So I remember gas being at $1.14/gal in 1998.

[Guaranteed]

Ten years later, we have an oil man with deep connections with the Saudis in the White House. We've also been attacked by Saudi terrorists, and invaded two countries COMPETING with Saudi Arabia as far as oil sales are concerned.

Now, the same gas station at which gas was being sold for $1.14/gal in 1998 is selling it for $3.32/gal. That's almost 300% of the previous price.

Gee, I wonder what is going on here.

[AX10]

1. At this point in the Clinton administration...

gas was $1.25 here in southwestern CT. Now it's $3.35 a gallon.

[Guaranteed]

3. The numbers are staggering.

There is some funny business going on.

Ever start thinking that this was the ONLY reason Bush ever ran in the first place? As a front for oil companies.


Exxon/Mobil making record profits.....

[Quantess]

20. Actually, the thought has crossed my mind.

Bush is best friends with Big Oil. He's the good luck charm in Oil's pocket.

[BruceMcF]

15. Peak oil was coming ... anyone could see it ...

... since discoveries peaked a while back (in volume terms, that is), peaking of recovery was just a matter of time.

In the 90's we did basically nothing, and in the Naughties, if anything we slid backwards. Plenty of time then to scale back our demand and keep the price of gas as low as possible as long as possible.

Now the arguing is over we already passed the peak or whether its coming within the next five years.

So remember $3.00 a gallon, you'll be able to tell your kids some day about the time you could buy gallons and gallons of gasoline on less than a full days wage.

[depakid]

22. 18 cets a cup!

What else can you buy retail for 15 cents a cup? Coffee? apple juice? bottled water?

Americans need to face facts- gas is still cheap, and their lifestyles are, in fact- negotiable.

[SidDithers]

30. Do you buy coffee...

15 gallons at a time? Once a week?

Sid

[SoCalDem]

31. and rely on it to GET to and from work?

and have NO other recourse?

People always use the high prices in other places as a salve to us when our prices get wacky..BUT they fail to account for the fact that those high prices in other countries are counterbalanced by state-of-the-art PUBLIC transportation and national healthcare that doesn't gobble up 30% of the family budget..

If a French person does not have to pay $300 a month for gasoline to get to work & back..and doesn't have to pay $750 a month for health care premiums, they can surely afford that $5 a gallon when they DO decide to take a road trip now and then

[depakid]

40. Americans have no one to blame but themselves for their lack of foresight

Gas is in fact too cheap- always has been, especially in the US.

Now that it's beginning to reflect its actual market value, Americans think that somehow they're entitled to "keep things as they always were." Unfortunately, natural and economic laws don't care about American exceptionalism.

Take Washington state, for example. Even in the midst of all of this, their voters YET AGAIN rejected a proposal to deal with their abysmal transportation system. As an Oregonian, who's familiar with their situation, seems to me they have a death wish- and it's NOT going to be pretty to see what happens to them over the next decade.

WTF are they thinking?

[hatrack]

38. But it was the Clinton Administration! The CLINTON Administration! CLENIS!!!!!!!!

Dark years of shame and pain!!!!!! Don't you REMEMBER how AWFUL everything was?!??!?!?

AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

:toast:

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. I remember gas at $0.25/gal in 1972 in Tucson

Gas Crisis and stations battling each other for customers by lowering prices by one cent. People were lined up for hours.

[dmr]

8. LOL, yeah, I remember putting a dollar in the tank

was a fairly normal occurance.

Full-service stations on all four corners and their gas wars. Those were the days.

[Up2Late]

4. It got down to $0.79 per Gallon here in Atlanta! 79 CENTS per Gallon in 1998!

But that was back in the day of the "Strong Dollar Policy."

Don't worry, as soon as we get all of these "Oil men" out of the executive branch, things will start to improve again.

[AX10]

6. I was visiting Florida in 1996, and I remember 89 cents per gallon.

[dmr]

9. That sounds about right.

I was living in Florida then, and complained bitterly. Today in northern Michigan, I paid 3.34 a gal.

[petgoat]

7. I got gas for 67 cents in Indiana around 1998. nt

[magellan]

5. The fast rise in gas prices is devastating

It affects the price of practically everything else. And incomes have not been keeping up at all. This nation is quickly reaching critical mass thanks to Bush**.

[SoCalDem]

10. Kansas "gas wars" in 1967= 19.9 CENTS a gallon

until one of the gas stations on the corner called "uncle"

all day long they would have kids with magnetic numbers lowering the prices..

a gas station on each corner of the main drag intersection

Klepper-Conoco-Phillips66-Standard

I filled up my FULL SIZE Dodge on less than $3.00..(ashtray change would do it back then )

[WheelWalker]

11. I concur. Oakland, Oregon, pop 1090, had three gas stations

in 1967 when I graduated HS. I loaded up my 1960 Ford Galaxy and headed for Walla Walla to drive combine in the pea harvest. I filled up my tank for $2.85. I remember that day clearer than I do last month (sad to say). I paid 13.9 cents/gallon. We must've been in a gas war, too, because I remember 17.9 cents as being more usual. I was happy to get such a good price for such a long trip.

Thanks for the memories.

[madinmaryland]

27. We had those in Lima, Ohio, in the early 70's.

Lowest I remember is 18.9 cents / gallon!

[Perseid]

12. When GW Bush took office, a barrel of oil was $18

Now it's over $95

I wonder what business he and his friends are in?

[AuntPatsy]

13. Oil companies have now hired even more investigators to investigate the inside dealings

of even its lower ranking workers. I find that interesting, they are after bribes, outside cash flow and a few other side deals that to be honest were once upon a time status quo, there is so much excess oil money these days that criminal activity is becoming like a rapid animal though.

But the ones that really should be investigated, the top dogs are somehow exempt it seems. Its like they are ensuring only a certain group retain control of the high volume of cash flow. Its a bit interesting what is going on these days.

[Basileus Basileon]

14. I'd look to Detroit, India, and China,

not to the Exxon boardroom. World energy markets are not controlled by a small group of fat white guys.

[Selatius]

16. In 1999 where I lived gas was at 90 to 1.00/gallon.

Those days are far gone.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

17. There are so many reasons I wish it were 1998 again.

Gas prices are just one of them......

[UrbScotty]

18. I remember it around $.95 in 1999 (nt)

[fizzgig]

19. i was thinking about that today as i complained about my mileage reimbursement rate

it's around $3/gal here, more than triple the price it was when i got my license 10 years ago.

i got $.25 a mile in 1998. i get $.27 a mile today x(

[madinmaryland]

29. Your company is screwing you!

The IRS rate that your company is writing off has fluctuated between 44.5 and 48.5 cents a mile the last year or so.

[Breeze54]

21. "Cheney Energy Task Force," is at the root of the problem.

Cheney Energy Task Force
The names of participants cited on the lists include:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Cheney's_Energy_Task_Force

Big Oil, Big Lies
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Big_Oil%2C_Big_Lies

[malaise]

25. Bingo

As I suggested last week, there should be more public discussion on the Waxman Report about Cheney's energy policies

[WinkyDink]

23. And nobody but us chickens cares. No-one protests, or even writes LTTE about it.

[shenmue]

24. Well, some people do.

Not to be sticky, but letters to the editor pop up now and again where I live. (near Tampa, FL) I do have to drive to work every day, and so do a lot of other people, and some of us do write to the paper about it. And of course there's also the truck drivers, who have it even worse.

[madokie]

26. and I made the mistake of buying a new f150 with a 5.4 litre engine

that gets 14 to 15 miles to the gallon. I felt I had a need for such at the time but if I would have given it any thought I could have made a couple adjustments and got by with a ford ranger but at the time it cost 20 bucks to fill the tank and I was bringing in many times that each day. We still have the truck but since I have been disabled and unable to work it very seldom gets driven anymore, but hey its great backup

[RebelOne]

28. I remember gas prices being in the teens in the '50s.

That was the time of gas wars.

[Ganja Ninja]

32. I just saw the headline in the local paper.

"Gas $3.00 a gallon?!! Get use to it!"

Don't get too use to it because it's going to $4.00 by next summer

[bullwinkle428]

33. Thom Hartmann was saying yesterday that we actually pay more like $15 per gallon!!!!

Much of that money is paid through our income taxes, when you take into account all related costs - primarily those associated with the military budget, in terms of how much we have to pay for a military presence ensuring the flow of oil from the Middle East.

[KharmaTrain]

34. It Was Under $1.00 A Gallon In Chicago Prior To Election Day 2000

I remember 29 cent gallon gas...leaded and pumped by a guy in a white jump suit. Then came the '73-'74 energy crisis and 50 cent a gallon gas...Oh what were we gonna do. Then there was the Iranian oil embargo of '79...more gas lines and $1 a gallon gas. Last night it was 3.15 a gallon in suburban Cook County.

It's interesting to hear the lastest OPEC announcement that they aren't going to increase production (always the past safety valve when the price got politically too high)...there's a get while the getting is good attitude.

[deminks]

35. Septembertheeleventh

Gas was $1.69 the day before. The same day as the disaster, several gas companies started charging $10.00/gallon or more. People were lined up at these stations - it was crazy trying to get home that night. Down the street, there would be another station selling for $1.69 - no lines. Outside of town, it was $1.69. I asked one of those station owners what was happening in town. He looked down, shrugged his shoulders, and said one owner had jumped the gun. The governor got on the TV that night and wanted names. She was going to prosecute any owner that didn't have his price down to normal by that evening. I still do not quite understand what happened. It was like something was planned, but didn't go off just right.

The Wall street spinners were out in force this morning. "$100 dollars/barrel for oil is just an emotional barrier." "It won't affect the market until it reaches $120/barrel". Horsepucky.

[seabeyond]

36. ten years? just a couple years, when bush went into office.

was an unusual it went up, right after the oil men got into office. and never came back down

[JesterCS]

37. I remember $0.89 in the first gulf war

but then again the Saudi's were providing all the oil/gasoline we needed since it was in their best interest.

[newportdadde]

39. I have a receipt in my wallet, .95 cents, December 8, 2001.

I told my wife when I pumped that tank it would be last time I ever filled up with gas less then a dollar so I had better keep the evidence.

In the summer of 98 I typically filled up on 87-89 cents.

[Deja Q]

41. And Republicans saying "We'll never see that again thanks to Clinton".

Which may have had some truth to it, but fair is surely fair? Where are the same people bashing the politicians of today?