Grancey

Well, after hearing warnings last night that the gas prices may go up sharply in our area we took our cars to fill up. This afternoon, we drove by only one station that still had gas, and the price has gone up 30cts/gallon since last night. Most of the gas stations are empty right now. They say the price will go up even more after the full impact of Hurricane Ike. We are in the South but not in the direct path. Is anyone else experiencing this right now?

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uncle phil

not yet...

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hannukah harry

i heard (not reliably) that gas was $6.10 in a semi-rural city about 65 miles from where I live. We've had lines of cars, packed tightly into the gas stations. But no one seems to be out of gas yet. And I paid about .15 more than yesterday's gas prices.

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Reese

My Governor declared a state of emergency and I'm in Kentucky!

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Baraka_Guru

Okay, up here in Canada, gas has jumped by as much as $0.13 a litre, which is as much as a 10% jump in one day.

Just as a comparison, that would be like gas jumping around $0.50 a gallon.

In Winnipeg, MB, prices got up to $1.47/litre. (That's like $5.50 a gallon.)

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Ayashe

Here in MN, I paid $3.44/gallon today. It is actually down since Monday.

Cynthetiq

It's $3.79 and that's IN the city of Manhattan. Don't know if they've run out, but doubtful, all the cabbies fill up at that particular station on Houston and Lafayette.

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RangerJoe

Gas went up to $4.39 here. ):

jorgelito

Gas has gone down here in the People's Republic. It's dirt cheap at $3.65 /gallon. The sky did not fall. Turns out it was just the ol' ups and downs of the market.

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jewels

Yup. Went from 3.59 two days ago to 3.75 here in Central Florida.

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Tully Mars

Well here in the Yucatan it's all controlled by the gov. right now I think it's works out to 2.55 a gal. I filled up my 30 gal tank yesterday for around $60, but it wasn't empty, more like 1/4 tank left. I think other parts of Mexico, near the border the price is higher. Diesel here is right at $2 a gallon. Wished I'd paid the extra 5k for the diesel now.

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ratbastid

I filled up last night (in Atlanta, with ShaniFaye and Dave in tow) and paid $4.39. Then we drove down the street to their house and saw prices the same or higher, and one gas station shut down completely.

snowy

Same here. It's been dropping steadily for a while now.

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Daniel_

Bastards.

Petrol cost me £1.15/litre this week - that's about $10/gallon.

Stop moaning.

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Ayashe

It is also very unfortunate that our public transportation system in the US is absolute crap, putting far too many cars on the roadway when there could be better options. Almost every family here needs two cars to get around.

Baraka_Guru

Oh, I wasn't moaning.... I've never purchased a drop of gasoline in my life. Not directly anyway.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

jewels

Had been here, too. Most likely they're up significantly as of yesterday or today.

Gas prices spike overnight as Ike slams coast - International Herald Tribune

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Tully Mars

It's the exact opposite here in Mexico. You can get anywhere here by bus. Even the smallest village has routine bus service.

Between major cities the bus service is often offered in several classes- first, second, third. First class is about what you'd get on an airline in first class minus the alcohol. There's movies, the seats lay near flat and there's a service attendant for drinks and snacks. First Class for the 3 1/2 hour trip between Cancun and Merida is about $30. The second class bus is nearly the same, but smaller seats and no snacks or drinks are supplied, I think it's about $22. For around $10 you can take 3rd class which is basically and old school bus without A/C.

There's a second class type bus that runs every half hour from Merida to Progeso, it's about $1.20 ea. way, or $2 R/T.

Service to outer villages is often via what's known as a "cambi." Which is usually a VW or Toyota van. Often completely packed full, but does have A/C. The 20 min. ride from Progeso to Chelem, which is a very small fishing village west of here, is .50 on the "cambi."

I obviously haven't been everywhere in Mexico but this is the way it works everywhere I've been, the whole country is set up to transport the masses who have historically not owned personal cars. In the past 20 years or so personal vehicle owner ship has become common, but most people still take public transit. My friend who owns a hotel and several nice cars takes the bus when going into Merida. Simply easier and less of a hassle.

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grumpyolddude

In SE Michigan, $3.65 was common a week ago. This morning $3.99. After work this evening, I saw $4.19 and $4.25... and that's with the governor making threats to would-be price gougers. If the Texas refineries stay down for very long, I predict $5.00+ within a week.

We have to fill six delivery vehicles every day, and don't charge for deliveries. We tried a surcharge back when fuel crossed the $2.50 mark, and had a customer revolt on our hands. This years raises are going into the gas tanks.

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annie1

Here in the west we have not been affected by increased prices or shortages.

*Nikki*

Why don't people realize that they are causing their own gas shortage???

Stop freaking out and running to the gas station if you hear there is not going to be any gas or if the price is going to go higher.

Tully Mars

I know. I saw a guy on CNN this morning state "I drove around all night looking for gas, now it's morning my tanks on empty. Now what am I suppose to do?"

How about not driving around looking for gas all night next time?

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Ayashe

That would be the obvious choice now wouldn't it? Besides, the pennies you save one day when the price is to go up on another will be gone either way. In the long run it is insignificant. So you saved yourself $1 today, is that truly going to make a concrete difference in your life tomorrow when the gas price increases or the gas tax goes up? I know there are gas-finders on the radio and internet that will post where the cheapest gasoline is, chances are that you will spend your price in gas getting there anyways, I never bother.

MSD

Like George Carlin said, think about how dumb the average person is, and realize that half of the people out there are stupider than that. People have no idea of how commodity markets and commodity pricing work, all they know how to do is complain and panic.


My mom insisted on filling up the night before Ike hit because someone on the news said that gas would be at $4.50 or $5 per gallon the next day. I said it was ridiculous, but filled up her car for her because she was almost out of gas anyway. Sure enough, gas was a whole 10 cents higher the next day.

Grancey

I filled up two cars Thur night at 3.59 a gallon. Today many stations are sill out and one that was open had gas at 4.49 a gallon. That's a lot more than just pennies to us. I'm glad I filled up Thursday.

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Quiet, mild-mannered souls might just turn out to be roaring lions of two-fisted cool.

MSD

I guess that I'm lucky to be away from it all in the northeast. The night before, I paid 3.79 for 89 octane, and the next day it was up 10 cents across the board. There's no panic up here and not even much worrying, just obscenely high gas taxes in relation to the quality of roads and road repairs.

ShaniFaye

I do not even want to discuss driving around yesterday seeing gas stations that it was 3.55 at Friday morning, and it was 4.71

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ngdawg

As of yesterday, gas in Asheville, NC was $5.25 a gallon. No fuckin reason for that....
-----Added 14/9/2008 at 09 : 10 : 53-----
Not sure where in the Northeast you are but here in NJ, gas on Wednesday was $3.25 give or take and today it's $3.79.....there's either panic or greed at work...I'm leaning toward greed. There's no reason for this shit. The prices go up BEFORE the affected petrol gets delivered and billed. It's stored locally, ferchrissakes, and they still blame whatever hurricane or event for it. Hess refineries as well as Exxon are right here in NJ and storage is abundant. They could shut down company owned stations at 9pm instead of being open til 2am if they wanted to hold back on the stored petrol and keep the prices stable. Luckily, NJ has really strict pricing policies-prices can only be set once every 24 hours and has to be the exact hour, which looks crazy on days like this past week where one station will be already up 20c and one down the road is still on yesterday's price; price gouging won't fly-they'd be shut down in hours here; the state toll roads can't change prices even every 24 hours-they can only do it once or twice a month and has to be the same the entire road.

drag0nmanes

Hmm, still around 3.70 here in Southern California, so no real price hikes here lately, just the normal bogus prices.

ratbastid

On our drive up from Atlanta to NC yesterday, we saw prices ranging from $3.98 to $4.95. I topped up a half-tank when I saw $4.18.

By the way, it turns out that my Honda wants 86 octane or better gas, and I've been pumping mid-grade 89 the whole time I've owned it!

Catdaddy33

There are 5 gas stations right off of I-40 which are the closest to my house, 4 of those were out of gas yesterday and 2 were out on Saturday. I had to pay $3.99 on Sunday at the one remaining station that had gas and there was no line I guess everyone else in the area had already topped off the tanks. Friday and Saturday the ones that had gas had long lines, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna line up for gas...

abaya

Yep, us too. And that's just normal.

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Poppinjay

Thank you Nikki.

I talked to a Hollins University econ professor last week about this.

Stop buying gas!
This wasn't my interview. Mine was much more "elitist", due to the fact he showed me demographical map studies that showed a spike in gas prices during emergencies in less educated areas, while more educated areas saw minimal effect.

There are four major universities where I work, and the prices jumped slightly. In Southside and western VA, the price went up to $5. NoVa, where the education level is post grad+ also saw a very slight increase.

Oil is dropping, the number of refineries that closed are a blip on our supply. The fact is, the prices go up when a run on the pumps happens. And that is caused by us.

Now watch it drop quickly as the market wrestles out relatively cheap oil versus competetive pricing.

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ratbastid

This is interesting:

Grancey

It's a week later, and we are still having shortages of gas in this area. However, the shortage is in the premium and mid range gasoline. I only saw one station today with no gas. Others had regular but no premium. Interesting.

__________________
Quiet, mild-mannered souls might just turn out to be roaring lions of two-fisted cool.