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Archive for the ‘Gas Prices’ Category
Today oil prices surged, yet again, to $127 a barrel. On the heels of this news are the concerns that oil prices will not go down as Memorial Day weekend (the unofficial first day of summer travel) looms closely. That said, outboard motor oil prices are also scheduled for a slight price increase. Do yourself a favor and start buying oil for the summer now. Don’t wait around or you’ll be apt to spend your summer on land.
Today, the Washington Post reported that the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s main oil lobby, is embarking on a multiyear, multimedia, multimillion-dollar campaign.
The intended audience is elected officials and the public, with an emphasis on the latter. The industry is trying to convince voters — who, in turn, will make the case to their members of Congress — that rising energy prices are not the producers’ fault and that government efforts to punish the industry, especially with higher taxes, would only make pricing problems worse.
The campaign has stirred outrage among consumer groups. They complain that the industry is using its outlandish profits to make even more money, and that its advertisements use statistics selectively.
The news comes on the heels of a brief record high of bulk oil prices coming in at $126 a barrel, before falling back down to $124.
Today as bulk oil prices again reached a record high of $124 a barrel, Democratic leadership in Washington, D.C. unveiled the Consumers First Energy Act. The bill contains provisions that feature a 25% windfall profits tax on oil companies in the U.S., as well as giving the U.S. Attorney General authority to bring price collusion charges to OPEC.
GOP leaders also had a plan to open up oil production and drilling in Alaska.
While legislators work on a solution, analysts are now predicting barrel prices to reach $160 by fall.
Bulk oil prices are surging to $123 a barrel, up from $116 last week. Several factors – including a recent attack on a Nigerian oil producer and the fluctuating American dollar – have caused unsteady prices in the last year. Now politicians are calling for a gas tax holiday. Sens. Hilary Clinton (D – NY) and John McCain (R – AZ) are urging to cut federal gas tax between Memorial Day to Labor Day. Likeminded state politicians are also lobbying to have the state gas tax cut in the same time period, which is particularly important since it is an election year.
This surge comes after predictions that gas prices would begin to fall; a poll by CNN has Americans expecting fuel prices to reach up to $5 a gallon.
As the Associated Press is reporting, bulk oil prices have slid today to $116 a barrel. The news comes as the spring season enters the home stretch and Americans prepare for the summer – a season that is most popular for vacationing and leisure activities such as fishing and boating.
The decrease in oil prices was due to the end of a refinery strike in Scotland, which adds to the falling demand of oil, though gas prices are still averaging at $3.67 throughout the U.S.
I think there’s this misconception that those of us who use boats recreationally have a pile of money buried beneath their mattress. I can’t say that I’ve ever had anything more than a stack of comic books and dirty laundry under my bed (when I was a kid), but I can tell you that a pile of money is something that I do not have.
Luckily, I can purchase a 16 gallon drum of Evinrude outboard motor oil for under $500 through domo-online.com. It’s a perfect buy for a budget-minded consumer and boat enthusiast such as myself. 16 gallons may not seem like much, but there’s realistically a few weeks out of the year that I can take my boat out, so it works out in the end.
“BILOXI –
For years, boat owners have heard the old wives’ tale of what owning a pleasure vessel actually means. Instead of pleasure and fun on the water, boat owners often joke that the word actually means “Break Out Another Thousand.”
That’s in thousands of dollars.
With gas continuing its record increase, owning a boat is taking on a new meaning – paying up at the fuel pump.
Remarkably, boat dealers across South Mississippi and South Alabama are reporting record sales, even though the cost of gas could easily reach $4 a gallon by the end of the summer.”
It’s good to know that gas prices haven’t sidelined everyone. Despite rising fuel and energy costs people are still enjoying their recreational time on the water.