I just barely read through the arguments, and as much as I hate paying it I have to defend the gas stations here...

Say you purchesed so many gallons at 2.25... If you continue selling that gas at your standard markup, they wont always be enough profit to support another refil, because of the huge jumps in prices to the stations.

On the other side, you will find that there are gas stations who sometimes sell at BELOW COST, because of a drop in price of gas to them. They have to drop their prices to match regardless of what they paid for whats in their tank. If they don;t they simply sit on the expensive gasoline, because everyone else is charging a price reletive to the price to them.

My father was a tech. in the northeast (read, worked for a company that sold, fixed and installed gas pumps), and he has a pretty good handle on how that market works.

Companies are willing to send specially formulated gas to California because they can charge $x for it, compared to only 5/7x in Georga. If prices in Georgia go up to $x, then the price in California will have to rise or no one will be willing to expend the extra funds and effort to make special California gas.

I haven't heard anyone telling me that they have to choose between gas and food, or paying for gas and paying for living expenses. I haven't seen any station run out of gas. I haven't seen anyone stop shipping goods because the price of transporting goods on diesel-powered trucks is too high. Where's the crisis? We're in a period in which the highest prices for gas are being charged after inflation adjustments. There's no crisis. When I have to sell my car and take public transportation because I can't afford gas, then there's a crisis. The only difference between this year and last year is that I'm cutting down on the joyriding and pointless trips that I used to make, and therefore am creating less road wear and pollution. HIgh gas prices are doing me a favor. I'll call it a crisis when I have to sell my Lincoln, buy a Honda, and rip out the front seat and sit in the back so I have enough leg room. You want a real crisis, there are 80,000 people standing around on highway overpasses while raw sewage and dead bodies float under them. That's a crisis.

edit: I'm not targeting you personally, you just happened to be the one who used the term "gas crisis."

double edit: to answer the first question, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand

In California, one of the more questionable practices of the state is to charge sales tax (meaning the sales tax that will be paid by the consumer upon filling up their tank) for gas upon DELIVERY of the gas to the station.

This can be a hardship for some station owners.


FWIW.

Yeah, but Jimmy Buffet said, "My head hurts, my feet stink, and I don't love Jesus. :lol:

Truly classic parrothead stuff.

I smell another Enron. Gas prices have been rising for the last two years at the mention of -anything-. There have been hurricanes in the gulf in the past. Did they cause prices to rise like this? Oil companies are being opportunistic and charging as much as they think they can while news brodcasts have been reporting for the last year how prices will reach $3 a gallon. Self-fuffiling prophecy? Oil company profits are at an all time high and the government reports a healthy economy based on income of more tax money. Money from gas profits? Are the oil companies creating their own crisis and the news brodcasts are hyping them for ratings? People love to be scared. Terrorism iin your neigborhood. Gas prices tripiling. Hurricanes. Floods. Tornadoes.

News at 11

One word. Greed.

If I were to use one word to desribe gas prices today, that word would be "baaaaaah"

Did any of them completely destroy the main port for oil transfers to the Eastern US?

It's all moot now - gas prices will be coming down shortly and we will all have forgotten the temporary panic and "crisis".

http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/06/news...ex.htm?cnn=yes

Not everyone gets their gas supply from the Gulf, so what gives? Why are the prices up? I live in Canada, why did my prices go through the roof?

I've heard that question asked many a time and I'll point out the answer here. Roughly a third of the US oil production has been shut down. That leaves you guys with two choices; shut down a third of the country or find the gas somewhere else. So you're buying my gas, California's gas and France's gas or whoever elses' to compensate, which creates an increased demand in those markets or a shorter supply, whichever way you prefer to look at it. Something this big has a global impact.

However, Forbes saves the day :

pop the bubble, already!

That's going to hurt oil companies and investors, but everyone else will be happy I reckon.

With oil prices being at or near pre Katrina prices, why hasn't gas gone back to where it was yet?

More proof we are not out of oil, but the easily obtainable material is in shorter supply. There is a great deal of oil in the shale deposits, but it is expensive.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale

I think CA gas prices have more to do with the fact that the hurricanes shutdown the oil rigs in the Gulf.

It isn't the rigs. It is the refineries. Louisiana had a number shut down due to Katrina. Rita ko'd 3 in Port Arthur, Tx and one in Lake Charles ,La. I haven't heard a projection of when these facilities would be up and running, but I'm sure they will get a great deal of attention from their ownership. Unfortunatly the folks who work there are also those most effected personally, by the storms.

I'm in the middle of reading a blog post titled How to lower the price of gas. - Blog Maverick (Mark Cuban's blog). There are a lot of knowledgeable comments on it. His post begins...

This will result in the market no longer having an accurate future price for gas and oil. Inaccurate prices cause problems.

Hell, the sellers (read: producers) of gas and oil futures won't sell their gas and oil if the price is too low.

Also you have to remember that not all stations have gas in the ground for three days. The last time I checked the Sheetz up the road was getting two trucks every day to refil the in-ground tanks(very large Sheetz, pretty populated area). Also I'm sure plenty of other stations get at least one truck per day. So if the gas is purchased on a day to day basis it makes sense for the prices to change on a day to day basis.

The real question that you should be asking is why are the oil companies being allowed to show a major profit when we are having a national emergency? What happened to the laws that stopped price gouging during crisis? Where are the governmental protections for citizens?? Could it be that someone who should be protecting us has a standing interest in oil?

My personal opinion is that when we pass laws forbidding specific companies to make a profit in a competitive environment, then this in itself constitutes a national emergency far more threatening to our way of life than a particular product becoming expensive.