@StanTheManDean: Supplies for a potter vs supplies for, say, a seamstress. Heavy stuff.

@lincolnparadox: Another site to check out is GasPriceWatch - [www.gaspricewatch.com]

Even when you are driving a very gas friendly car that sort of scenario still hurts a lot and it is common right now. People are willing to commute very long distances these days.

@tim_hunter: Last business trip I went on I ended up with a 2009 Prius rental (it had 2 miles on it so I assume I was the first to rent it). I decided to do a fuel economy test. I immediately refueled it once I left the airport and reset the fuel economy and trip mileage counters.

After a week of driving, the dash was displaying an average fuel economy of 55.8 mpg. Not bad, right? I would have thought so until I went to refill it before returning it. Total distance driven was 262 miles, about 75% highway miles. Fuel consumed was 6.82 gallons. That gives an actual fuel economy of 38.4 mpg. So the car was embellishing the fuel economy by 45%.

In the end, the fuel economy is not much better than I get in my $11000 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt with a manual transmission and careful driving habits (35 mpg).

BUT, I've yet to ever get stuck with a flat, low oil or coolant, a dead battery, or have had to call a tow truck.

If only Ed Begley Jr. would market the plans for his car that runs solely on his own self satisfaction.

@pecan 3.14159265: I have an 11 gallon tank. It costs me 2.2 more dollars now a week than it did. I can't help it if some people went out and bought huge beast machines and drive them long distances.

I bought a small economical car that gets 32/35 mpg.

So that 2.20 isn't breaking my bank per week. its under 10 extra dollars a month. If that breaks your bank then you need to seriously rethink life.

I laughed a ton when it was 4 a gallon and wished it would go to 10 in NJ so I can see people panic, I'd still be fine. Would I like 100 dollar fill ups? No, but it would defiantly wake up those idiots with 10-17mpg beasts.

However, remembering the $4.25 of last summer, this still doesn't seem that bad to me.

@MostlyHarmless: It is hurting you, just not in a direct way that you can see. It's not as though the people who drive "things" to where you can buy or use them pay less for their gas.

Fuel Surcharge?

Here is an interesting read:

[www.dogwoodceramics.com]

Even saw it at $3.79 with supreme going for $3.99 at one place on Pico (and people were filling up there, too... screw them).

@tim_hunter: You do realize that you will never even come close to breaking even right? You'd have to put 30,000 miles a year on the car and gas would have to be $5/gal before you saw any reasonable ROI on that prius? And that's just factoring the cost of fuel ALONE. Not all the other things you need to take into consideration such as insurance, higher taxes (if your local governments levvy personal property tax on vehicles). Not to mention cost of maintainance.

I mean if you wanted a new car and needed a new form of transportation, that's fine. However if you think you're getting ahead or are savvy by purchasing a new car thinking you'll make back its initial cost on the fuel savings alone, you just drank the marketing kool-aid.

The Prius is a nice car, don't get me wrong, but seriously spending money in order to save money is a zero sum game.

Just wait until the economy comes back into full swing in a couple of years..back up to $4.00 a gallon we go (speculators + demand = OMG $$$).

Try $1.02 in Cambridge, ON. :(

Managed to get it in Kitchener for $0.91, though, with 10x CT funny money! :)

@Naame:

Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy.

No matter who you are talking about.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Haha I love to hear a good story about marriage politics/relationships.

I was noticing the price going up here in MD but wasn't sure if the rest of the country was seeing the same effects. Headline news/Robin Meade hasn't really reported on it much in the mornings.

Long work-related drives make the differences in price almost hilarious. Gas is 20 cents a gallon more in San Francisco than if you get outside the city. Costco and Safeway 'member prices' are 30 cents less.

@oblivious87: If you read the article, it's not decreased demand, it's decrease production plus a weak dollar.

I decided not to tell him about the SECOND box of paper in my back seat, which is a bunch of xeroxes to hand out to students this week. What he doesn't know doesn't result in me getting lectured ....

Crude oil isn't necessarily the problem, its the people who refine it into gasoline and the other products. Gasoline which has been their pay dirt is no longer in demand like it used to, as a result, the profits from producing it aren't worth it, so they are shutting down refineries.

As a result, supply goes down and with the winter months closing in, demand is slowly increasing because not as many people are oh so willing to drive to school or wait for the bus. So while you're partially right, the weak dollar and decreased demand from last year are more to blame then the supply... the small increase in supply is being magnified by other factors.

@admiral_stabbin: Exactly. I think the LA Times had an article this summer asking why grocery prices hadn't gone down and they said it was because their distrubution had bought a future amount of fuel at a higher cost. So we better be covered!!!!!

[gasbuddy.com]

Back when gas was $4 a gallon, I would save anywhere from 10 to 20 cents a gallon just by choosing a different station on the way home. Or waiting to fill up when we went to shopping in the city.

That electric car is looking pretty good...

@MostlyHarmless: On the other hand prices in CA haven't changed in quite a while... $2.99 a gallon pretty much everywhere I see.

I'll call shenanigans if distribution costs are higher now than they were at any point in the past two years...

YAY! Unregulated speculating is back, this is how I know the economy is recovering! Surely the days of milk and honey and $4.00 gas are soon to follow!

Oh wait, all of those things suck. So what happened to all this change we were supposed to be getting and/or experiencing? This sure feels like the same old B.S....

That's exactly what's going on.

@MostlyHarmless: Last time I bought gas (2 weeks ago) I paid $2.19/gal. It is now $2.74/gal. I was holding off on buying gas again til prices started coming back down, but it looks like I screwed myself. They just keep going up.

There was a time a year or two back when price increases were always accompanied by an explanation from the oil companies, albeit a lame one (we don't have enough refineries, there was a hurricane nowhere near our drilling rig, it was cold out and we didn't feel like working). But they seem to have stopped issuing the excuses and just raise and lower them at their discretion.

@Skankingmike: We care why it's going up or down because while the engineers and scientists are working on alternative fuels, we the consumers still have to get our asses to work every day and make a living for ourselves. That's why. It's grand to worry about the bigger picture, but in the meantime, people aren't going to stop going to work because gas got more expensive. It just makes going to work a little more expensive, and takes money out of their pockets, money that they might really need for bills or groceries.

/lives in Texas where fuel is ALWAYS cheap! Yeehaw!

Hybrids are worthless. The solution is to create a system similar if not exact to our current, Liquid model, and instead of destroying millions of jobs you reassign them

Bioengineering has offered us algae based biodiesel. you would grow it in vats and refine it, aka using similar facilities rather than removing them.

The drillers will have to find new jobs but everybody else can easily fall back into daily routine. Electric model doesn't help and in fact destroys millions of jobs if not billions.

Yes, they are beginning to hurt. This, and I'm looking to get a Mustang GT that's tuned to for 93 octane next year. Not a good outlook for me.

Mr. Pi drives more now than ever. His commute is up to about 50 minutes since we moved, but the flip side is that I no longer drive, save money on my commute (closer to my workplace) and we sold the other car.

I have to keep reminding myself that moving was a good decision because I save about $3 every day by being closer to the city, but he spends more on gas every day.

I've been noticing the increase and wondering why it was happening.. but really any excuse will do.

I thought the prices were going down now since the summer is over! Doesn't matter for me, I take public transportation nearly everywhere I go, the Explorer is just for the weekends!

And this article is a "get out of my head" moment.

Going home for lunch, I saw the gas price was $2.59. An hour later, on the way back, it was now $2.69.

Just a couple of weeks back, it was $2.39.

Argh - bad grammar - Wish I had an edit button!

Not good...