Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — Burbank
A sure sign of summer, rising gas prices. Wait a minute. Prices at the pumps have been climbing for a while. In fact, a gas spike has been underway for the past seven weeks with “no end in sight”, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Weekend Gas Watch dated June 18, 2009.
Locally, the price of gasoline is hovering around $3 a gallon. Last night, I gassed up at a station in Burbank and paid $2.99 a gallon for self-serve regular. I was ticked off and bummed by the high price. The stats on the AAA website indicates drivers all over Southern California are feeling the same gas pains. The average price of regular is $3 a gallon from San Diego to Orange County to Los Angeles to Santa Barbara to Bakersfield. By the way, this time last year the average price was around $4.50 a gallon in the Southland.
It’s a good bet, that with the 4th of July holiday around the corner gas prices will continue to go up. Experts say the economy is in the process of recovering from the recession. The federal government has shored up the banks and the auto industry with billions of taxpayer dollars. Now would be a good time to help the rest of us by pressuring the oil industry to put the brakes on gas prices.
California always is one of the highest in the nation for gasoline prices. Thanks to all the additives we require in summer, the state and local taxes and the wonderfull requirements for pumps and evac systems that cost the stations and we get to pay for.
If you hate the gasoline prices in California send a thank you card to the environmental movement.
Before they pressure the oil companies they can cut back on the greedy taxes they charge on gasoline.
Doberman & the vampire,
You’re both right about the excessive taxes that get slapped on gasoline prices here in the Golden State. We definitely need to slash those taxes, however, with the budget mess in Sacramento and money tight on the local city level as well — I don’t see that happening any time soon.
You know I think we need to protect the environment. I believe in balance.
We don’t protect the environment with loon ideas that are really nothing more than a rouse to collect more tax dollars that pay more lawsuits.
Come on Fronnie take a good look at how well we have protected people and then seriously tell me the loon ideas have protected the environment any better.
Some loons believe that taxes protect the environment so make the payment of them optional and watch how many loons we really have around here.
Doberman,
Nothing is perfect. Lawmakers have been too free with taxing the public. I agree on that. But we voted them into office and should vote them out if they’re not doing the job.
I don’t think ever effort to protect the environment is loony. There are good laws and bad laws. We should get rid of the bad ones. Same with bad taxes.
Oh the city really doesn’t look to me like they are short of money. They continue to spend but it is on all the wrong things. It’s the people who are short on money and the government just wants to take more and more from us.
Gasoline is overtaxed and that is just a fact. Ther tax money is wasted on frivilous things and that is yet another fact.
We do have some good laws and then we have a whole lot of very bad laws.
Some people promote charging for every shopping bag and other promote drip systems but at the end of the day all of them own stock or have a job related directly to the sale of the items.
Isn’t marketing a wonderfull thing, and false advertising is even better. I do not blame the oil companies for the high gasoline prices I blame the wastefull government and over taxation all the way.
Maybe we vote them and and maybe we don’t. After all there has been more than enough voter fraud across teh country and how about all those nifty voting machines that could be programmed to do almost anything. Don’t know about you but I have never checked one first hand so dunno.
Every effort no, however many efforts yes. Let’s stick to gasoline and talk about paying through the nose for MTBE additives to gasoline. For environmental protection of course, but it poluted the ground water and left the poor people who paid for it sick. Somebody got rich off it, somebody profited off it but it wasn’t the environment.
Today I had an encounter coming out of s store here in Burbank. The guy walks up to me and says “are you ready to take a minute to save a forest today”
He has a greenpeace shirt on and wanted money. Green backs to save the green forest right ?
I told him you’re in Burbank, people are beaten into submission here and civil rights are abandoned by all who enter. Sure save a forest but leave the people bleeding in the streets.
The greenpeace fellow listened and then said ‘would you like to sign up”
The environmental crap is getting so old, worn and tired. What do you want to bet Mr Greenpeace drove a car to collect for the forest and the forest will pay for his gas.
Forgot to say I am bummed by the gas prices, and the losers are the motels and vacation spots I would have visited. Oh well, more casualties of the tax system.