[Pipe_Dream]

Excerpts from a USA Today piece:

Gas use last month was 0.6% less than a year ago, the American Petroleum Institute reported, because "high fuel prices have led to decreased demand for gasoline and other refined oil products."

Cutting back just a little more could cause gasoline prices — which average $2.801 nationwide, up 57.7 cents from last year, according to motorist organization AAA — to drop dramatically, one veteran analyst says.

"If everyone decided to drive 3% less the next 30 days, prices would crash," says Tom Kloza, senior analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.

He doubts that Americans could manage that — "We know how well appeals to personal sacrifice work" — but still foresees less-than-normal growth in gasoline consumption this year.

Fuel conservation might be short-lived. For one thing, prices are likely to drop. EIA says, "Significant increases in gasoline production ... over the next several weeks should stem the rise in gasoline prices and may, actually, cause them to decline somewhat."

EIA says, "While the average U.S. price of regular gasoline could reach $3 per gallon sometime this year, that outcome is by no means a foregone conclusion."

History shows that as long as gasoline is available, at whatever price, Americans tend to adjust to the price and resume their previous driving habits.

-- end of article.

So, if gas is up an average of $0.58 a gallon from last year, and I fill up my big-a$$ Suburban with 28 gallons a week, that's $16 more a week than last year, and $832 more per year.

On a really good summer weekend I might run my boat 8 hours. Since I burn an average of 7 gallons an hour, that additional $0.58 per gallon will cost me $32 more than it did last year.

Guys, I am a working joe. I do not have $$$ to burn. But while I will definitely try to be more fuel conservative, I'm not going to spend any more time dwelling on it because I can't do anything about it! Washington DC cannot do anything about it, you can't blame them for bad economic conditions anymore than you can credit them for good economic conditions.

There . . . I am climbing down off my box . . . again. :-X






;) Now go fish!