Fifty Cents

What happened to the gas prices? I was gone five days and the same station I gassed up at on the way up north was fifty cents a gallon more on my return. 

What did you people do? I can't leave you alone for a minute.

Many Miles To Go

Technology on the whole is great. The rental car which I drove to Toronto rode smooth as silk, and the gas mileage was great. I didn't have to fill up in Canada. That was good, considering their gas prices.

Still, I needed to fill the tank before returning the car. After seeing to that chore, I of course sat back down behind the wheel and fired it up. I was immediately told that my then average miles per gallon was 10.3.

But I hadn't moved. I was still sitting there at the pump; I hadn't even put it into gear. Yet somehow I was getting a little over ten miles per gallon.

I can't figure that bit of technology out.

Can't Win For Losing

Yesterday I spoke about a long day up North. As I passed a Shell station in Mackinaw City right at the tip of the mitt I saw gas for $3.07 a gallon. Too much, I know, but a good price for that area and these times. Yet as it was in the wee hours the station was closed. I vowed to stop by as I returned. 

Of course, by the time I made my stops in da U.P. it was I clear I wouldn't get back that far without more petrol. Thinking about that relatively inexpensive fuel, I bought a meager $10 at $3.24 when around 40 miles from Mackinaw. You know, enough to get across the bridge for the cheaper cost. 

You know where this is going, don't you?

Crossing the Mighty Mac in great anticipation, I soon made my exit by that same gas station from earlier, where its gas was then $3.28. I could have filled up completely and saved four cents a gallon.

It figures. 

Nearly Angry with Phil

Yesterday me brother Phil wanted to borrow me new old van. I lent it without much thought, seeing as he's loaned me vehicles quite often in the past. And he is me brother after all. But especially as he was taking our mother to lunch well, the thought of her wrath would have enticed me to loan the car regardless.

As I gave him the keys I handed him a well known portrait of Andrew Jackson to exchange for gas. "It's only at 3/8ths of a tank, so put a bit of gas in when you can," I said.

This morning as I started the new old van I noticed the gas gauge creep up to merely half a tank. I was just a tad miffed. "Geez, bro," I thought, "Didn't you put the whole twenty in?"

Of course he did. Marty was thinking about gas at two bucks a gallon, not the current $4.75 or so. Once I remembered current gas pricing I chuckled. 

I'm still going to give him grief though. 

The cost of not paying attention

It pays to pay attention, doesn't it? The inverse, it costs to not pay attention, is, sadly, equally true.

I stopped for gas this morning at a place where regular was $1.47 a gallon. That's the best price I was seeing, so it seemed a good time to gas up. I pulled up to a pump and prepayed twenty bucks.

Returning to my van, I began to dispense the gas into the tank. Then I stood there daydreaming. That is, if you can daydream at 4 o'clock in the morning in Kenton, Ohio.

Anyway, after a minute I looked up and saw that I was nearing fourteen dollars yet only had a little more than five gallons of gas. Math was never my strong suit, but I knew immediately that I should have had close to twice that amount by then.

And that's when I noticed that I, apparently, had hit the premium button. I was consequently paying $2.66 a gallon.

What could I do? I finished getting my twenty bucks of premium gas and went on my way. On the flip flop I discovered gas at a buck thirty five, so I fully gassed up then. And I was sure to hit the regular button that time.

High Gas Prices the Fault of the Public

Gas prices in Michigan are falling. They've dropped 27 cents very recently and are expected to drop further in the coming weeks. That is, of course, if storms in the Gulf Mexico don't cause problems. And if refineries don't have production issues. And if there's no threat of a popular uprising in a nation marginally connected to the oil supply chain. And if a tin horn dictator doesn't get looked at crosswise by an infant. And so on and so on.

Why does fear seem to affect oil prices so much? If we understand the situation correctly, oil prices are based on 'futures' which basically are the anticipation that various factors may affect the oil market in unforeseen ways. Stripped to its essentials, oil prices are set based on the predicted availability of oil in the future. Oil isn't produced in the same way as cars or plumbing supplies but is refined as it moves along the supply line, and that supply, so much of it being controlled by persons and factors beyond normal controls (think the tin horn dictators) can seem more uncertain than the delivery of steel to an auto plant. It makes a certain sense, yes.

It also lacks a certain sense. Why should fear drive, or, perhaps, be allowed to drive, a market so important to our overall economic welfare? Do we not have the moral fortitude, the backbone, to resist panic? If it's panic causing prices to shoot up, and that sure seems to be the case if we take our oil purchasers at face value, then courage ought to be the call of the day, oughtn't it?

The next pertinent question is, why are we in such a predicament to begin with? The answer is as obvious as it is easy. Because we aren't allowed to drill our own oil.

Why haven't the Arctic regions been opened up to the fullest degree? Because environmentalists who will never see that supposed pristine wilderness don't want it 'spoiled'. Because Americans who believe in animals over human beings don't want caribou trails interrupted. Why don't we tap into our more local resources? Because folks don't want oil derricks in their back yards. We get that...but we also get that that won't happen. Local ordinances and local pressures won't allow it. That's simply panic driven by members of the general public more than oil buyers.

There are three solutions to our oil needs: stop panicking, drill from our own supply, and come up with new energy sources. The first two should be easy enough to obtain. The last will only come when the oil is gone and is dependent on the first two.

It's up to you, Michigan and the broader United States. Make up your minds to do what we must, or leave the oil under the control of others and suffer the consequences. But if you choose that second option, kindly shut up about how badly gas prices fluctuate, because that's ultimately on you and not the tin horns nor ExxonMobil.

A Conservation Plan for Everyone!

The Detroit Free Press this morning editorialized on the bad things about gasoline falling back to around two bucks a gallon. Among other things, the paper lamented that it would make people less inclined to conserve natural resources.

Fuel conservation, outside of genuine need (and I mean need on the scale of World War II nationally, or harsh personal finance individually) is really a rather pessimistic principle. You conserve because you have no option (personally), or because you have no hope in the future or see that great or unusual restraint is necessary (nationally). While we each have to deal with our own situations the best we can based on our personal resources, as a nation we can do more. We can tie into the traditional American belief in herself, that someone or something given the opportunity will find us alternatives when the time comes. We can believe that with the freedom we have come to rely on we will find new fuel sources for our cars, homes, and businesses. We can see that if the government would just get out of our way we will get over any over-reliance on limited means. Something will be developed or found or invented to alleviate the current pressures on our current natural resources.

Or do we think that once the oil is gone, we're toast? That's what the liberal 'government is the answer' thinkers apparently believe.

That is patently absurd, unless we allow it to become the case. So we do need certain pressure to keep it from becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy. And the surest pressure to prevent that is exactly what may seem, at a glance, the lousiest choice.

Drill that oil. Process it. Burn it up in our cars. Because if you want something to take the place of oil, then get rid of the oil. Where there's a buck to be made and a need to be filled, someone will satisfactorily address the situation if given the freedom to do it.

So pump that oil out of the ground and into your tank. As P. J. O'Rourke said in one of his books: "Fat lot of good its done lying in the ground for billions of years."