For many reasons, gas prices are soaring in Europe, too
Q Local gas stations are displaying $5.99 per gallon of gas. Yikes! However, to put it in perspective, 20 years ago on a trip to Sweden and Denmark, we paid the equivalent of $7 to $8 per gallon. Americans need to come to grips with the fact that petroleum is a finite resource and we need to husband it so our grandkids still have some.
Hopefully, high costs make us rethink reckless consumption of this irreplaceable commodity.
— Stan Johnsen, Palo Alto
A Gas now costs $10 per gallon in many European countries. That's due to high taxes, the invasion of Ukraine and heavy reliance in many countries on more expensive diesel fuel.
Q People want to blame oil companies for high prices. Total nonsense. Here's why. While running for president, and while debating Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden was asked a question about the climate. His response, “If I'm president, there will be no more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. There will be no more drilling on federal land, there will be no more offshore drilling, there will be no ability to drill. PERIOD!”
Almost the first day in office, he canceled pipelines in progress. It doesn't take a scholar to figure out what that meant to oil companies, and why we're paying outrageous prices.
— Michael Ross,
Santa Clara
A Biden critics are replaying those comments, but the pipeline, far from completion, would not have affected short-range gas production. His other comments were applauded because someone finally connected the problem of climate change to fuel emissions.
Q I noticed that some folks are upset that gas prices spiked higher quickly.
It's true that prices for “old” gasoline, or that which was refined from oil paid for at pre-invasion prices, spiked upward very quickly. However, the way I've noticed gas station prices behaving is that they also drop quickly when oil prices drop.
Should the price of oil drop back to the old preinvasion price, so would gasoline prices.
— Hans Viirlaid
A A lot of drivers would disagree. Prices rise fast, but typically decline more slowly.
Q For several years, I have wondered about an old red VW Beetle carcass located down a ravine next to the John Nicholas Trail high above Los Gatos. I thought it an isolated oddity.
But the other day, I hiked to the summit of Mount Umunhum with my wife, and we saw not one, but two more derelict VW Bugs in places they seemingly never could have driven to.
Perhaps your readers have a clue as to the origin of these Santa Cruz Mountain trailside automotive mysteries?
— Bob Williams, Saratoga
A This is a mystery. Any ideas, folks?