gas not actually expensive

[nibot]

Somehow I got the idea of searching for inflation-adjusted historical gasoline prices, and I found this.

Comments

[azfactor.livejournal.com]

Interesting idea, but it probably spikes after that.

[kaolinfire.livejournal.com]

yeah, average is apparently close to $2.72 according to gas price watch (http://www.gaspricewatch.com/new/). Of course, these are just values consumers are reporting, and maybe people where gas is uber cheap all around don't really feel the need to _find_ sites like that...

[dingodonkey.livejournal.com]

I'm curious to see a similar graph depicting average amount of gasoline used per automobile owner.

[jamesla.livejournal.com]

are you kidding? the average is closer to 2.70 right now. I'm paying 2.89 per gallon today.

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

It usually costs me $40ish to fill up my Civic.

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

91 Civic DX. Though as of a month ago, it'd be something like 12$ cheaper if I drove down to the states to fill up...

Well...

[kenfrequed.livejournal.com]

The real problem is that the price at the pump does not reflect the total price of petrol. In America we are deluded into thinking that its the end-all be-all of the situation. In reality we subsidize that price, both directly and indirectly.

Our own petroleum corporations are always running heavily subsidized, either directly by government grants or indirectly by way of tax relief or even illegally in manners similar to some of the energy companies in the south west and in California due to corrupt deregulation and privatization.

We prop up governments willing to provide us with it on the cheap. One example would be Kuwait, who we aided in dodging around OPEC agreements stating limits on the amount of crude they would export and on the prices. Of course this really wasn't enough for Kuwait who engaged in side drilling operations under certain neighboring nations that would have done Monty Burns proud.

Aside from forgiven foreign loans to monarchies we also spend more than any other nation on a massive military to lock down these resources wherever they may be. Some estimates suggest that we spend twice the value of oil securing it. (these estimates were made a few years before the invasion of Iraq)

Aside from the more direct means of subsidizing the cost there are consequences:

We must not forget the long term costs of refining gasoline. The environmental consequences are obvious and hardly need restating. It is no coincidence that areas around these refineries often coincide with cancer clusters.

What is considerably less obvious is the cost in control of our nation. The Saudi government invests much of its oil profits back into the United States. Until recently it made them the largest foreign investor in the US.

[anemone.livejournal.com]

Gas is $3.39 this morning at a nearby gas station. Now, the absolute price is not so interesting, but yesterday, the price was $3.09, and the day before that,it was under $3. Even if the average price today is not out of line with historical averages, the change is price is quite disturbing.

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the hurricane will definitely do something spectacular to energy prices. Nonetheless, I'm tired of people complaining about pre-hurricane gasoline prices.

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

Notice that the "not actually expensive" price is the most expensive it's been in 50 years except a brief spike around 1980. Not to mention that cars are at their least fuel-efficient since some time briefly before that spike, so it's possible that filling up tanks is now more expensive than it ever has been, even in real dollars.

Note also that the general trend line is down from 1920 to 1997 or so, and now it's up. Though maybe this is just a spike like the one in the late '70s.