Gas Prices Climb, But Does Anyone Care?

So gas prices continue to surge, and oil hits $66 a barrel. All this news comes as International prepares to unveil its hulking monstrosity, the personal family rig, the CXT. Of course, the obnoxious Hummer family has now expanded to include the so-called H3, which is being marketed as "medium-sized." The H3 gets a robust 16 MPG City and 19 MPG Highway. Sweet. Even better is that even though it looks like a big cardboard box on wheels, it's really not that big inside:

Part of Rovik's test of the H3 included pretending to install a child-safety seat in the cramped rear seat. "I can't see loading a child in here," she said. "There's not enough space." [Detroit
News]

But enough of the impracticality of the vehicle. Let's get back to gas prices.

People pretty much will bet on anything, and gas prices are no exception. Odds are 7:5 that prices will hit $3.00 a gallon by New Years 2006. Three American Dollars per gallon? Gas prices in the US are low compared to Europe, but we're doing a good job playing catchup (I think our prices are artificially low, but that's another topic).

Right now, getting gas around $2.40 a gallon, it's costing us about $29 for a tank of gas. Granted, neither my wife nor I drive much during the week and we drive a hybrid and go about 500 to 600 miles on that tank, but that's still a sight to see at the pump. At $3 per gallon, we'd be looking at $36 per tank. But what about our dear neighbors in MD and VA who own Tahoes and drive in and out during rush hour everyday (you need the Tahoe because you have to carry your briefcase and your lunch)?

Our Tahoe driver is getting about 15 mpg (because you might be on 395, but in rush hour you aren't getting highway mileage) on a 26 gallon tank. At $3 a gallon, it costs the Tahoe owner $78 to fill his/her tank. The commute alone costs about $6 a day, or $30 for a work week. They'll get around 390 miles on that tank of gas. That's pretty ugly stuff.

But it could be uglier. You could be driving a Hummer H2 (Hummer by the way does not list gas mileage on its site. I wonder why). It's got a 32 gallon tank and gets 12 mpg city. Here's a nice snip from Answers.com:

For typical travel on improved roads between urban and resort areas, users report mileage of between 14 and 17 miles per U.S. gallon (mpg), which converts to between 14 and 17 liters per 100 kilometers. Worst case urban driving is said to be in the range of 8 to 11 US mpg (21 to 29 L/100 km). Although no official fuel economy ratings are provided by General Motors, most reviews have observed high single to low double-digit mileage, similar to the numbers above.

That means most of those H2 idiots slugging around within the city are probably getting single digit mpg...thanks for increasing our dependence on foreign oil, you jackasses.

Back in the old days, before the energy crises of the 1970's (1973 and 1979), cars were big because that's just the way cars were. Gas cost $.35 a gallon and it didn't matter if you only got 10 mpg in your 1972 Impala. However, we had by the 1980's been educated by that thing the libertarians are always talking about -- the invisible hand of the market, which bitch-slapped boat-driving US consumers silly. Good Marxists understand that the hand of the market is hardly invisible, though, and that commodity fetishism plays a large role in consumer choice. If it didn't there wouldn't be such a thing as a "marketing major." Baudrillard is especially good on this point.

Apparently, we've forgotten our education and we believe oil comes bubbling up from the ground as easily and endlessly as if we just shot in the dirt while out "shooting at some food."

The scary part isn't that fuel economy has shown little overall gain for all the pain low mpg caused the US in the 1970's. The scary part is energy experts -- not just environmental granola crunchers -- are talking about "peak oil." Demand is increasing -- imagine what a fully industrialized China might consume -- while scientists are warning that supply will be decreasing. And soon (pdf link).

So everyone, go out and rent the original Mad Max again just to get a taste of the future.