near me and drives in has started to loose his ***** over the cost of getting to work. He's probably gonna kick my ass if I suggest that he get one again - he's addicted to his car.
      • trademaak, on 07/07/2008, -1/+0lol...you're gay. Look at that bike...common. That's the nerdiest ***** I've seen in my life.
      • sebnukem, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1Very smart move! I'm curious, given the bike heavy weight, can you use it on pedal power alone?
  • marx2k, on 07/07/2008, -0/+7"Steve Burtch bought a Dodge Ram truck last year, when gas cost $3.75, because he thought gas prices had peaked and would start coming down. Instead, he pumped his first $100 tank in June. “I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to keep this up,” said Mr. Burtch, 43, who lives in Marion, Ohio."

    It's like giving a retard a gun just to watch them shoot themselves with it.
  • bigteebo, on 07/07/2008, -9/+4Look on the bright side. While our country's infrastrucutre is collapsing overnight due to rising gas prices & our dependency on it, we still have all this wonderful, magical, untouched Alaskan wildlife to admire! Acres & acres of it! Years from now when we will have no country left, we can take a horse-drawn wagon and bask in nature's marvel that is the Alaskan wilderness!
  • GlenInDallas, on 07/07/2008, -1/+5I know how they feel... I've had to start paying almost $15 to fill up my motorcycle.. shame I have to use premium. And that only gets me MAYBE 150 miles in the city....

    Yeah, the summers in texas are hot when you're wearing leathers, but that 50 miles to the gallon makes it worth the no AC when i'm just commuting. When I look over and see the guy in the two ton SUV driving to work, I wonder how it even pays to drive there. Between gas and insurance, on top of the huge car payment, what's your total cost per mile?

    I own my 1100 cc Honda outright, but new they run about $8000. the payments on that are about $250 / month, plus $50 in insurance, plus i pay about $60 per MONTH in gas. I personally only have liability insurance, and that's $60 / YEAR! I'm seeing a lot more bikes here in Dallas, and I expect to see a lot more from all the people that can do math.

    I will admit, you have to be more careful riding, there are no airbags to save you if you hit a brick wall, but hey, it weeds out the bad drivers, i guess.

    So, to make my point brief, if gas is killing you, and you're spending $500/month between gas, insurance, and car payment, why not think about having an alternative vehicle for when it's nice out? It may pay for itself pretty fast. I still have my car, but 10 months out of the year I can ride to work with mo problems.
    • Buckeye17, on 07/07/2008, -4/+3First off, no one cares about your breakdown of expenses.

      Secondly.... "will admit, you have to be more careful riding, there are no airbags to save you if you hit a brick wall, but hey, it weeds out the bad drivers, i guess."

      ^This proves you are an idiot.
    • shanealeslie, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1I bought an electric assist bike ( http://blueavenue.ca/SunriseElectricbike.html ) - I got it in March when there was still snow on the ground so I got 20% off so he could make room for the new models. If you look at the bottom of the page you will find

      *COST OF RECHARGING BATTERIES: Under 6 cents per day of hydro or $ 21.50 per year.

      I ride about 10 miles to and from work each day, takes about half an hour to 45 min, and I can ride about 8 months of the year - for a transit savings of about $960. A guy that lives near me and drives in has started to loose his ***** over the cost of getting to work. He's probably gonna kick my ass if I suggest that he get one again - he's addicted to his car.
  • Britney90210, on 07/07/2008, -0/+6This is the reason why I don't leave my apartment anymore. I plan to buy a bike this week!
  • mlrigsby, on 07/07/2008, -0/+8The thing that really drives me crazy is that we have known all along that excessive, wasteful, gratuitous consumption of gasoline was a bad bad thing, morally, environmentally, and in terms of foreign policy and national security. However, even knowing this, SUV sales were strong until gas prices went up. Basically, for an awful lot of people, the only thing that will motivate them to change their bad habits is financial pressure. Obviously, this proves all of us right who have been arguing for years that a "sin tax" should be applied to gas-guzzling vehicles, but it is little consolation now that the damage has been done.
  • yaroze, on 07/07/2008, -3/+1Whats funny is, I have 2 old Chevy Suburbans, one I use mainly for off road, it has the 40 Gallon Tank, and an 25 Gallon Aux Tank, I cannot remember when it cost less than $100 to fill it to full, but as I said I use it for off road, primarily for camping, it just means I will spend as much for camping, just not as much rock climbing, and mud playing.

    But still $100 to fill it not a real shock here.
  • swengw, on 07/07/2008, -0/+12I don't see why they can't afford $100 a tank if they can afford $50,000 SUVs.
    • MewTwo, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5They bought the SUV as a luxurious status symbol... even though they really do not live as large as they want people to think.
    • CedEx, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1The $50K SUV is bought ON CREDIT!!! They can barely afford the SUV to begin with.
  • DeathonWheels, on 07/07/2008, -0/+9"Now, even not-so-gargantuan Toyota Land Cruisers and GMC Yukons can cost $100 to fill up."

    I would consider both of those vehicles gargantuan.
  • Knowltey, on 07/07/2008, -3/+2It's not like the guy has owned the SUV for years, he just bought it a week ago, either he's been in a cave, is a complete moron, or knew what was going to hit him with gas prices what they are.

    LOL, my image code came out as RVsUv
  • raisputin3, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4Jesus Christ, it costs me $60 just to fill up my Mitsubishi Eclipse. Gas is unreal over here, 15 gallon tank and $60. INSANE. I used to be able to drive my 1996 Chevy Truck to Seattle from the East side of WA for $20..Now it would cost me damn near $100 for that and I would have to fill up immediately once I got there, and then top it off again after I got done doing whatever I did there. That would be close to $300 just to take a trip in my truck...It is a SAD SAD day
  • gnixon70, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2Its not these guys I have sympathy for. What really pains me is the huge costs that are paid by the trucking industry especially owner operators. If the vehicle is for your livelihood that's one thing. if you are buying a "cowboy limo" or hummer just to have a big car, then yea, you get what you deserve.
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