There are lots of things that stick in my craw and one of them is when I hear the numbskulls and dimwits in the MSM blather on about relief at the pump when gas prices drop a few cents over a couple week period. They tout this as proof that the consumer will soon have gobs of discretionary dollars to start buying more igadgets. I don’t know about you, but I need to fill my gas tank up every damn week. Gas prices rise and gas prices fall, but the only thing that matters is the average price you pay from year to year. Below is a chart that details the average monthly price for a gallon of regular gas going back to 1990. Think about this chart when Bernanke tells you inflation is well contained. You might notice that you were paying an average price of $1.42 per gallon from 2000 through 2002. Then our friend Bush decided to make the world safe for democracy. Well done Georgie.
Now let’s deal with reality. The average price over the last few years has been:
2006 – $2.57
2007 – $2.80
2008 – $3.25
2009 – $2.34
2010 – $2.78
2011 – $3.52
2012 – $3.67
So enough with the bullshit. We have paid the highest average price in the history of the country for a gallon of gas in 2012. The previous highest average price in history was last year. These prices are much higher than 2008 when oil spiked to $140 per barrel. Now put on your thinking caps. Our gasoline usage has dropped significantly since 2007, but we are paying 31% more for a gallon of gas. We were paying under $1.00 per gallon in 1999. I’d like all the peak oil deniers to explain the 267% increase in gas prices since 1999.
We know for a fact that real median household income has fallen by $4,000 since 2007. If the average household drives 20,000 miles per year and gets 25 mpg from their vehicles, then they are buying 800 gallons of gas per year. These households are paying $1,000 more per year than they did in 2009. They are paying $1,800 more per year than they were in 2002, before we began our never ending wars in the Middle East.
The moronic pundits and shill economists can’t seem to understand why the economy continues to suck and the middle class is slowly and methodically being wiped out. It may have something to do with the combo of declining income and the highest energy costs in history.
| U.S. Regular All Formulations Retail Gasoline Prices (Dollars per Gallon) |
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| 1990 | 1.218 | 1.258 | 1.335 | 1.324 | 1.341 | |||||||
| 1991 | 1.180 | 1.094 | 1.040 | 1.076 | 1.126 | 1.128 | 1.096 | 1.115 | 1.109 | 1.088 | 1.099 | 1.076 |
| 1992 | 1.022 | 1.006 | 1.013 | 1.052 | 1.107 | 1.145 | 1.137 | 1.122 | 1.122 | 1.114 | 1.111 | 1.078 |
| 1993 | 1.062 | 1.054 | 1.052 | 1.078 | 1.100 | 1.097 | 1.078 | 1.062 | 1.050 | 1.092 | 1.066 | 1.014 |
| 1994 | 0.998 | 1.009 | 1.008 | 1.027 | 1.047 | 1.078 | 1.106 | 1.155 | 1.144 | 1.114 | 1.116 | 1.091 |
| 1995 | 1.082 | 1.073 | 1.072 | 1.111 | 1.178 | 1.192 | 1.154 | 1.123 | 1.111 | 1.087 | 1.062 | 1.071 |
| 1996 | 1.090 | 1.089 | 1.137 | 1.231 | 1.279 | 1.256 | 1.227 | 1.207 | 1.202 | 1.204 | 1.232 | 1.235 |
| 1997 | 1.236 | 1.230 | 1.205 | 1.199 | 1.200 | 1.198 | 1.174 | 1.224 | 1.231 | 1.197 | 1.171 | 1.131 |
| 1998 | 1.086 | 1.049 | 1.017 | 1.030 | 1.064 | 1.064 | 1.055 | 1.026 | 1.009 | 1.019 | 0.995 | 0.945 |
| 1999 | 0.939 | 0.921 | 0.982 | 1.131 | 1.131 | 1.114 | 1.158 | 1.221 | 1.256 | 1.244 | 1.251 | 1.273 |
| 2000 | 1.289 | 1.377 | 1.516 | 1.465 | 1.487 | 1.633 | 1.551 | 1.465 | 1.550 | 1.532 | 1.517 | 1.443 |
| 2001 | 1.447 | 1.450 | 1.409 | 1.552 | 1.702 | 1.616 | 1.421 | 1.421 | 1.522 | 1.315 | 1.171 | 1.086 |
| 2002 | 1.107 | 1.114 | 1.249 | 1.397 | 1.392 | 1.382 | 1.397 | 1.396 | 1.400 | 1.445 | 1.419 | 1.386 |
| 2003 | 1.458 | 1.613 | 1.693 | 1.589 | 1.497 | 1.493 | 1.513 | 1.620 | 1.679 | 1.564 | 1.512 | 1.479 |
| 2004 | 1.572 | 1.648 | 1.736 | 1.798 | 1.983 | 1.969 | 1.911 | 1.878 | 1.870 | 2.000 | 1.979 | 1.841 |
| 2005 | 1.831 | 1.910 | 2.079 | 2.243 | 2.161 | 2.156 | 2.290 | 2.486 | 2.903 | 2.717 | 2.257 | 2.185 |
| 2006 | 2.316 | 2.280 | 2.425 | 2.742 | 2.907 | 2.885 | 2.981 | 2.952 | 2.555 | 2.245 | 2.229 | 2.313 |
| 2007 | 2.240 | 2.278 | 2.563 | 2.845 | 3.146 | 3.056 | 2.965 | 2.786 | 2.803 | 2.803 | 3.080 | 3.018 |
| 2008 | 3.043 | 3.028 | 3.244 | 3.458 | 3.766 | 4.054 | 4.062 | 3.779 | 3.703 | 3.051 | 2.147 | 1.687 |
| 2009 | 1.788 | 1.923 | 1.959 | 2.049 | 2.266 | 2.631 | 2.527 | 2.616 | 2.554 | 2.551 | 2.651 | 2.607 |
| 2010 | 2.715 | 2.644 | 2.772 | 2.848 | 2.836 | 2.732 | 2.729 | 2.730 | 2.705 | 2.801 | 2.859 | 2.993 |
| 2011 | 3.095 | 3.211 | 3.561 | 3.800 | 3.906 | 3.680 | 3.650 | 3.639 | 3.611 | 3.448 | 3.384 | 3.266 |
| 2012 | 3.380 | 3.579 | 3.852 | 3.900 | 3.732 | 3.539 | 3.439 | 3.722 | 3.849 | 3.746 | ||
Micro-Be says:
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but since oil is exclusively traded in dollars is not the value of the dollar connected to the price of oil/gas? Not claiming it is the sole influence in the price. I’ve also read that is one of the reasons our prices are much lower than more of the world (outside of Russia, Venezuela, etc.). Anyone have insight on these two things?
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8th November 2012 at 4:13 pm
David says:
Even worse is when those idiots on CNBC refer to a drop in gas prices, when they do drop, as a “tax cut” for the consumer. Bullshit! You never hear them say that a price increase in gas is a “tax increase”, unless of course the rise was caused by a tax increase. Call it what it is, but don’t call it a tax cut, otherwise the disengenuous guy in the white house will take credit.
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8th November 2012 at 4:17 pm
flash says:
If the nations just had the foresight to elect Mitt Romney POTUS he would have drilled Anwar , and drained every last drop of oil from any shale rock in American that exists.
We’d be back at #I in the world by 2014, but now it looks, thanks to third party voters, like we might have to nuke a mofo or two to keep the black gold flowing.
You know who you are.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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8th November 2012 at 4:42 pm
Eddie says:
About fifty cents of the price of every gallon of gas we buy IS tax. I look for that to go up. It’s such a nice regressive tax. What’s not to love.
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8th November 2012 at 4:52 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
The war on gas and oil by the Obama Admin relates to their carbon agenda as well as their push to kill the suburbs and push everybody to the cities. He calls that “sustainable development”, the UN calls it Agenda 21.
They are also trying to increase taxes on the suburbs to increase the amount of money they can send to the (FSA) cities. Obama and his ilk hate the suburbans because they are 1) white, 2) wealthy, 3) usually Republicans or conservatives and 4) left the inner cities and are therefore responsible for the shitholes they became, so they should be “punished” for their white flight.
Chicken Eatin’ Queen LaShaneeka of the 30 Blocks will probably end up with a Bently as a result of all this wealth redistribution, heh.
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8th November 2012 at 5:50 pm
Kill Bill says:
Our gasoline usage has dropped significantly since 2007, but we are paying 31% more for a gallon of gas.
But but but Admin it will cost too much to change all those economics book ‘supply and demand’ theory!!
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8th November 2012 at 6:24 pm
Ron says:
So why couldnt much of the country see this?
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8th November 2012 at 6:31 pm
Stan says:
This is a 2 part problem. First, demand for oil is strong but they are having to spend more to get it. And second our currency is being deluted.
We use 80 mil barrels of oil a day and the USA adds 4 billion a day to the debt.
Gas prices will thus continue to rise in the long run
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8th November 2012 at 7:10 pm
Davos says:
Terminal Economic Cancer, ’we are at “Peak Production,” that point where supply of 82,095,00 bpd is outstripped by demand which is 87,382,000 bpd, largely because of Asia.
In 1990 China had 168 miles of paved highway and 5.5 million cars.
Today China has 53,000 miles of paved highway (the U.S. has 47,000 miles) and 200 million vehicles.
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8th November 2012 at 8:30 pm
flash says:
HZK-The war on gas and oil by the Obama Admin relates to their carbon agenda as well as their push to kill the suburbs and push everybody to the cities. He calls that “sustainable development”, the UN calls it Agenda 21.
Good thing AWD is away on cruise, else he’d light you up like a dime store Christmas tree for evoking the Agenda 21 conspiracy myth….nothing to see here……whistles away.
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8th November 2012 at 9:10 pm
Roysyl says:
Most of the worlds crude oil benchmark price is for WTI (West Texas Intermediate) or North Sea Brent. Several years ago WTI was a dollar or two more expensive than Brent. Brent is now $22 – $24 more expensive than WTI. About 95% of the worlds crude oil is priced at Brent, 85% of US crude is priced at Brent. While US oil consumption has been dropping China and India have been increasing. CNBC and Faux give one oil price, WTI, and claim oil is below $100/bbl. Bloomberg gives both prices. The wool they are pulling over your eyes is more than 50% cotton.
The EIA (Energy Information Agency) is part of the US Government’s Dept of Energy and figures crude as C+C, crude plus condensates. The IEA (International Energy Agency) in Paris was founded by unindicted war criminal Henry Kissinger. The IEA includes C+C+ biofuels. The main purpose of the agencies is to create the illusion of a false reality making things appear better than they really are. Condescends are also derived from natural gas wells and are the hydrocarbon chain beyond methane, propane – benzene etc. The condescends and bio fuels have lower energy out put than crude.
To follow the rest of this epistle bring up the following graph/chart: http://www.theoildrum.com/files/bowers1_0.jpg How the barrel breaks down
The amount of fuel refined from a barrel of oil depends on two things: The quality of the oil, light,heavy, sweet, sour and how the refinery is set up within limits as to how much diesel, gasoline,kerosene etc.The problem is that what they are calling oil in increasingly poorer quality and includes lesser energy consents and bio fuels.
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8th November 2012 at 9:56 pm
AKAnon says:
Roysyl-Nice commentary. You nailed a bunch of generally overlooked points. Bottom line, though-Don’t expect things to get better, either on paper or in reality.
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8th November 2012 at 2:52 am
Roysyl says:
Oil is the life blood of every industrial economy and a necessity to conduct war. All that matters is access, not price. Since 1971 we have been giving oil producers printed pieces of paper or its equivalent for oil. We have truly fulfilled the Alchemists dream of turning paper into gold. This was made possible by the creation of the petro dollar. KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) was first to agree to sell their oil only for US dollars in exchange for us protecting their repressive inbred regime against their own people and other countries. Other Gulf States soon followed suit .At gunpoint is the most effective marketing strategy ever devised.
The petro dollar thus became the world’s reserve currency. A reserve currency should not exist without a Central Bank and a fiat currency.
As noted in the graph/chart in my previous comment most crude oil is used for transportation, 76.5-82%. All ICE (internal combustion engines) runs on liquid fuels. Diesel engines now can be 50% efficient while gasoline engines have gone from 15% efficiency to 30% efficient. All large ICE’s run on diesel fuel, big trucks, earth moving equipment, locomotives, ocean going vessels, tanks and most large agriculture equipment. My neighbor’s Belgium’s run on hay, who has the best future prospects?
The weekly oil inventory lists, among other things, distillate. The number one distillate is kerosene, higher refined into jet fuel. Number two is diesel. Both are used in tanks and airplanes. The DOD (Dept. of Defense, formerly properly named War Dept) uses 25% of US petroleum; the US uses 25% of the world’s petroleum. So our War Dept uses over 6% of the world’s petroleum, more than many countries. We have to maintain the petro dollar and access to oil and as stated previous “At gunpoint is the most effective marketing strategy ever devised.”
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8th November 2012 at 11:19 am