Current Spike in Gas Prices

How are gas prices affecting your travel plans?

  • Makes no difference, I'm hitting the road!

    Votes: 73 78.5%

  • Ouch, I'm staying close to home, shorter trips

    Votes: 17 18.3%

  • My wallet is empty, no trips for me.

    Votes: 3 3.2%
  • Total voters
    93
Yesterday I paid $2.599/gal at the Arco in central Bend -- which is usually the cheapest or second-cheapest in town.
(sometimes the Space Age on the north end of town is the cheapest)
 
Why does no one praise "Big Oil" when prices go down but blame them when they go up?

Full disclosure: we are both retired from "Big Oil".
 
Iowa,
I praise "big oil" whenever I fill up. Can't get to the boonies without them.
[rant on] Gummit should mostly butt out of all markets and let prices be determined by supply and demand. The most important thing they could do is stop bailing out failing industries. Bankruptcy from losses is what cleans up the economy. Their interference prolongs the pain for the consumer & taxpayer. [/rant off]

No, I'm not now, nor have I ever been in the energy business other than as a consumer.

Paul
Ps. Sorry if I started a flame.
 
All I know about the price of gas is it drops just about a dollar a gallon when you leave California heading east. Folks it is spring time, flowers bloom and refineries have problems happens every year. Supply and demand? will believe when I see a station run out of gas.
 
Bill,

It is easy to blame the problem on the service station and/or "Big Oil", but that's because it is where all the underlying costs encounter your wallet.

Search for "seasonal refinery gasoline changes" and read a variety of the hits.

http://www.quora.com/Why-is-gas-50-cents-a-gallon-more-expensive-in-California-than-in-Arizona-or-Nevada

Ask which state imposes higher environmental costs on the station owner for LUST (Leaking Underground Storage Tanks).

I'm in Oregon where we don't allow any refineries to be built and thus are dependent on gasoline shipped mostly from California and Washington. When California refineries shut down to do the seasonal blend changeover, there is less gasoline available that can be legally sold. That makes Oregon's gasoline relatively more expensive.

In addition, Oregon imposes a higher business cost on the service station by mandating the service station hire and pay someone to pump my gasoline. We don't allow self-serve gasoline here.

Paul
 
California gasoline is routinely more expensive because of extra air pollution regulations, CARB (California Air Resources Board). Oregon and Washington also require CARB gasoline but have lower gasoline prices than California which would indicate California gasoline taxes are higher. CARB is the cleanest burning gasoline produced in the world and only the West Coast refineries can produce CARB gasoline. Europe has lots of diesel cars and so too much gasoline. Europe routinely loads the extra gasoline on ships and delivers gasoline into the New York harbor but no European gasoline meets CARB standards. Shutdown one West Coast CARB producing refinery for maintenance and gasoline gets expensive. If anyone builds a gasoline pipeline to deliver less expensive gasoline then it stops before it reaches California since CARB gasoline is difficult to produce.

Edit: I looked up gasoline taxes and California gasoline taxes are 15 cpg higher than Oregon and 10 cpg higher than Washington (the three CARB states).

"Big Oil" is not benevolent or malevolent as the different sides would argue but is much more inept like government but a lot better than politicians (and who put them in charge?).
 
Finally diesel is cheaper than gasoline. 2.96 near me. I know it won't last but I can smile for a moment.
 
The last two weekends I have seen gas go up $.10 in one day when I hit the same station in the AM and the PM in the car, and diesel $.08 in 30 hours when I did the same with the truck.

It is interesting to see diesel lower than gas, which was the case before I ordered my truck, but I can't recall happening for more than a few days at a time during the ensuing 8 years of ownership.
 
Reuters reported this week that the high gasoline prices in California caught the attention of the Saudi's and they skimmed off the best gasoline blending components to blend several ship loads of CARB gasoline and send them across the world. This would be the longest journey possible for a ship of gasoline. Even the Saudi's are "California Dreamin".
 
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