Was at CostCo (actually across the street at local supmkt pharmacy to get flu & pneumonia shots...outch, delayed reaction, couldn't even sleep much last night because of the soreness) on Sunday. CostCo is about 7-8mi away. But I was shocked by the price of regular grade fuel. $2.75/gal, when just around the corner from where I live the Chevron was @3.19/gal, closer to CostCo 2 blocks appart Chevron's were @3.19 & 3.11, while the cash only Arco, typically 4-5cents/gal less than the other majors was @2.98. How could CostCo be so low?
Then today, I actually drove the long distance to CostCo just to fuel up, but ran into freeway ramp closures, 3mi RT detour, so basically had to burn a 1/2 gal of fuel trying to save. CostCo was today down to $2.60/gal., while last night the Arco was @2.93/gal. Today I noticed the local Chevron had dropped from Sunday's 3.19 down to 2.99/gal. OK, so futures prices on sweet crude have plummeted to $65/barrel, down from early summer's record $150/barrel, based on what I can only figure is pure speculation, nothing to do with actual demand/supply.
It's being reported in the media that US drivers are driving 10% less recently with the poor economic conditions (never mind any hurricane damage shortages of just a few distant, long forgotten, months ago). Yeah, alright, so even if US drivers and the rest of the world were in the near future cut back to 20%, which is not very likely..that still doesn't make for demand causing the price of a barrel to drop more than 50%. Hence, price of fuel is obviously predicated upon the same BS as the rampant housing market speculation.
I can pretty much guarantee you Obama won't (any more than I think McCain, or the next president after Obama is out in 4yrs) be weaning the US off of our dependence on petrol/gasoline any time soon. Under the best circumstances, with a
Congress behind whatever president, resisting all special interest peddling influence, you'd not likely see meaningful, significant reductions of fossil fuel consumption for at least a decade or more...much to 'carbon-footprint' Tannin's disgust
"This is how we
roll", in US politics.