Gas Prices Are Going to Go Up

Where is our "energy independence "?

we are energy independent. What part of net oil exporter do you not understand.

It's a world market.

"Net."

so you think we should regulate oil companies preventing them from buying cheaper foreign oil?

It'll take a few years for them to build new refineries for US sweet crude.

I'm glad I filled up yesterday when it was only $4.19 a gallon.

I'm glad I charged for free today.

Your poor pimp won't be.

It went away during the Trump years. He did away with the MPG standards in 2017 and we have been using more and more gas ever since. We use about 70% more now than when Trump took office.

That's not true.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/188448/total-us-domestic-demand-for-gasoline-since-1990/

That makes it look like it went up after 2016, and then plummeted during Covid, so no, it's not accurate, but still proves his point.

I stand corrected. I did read that somewhere recently and cant find the link.

It's pretty flat. Not a 70% increase in 5 years.

Certainly not 70%, but I wouldn't exactly call that "pretty flat". That said, it does seem a bit abrupt for a policy change to make the difference. More likely caused by all the flags on pickup trucks.

You might be inconvenienced by any real measures to do that, so I'm sure you'd be outraged if we actually had a policy aimed at it.

Here, if it isn't accurate, it doesn't prove the point. Gas usage went up about 1% during the "normal" Trump years. That's less than the economy grew and during a time when miles driven increased.

If it's true of Trump that gasoline demand increased during his tenure, then it's really true of Obama, particularly his second term. In fact, if you're looking for substantial reductions in gasoline demand, George W. Bush is your man.

Less than a 1% increase isn't "pretty flat"? I think you're looking at 2015 or 2013 or something.

No. I'm probably overestimating the impact of a .99% increase.

For me the question isn't why won't Biden permit drilling leases to oil companies (Because he is), it's why aren't the oil companies drilling on the millions of acres they have leased?

This may offer a clue:

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/oil-gas-companies-gain-stockpiling-americas-federal-land/

Because they were banking on oil prices going up. Now they have but is it transitory? Oil companies got burned badly investing in Canadian tar sands hoping US companies would buy Canadian low quality oil for refinement in Texas where oil companies invested heavily in refineries to that could process sour heavy crude to sell refined products to China. We sell all our tasty sweet light crude on the international market to refineries that can't process the heavy stuff.

It will take years to turn that ship.

That invisible hand at work!

The last time gas prices were this high was when Tesla and Japanese companies jumped into the electric car market. The pickup industry crashed and people were taking a bath on gas guzzlers. The best way to force junkies off the junk is to price the poor out. The oil companies had better beware because the only thing these gas prices are going to do here in america is up the crossover to electric cars.

The pickup industry crashed? I think full sized pickups (mostly the Ford F series) has been the most popular vehicle every year except for maybe two or three for the better part of the last 40 years.

Domestic automakers have basically abandoned everything but SUVs and trucks. We even had a thread about it.

If you were inclined toward conspiracy theories you might believe that the Russia crisis was orchestrated by the automotive industry to create more demand for EVs. Of course, that would conflict with the conspiracy theory that the oil companies orchestrated it to drive up the price of oil. It's enough to make you go

If the auto industry wanted us to buy EV they’d actually produce more EVs…

The main issue for me with EVs is not supply but capability - I currently have a petrol Mazda CX-30 which is a very good car. I can get ~500 miles from a single tank (in theory, most of my regular trips are short and involve hills so my average MPG is ~33). The equivalent MX-30 EV has a stated range of 124 miles on a full charge. And if you read into it, you're not actually gonna get that. So fine for most trips I'd do, but if I suddenly needed to dash to my mother's house (~150 miles away), I'm guaranteed at least a 1 hour wait to fast charge IF I can find one available, longer if not.

Even the best capacities are ~300 miles and those stack up the price tag considerably from the more affordable options Lubak mentioned.

My vehicle is getting long in the tooth (just passed 200k miles a few months ago) and so I started looking at options for my next vehicle and I was stunned to find out exactly how few "cars" (as opposed to trucks and SUVs) are being offered anymore.

no accounting for taste.