Barreling


$98 dollars for a barrel of oil, and $3.10 for a gallon of gasoline. I'm glad I drive a small car...as little as possible.

Seriously. It's three years old, and I'm just barely over 18,000 miles. Let's see...hmmm...my mileage ranges from around 20 to 25 miles per gallon (a/c isn't optional for a BIG part of the year, and I don't do a lot of highway driving), that's...well, let's split the difference and say about 830 gallons of gasoline.

At $3.00 a gallon, that'd be $2,940 bucks. At $2.50 a gallon, $2,075. $865 dollars isn't chump change, at least not for me.

And I'm by no means an average driver. I guess "normal" annual mileage is about double...as are the costs.

About the ONLY sort-of good thing is that the state will see a bump in revenues...if I remember right, about $13 million for each dollar increase (sorry I don't have the exact figure. I think that's what I saw in the dead tree edition of the local rag, and the web site is presently down). Well, we can use it.

In the meantime...the extra money it takes to fill the tank is bad enough. Heaven knows what the cost's going to be to heat your house.