| At $100 for Tank of Gas, Some Choke on ‘Fill It’ By Christopher Maag July 6, 2008 NYT.com With gasoline prices high and rising, a new financial milestone has arrived: the $100 tank of gas. Bryan Carisone, a heating and air-conditioning contractor in Raritan, N.J., “absolutely loves” his new GMC Denali XL, an extra-large sport utility vehicle with televisions built into the leather seats. But in June, one week after he bought it, he pulled into a station on a near-empty tank and watched the total climb higher and higher — to $109. “It just about killed me,” Mr. Carisone said. For decades, the $100 barrel stood as a hypothetical outlier in doom-and-gloom conversations about future oil prices. And nobody could even imagine an American family paying $100 to fill the tank. But the future is here. Oil passed $100 a barrel in January and now seems headed toward $150 a barrel. Gasoline prices surpassed $4 a gallon on June 8, stalled for a while, and have been rising again in recent days, setting a record Saturday. By late spring, owners of pickups and sport utility vehicles with 30-gallon tanks, like the Cadillac Escalade ESV and Chevrolet Suburban, started paying $100 or more to fill a near-empty tank. As gas prices continue to rise — the national average stood at about $4.10 a gallon Saturday — membership in the triple-digit club is growing. Now, even not-so-gargantuan Toyota Land Cruisers and GMC Yukons can cost $100 to fill up. Data on exactly how often people pay $100 for a tank of gas are scarce, given price variations from market to market and day to day. But during the first five months of 2008, about 11 percent of American drivers said they bought 24 gallons or more at their last fill-up, according to a survey of 81,000 drivers by the NPD Group, a market research firm — which at today’s prices would place many of them at or around $100. For people who love their big vehicles, the pain is acute. Members of the Chevy Avalanche Fan Club of North America prize the Avalanche, a large sport utility vehicle, for its versatility, including a rear cab wall that slides forward for a larger pickup bed or backward for more passenger room. But the Avalanche also has a 31-gallon tank, which would cost $127 to fill at Saturday’s national average price. Even the truck’s most dedicated fans find that galling. David H. Obelcz, who founded the club in 2002 and is still a member of the board, sold his Avalanche because he could not afford gasoline for it. Thirty members of the fan club’s Arizona chapter used to attend off-roading and other events three times a month. But now that Avalanche owners pay more than $100 per tank, the club is lucky to attract 10 members once every two months, said Eric Tolliver, a chapter leader. “Everybody’s trying to save money on gas, so now we mostly chat online instead of driving,” Mr. Tolliver said. Eric Laugen, a firefighter in Seattle, is administrator of the Chevy Avalanche Fan Club of North America. For a trip to Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, he wanted to drive his truck because it has enough room for his fishing and camera gear, as well as space in the back to sleep. But he rode his motorcycle instead. That means pitching a tent every night, and no fishing. “Motorcycle touring is a pain,” said Mr. Laugen, talking on his cellphone from a park in Alaska. “But then I looked at how much gas would cost in the Avalanche. It just doesn’t make sense anymore.” Hummer clubs are hurting, too. In Nebraska, Ric Hines of the Omaha Hummer Owner Group — known as Omahog — stopped doing off-road trips this summer and started riding his recumbent bicycle instead. “I get to camp either way, and biking pushes me to save a few hundred dollars on gas,” Mr. Hines said. Mark R. Price, founder of the Illiana Hummer Club in the Chicago area, owns three Hummer H1s, which get about eight miles per gallon. “A lot of our members won’t travel 70 miles just to support a parade anymore,” Mr. Price said. “People wait for something a little closer.” Families that were accustomed to the convenience of sport utility vehicles are having to cut back as well. Colleen Hammond of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, loves packing her three kids and all their soccer gear into her 2000 GMC Yukon XL. But she hates paying $160 to fill the 38.5-gallon tank. Last month, she parked the Yukon in her driveway and borrowed her friend’s Toyota Land Cruiser. “I don’t know if it gets better gas mileage, but I like her car because it costs $100 to fill it,” said Ms. Hammond, 40. “I think $100 for a tank of gas is cheap now.” Steve Burtch bought a Dodge Ram truck last year, when gas cost $3.75, because he thought gas prices had peaked and would start coming down. Instead, he pumped his first $100 tank in June. “I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to keep this up,” said Mr. Burtch, 43, who lives in Marion, Ohio. It seems that plenty of other drivers are sharing his dismay. An automotive information Web site and market research firm, Edmunds.com, compiled sales data showing that in the last seven model years, Americans have bought 25.4 million vehicles with tanks 24 gallons or larger — the point at which three figures is now a real possibility. A few big trucks and sport utility vehicles have tanks exceeding 30 gallons. But people who try to pump $100 worth of gas often find that they cannot, since most pumps that take credit cards shut off at $75 to prevent someone with insufficient funds or a stolen credit card from running off with gas. In addition, some older pumps still are not capable of registering triple-digit bills. [Read More] |
Books Energy Keepers Energy Killers by Roy InnisThis powerful book documents the destruction planned in every community in the United States by the assault of the Energy Killers invading the world. Al Gore Wants This Book Banned! Fox News' Sean Hannity says if you read it and act on its message, "You will change the world." Change the world - Buy this Book LatestAds combat Senate climate billA conservative, free-market advocacy group, The Club for Growth, is airing radio and television ads to counter a Senate bill on climate change. The purpose of the ads is to explain to the public the extent to which the legislation could damage the economy, should it pass. "The number of jobs that will be lost, the rise in price in gasoline and electricity, the loss in GDP -- it's all astronomical. And we think it's important for people to know what's going on ..." The legislation is a "massive redistribution of wealth," and the organization is asking concerned citizens to call their senators and urge them to oppose the measure. Press SMARTGREENUSA LAUNCHES GLOBAL WARMING ATTACKEXPOSING ECO-HYSTERIA AND STOPPING GREEN GENOCIDE WASHINGtTON, DC - SmartGreenUSA is exposing ‘Eco Hysteria;’ the Eco Hysteria ignited by climatologists, politicians and government commissions that ignore good science and create laws that kill people and the economy.   Al Gore Wants This Book Banned!Energy Keepers, Energy Killers By - Roy Innis This powerful book documents the destruction planned in every community in the United States by the assault of the Energy Killers invading the world. Fox News' Sean Hannity says if you read it and act on its message, "You will change the world." Change the world - Buy this Book
gas tax  SmartGreenUSA is committed to continuing environmental progress and Smart-Green initiatives. We are dedicated to pursuing the best science available, to evaluate the costs and economic impact associated with the ideas, products and policies proposed as “green” and to be your voice to remind the government that they are elected to serve the people, not to rule over us. We fought a battle to ensure the right to be governed over 200 year ago. With your help we will continue to fight for your rights. DONATE to SmartGreenUSA Thank you for your generous support to help SmartGreenUSA protect America. "A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins."
Benjamin Franklin "The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men." Samuel Adams Exposing the truth - Making a difference in this world while I am here. ~ Patrick Hughes ~ SmartGreenUSA |
