I just came back last night from a trip to Massachusetts and back that started last Tuesday (two days going up, two days there, two days back).
I’ll tell you about the trip later. At least, I hope I will. I still haven’t told about our trip to Dominica in 2023, or to Europe in 2024. But I hope I’ll write about those sometime, too.
I just wanted to mention gasoline prices. I was rather relieved last night when I saw that prices in my general neighborhood were about the same as before I’d left — about three-fifty-something.
I had not seen a single price below four dollars since last Tuesday. I was shocked when I bought some on the way up in the Washington area last Wednesday, and it was slightly above that mark. That would be the lowest I’d see until my return home.
On the way back, having spent the night in Carlisle, Pa. (because I wanted to revisit some fondly remembered sights from the years when I youngest daughter studied ballet there on the Dickinson College campus), I decided to take a drive on U.S. 11 over to Shippensburg. I wanted to see once more some of the most beautiful farmland I’d ever seen anywhere (it would have been even nicer if I’d headed toward Gettysburg, but that was out of my way.)
On the way, I saw I just barely had enough gas to get to Shippensburg, so I decided I’d stop at the Sheetz on the main drag there (King St.).
There, regular cost $4.19. But it wasn’t just the per-unit price that got me. I was driving a larger vehicle than I was used to, and it’s 18-gallon tank was basically empty. As I watched the numbers spin, it occurred to me to take out my phone and shoot video of the climax of the drama.
That was a personal record total. I’ve paid a little more than $50 a couple of times, years ago. But never anything like this.
So while I really enjoyed the trip, it was nice to get back home last night for a number of reasons, and that was one of them…
Why is it so much cheaper? If Donald Trump were a lot smarter than he is, I’d suspect that he was somehow shielding South Carolina from some of the effect of the fuel inflation he has unnecessarily caused. You know, since the majority of our voters love him so much.
Of course, if he hadn’t launched a wildly unsuccessful war on Iran, South Carolina petrol would still be a dollar less a gallon than it is now…
I’m not blaming Shippensburg, or Sheetz, a bit. It’s probably worse, some places…
I hope the late Charles Krauthammer will forgive me, As the founder of the Energy Party, I agree with his proposal, from way back, that gasoline prices be kept artificially high with MUCH higher taxes. It would be good for the planet, and the national debt. Fewer ginormous SUVs, more hybrids.
But that would be an intelligent program, undertaken for intelligent reasons — as opposed to elected leaders doing everything to keep prices LOW to keep the electorate from whining, bitching, moaning and blaming the aforementioned elected leaders.
But gas prices are high (relatively, compared to what used to, which has spoiled us) right now because of something stupid. And the money is going into the pockets of people selling us the oil during this war — instead of into the national treasury for worthwhile purposes.
What Krauthammer proposed was politically impossible when he laid out his plan. Now that our politics are far, far stupider, it’s far less feasible…
We have lower gas prices than most states. The gas tax that was enacted over the 2017-2022 period raised the tax from 17 cents to 29. But look at all the improvement we’ve seen in the roads with all those extra millions!! Plus even more money to help improve the roads with the “It’s Just A Penny, Stop Whining” tax enacted in some counties like mine. Now we have eliminated all the potholes and reduced traffic to where every drive down Two Notch Road is like the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Oh, wait.. the roads are actually worse than they were ten years ago. What a shocker!
Wow! I’m so shocked that the state of our roads do not meet with Doug’s approval. But they don’t meet with mine, either. And I just don’t know what to say if you think we pay enough in taxes to keep them up properly. Y’all do realize that if we had this nihilistic horror of paying taxes when Ike was in office, we wouldn’t have an Interstate system at all.
Let’s just refer each other to The Dude:
“Why is it so much cheaper?”
1. We are closer to the Gulf coast refineries, so lower shipping costs.
2. Lower state excise taxes and fewer fees.
3. Generally use standard federal gasoline formulations, which are cheaper to produce. Other states require special blends to reduce pollution in the summer months, which cost more to produce.