Better Fill up today

[frawin]

David, I didn't take it that you were challenging me. maybe I better go back and read your post again. David I look at world population, energy use, automobile manufacturing  and any other information I can find all day long. I do play the oil and gas futures some and there are so many factors that affect them both long and short.  It is intersting o watch the oil and gas prices for 7-8 years out and see what they are doing with the short term and long term projections and happenings.
Enough on this subject.

[frawin]

I thought some of you would find this intereasting and encouraging.
Americans drive 1.4 billion fewer highway miles

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles in April than they did in April 2007, the Department of Transportation said Wednesday.

That marks the sixth consecutive monthly drop and coincides with record gas prices and an increase in transit ridership, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said.

April's drop is more than three times larger than the drop from March 2007 to March of this year, which was 400 million fewer highway miles.

Peters said vehicle miles traveled on all public roads for April fell 1.8 percent from April 2007.

Americans have driven nearly 20 billion fewer miles overall this year and nearly 30 billion fewer miles since November, the department said.

Peters expressed concern that the cutbacks have resulted in the collection of fewer taxes on gasoline. Such taxes are funneled to the federal Highway Trust Fund, which gets 18.4 cents per gallon from gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon from diesel fuel.

"History shows that we're going to continue to see congested roads while gas tax revenues decline even further," she said.

In addition to driving less, Americans are buying smaller vehicles. Peters said sales of midsize SUV dropped 38 percent last month compared with May of last year as Americans increasingly choose to drive cars, the department said.

[Tobina+1]

Uncle Frank (hey, you kinda feel like an uncle, and since I don't have any uncles on this forum...)   
I thought of you last night when watching the news, and hoping you weren't watching... or hoping that if you were, you were taking your blood pressure meds...
They were talking about if the price of gas was going to affect tourism in Kansas this summer.  Kansas gets a lot of business and tourism by being in the middle of the country and many people drive through to get to other places.  They interviewed one guy who was driving the biggest RV I'd ever seen... AND pulling a full-size GMC truck behind it on a trailer!  He was headed to New York (not sure where from), and he said it is a 3,000 mile trip.  And his RV gets 6 miles to the gallon.  That's $2,000 just on gas alone (est avg $4.00 per gallon, but will probably be much higher by the time he gets to NY).  Not to mention the amount of gas the GMC truck uses to run around towns when they stop. 
But I find myself between a rock and a hard place in this gas situation, too.  We have a company retreat in the CO mountains in July, and I'm debating wether to drive or fly.  Flight prices are getting high, and with this bag issue, I really don't want to support the airline industry (on principles).  But I also know that from SE KS to Grand Lake, CO... that's quite a bit of gas.

[frawin]

Tobina, I have over 200+ Nieces and Nephews all the way to Great-Great-Great ones so one more is fine. As far as the RVs, there are people who can afford the luxury and will continue to drive them. There may come a time when there will be controls that elliminate some of our really energy wasteful habits, hopefully it won't come to that. I am a big believer in that old saying"NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION" and I keep telling myself that good old American ingenuity will get us through this. You have a Pilot and I am assumming it gets 24+ MPG in Highway driving, take your trip and enjoy it.
Frank

[Ole Granny]

I have over 200+ Nieces and Nephews all the way to Great-Great-Great ones so one more is fine. Frank

This is true.  Check out how many visits have been made to Anita's obituary compared to the rest of the obits.  Amazing!

[Diane Amberg]

Take your Pilot and go! It's only one state over to your west. After what we are doing, we've skewed the national average for many months to come. I think we'll have been in 15 different states, some more than once, by the time we arrive back home.

[Wilma]

Several pages back Sally Signer mentioned that she drives an 8 cylinder vehicle that gets 28 MPG, but she didn't say what kind it was.  I have heard of big 8 cyl. cars that get really good mileage.  In fact, we had a Crown Vic that got good mileage.  Now I am wondering, if they can make 8 cyl. that get good mileage, why can't they improve the mileage on all 8 cylinder vehicles?  And why isn't the mileage on smaller cars better than what it is?  Does anyone have an explanation for this?

[dnalexander]

Canadian gas price converted to US dollar price (Just for comparison)
Montreal 1.37/litre
Ontario  1.25/litre
Calgary  1.26/litre
BC       1.35/litre

Canada Avg 1.3075 Canadian dollars/litre

Avg price per gallon in Canadian dollars 4.95

$4.95 canadian dollars converted to U.S. dollars is $4.87

Avg of gas in Canada is $4.87 per gallon.

[frawin]

NYMEX August crude Oil is trading at $134.85 down $0.51, this morning.
Frank

[frawin]

Crude oil has moved into positive territory trading at $136.40, plus $1.04 for August. It seems all of the news this A.M. is Bullish for Crude Oil, Nigerian Rebels shutting in Production, Israel threatening Iran, Saudis saying they will increase production by 200,000BPD which would equal an increses of approximately 2/10 of 1 percent of the current world output. Natural Gas continues to trade higher, being pulled up by the Crude Oil futures. This is the time of year we should be building our Natural Gas Inventories for the winter months, instead it is being used everywhere possible in place of Fuel Oil, due to the cost of Natural gas being so much cheaper on a BTU Basis.  Unless the trend changes pretty quick, Natural Gas will be very High in the coming Winter Months. Some days it seems we are in a LOOSE LOOSE situation.
Frank