Flip’s Story
Help us grow the fuel choice movement. Share your story.
Gov. Brown orders mandatory water restrictions in California
Gov. Jerry Brown, standing on a patch of brown grass in the Sierra Nevada that is usually covered with several feet of snow, on Wednesday announced the first mandatory water restrictions in California history..
4 dead, 16 hurt in oil platform fire in Gulf of Mexico
At least four people were killed and 16 workers injured when a fire erupted early Wednesday on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico belonging to Mexico’s state petroleum giant Pemex, the company said in a statement.
Obama’s UN climate vow needs court wins, cheap natural gas
President Barack Obama’s pledge to the United Nations Tuesday to sharply cut greenhouse-gas emissions relies on being able to rebuff legal and legislative challenges — and the continuing availability of cheap natural gas.
10 people who turned anger into solutions for high gas prices
So we’ve heard from Americans who say high gas prices have disrupted their lives and their work. Let’s shift to the people who are more than mad as hell. They’re mad enough to turn their energy into action.
Among these 10 ideas, what’s the most practical for your life?
“I just ditched my old 1998 Volvo S70 for a used Prius, and it is so much more fun to fill a 10-gallon tank than an 18-gallon one. And have it last more than a week of heavy Los Angeles commuting. It’s still new to me, so I still kind of giggle every time I fill up the tank. I’m thrilled to put the money I save toward better things.”
— Jennifer
—
“We save a lot of money in the summer because my wife takes the bus to the south side of Madison to go to work, and I pick her up in the afternoon, about 4 miles south of our home. If I was to take her to work and pick her up, it would be 48 miles round-trip, morning and afternoon. The bus is cheaper.”
— Laverne F., Madison, Wisconsin
—
“As gasoline was so high for so long, I made a bio-diesel processor from a old electric water heater and made my own fuel for the oil furnace and my old 1984 GMC van with a diesel engine. I still received 21 mpg. Begging for grease was the hard part.”
— Willis W.
—
“I wish I had a good story for you, but my wife and I drive a plug-in Chevy Volt. We hardly ever stop at a gas station, except perhaps once every 6 weeks or while on an occasional trip. When we top the tank, it seldom takes more than 5 1/2 gallons, i.e. less than $20 worth of premium fuel. The main reason that we stop at gas stations these days is to get an automatic car wash.”
— David and Barbara G., Gaithersburg, Maryland
—
“Still wondering how to convert my 99 Ford Expedition to NG?”
— Gary S., Laguna Woods, California
(We’re checking around to find a SoCal CNG conversion business. Will update later.)
—
“I have not visited a gas station since September 2014, when I took delivery of my Tesla. However, I still pay for my daughter’s gasoline, suffer the financial cost, and contribute to the oil industry’s wanton environmental degradation. Savings at the pump could help me fund her college education.”
— Dr. George
—
“Go electric. I did and am receiving my Tesla next week. No more gas at all.”
— Bob
—
“Today we bought a 2014 Ford Focus, a flex-fuel vehicle which enables us to use E85 for fuel. A small contribution to energy independence.”
— David
—
“We need a blender pump [for ethanol] in every station.”
— Melvin M.
—
“I top off my cars with E85 when I can. I fill up once a month with a discount at Kroger. I am really pushing to get Kroger to provide ETHANOL pumps and shop at the same place!”
— Gerard R., Stone Mountain, Georgia
Incidentally, here’s a handy guide to flex-fuel vehicles on the market.
Rand Paul finds way to champion Iowa ethanol
It looks like presidential hopeful Rand Paul has found a clever way to champion ethanol, with an issue that’s in harmony with his keep-government-out-of-the-marketplace mentality.
‘If they raise gas prices, they should be raising the salaries’
Last week we shared stories from people whose quality of life has been affected by the unpredictable ebb and flow of gasoline prices. Visit our Facebook page and read the great discussion riffing on our last post, about Troy Harper in Missouri, to get an idea of how hot-button an issue this has become.
Today we’re passing along sentiments about the work Americans do and how the cost of fuel makes that tougher.
Some workers get paid by the hour, others are salaried, and still others are in business for themselves. Gas prices take a bite every time.
Here are a few of the responses we’ve received:
“I have to work one and half days just to fill my car, just to get to my job. That’s what I spend a week. If they raise gas prices, they should be raising the salaries.”
— Jose G., Streamwood, Illinois
—
“My wife and I both work at different times of the day, so we can’t carpool, and driving two cars every day gets too costly, at $3 to $4 a gallon. Not only us, but everybody that has to work has to give up something in order to make ends meet.”
— James
—
“As a business owner (lawn maintenance), even a few cents per gallon makes a big difference in my profit margin. My company uses approximately 100 to 130 gallons per week, sometimes more. So the cost of fuel has a large bearing on our workload. Lower prices would really help our bottom line.”
— Keith M., Boca Raton, Florida
—
“Gas prices affect me and my job, where most of my profits go toward fuel prices, [since] I’m on the road most of my time. Please lower the gas prices so we can get more out of our earnings, to spend more on family needs. There is no reason to have such high gas prices.”
— Frank C., Rancho Cucamonga, California
—
“I am a self-employed courier. I work only part-time now, but the price of fuel for my car has a big impact on my business. You just don’t make as much. With high fuel, prices everything goes up in America. Were are an economy on wheels, as you can tell with all the over-the-road trucks out there today. Fuel affects almost everything and makes it much more difficult to earn a living.”
— Flip P., York, Pennsylvania
Related posts:
- Missouri dad perfectly sums up the frustration of volatile gas prices
- Here’s what Americans are telling us about the price of gas
- This guy watched PUMP, got mad, and went looking for E85
- Minnesota, land of many lakes and E85 pumps
- Here’s why air fares aren’t going down, despite cheap fuel
Iran riches coveted by Big Oil after decades of conflict
As Iran and the U.S. enter 11th-hour negotiations to reach a nuclear deal and ease sanctions, the Middle Eastern country is re-emerging as a potential prize for Western oil companies such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Eni SpA and Total SA. The Chinese can also be expected to enter the race, while U.S. companies, more burdened by sanctions and legacy, will be further down the pack.
Missouri dad perfectly sums up the frustration of volatile gas prices
Recently we started asking Americans to share their stories about the true cost of unpredictable gas prices. We got an earful.
But out of all the dozens of submissions we received — some only a sentence, others full-on essays — perhaps no one expressed that collective frustration better than Troy Harper of Independence, Missouri.
Here’s what he wrote:
“I used to have a pickup truck [a green 1981 Ford F-series Explorer] with dual tanks. I could usually fill it up for about 30 bucks. That was back when I was in my early 20s, somewhere in 1993 or ‘94. I can remember complaining about the gas prices then. Oh, if only could only go back and warn myself about what was gonna take place in my future, I’d sink every penny I had into crude oil. Because from there on, fuel prices continually increased! Before long it was 3 bucks a gallon and beyond that. It never hit $4 a gallon for regular, but if you wanted mid-grade or super-clean, you were basically paying in blood.
“I got married and had a family, 1996-’97. We had two kids about four years apart. I worked a full-time job had to get a car in order to get around and get back and forth to work. We went on vacations and went to see our families and camped out and went fishing and to the drive-in theater all the time, when we could. But as fuel prices got higher and higher, those trips became fewer and fewer. With the price of fuel rising, the price of everything else rises: food, clothing, household necessities, everything.
“I drove a truck for a produce company [Original DeFeo Produce], locally … I delivered fruits and vegetables to grocery stores and restaurants. Diesel prices were ridiculous. The prices of our products were forever increasing, a fuel surcharge was eventually imposed on our customers, just to cover fuel prices. At almost 5 bucks a gallon it was becoming a huge problem. Our customers’ businesses were seeing less and less business, yet the prices kept increasing. I watched several of these businesses eventually close their doors for good. Even the company I was working for went out of business in March of 2013. It had been in business in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, for over a hundred years. It was family owned and had thrived for a long time, but with the economy bottoming out and our customers closing, it was inevitable. I like to believe that fuel prices played a major role in that factor. As it did in all our lives.
“Currently, the prices have been relatively cheaper. As of today, at a Shell station I saw it for $2.20 a gallon in Independence, Missouri. That’s much better, but I don’t know how long those prices will last.”
—
To learn what you can do about volatile gasoline prices, check out our Take Action page. Among the list of choices, watch the movie PUMP on DVD, instantly on iTunes or Amazon, or coming to a college
Larry’s Story
Help us grow the fuel choice movement. Share your story.
