73 Comments - He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 9:57 am: As long as the oil companies are in the pockets of our Congressmen, we will see no releif. I see $5+ gas before Labor day. In the mean time Dicky Durban will hold another Hearing that will achieve nothing but more campaign contributions from the Oil Execs. - Greg - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:00 am: No surprise that many politicians believe that every problem demands a political response. Of all people, Republicans should understand that cheap gas can’t be legislated into reality. Until worldwide demand falls substantially in response to rising prices, it will only get worse. - clj - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:00 am: How about a good old fashion driving strike. Get on board the bus and refuse to drive our cars all weekend long. Let’s supply and demand these oils! - Anon - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:03 am: I’m with McQuery. Drive less or drive smarter. Stop complaining about the cost and just use less. - Greg - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:03 am: He Makes Ryan, That’s another political excuse. Oil companies aren’t the ones setting oil prices. These companies are, if anything, selling futures. It’s not a corruption issue. It’s a demand issue. Read the front page WSJ story today and tell me how eager you’d be to sell me 2010 crude contracts. - Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:08 am: So House Republicans want to reduce prices to make it easier for people to buy more gas rather than conserve, which will be followed by a surge in demand, which will further reduce the supply, which will drive up the gas of price even further. Sounds like an extremely well thought out plan by the oil industry. - Cassandra - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:08 am: If the legislature wants to help out the middle class they could vote to lower the state’s income tax, a temporary reduction, a surcharge in reverse, so to speak, until the economy recovers. We can decide what we want to do with the extra money instead of having our legislators, hardly struggling, most very well off, especially when you consider their access to “campaign funds,” meddle about even more than they already do in our budgeting decisions. These folks simply don’t live in the real economic world, thanks to taxpayers and “campaign contributors.” - The Doc - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:08 am: One would think that the high prices of oil would spur federal, state, and local governments to seriously consider massive investments in transportation infrastructure, especially mass transit options. If escalating gas prices are a baby step in this direction, I say amen! Think of all the road, bridge, airport & air traffic control, train, and bus improvements, in addition to jobs created, if the US had plunged a year’s worth of war funding into infrastructure. - Rich Miller - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:15 am: ===If the legislature wants to help out the middle class they could vote to lower the state’s income tax, a temporary reduction, a surcharge in reverse, so to speak, until the economy recovers.=== Cassandra, the IL income tax is so low that even a relatively large reduction wouldn’t mean a whole lot in the long run. Also, just three legislators loaned themselves money from the funds in the last filing period. It’s fairly rare, so put away the broadbrush. - wordslinger - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:18 am: The gas tax holiday is a cheap gimmick whether proposed by House Republicans or McCain. Michelle hit the economics right on the head. Our society is predicated on cheap gasoline. But there is no eternal, inalienable right to cheap gasoline. With our friends in China and India raising their standards of living through their own hard work, demand is going up. Thinks are going to have to change. Nothing to cry about. Just big boys and girls hammering out solutions and applying some Yankee ingenuity. Previous generations have had bigger challenges. I hope we haven’t grown that soft. - trafficmatt - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:22 am: It will be interesting to see if we have a conflict of interest start to develop in the Democratic Party, and to a lesser extent the Republican Party. Environmentalist (I know - broad category) have pushed to keep us from greater production such as drilling in ANWR, drilling off Florida (even though China is do so by way of Cuba), constructing nuclear plants, and greater exploration of coal and the construction of more coal fired power plants. Instead, we have pushed Ethanol and alternative forms of energy that are very promising, but not yet cost competitive such as solar. Food prices have skyrocketed partially due to ethanol and gas prices have also skyrocketed. Will there start to be a conflict between the poor and working poor who are most affected by higher prices and more well to do environmentalists? - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:22 am: Doc- More and more frequent mass transit service will help in the areas where it is practical, but a breakthrough in alternative energy technology for the systems we already have in place would be a game-changer. This applies to all energy use, not just transportation. We need an ample supply of energy to manufacture things, to heat and cool our homes, and for agribusiness. This situation calls for a Manhattan Project-sized effort. Sidebar: the Iraq war cost our nation a fortune, but as it was fought with a volunteer force and the economic effects weren’t directly felt for a long time, it did not cause Vietnam-era civil unrest. The gas price crunch is a direct punch to the gut for the 90% of the population that cannot practically go car-less. This issue could be the most volatile thing politically since the late 1960’s, and politicians of all stripes should take heed with real solutions, or risk the wrath of a “toss ‘em all out” mentality. - zatoichi - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:22 am: There is no getting out of this. I have family members currently in Europe who are saying gas there is equal $8-$9 a gallon adjusted for any Euro/liter conversions. If a barrel is hitting $130 this quickly after crossing the $100 mark, $150 seems likely unless demand can drastically decrease. Price at the pump will force the decrease because people will simply not be able/willing to pay $5-$6 gallon. That does not include any increases coming from petroleum based products in general. Politicians can try the quick sound bite for a tax holiday, but the price jumps will quickly swallow whatever is done. When our semis cost $800 to fill a 150 gallon tank, that shipping cost increase has to be moved along to whoever is buying the products in that trailer being hauled. The tax bite is a small nothing in the scheme of things and is simply avoiding the issue of a statewide transit policy. There are numerous people making $8-$10 an hour who can no longer afford to drive to work unless they happen to live close to mass transit. Who will address the fuel costs of farmers, transit programs, truckers, rural towns 30 miles from larger employers. Saving $45 in tax sounds great, but ain’t squat in the bigger picture and solves nothing. - Joe Schmoe - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:24 am: We had all just better be prepared to pay the price. - Anonymous - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:28 am: it will be interesting to see how many of those in the House, who say they want to help with gas prices, vote for the Illinois Clean Car Act, which would save hundreds of millions at the pump on a permanent, ongoing basis. Cars that use less gas are a permanent solution, not an election-year gimmick. - amy - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:29 am: the tax per gallon in Illinois, especially Chicago, is not a small problem. it really adds up. Taxes in Cook County are the highest in the nation. this is a noose around the neck of Stroger and his famous supporters. the cost of gas affects the price of lots of things. it’s not just a matter of telling people to drive less. - K to the 3 - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:32 am: Any gas tax holiday is simply populist pandering. We all know the only way to more stable energy prices is a “sound, progressive energy policy” which has been neglected during the lasts 8 years. What’s more amazing to me is the consumer’s refusal to make any real changes in consumption. Here in Kankakee, the Daily Journal did an informal poll and found that 65% of people had not made any changes because of higher gas prices. Granted, our public transit here leaves something to be desired. But the fact remains that, assuming no progress is made with alternative fuels, until we change our habits, gas prices will continue to soar. - He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:32 am: Greg, Did Dick Durban vote to open up the “Protected” areas to drilling? NO. He like many others talk a good game, but refuse to do anything to prevent the large profits of the oil companies at the expense of the taxpayers. Opening up all the protected areas to drilling, will force the price down on the open market. - Mr. Wizard - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:34 am: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xm l=/money/2008/05/22/ccoil122.xml - Leigh - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:38 am: I am reducing my driving and going the speed limit. Both of these save me gas. I take public transportation when available as well. While none of these steps, taken alone will make a difference, if everyone started doing things to slow down consumption it would. The tax holiday would not be effective. I am Republican and it is a gimmick. - Plutocrat03 - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:38 am: The reason for gas price run ups are complex. Speculators have a large part of the blame for the problem since yesterday’s run up was explained away by fears of shortages 5 years from now. e.g. No one is considering that the Tupi find in Brazil has doubled that county’s reserves and will be delivering in that time frame. Hawaii has always had the highest fuel prices in the US because every drop has to be transported in by ship. Now, Chicago, with its pipelines and refineries in Whiting and Joliet has higher gasoline prices than Hawaii. Refinery utilization has been lower in April of ‘08 than April ‘07. Someone needs to explain how that has happened. Illinois and the states that charge a percentage sales tax on gasoline are reaping a windfall. It is not unreasonable to ask that they share some of that windfall with the people who pay the bills. It will take time to develop reasonable alternatives to gasoline for transportation. There is no silver bullet on the horizon which solves all of our problems. That means we need time. While we are working for the best solutions it is important to follow all possible responsible paths to head toward energy independence. It will require the will to drill domestically, expand refinery capacity, increase natural gas production, exploit our US and Canadian tar sand / shale oil deposits, develop clean coal burning technology and expand nuclear energy production to start. There are also a half dozen renewable energy source projects that could be deployed regionally as well. Anything less than a maximum effort will constrain our economy and have our citizens living a poorer and sparser life in the future. Of course if we could capture the hot air coming from our politicians, we could energy independent in very short order. I can see the ad campaign now….. “put a politician in your tank and save the world” - Rich Miller - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:41 am: Mr. Wizard, it would help if you would explain a link rather than just posting one. Thanks. Also, there is another side to this, as a Wall Street Journal article shows. - Levois - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:44 am: My folks used to go to Indiana a lot to take advantage of the lower taxes and cheaper gas. We don’t go as much anymore. If it’s $4.20/gal here and $3.93 there, it’s not a big difference. Or maybe the difference is slight. - Belle - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:45 am: Politicians and gas….made to go together? I haven’t felt a pinch yet. I started ‘driving smarter’ before it hit $3. But even with ‘driving smarter’ I don’t go to Chicago for fun anymore. I don’t know how people feed their families up there in the nations highest taxed city. - anon - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:49 am: Less demand may drive down the price of gas, but wouldn’t that lower then spark more consumer use? Example, I won’t make a 200 mile trip to see relatives six times a year because gas is too high, so I will cut it down to 3 times a year. BUT now gas has gone down in price so I decide I can afford to make that trip 5 or 6 times. But since I have just increased demand, the price will go up again. Big oil controls much of what research is being done, and what marketing can be done, for alternative fuel development and distribution. The rich will indeed get richer, the rest of us will just feed that gaping maw. Populism will only be tolerated for so long before the hammer comes down. - Ghost - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:49 am: A tax Holiday damages the State, does not benefit consumers, but is a boon to the oil companies. Remove the tax, people drive more, not less, increasing the profits for the oil companies. meanwhile the State loses all of the revenue, in a time when it has massive cash shortfalls. The State gets nothing back to benefit it for this loss of cash. This encoruages fuel consumption which is bad for the consumer, and the 45 dollars saved over several months as a one time deal provides little releif. This only benefits the oil companies and gas stations by increasing sales, it is the worst possible reaction. - Anon from BB - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:54 am: Based on Levois’ prices, you save $0.27 per gallon by going to Indiana. That’s $2.70 per 10 gallons. $5.40 per 20 gallons. Depending on what kind of mileage your auto/truck gets and how close you live to the border and adding in your time (I know I consider my time valuable, which is why I’m willing to go across the street and pay an extra penny, five, even ten cents more rather than wait in line at the “cheaper” station), it may not be worth it. And as has been pointed out, a gas tax holiday would be a wash. Lower the price of a commodity, and demand goes up. Further the demand, and supply cannot meet demand, price will go up until supply and demand is “balanced.” - Old Shepherd - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 10:57 am: How about a flat state tax on gas rather than a sales tax on gas. As gas prices go up, the state profits handsomly. 6.25% on $1.50 per gallon gas is about $.09. The same percentage on $4.00 per gallon gas is $.25. This is a $.16 difference, which just about sets us apart from our neighboring states. I would prefer to see the state take away the sales tax on gasoline, and replace it with a flat tax. If I am missing something, please correct my logic. - Rich Miller - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 11:01 am: Yes, OS, you are missing something. We already tax gallonage in Illinois, and that money goes to the Road Fund. The sales taxes [state and local] are then levied on top of that flat gallonage tax and that money goes to the General Revenue Fund. - Rayne of Terror - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 11:02 am: On top of driving at speeds that optimize your gas, make sure your vehicle is getting the milage it is supposed to. I kept track of multiple tanks of gas to figure out my miles per gallon because it seemed too low for a Honda Accord. Even if I drove as frugally as possible, I still wasn’t achieving the milage my car ought to get. After a tune up and fresh spark plugs at Floyd’s, my miles per tank increased from 370 to 400. I think a tax holiday is short sighted, especially when the GA could lower speed limits and insist on enforcemnt which would lower consumption. - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 11:03 am: Less demand may drive down the price of gas, but wouldn’t that lower then spark more consumer use? Yes, but it goes one way, then another, til finally a balance is achieved for awhile until conditions change again. This is what is called “equilibrium” in Economics 101. Big oil controls much of what research is being done, and what marketing can be done, for alternative fuel development and distribution. And I suppose Big Oil controls all the research and development in universities, Silicon Valley R&D companies, China, Japan, and a million inventor’s workshops. - Rich Miller - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 11:04 am: ===fresh spark plugs at Floyd’s=== I thought Floyd’s only sold alcohol? Learn somethng new every day. - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 11:11 am: We already tax gallonage in Illinois, and that money goes to the Road Fund. The sales taxes [state and local] are then levied on top of that flat gallonage tax and that money goes to the General Revenue Fund. Federal Highway Trust Fund 18.4c /gallon State Motor Fuel Tax 19c /gallon (21.5c diesel) State Sales Tax 6.25% (5% to state General Revenue Fund, 1.25% to locals). Works out to 22c/ gallon at a wholesale price of $3.50/ gallon There are also a few tiny taxes in there for underground storage tank cleanup, etc. - Greg - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 11:14 am: A couple more points: 1. Although I think the tax suspension idea is silly, I don’t think suspending it would affect driving tendancies. Demand has not responded much to this huge run-up; there’s no reason to think elasticity would undo a 25 cent +/- cut. 2. Less than 10% of your gas expenditures are oil industry profits. I keep hearing a lot of hyperbole. If your costs were mostly profit, xom wouldn’t be unched ytd. Further, these companies don’t control exploration. Those are often different companies, and besides, everyone who owns an old drill is firing it up right now. - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 11:23 am: The technology is here today to produce vehicles that sip less than 10 gallons of gas per month for the average driver, and nothing for the first 40 miles of the trip (although energy is needed for the overnight electric charge). And this is in a modified Saturn VUE SUV. http://www.evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=18280&url= - Anonymous - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 11:30 am: “A short-term gas tax holiday is the unimaginative solution of knee-jerk politicians who want to soak up 30-second sound bites and a little newspaper ink and then go back to shuffling around the Statehouse.” Ms. McQueary is dead right with this statement. Are gas taxes too high? Likely. But I would rather permenantly decrease them by a quarter than cut them completely for four months. - Joe Schmoe - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 11:33 am: Somebody needs to explain motor fuel tax structure to the SJR. Today’s editorial mixed up everything…… - VanillaMan - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 11:34 am: The sales taxes on gasoline are too high. A tax holiday would help offset what is normally an increase in price that occurs during the summer. Illinois’ gas prices are one of the nation’s highest. McQueary is only computing the savings at the pump in regards to what it takes to fill her gas tank. She is not taking into consideration how a tax holiday reduces the cost of gasoline for all vehicles that deliver her goods and services. Not only will we save at the pump, we will also save throughout our local economy, saving more than the $45 she claims. Gas taxes are a higher percentage of total gas prices than gas profits. Yet we finger point at corporations at the profits they make, but not at the greedy governments. Nonsensical, right? We only get taxed so much for road infrastructure. The highest part of our taxes go to greedy governments who just want an endless bucket of money to waste. A tax holiday is a start. Those who want to dismiss it as mere political pandering seem to be sadomasochists who see us as greedy pigs finally getting their comeuppance. They self-righteously flaunt their lifestyles while earning enough income so that they can do a Marie Antoinette impersonation over the rest of us. Cut the sales taxes and stop trying to one-up one another in the holier-than-thou department. - Dirt Guy - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 11:38 am: We need to have the politicians stop pandering to the environmentalists and whiny people who do not want a new refinery or an expansion of an older refinery. Refinery capacity in the US is maxed out. We don’t (can’t) build new ones. Large urban areas require numerous special blends and grades of fuels which necessitate refineries to shut down for switch-overs. These factors tend create the high prices we see here in Illinois. As for the ethanol boondoggle, what can I say? Take away the government subsidy and that industry would dry up and blow away, which by the way would be a good thing for many, many reasons. If people are worried about air pollution why is it that diesel engines can be used in coal mines? Because they are fitted with exhaust purifiers that keep the air breathable. Offset the pollution from a new refinery by requiring oil burning vehicles to produce cleaner exhaust. Oh, and one more thing. Don’t ever elect oil men to the highest political office in the US. - countryboy - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 11:50 am: No waiver for the tax on gasoline. It should be increased. If it doesn’t motivate reasonable people to make reasonable decisions and choices, it would provide a revenue stream from the A J Foyts on the expressway obviously in love with their urban assault vehicles. - VanillaMan - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 11:52 am: Some of you people are nuts, and you know it. So, instead of accepting a tax holiday, you’d rather enjoy self-flagellation in order to prove your political points? Are you hoping that your ridiculous position on this will somehow highlight your perturbance over our energy policies? Are you thinking that perhaps if we start hurting those who cannot afford gas prices they will rise up and start demanding your political position - at last? How elitist, obsolete and Marxist of you. Do us all a favor and give yourselves a big pat on the ole back for buying the right car, using your Britta water bottle, and fighting for the right to force your neighbors into mass transit busses. But we have this thing called freedom. And folks like you aren’t helping us empower people by demanding we all have to stop doing what we do or all the polar bears, or ice caps, or whatever it is you are afraid of, will happen and destroy us all. Cinch up your belts and strap on a pair, OK? - Reddbyrd - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:00 pm: Two points 1. If there were a real supply/demand problem there would not be a zillion gas stations selling everyone ALL the gas they want 24/7/365. We would have a repeat of the mid-70s. If most motorists would quit filling their tanks —making themselves mini tank farms — sales will drop and price will come down to help move product. - Rich Miller - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:01 pm: Congrats, Vanillaman, that has to be your most small-minded post yet today. Red-baiting people who disagree with you is strongly discouraged here. Also, your strawman arguments are so 1990s talk radio. Try arguing the merits, not what you believe in your fevered brain to be the arguments of nonexistent others. Thanks. - wordslinger - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:06 pm: VMAN, I hope your medication kicks in soon, dude. Just keep telling yourself, ‘I’m in safe place, I’m in a safe place.’” - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:11 pm: If there were a real supply/demand problem there would not be a zillion gas stations selling everyone ALL the gas they want 24/7/365. We would have a repeat of the mid-70s And it’s those high gas prices that motivate the producers to supply just enough, and explore more to keep the gravy train rolling. If most motorists would quit filling their tanks —making themselves mini tank farms — sales will drop and price will come down to help move product And produces another set of waves (price drops, we buy more, 3rd world buys more, price goes up on tight supply) ending up in equilibrium. Not sure it would end up much different than today’s price. - Fan of the Game - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:15 pm: Six Degrees, That is wonderful, and it makes sense, but one must remember that the electricty it takes to charge such a car also costs money and often requires fossil fuels to be generated. California can’t keep up with electricity production during the summer months now. What will happen when everyone is driving electric? What will happen to electrical rates when the demand skyrockets? People look at things like ethanol and electrical as easy replacements for gasoline. Ethanol looks good when corn prices are low, but the demand for corn increases when more ethanol is produced, driving up corn prices. Too often we do not consider the effects of such action. - Plutocrat03 - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:16 pm: Anyone see a pattern here? Last 5 weeks of US refinery utilization 85.6%, 85.4%, 85%, 86.6%, 87.9% Same weeks 2007 87.7, 88.3, 89%, 89.5%, 91.1% differences -2.1%, -2.9%, -4%, -2.9%, -3.2% Someone is apparently determining what the elasticity of the market is. I’ll bet there is more profit with 3% lower production. - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:17 pm: I think VanMan might be secretly upset with opposition to the gas tax holiday because it (the “holiday”) would help cut off the oxygen (the General Revenue funding stream) to one or more of the Governor’s present or future “initiatives”. - Wild Bill - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:17 pm: Wait until McQueary learns TC & Sock Puppet Express are making attack robo calls into D districts on their plan to boost refiner/retailer earning. Very Smart Spending BTW any body know House GOPS are calling local officials asking for their pork project wish lists? They still don’t that pork from the last Blagoof budget deal. - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:22 pm: Fan: In IL we are blessed with a set of nukes that don’t shut down at night (they don’t start and stop on a dime like the fossil fuel peaker plants do). We have excess capacity to utilize for overnight charging, and all the utilities have an off-peak rate that consumers could take advantage of. And in the summer, the off-peak charging would happen when the A/C is working the least. The secret to the Trinity PHEV is the combination of a supercapacitor (provides instantaneous power transfer but is poor at holding a charge) with a battery (good at storage but poor at fast power transfer). Lots of ingenious minds are are at work, even as we blow hot air around here. - Rich Miller - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:27 pm: Six, you did to VM what he did to others. Try sticking to your own arguments, please. - Fan of the Game - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:29 pm: Six Degrees, I understand that, and I agree. Just pointing out that there are costs to other forms of fuel and that moving away from gasoline doesn’t remove all costs. Plus, I’d like to see a few more nukes built in this state. - Anonymous - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:37 pm: Judging from the numerous comments on this and other blogs, griping about gas prices has quickly become the new national pastime… no surprise given that the cost of tickets to a Major League game is probably close to the cost of a tank of gas - Cassandra - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:41 pm: Well, money is fungible. If a reduction in the income tax rate is frowned upon, how about an economic stimulus like the one the feds are giving out. It’s a tax reduction by another name. It doesn’t really matter how they do it, but we need help out here, much more than the modest savings a gas tax holiday might provide. And our elected officials are just not getting that. - Captain America - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:44 pm: I don’t think there are any short-term solutions to the high price of gasoline. I think what we really need is a national committment to the development of alternative fuel sources - something akin to the Manhattan project-even though it could take 25 years to develop and implement an alternative fuel economy. Gas tax holiday proposals represent political pandering at ts worst. - Rich Miller - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:45 pm: ===how about an economic stimulus like the one the feds are giving out.=== Fine, just figure out how to pay for it. We can’t print money like the feds do. - taxmandan - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:50 pm: I thought our governor had a grand energy plan back in 2006. His plan for funding it included hiring more IL revenue agents and going after back taxes from out of state businesses. How is that going? - Vote Quimby! - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:57 pm: Governor Rod Blagojevich announces a new funding mechanism for a capital bill: the new state mint in Benton will issue “Blagos” equivalent to 93 cents. - Easy - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 12:59 pm: The sales tax on gas in Illinois is one of the most inane taxes. It compounds all the other taxes on gas and then calculates the total cost. It’s just a really bad tax and that’s why 40 other states have rejected such a policy. There is a reason why Chicago has the highest gas prices–it is because taxes. Do we seriously think the Big Oil companies said we are going to exclusively gouge Chicago drivers? - anon - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 1:00 pm: == And I suppose Big Oil controls all the research and development in universities, Silicon Valley R&D companies, China, Japan, and a million inventor’s workshops. == I don’t suppose research itself is controlled, but the results may be. Just my paranoia, maybe I saw Syriana too many times, I don’t know. It seems with the billions of dollars invested in making oil profitable, that the oil companies would not allow anything cheaper, renewable, more efficient and environmentally friendly to come to market without first making inroads into the profitability of the alternatives for themselves. The capitalization for research and distribution of acceptable alternative fuel sources is in the hands of the very few. And oil not means fuel, but food, packaging, and a myriad of other products. - Vote Quimby! - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 1:02 pm: They don’t gouge Chicago…just the cost of doing bizniz. - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 1:31 pm: Rich 12:27 Sorry, will only snark from now on when it is encouraged by the host. And I like VM and his posts most of the time. - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 2:03 pm: Anon 1 PM- I suppose Big Oil and the Big 3 automakers could buy up all the patents on promising technology, and buy out small automakers, alternative energy companies, and research companies if they felt “threatened”. But they’d have to do this on a worldwide basis, because if any one country let the cat out of the bag, the others would be wanting it, too. Israel is about to embark on a program of installing charging stations, battery swap stations, and selling all-electric vehicles (initially from Renault and Nissan) to replace oil burners over the next 20 years. Would it work here? The distances are much longer, and they need a forklift to replace the battery pack for vehicles making long journeys. The company that is doing the Israel project is eyeing San Francisco as its next test market. IMO, a sea change is in motion that Big Oil can’t completely stop or influence, and Big Oil either gets on the bandwagon or gets left behind. http://www.projectbetterplace.com/ - Ghost - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 2:34 pm: QUick solutions: Have Durbin and Obama push for expansion of the anti-truct laws so we can go after OPEC, or alternatively remove OPEC nation from the protection of such laws. if ADM wants to get together with all the other food producers etc and set production rates and costs for food and other supplies for OPEC nations, let them! whats good for the goose and all that. Drill in Alaska, expand diesel engine production and bio diesel plants. Remove the Slaes tax from the purchase of vehicles which get 30 mpg Highway or better. Add an additional tax to new vehicle sales if the vehicle gets under 30mpg Highway. - Legal Eagle - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 2:40 pm: It’s disgusting the way both parties are demagoging the gas price issue. Heaven forbid that they would have to actually discuss energy policy, world trade, the environment, conservation, transit, land use planning, the developing economies of China and India, and similar real causes of the problem. Let’s just blame one congressman , or a party’s control of Congress, or seek a gas tax moratorium to subsidize more driving! It’s called supply and demand, and neither party can repeal that law! People need to drive less, buy cars with better mileage, and support transit. Stop whining - there is no constitutional right to cheap, subsidized gasoline. - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 3:03 pm: there is no constitutional right to cheap, subsidized gasoline. Unless you live in Venezuela, where it’s 19c a gallon:-) - fed up - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 3:14 pm: suspending the gas tax is political folly. The state has a deficet already and needs every penny it can get. Take away blagos frequent flyer status on state of Ill taxpayer airlines would be a nice start. - Anonymous - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 3:15 pm: How many people are aware that today’s gas prices, when adjusted for inflation, are not all that much higher than they were in the 1920s? Anyone out there old enough to remember when most families owned only one car (or none at all), or when gas and many other goods were rationed during World War II? If you don’t remember, your parents or grandparents probably do. You think we have it bad, ask them how they made it. - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 3:25 pm: Anon 3:15- My grandma rented a room to a soldier’s family in WWII and got some extra gas ration coupons for it on top of her own. Since she did very little driving, those ration coupons were a nice source of income:-) And I lived in a 1-car family growing up. We lived in one of those new-fangled things that are now called a “Transit Oriented Development” where dad took the train to work and mom kept the car for her job a mile away and family errands. Now we have 4 cars for 5 people. - Anonymous - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 3:30 pm: In my mind, the politicians and big oil have no credibility on this issue. If the pols were serious about addressing consumption while preserving revenues, they could do several unpopular actions: 1) lower the speed limit to 55-60 and enforce it as the stats on fuel consumption below/above 60 mph are well-documented; 2) enact a vehicle license and registration fee weighted against large, fuel-inefficient cars and SUV’s; 3) eliminate business taxes like the one that gives buyer’s of new, heavy SUVs tax breaks this year (special 50% bonus depreciation is the reason); 4) provide tax incentives for alternate fuel/energy efforts; 5) get on the bandwagon to develop a comprehensive energy program policy: and 6) eliminate the Revenue taxing issue when people make their own fuel for personal use. I’m not sure how you could develop mass transit in the rural areas, but I believe more creative thinking might generate some novel ideas in that area. - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 3:57 pm: I’m not sure how you could develop mass transit in the rural areas, but I believe more creative thinking might generate some novel ideas in that area. Most rural mass transit serves a niche market. An elderly or disabled person calls for a ride, and one shows up, with maybe 10% farebox recovery (this one is not much of a fuel saver BTW, but is a nice amenity for those who are otherwise immobile). Amtrak service to downstate serves a fixed market, and delivers college kids from the burbs to our far flung universities and gets some students off I-57 or US 67. A rural industry has a van pool where 4 or 5 can ride together. I can remember a contingency of Caterpillar workers chipping in to buy an old schol bus where they rode together to Aurora. One of the biggest users of rural mass transit are our rural school districts - however, once HS students or their older friends hit 16, it is suddenly “uncool” to ride the bus and the HS parking lot is filled with cars with parking stickers (maybe that will change a little with $4 gas). Common trip end points are transit’s friend. There is a lack of them in the suburbs, and it is 10 times the problem in rural America for the general market. - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 22, 08 @ 4:02 pm: To the last setence I should also add “and route density” after “common trip end points”. - Rural Gal without Mass Transit - Friday, May 23, 08 @ 9:20 am: T. Boone Pickens said in an interview that he expects oil to go to $150 per barrel this year. He says that we have peaked at about 85 million barrels of oil production per day, globally, and demand is at about 87 million barrels per day. He’s been right more often than wrong. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m driving as little as possible now. I cannot afford to buy gasoline at these rapidly escalating prices. And food has gone up substantially too. My income, meanwhile, has been stagnant. Something’s got to give, and in my case, it is driving at a bare minimum and putting in a larger garden. I’m also in the market for a buggy for my horse, for trips to town. I just need to convince the grocery store to put a hitching rail in the parking lot. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.