FuelClub Discount

A U.S. recession in the first half of 2008 will cause the first drop in summer gasoline demand since 1991, the head of the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said Tuesday.

He estimated average gasoline prices at $3.60 a gallon this summer.

The U.S. projected an 85,000-barrel-per-day decline in gasoline demand for 2008, caused by higher gasoline and oil prices and the economic decline, said Guy Caruso, administrator of the Energy Information Administration.
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How can oil industry executives justify billions of dollars in federal tax breaks when they made $123 billion in profits last year? Truth be told, they’re business people and they’ll take advantage of whatever is available to help the bottom line.

The real question, however, is: How can Congress defend such tax abatements, particularly at a time when consumers are paying record gasoline prices? The current practice is indefensible.

But perhaps Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey put it best when he referred to the situation during a House debate two years ago as, “Oil companies want to play Uncle Sam for Uncle Sucker.”
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With the expiry of the provisional gasoline tax rate at midnight Monday, people flocked to gas stations to buy cheaper gasoline across the country Tuesday.

In Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, which is known for its high concentration of gas stations, Ichigo-hausu SS reduced its price of a liter of gasoline by 20 yen–1 yen more than it had originally planned–after the station’s manager checked the prices of other gas stations in the neighborhood.

After the gas station opened at 7 a.m., the manager said, “We’ve had about three times more customers than we do on ordinary weekdays.”

A 42-year-old woman who went there to fill up her car said: “I held off putting gas in our family’s car until today. [The discount] really helps out our family budget.”

Yoshida Shoji’s Kodaira SS in Kodaira, Tokyo, also reduced its gasoline price by 22 yen to 126 yen per liter. Immediately after a sign advertising the discounted price was put up, all six pumps were occupied. Several cars waited to refuel on the road in front of the gas station.
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Sales of new vehicles in Japan slumped to the lowest level in 33 years in the year ended March 31 as higher gasoline prices turned off prospective buyers, according to data released by an industry group on Tuesday.

It was the fifth straight year of decline.

Sales of new cars, trucks and buses, excluding minivehicles, fell 4.5 percent to 3.43 million

units, the lowest since the year to March 1975 when sales stood at 3.34 million, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said.

Car sales dropped 2.1 percent to 2.96 million, down for the fourth straight year, while sales of buses declined 10.1 percent to 15,315 and truck sales dropped 17.7 percent to 446,669 units.

Sales of trucks and buses were down for the second consecutive year.

Sales fell despite aggressive efforts by Japanese automakers to launch new models.
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There’s more than just chatter on the radios and cell phones of truck drivers today.
Industry sources say truckers across the nation are organizing slowdowns and shutdowns to protest the high price of diesel fuel.

And some say truckers may take action as early as Tuesday. If they do, that’s no April 1 joke.

Some owner-operators say they look at the impact of $4-per-gallon diesel fuel and think they’re not going to be able to finish out the week. Others call on the American people to understand their plight, and realize the impact high transportation costs have on food and other consumer goods.

And still others demand that the trucking industry do more to help the nation’s 3.5 million drivers.
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