When it Comes to Gas Prices, How High is Too High?

I miss .99 cents a gallon

"High gas prices are something that everyone can handle"???? Are you #$%$ nuts??? Do you realize that $4 gas is what sent the housing market over the edge? Do you realize that a surge in gas prices touches EVERYTHING. It will send the American economy back into inflation BEFORE WE HAVE HAD A REAL RECOVERY!!! It will stifle job growth and make the stagflation in the days of Jimmy Carter look like a dress rehearsal. We applaud a pittly little TEMPORARY payroll tax cut that will do nothing and expire in 10 months. A policy that pushes energy prices down will singularly cause the the economy to recover and pull us out of this abyss. Keep in mind that the markets operate on SPECULATION and the threat of a vigorous energy policy would drive energy prices down OVERNIGHT! The recovery would be right on the heels of such a policy change.

Anything over $2.00 is too high - given that we have more resources right here in this country than the whole middle east! These oil billionaires have figured out how to oil the pockets of our congressmen and senators so they can continue to rape America. Congress is worthless - it is about time we threw the who mess out and started over.

It's too high when the average WORKING people in America can't afford it. Are we there yet? Absolutely.

"In related news, when oil executives were asked why gas prices are rising, they scratched their heads and said they 'really had no idea'."

roll back and take oil off of the commodity market which was done in 2001. This has led to teh rampant speculation that is the sole reason gas prices are so out of whack. Fuel was our leading export in 2011 so the oil companies make more money while keeping prices hight at home. Make speculation illegal

The gas prices will also clear out all of the part-time workers who will be making baby-sitting wages after paying for gas. Tourism will also go in the crapper this summer. How will the media spin that?

Now the small government party is blaming Obama for not using big government to control the free market price of gasoline.

It's too high now, I'm on a fixed income, can't afford to drive.

give us all one good reason for the increase cost of gas!!
there really is none..we all need to start riding bicycles..

People, we need to start being concerned about Diesel fuel prices. Trucks cannot deliver stuff for free, and many drivers have been streched thin as it is. If diesel goes higher we may be screwed.

Stop all exporst of our crude iol and gas ans diesel fuels to other countries and let the exploration for crude oil in the US begin a a faster pace !! Stop Wall Street from brokering the price of crude just so the rich get richer ! Do you think Wall Street cares how much we Americans have to pay for fuel, No htey just care about the almighty dollar they put in ttheir pockets and they can afford the high prices cause they are making more than enoughto fill up their tanks !! Go back to hte horse and mule mode oof transportation or bicycles if in a city and let Wall Street drown in their crude futures ??

I dunno,--how much profit is too much at the expense of the consumer?

Anything over $1.00 per gallon IS TOO HIGH! We should not have to use half or in some cases all of our paychecks just to fill our tanks! Stop taxing the S#!T out of gas, stop allowing oil companies to export our gas to other countries! Stop telling us that oil companies are not making any profits from gas sales when they are recording record breaking profits every quarter! High gas prices were the straw that broke the economies back in the U.S.!

How to lower the price of gas: Tap into our reserves, use our own oil and alternative fuels - Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) to syngas using Fisher Tropsch Gas To Liquid (GTL) technology; drill domestically, build the Keystone pipeline (using US steel, not imported steel). Stop buying from other countries what we already have here! Use Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) utilizing CO2 injection to release stranded oil. Between Umiat in Alaska and Powder River Basin in Wyoming we have billions of barrels of oil already, and that's not even counting the Gulf Coast states!

The price of gas is inversely proportional to the health of the economy. Expensive gas only helps the O&G companies. It drives up the price of transpostation, which in turn drives up the price of everything else: food, medical supplies, lumber, etc. Know what it doesn't drive up? Wages! Want a healthy economy? Lower the price of gas! Tap into our reserves, use our own oil and alternative fuels - Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) to syngas using Fisher Tropsch Gas To Liquid (GTL) technology; drill domestically, build the Keystone pipeline (using US steel, not imported steel). Stop buying from other countries what we already have here!

The only thing that I agree with in this commentary is that "it seems like there is never any good news about gas prices." The rest of the assertions that are made in the article are absurd. The author states in the second sentence that, "High gas prices are something everybody can handle." I hope this doesn't shock, but I am not handling it so well.

What outrages me the most is what causes the high prices in the first place. No, it isn't international politics, no, it isn't speculation, and no it isn't OPEC. We have high gas prices because of the virtual monopoly of the oil majors. Here's how they do it in California, which by the way produces all of its own gas from California crude. When prices go up Chevron sets the upper limit. All the other majors follow their lead. When prices decline, Arco sets the lower limit. No one ever exceeds Chevron, or undercuts Arco. Pricing is effected only moderately by supply and demand. The majors use international political fears to justify their monopolistic price increases.

When monopolies exist it is the responsibility of government to regulate the monopoly so that the consumer is protected from outrageous monopolistic prices. The major oil companies should be regulated like any utility. They should be given an adequate profit for their product, and they should have to justify price increases as other regulated monopolies are required to do.

Gasoline was $1.61/gal on average at the pump in the USA on the day Obama was elected. It's $3.51/gal on average today. Well, he did promise change, sadly it's all been for the worse. Google gas price history, the quotes are accurate. Just another of many Obama/Biden colossal failures.

Sorry, the only driving I do that I could cut out is I go to VT to ski on the weekends. Other than that I can't see where I could cut many mile out of my day.

There is no such thing as too high or too low in a market economy.Practically speaking though(if it wasn't for politics) when prices become elastic (the increase in price is more than offset by the decrease in volume) then that's too high!