What is amazing to me is that in my car, with a 16 gallon tank, the difference between $3.99 and $4.39 -- a seemingly huge difference -- is less than $6.50 per tank.

A ten cent per gallon difference -- still pretty substantial -- is only $1.60 per tank.

For me, that takes some of the hysteria out of the equation -- but the increase over the past few years is still staggering.

I just got back from Boston today. I saw regular gas for $3.999/gal there. Premium gas in MA is significantly less expensive than even regular gas in CT. :mad:

Gas in Atlanta is 20 cents higher than it is here. Do I reaaaaally wanna move there?

I was in Los Angeles for the weekend. Gas in southern California is around 4.50 on average.

The stations where I live are still between 3.91 and 3.97.

There's no place like home.

i always get my gas from walmart,it takes .3 cents off every gallon if you go inside and get a walmart card...them .3 cents make a diff!!

I drove from Nashville, TN to Columbus, OH yesterday, and gas ranged from $3.89 to $4.29. Insane.

Ok media, listen up. Publishing "Gas Prices Hit All Time High" every single week as a headline is simply ridiculous. CLEARLY, since they were at an all time high last week and they went up, they hit a new all time high. This is NOT news anymore. It's at an all time high and it's not going down so DUH!

I was in Tuscon all weekend and where I was, gas was between 3.70-3.89.

Then I come home and gas is 3.89+. UGHHHHHHH, why???

3.959 here and holding

I spent $485 in gas in June. That's up $90 from last June which is a big travel month for me. Thankfully the car gets good mileage and some of that is reimbursed. Gas is still around $3.86 here.

Friday was my first time for paying $4.05/gallon.

I just moved from NM where the gas is $3.85 to Phx where yesterday was the first time I paid $4.05.

It's been around $4.15 here since Friday. I expect it will go up again on Wednesday night or Thursday morning to nail the July 4th travelers.

$3.89 today at the Safeway pumps near us.

My Chevron was $4.38 yesterday and today it was $4.33. I celebrated a little inside.

Woohoo! Down to $3.79!!!!! I'm so excited, I think I'll go get gas tomorrow. I still have half a tank, but just in case it spikes again, I think I will.

I just returned from Nantucket where gallon of milk = gallon of gas!

For those who currently own hybrids as well as those thinking about them:
Will Hybrid Batteries Last?

Nothing lasts forever, but hybrid batteries continue their charge.

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/artic...umentid=542377

The prices (of anything) in Nantucket are always going to be higher because of the carriage cost to the island. There is a limit to how many visitor cars are allowed on the island (only so many residential on the island as well). Most people take taxis anyway.

Anyway, today the lowest in the 3-town area I drive in is $4.28. I filled up. Thankfully, I don't drive a lot, so a tank can last me a week or two depending on my schedule. My husband, however, has to fill up at least twice a week.

Back to 3.99 :(

Seriously, gas is cheaper in Hawaii than it is in Seattle? UGH.

It's $4.39 at the cheapest station by me. $4.99 for diesel or biodiesel.

Peppy, that only lasted about 12 or so hours, I think. :mad:

We're right there at a $4.39 avg. now just like you guys. :o

One of the major stations here (it has multiple daily dedicated deliveries) just in the past few days started a two tier pricing system. One price for cash, another for credit cards.
Cheapest station nearest to me is now $4.33

It dropped from $4.25 to $4.09 at the BP by my house yesterday.

$4.05 in NC

As of an hour ago, gas is between $3.84 and $3.86 in my little central OH town.

$4.29 for super unleaded 3 days ago, and I am almost on empty again. Prices are better in Texas, but this is starting to affect my plans for any long car trips.

we held steady at $3.98/$3.99 since memorial day weekend... even with oil prices going down we remained the same... but we've finally hit $4.00/gal for regular. :(

I filled up today again and it was down to $4.19. But I was near empty and so had what might be a personal record fillup cost of $96.75.

So just out of curiosity, how many miles can you go on one tank of gas?

My lil Chevy Aveo costs right around $40 for a fill up (about $38 actually) but I can only go about 280 miles on that since it's a small tank. So, I'm curious...

Not to make everyone hate me, but I filled up the tank of my motorcycle today (at $3.98/gallon) and recorded a record best 73 mpg for all in-city driving. :D

I usually get about 18-20 miles per gallon which is actually pretty good considering I have one of those "evil" SUVs (Tahoe.) But I think right now I am not getting that since it runs close to 100 in the day here right now, so the AC is always cranked up when I am driving. So on a 25 gallon tank (I think my tank is 25 gallons) I should be getting about a 450-500 mile range.

Still, I seem better off than many. A guy I know has a massive Dodge truck that gets about 8 miles to the gallon- and it is diesel too.

This cash vs. credit thing is getting out of control. I'm going to have to start actually carrying cash on me. I usually don't carry more than $20, but today I filled up at $4.17 because I didn't have cash and my usual station moved to the cash vs credit thing. I would have paid $4.05 if I'd had cash. The guy at this station knows me because I'm in there almost every day and I asked him when that started. He said on Thursday. Then he asked me if it was good or bad. I told him it was bad because 1) I never know how much it's going to be to fill it up and 2) I never carry that much cash on me. I didn't mention that it's a pain to go in, stand in line to pay first, then go pump and then go back in to pay again. The question is, is it worth $1.20. (12 cents times about 10 gallons of gas). That's the big question. Is it worth $1.20? Hmmm.

DH filled me up for just $3.85 yesterday! He had to pay cash, tho - was also about .12 more for credit. In NJ we cannot pump our own, and DH loves to have cash on him, so no problem there. Me, I never have any cash on me!

I started carpooling to work last week and my coworker drove. I hadn't had to fill up in over a week - what a great feeling! Office is about 20 miles away, so carpooling 3 days really helps.

Cash vs. credit thing
 

I've heard about it both on radio & the news... but I can't tell if it's affecting the gas stations that I go to. Can someone please explain how it works?

e.g. - I walk up to the pump, the little digital reads above the grade levels read 3.89, 3.99, 4.10 for regular, plus, premium. If I swipe my credit card, is the digial read supposed to change to say 3.99, 4.09, 4.20 if there is a credit surcharge? Or does it stay the same and my card is just charged more?

And can someone explain to me why convienence stores are adding this charge BY THE GALLON? That doesn't seem to make sense to me. I thought the CC-companies charged a flat rate to the store per transation for "using the CC service". Is that not how it works?

And if this is such a huge burden (I can see how it can be for small locally owned stored hence some places that say you can only use a credit card for purchases over $X), why don't they charge EVERY transaction the store makes (random soda/beer/candy/chip purchaces) and not just the gas expenses?

I could be wrong, but I was told (don't know where) that it is illegal to directly pass on the flat fee that credit card companies charge per transaction. I do NOT understand why it's ok to do it this way though. Some are being charged much more than the flat fee if they have a big gas tank.

$3.91 at our Safeway store today.

It was $3.87 last week.

Credit card fees from a merchant to the credit card company are structured as a base transaction fee plus a percentage of the total sale. This is why many stores require a minimum purchase of a few dollars for you to use a credit card.

It varies by card, but generally speaking the basic fee is 29 cents per transaction plus 2.9% of the total charge. For volume sales- at levels that would apply for your average gas station- the fees go down, but not much. For moderate volume, 2.3-2.5% of the total charge is common with a 25-28 cent fee per transaction.

As for how the cash discount works- it is legal to offer a discount off advertised prices for certain forms of payment, but it is illegal to charge an additional fee for certain forms of payment. The end result is the same, but how you go about it is what matters.

If you want to charge $4.00 a gallon for gas and actually get that amount after fees on customers who use credit cards; it would be legal to charge $4.05 per gallon and offer a 5 cent discount per gallon for cash, but illegal to charge $4.00 per gallon and charge an extra 5 cents per gallon for credit card purchases.

As for the random soda etc. purchases you reference, that is not quite such an issue for a great number of reasons. Point being- the markup and real profit is in non-gas items. So credit card fees do not matter so much.

Think about it like this, when was the last time you saw a gas station that only sold gas and did not have a food mart or mechanical repair services? Gas-only stations don't exist anymore since there is not sustainable profit in selling only gasoline.

Bush to lift symbolic offshore oil ban
Posted: 10:19 AM ET
WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush will announce Monday he is lifting an executive ban on offshore oil drilling, the White House said.The move is largely symbolic because there is also a federal law banning offshore oil drilling. Bush has been pushing Congress to repeal the law passed in 1981.
Bush’s father, President George H.W. Bush, signed the executive order in 1990.