Friday, June 6, 2008

Gasolunacy


Today I had to travel around a little for work and I noticed that at a Valerco Gas Station in Pleasant Hill the price for regular was $4.49 9/10. It was $4.29 9/10 on Wednesday! Hello, it is only Friday...two days later. I also noticed there were way fewer cars out than usual and I went into a store with three clerks just standing around chatting...there was no one else there.

I saw a list of who imports from the Middle East and who doesn't. Valerco wasn't even on the list. So they are not in the top ten, but then we knew that, right?

These companies import Middle Eastern oil:

Shell......................... 205,742,000 barrels
Chevron/Texaco........ 144,332,000 barrels
Exxon/Mobil.............. 130,082,000 barrels
Marathon/Speedway... 117,740,000 barrels
Amoco.......................62,231,000 barrels

Citgo Gas is from Venezuela a country whose dictator, Hugo Rafael Chavez
hates Americans.

Here are some large companies that do not import Middle Eastern oil:
Sunoco................0 barrels
Conoco................0 barrels
Sinclair.................0 barrels
BP/Phillip..............0 barrels
Hess....................0 barrels
ARC0...................0 barrels

All of this information is available from the Department of Energy
and each is required to state where they get their oil and how much
they are importing.

I was going to run down to Sam's to pick up a few things tonight~I changed my mind. So I sat down to look at the paper and the Governor has declared a statewide drought. The last major drought was from 1987 to 1992 and since then our water supply has been drastically cut and our population has increased by 8,000, 000. GM is closing plants, and oh, yeah, unemployment is the highest it has been in 20 years at 5.5%. Hey, maybe I should have canceled the paper and gone to Sam's?? We are not alarmists in anyway, but the thought keeps going though my mind tonight...he that hath ears...and you know the rest.

Jim and I are getting very concerned about the state of things. Are any of you preparing in a different way than we always have? We are spending less, saving more and staying put and stocking up. What about you? If you are not a commenter and have something to share feel free to e-mail me. Thanks! Maybe we can create a little synergy by sharing our good ideas.

Whew, I just had to look at something pretty after all that!

4 comments:

Laura said...

All that is going on scares me quite a bit. I love the beautiful flower!

Jen Stewart said...

I'm very unsettled about all that is going on too. Back in January I had high hopes that once George W got out of the White House things should improve but things have gone down hill so much since then that I think anyone that gets in there is doomed! It's going to take quite a while for us to climb out of this situation.

Lowell was reading an article about how our Gross National Product is debt. It's the only thing we seem to get good a producing more of. In light of it all I think we will skip our new counter tops for now and quite possibly our trip next year. WIth a chronically sick kid we need to have as much cash on hand as possible and we are still paying off her birth. Not fun but it is reality. I agree with you: sit tight and feather your nest!

Barbara said...

Hey, Bon - Someone told me months ago that the best days to buy gas are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. She said that on Friday, prices go up and stay up all weekend. I started noticing to see if that was true, and for the most part, she's right. So, I try to get gas at Costco weekdays. I terms of other things I'm doing--going green as much as possible. I planted a veggie garden, bought reusable bags that I take to the grocery store and Costco, plan to do some more canning at the storehouse. That's about it for now.

Bonnie said...

Ralphy...good hearing from you. I have heard about the mid week thing also for buying gas. In fact I learned that the prices are usually reset on Tuesdays at 10:00 am. So that is good. How much of a price difference are you seeing at Costco? Let's do the canning thing together the next time you can go. We have no luck with gardening due to deer. Arrgh! We are growing a herd over here with five big ones and now three babies.