Oil prices are plummeting around the globe, down 38 percent since July. It’s one of the few upbeat developments right now for American consumers.
Back in July the cost of oil topped $147 a barrel, and some feared it could surge to $200 or more. But on Tuesday it was barely over $91 a barrel.
Who’s benefiting?
Motorists in Kansas City and across the country are paying less at the pump than earlier this summer. Gasoline declined from $4.11 a gallon two months ago to $3.67 last week.
Although prices have jumped a bit since Hurricane Ike, they are likely to go back down soon, given the big fall in petroleum markets.
Farmers and large trucking companies — like YRC, headquartered in Overland Park — are shelling out less for diesel fuel. A gallon that cost $4.85 in mid-July had fallen to $4.10 this week, even after Hurricane Ike.
If they continue, reduced fuel costs for farmers and shippers eventually should result in lower prices for food and for many goods carried by trucks.
Airlines aren’t paying as much now for jet fuel as they did earlier this summer. Again, the decreased price of oil could eventually lead to lower ticket prices and could ease recently imposed charges for extra luggage.
But there are also some drawbacks to falling oil prices.
Energy experts worry that Americans may be encouraged to resume their gas-guzzling ways.
Consumers ought to continue conserving gasoline and purchasing more fuel-efficient vehicles. After all, the dip in U.S. gasoline demand this summer quickly helped lower oil prices.
Economists point out that petroleum demand also is falling because of weakened economies around the world. Fewer people are flying, for instance. The International Air Transport Association is forecasting billions in losses for airlines this year and next — even with modestly lower oil prices.
Still, the lower cost of gasoline is saving American consumers billions of dollars. Just as sharply higher costs for oil earlier this year damaged the U.S. economy, lower prices in the coming months could help breathe new life into it.
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I would prefer $1.50 gas,
I would prefer $1.50 gas, but my desires don't alter reality.
You can make your argument with T Boone Pickens. He knows a bit about energy and economics. And he isn't stuck in the sixties.
I'm confident in time you will choke on your own bile.
A curious tack to take
I've observed those among us who speak almost longingly of "four-dollar gas." One could get the impression that they long for gasoline priced at that level or higher, perhaps to stamped the voters to do something unwise, such as drilling to yield all possible domestic production late in the next decade. I'm loath to call such longing for defeat "un-American," but I'm at a loss to explain why someone would feel that four-dollar gasoline is such a desirable state of affairs.
Call (202) 456-1414
Ask for "Temporary"
OMG, OMG
The answer is banning plastic bags and building more bicycle paths!
George Carlin lives in the word of the moonbats.
Thank God you will never reach Osama Yomama by dialing 202=456=1414
NOBAMA O8!
Keep the change!
An opportunity lost
Since gasoline seems determined to betray us all by falling from its historic highs as we use one, two, perhaps three percent less of it, we're clearly letting the opportunity slip away to get those drills in the ground while the public is convinced that only more booze will cure our alcoholism. What will happen to Exxon and BP stockholders if we pursue our current reckless course of lifting our right feet and combining two trips to QT for taquitos into one? What savage fate awaits if the current sickening trend to ban plastic bags awaits and industrial use of petroleum takes it on the chin? In the wise words of the two thousand energized white people at the RNC, "Drill, baby, drill!"
Otherwise life on this planet as we know it will change forever.
Call (202) 456-1414
Ask for "Temporary"
Thanks "truth seeker" (boy is that a ringer!)
For proof positive that the moonbats want ua all to pay $4.00 a gallon for gasoline.
We had better drill baby, and soon. Otherwise we will be powering our cars with "wind", you know just "blow into your gas tank".
OMG, drill, OMG, the planet will not survive!
Gag me with a carbon credit.
Drill baby BS
Interesting how Republicans have only one way to address energy issues and its anti-american to think anything different. And while their rhetoric drones on the price of oil falls by nearly 40% simply because demand is reduced a few percent and because scrutiny on oil speculators is intensified.
If drilling is the centerpoint of the nation's energy policy you can count on $6 - $8 and $10 dollar gas. And squandering more of our human treasure on wars for oil.