If i was a GM fan, this would make switch over to Ford.


http://detnews.com/article/20110607/...368/1148/rss25

 

Did you read the entire article?

While I am certainly for energy independence, now is not the time to invoke a $1 gas tax.

 

I am not sure many people understand the situation fully, they raise the gas tax could stop the added cost of a car's exta MPG as the car would not need to be as efficient.


Basically I think (from the way its presented in this link) that we are looking at increased fuel costs, or increased car/truck costs.
Hopefully not both (but it likely will be).
I could be wrong though, but thats what it seemed like to me.

Fule is going to go up, no real reason for it to, but it will.
New and used car/truck prices will also keep rising.
Nothing we can do about that, the tax increase and debt in the link was kinda of expected too.

 

Gasoline is going to trend up as the dollar weakens. Oil is priced worldwide in dollars.

Couple that with increased demand and lower exploration and you get the picture. A gas tax increase will only hurt lower-middle class people, those who buy GM cars for the most part.

 

Try unless refining capacity is added, fuel prices in general will trend up.
Supply and demand.
Why would crude oil reserves be increasing, and refined fuel reserves be decreasing, unless there is a bottle neck at the conversion from crude oil to what goes into a vehicle ( or is used to make plastic bottles, or shopping bags, etc ) ?
Oil producing nations indicated a slow down in the production of oil, not to drive the price up, but due to it sitting around in reverses. Why fill more stock piles of oil, storing it in the ground is just a good as storing it in a tank, and storing it in the ground is free.

Refining locations have only decreased in the US in the past 15 years, as refineries are taken out of service, and no new refineries are built ( NIMBY and EPA strangle hold ).
We are just about at the point that the existing refineries cannot gain any notable additional efficiencies ( any investment is going to be a single digit increase, not a 20% +increases ) for refining oil into what we use, with the existing technology.

Media and some that call themselves 'financial experts', cannot find their collective rears with a 3 way mirror, high pressure sodium lighting and the Hubble space telescope, and report on anything they 'think' is correct, without regard to if it is true or not.

It is priced in dollars on US exchanges.
Do you think the DAX or CAC prices oil in dollars or Euros ?

OPEC as a whole will accept payment in Euros for oil, as they are starting / converting their currency reserves to the Euro.
This has been going on since the 'fear reporting' that Iran and Venezuela would no longer take USD for oil back in the mid '00s.
Individual oil producing countries are free to price and sell oil in what ever currency they want to. If they hold the currency is another question, that is not part of the equation on what oil is priced in, that is a currency question, not pricing of oil question.

The thought that the USD is the only currency that oil is priced and sold in is an old school thought, that does not hold water.
OPEC does not set the price of oil, the free markets do.
OPEC can have an impact on the price of oil by increasing or decreasing production, but this is human emotion making the price move ( real production change based upon reserves ).

Do you think fuel costs have increased in Europe or Canada at the same rate as the US ?
They have not, they have the required refining capacity, along with the benefit of a strong currency vs the USD, and a strong economy ( DE has a 6.2% unemployment rate today ).
If they blocked the refining capacity the way the US is, their fuel price would also increase at the same rate.

If the price of refined fuel at the pump was a result of "oil only being priced in USD", the fuel price curve for the US and Canada should be the same.

Canada


US


The "sky is falling" reporting that the demise of the pricing of oil in USD is just that, the media ( and some so called 'analysts' ) pumping fear into the population.

 

Let me modify what I said earlier. 'Most' worldwide oil transactions are oil exchanges for our currency (dollars). That is changing and has been changing, literally as we speak.

And that is not good for the dollar, longer term. And what is bad for the dollar is bad for the U.S. consumer as the price of almost everything will rise.

You should be comparing the dollar spot to oil spot because it tells the story that your charts are missing.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=DXY:IND

http://www.californiagasprices.com/Crude_Chart.aspx

 

The US and Canada retail fuel price curve cannot be compared and that is because Canada is a net exporter of oil, and we are not. Not to mention, the Canadian dollar is strengthening as ours is weakening. Also, comparing retail to retail fails to take into account differing profit margins and taxes.

 

gm has a bunch of those obama inspired electric cars that no one is buying. ackerson thinks that if the price of gas goes up then people will by the volt. i think gas would have to double in cost before anyone would buy gm electric cars.

 

Ky is already raising prices, didn't say exactly how much but it would be a extra $0.10 to $0.20 per gallon for state tax.

 

Make no mistake about it -- there will be a HUGE push to increase gas taxes over the next few years. As people begin replacing their daily drivers with more fuel efficient vehicles, they will begin using ever-decreasing amounts of gasoline, all things being equal. Since gas is typically taxed "by the gallon", net tax revenues to the government will start to nose-dive, making it imperative to increase taxes, or drastically slash programs (typically funding for roads and other transporation-related infrastructure) that are paid for by these taxes.....