Thread: $4.00 + gas pricing coming for the summer

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Tonight's news....................

Its been here for a while already 111. a litre x 4 - 4.44 Gallon

Around here we in the mid threes

I filled up Friday @ $3.21 thinking it would take the normal .20 to .30 weekend jump. Today it was $3.17. Go figure.

ya gota remember its bush and Chaney's fault there are the oil people isn't that right allen

The whole program was well under way before they ever got involved. I think there is a definite control of pricing North America wide but I really don't know of a way to solve it other than price controls(Goodby free market?). There are so many times that the crude oil price and the price of fuel make no sense except to those making record profits.
high energy prices effect everyone , just think if you have to heat your house for 2/3's of the year or more.

Originally Posted by pro70z28

I filled up Friday @ $3.21 thinking it would take the normal .20 to .30 weekend jump. Today it was $3.17. Go figure.

They saw you coming,pro,,and reversed the trend for the weekend...

Originally Posted by lamin8r

They saw you coming,pro,,and reversed the trend for the weekend...

I think I'll pull in from the back way next time.

The next town over is $3.39. I don't drive that many miles in a week, so a few cents one way or the other isn't a real big deal, I just like to play the game. Prices swing back & forth so fast, it's like trying to beat the stock market.

Gary, maybe you should drive more so the demand in Coal City goes up and your guys there can match prices with Morris---of course its lots higher a little further noth but settles back a few cents by here--last few days main stations around here $3.55
And yes we fill up when we go to Grandma Dee's!!!!

I guess we'll see, half the time the predictions are wrong, but nobody brags about when they're wrong, only when they're right, so the wrongs fade from notice more often.

I don't know if Al is joking about the need for "price controls" or not, but maybe a history lesson is in order. Here's a chart showing the inflation adjusted (if anyone is unfamiliar that means what an old pricing point would look like if expressed in today's less valuable dollar)price of gasoline since 1918. There are a couple interesting things to notice when you take an almost 100 year overview.

We did price controls in the 1970s, started by Nixon, carried on by Ford, and Carter administrations/congresses. You'll note that the chart indicates the fastest and highest previous price spike is in that period.......so much for the actual outcomes from price controls. The dramatic drop off of that spike was when Reagan removed the controls and free market conditions took back pricing.

Another thing to think about are the four highest peaks on the chart each happen to be at a time when Government was most active in trying to shape market pricing and choose winners and losers in the private economy. The beginning of the chart is during the Wilson administration, the second F. D. Roosevelt, the third as noted above, and the fourth in the last 5 or so years. Government as solution? Hmmmmm

Reminds me of:

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

Oh yeah, my personal favorite:

We're from the Government and we're here to help!!!!

It's often difficult to analyse situations when you're in the middle of them because of all the incoming data that can be distractive........thus the old saying: You can't see the forrest for the trees.

We have been setting ourselves up for higher prices on gasoline for over 40 years. If for no other reason (though there are many) than transportation costs as a result of environmental regulations (some of which are good, others not so much). We haven't built a new gasoline refinery in this country since 1976. There's been one proposed/promised in Arizona for at least a decade but it appears to be the project on the perpetual horizon. All of our improvement in productivity has been at existing refineries, some of which are getting quite old. To wit, two old refineries have closed in the last couple years because they just couldn't be upgraded cost effectively. We had that Keystone XL discussion on another thread where it was noted, part of the reason for it to go down to Texas was that's where the refineries with the equipment/technology to process that type of crude are. Pipelines are very cost competive means of transportation compared to all the other available methods. We're getting to the point where nearly all our refineries are at/near sea ports........for a reason. However, that means that inland markets need to be on a pipeline route from the refineries that produce enough product, or on a pipeline from a sea port dock that can handle finished product. And here is where regulations start to creep in. You won't see the costs broken out on a receipt or a corner sign because it's too dificult to jump through those hoops, but the added cost will be there. Just one for instance. There's something called the Jones act that requires vessels from one U.S. port going to another use only U.S. registered vessels, with high majority U.S. crews. These cost a lot more to operate (surprise), and that extra cost gets buried in the price of whatever is transported. Outcome? You'll start seeing finished fuel product being imported while finished product from, let's say a Texas refinery, will be exported. Of course some politicians, and their media lap dogs, will throw stones as the evil oil companies over this, and most of the uninformed sheeple in our country will believe it because it APPEARS true (just like the "record profits" distraction) all the while not exposing the government caused, underlying sources of the problem.

Next you end up with some sort of a "crisis", and as we've been told by the current operatives in DC............"...never let a crisis go to waste... you can do things you could not do before...". I'm sure we can count on our political class to save us............................right?

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

Gary, maybe you should drive more so the demand in Coal City goes up and your guys there can match prices with Morris

I'm thinking I should buy an electric car & force them to build another nuc. plant.

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

Gary, maybe you should drive more so the demand in Coal City goes up and your guys there can match prices with Morris---of course its lots higher a little further noth but settles back a few cents by here--last few days main stations around here $3.55
And yes we fill up when we go to Grandma Dee's!!!!

Hey Jerry lately because of the lost of the D.D'er Astro I have been driving the RV which doesn't pass many gas stations.

Well it will be acouple of wks before I get the Sonoma I bought going so I can slide back to about 22mpg.Woo-woo.

Uncle Bob

There is already a pipe line from the Calgary area down to near Coal City

Also , the another existing pipeline from up there already exists and carries crude down to East St Louis area in Illinois--the Keystone project will allow higher quantities of crude from up that waay down to the gulf for export as crude besides the amount the refineries process.

The Alaska oil is (was) supposed to be only for USA however since no refineries on west coast (California) to process,and the tankers won't fit thru the Panama Canal, its shipped to far east and the oil companies replace it with crude from Venzula which is transported across the Gulf of Mexico to Texas, where the refineries are.

And Gary, the feds just releasted the first permit for a new nuke plant in how many years??? seems we haven't had nuke or refineries during our childrens lifetimes----