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Report Your Local Gas Prices Here (retired discussion, please see the new one)
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I think that is from refineries finally getting their act together and hitting higher production percentages. That and the higher prices seemed to have reduced gasoline demand.
If anything, it's letting the oil companies know that people are up in arms and tired of getting reamed, so they are looking at any path they can take to put the companies on notice.
As I replied to Rorr, I'm not sure how successful this suit will be, but it may be a way of to segway into other suits against the oil companies, to push for more investigation hearings against the oil companies, the traders and the market. Find out why a regular maintenance schedule can't be hashed out, why there's so much speculation / rumor going on to drive the prices, the sky-high profits and the like.
I don't know, just thinking aloud...
I'm always looking for the best price since I use 91 Octane and pay anywhere from $.20 to $.40 more per gallon than the 87 Octane.
I was up in Bishop a few weeks ago and the price for 91 Octane was $3.16 at the Arco. They are trying to compete with the Indian Casino gas station in Bishop.
What I can not understand is why there is over a $.30 difference in the price at an Arco that is 160 miles closer to the refinery and is on the main Hwy?
I believe that if any laws are passed it should be that the profit that the station owners make should all be a standard price. I think that when the price of fuel at Arco Stations differ from $.30 and more with NO legitimate reason then this is price gouging!
E.M.S.
"Because most of California is designated by the federal government as an air quality "non-attainment" area, our gasoline must meet stringent air quality requirements to burn cleanly to protect public health and the environment."
California Energy Commission
It has been over 100 degrees where I live for the past week and a half. The past three days the temperature has been between 105 & 115 degrees.
The Hot Fuel Web Site info says:
"According to industry and government standards, a gallon of gas at 60 degrees measures 231 cubic inches. Consumers buy 231 cubic inches of gas per gallon, regardless of its temperature, so when gas expands in the heat, the amount of energy put out per gallon declines.
So what is the cubic inches for a gallon of gas when the temperature isn't 60 degrees but over 100 degrees?
I dispute that statement that says, regardless of the fuels temperature we still get 231 cubic inches of fuel per gallon.
Anyone with any common knowledge knows that fuel expands the hotter it gets. So at 100+ degrees the cubic inches per gallon is not going to be the same as it is at 60 degrees.
This is an easy statement to prove. Get a gallon of gas when it's over 100 degrees; make sure that you get exactly 1 gallon. Mark the container and place it in a cool room where the temperature is set at 60 degrees. Continue to take the temperature of the fuel until it reaches 60 degrees. Make sure that your temperature gauge your using is accurate, and if possible calibrated so there can be no dispute.
Once the fuel temperature reaches 60 degrees mark the container. Now take a measurement of the fuel.
How much fuel are you really getting? Is there still 1 gallon or is it less as the fuel cooled from 100+ degrees to 60 degrees?
E.M.S.
Just because the AIR TEMPERATURE is over 100 degrees doesn't mean the GASOLINE TEMPERATURE is the same.
At night, in the desert, the air temps drop quite substantially. What I'd like to know is what is the temperature of the fuel IN THE UNDERGROUND storage tank (and whether or not that temperature fluctuates much during the day).
Kaunakakai, HI =$3.89/gal.
Here in Willcox we are averaging $3.00/gal. The national average is now $2.94/gal.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Iluv: That Ararat, VA price of $2.23 has to be erroneous, unless one particular station was running some kind of "special" (highly unlikely). The town is close to the NC line and is about 200 miles SW from me as the crow flies.
Still holding at $3.15 for regular. :shades:
Plus I assume you used just one tank in Albuquerque. As I'm sure you're well aware, one tank in and of itself doesn't mean much due to variations in how much you can actually "fill" the tank.
I find that sometimes I get an unusually high reading for the type of driving I'm doing immediately followed by a lower than normal reading. This tells me I didn't actually fill the tank the first time, or maybe I got a tankful of that hot gas
The irresponsible news media does not compare equal quality fuel but just quotes "unleaded regular". A fair comparison is to compare 87 octane unleaded which costs 10 cents per gallon more than the cheap 85 octane we are now paying over $ 3.00 per gallon for in Salt Lake City and 87 octane $ 3.10 a gallon.
Stations in Anaheim California were $ 2.899 to $2.999 for 87 octane last week BUT $ 3.169 for 87 octane in Salt Lake City and we have many oil refineries on the north edge of Salt Lake City. :sick:
BTW - lower octane fuel isn't "watered down". It is simply more prone to spontaneous ignition at certain pressures. High compression engines therefore require fuel with a higher octane rating to resist spontaneous ignition (engine knock). The problem is that higher octane fuels (less prone to spontaneous ignition) are more expensive to produce.
To answer your question, we get 87 octane here for regular unleaded. The elevation is ~2900 feet, so maybe that's why SLC at ~4200 feet can get away with the 85 stuff. You guys are less dense up there (less dense = smarter?
This followed the pattern of raising prices on Thursday.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
87 - $2.779
89 - $2.879
91 - $2.939
93 - $2.979
diesel - $2.739
Mount Arlington Exxon, Mt. A NJ
87 - $2.999
89 - $3.239
93 - $3.319
diesel - $2.999
kcram - Pickups Host
Since it costs LESS to produce 85 octane fuel, we should not be paying as much for 85 octane as others pay for 87 octane. This is especially true since almost ALL vehicle manufacturers recommend 87 octane or higher.
Sadly, we are paying MORE for 85 octane unleaded in Utah than people in the rest of the United States are paying for higher octane 87 octane. I have to refill with 91 octane premium in St. George Utah when going to Anaheim to bring the average up to 87 octane for the lower altitude. :sick:
Manufacturers differ however in their recommendations about what octane to use at high altitude. In my '98 Nissan Fronter manual, it says it's okay to use 85. But I've noticed that recent Ford products say to use 87 regardless of altitude.
When we drove our '04 Camry back from Los Angeles to central VA in December 2005, we filled the tank 10 times. Most of the driving was highway, mainly 2-lane major highways like US 395, 6, 50, and 56, but some interstates, more so in the east. We did tour many small towns looking at the neat architecture of some of the older buildings, and we also looped through Arches National Park.
The weather was mostly quite cold once we left LA, but it did get over 60 degrees on the warmest day (Kansas City area). Of course, the altitude and terrain varied greatly. Speeds out west were 65 or 70 mph; 55 to 70 mph east of the Mississippi.
But for what it's worth, here's our record (gallons to fill, mpg, brand and place):
14.20 26.7 Shell, Bishop, CA (includes city driving in LA)
10.82 29.2 Shell, Ely, NV
12.46 32.4 Sinclair, east UT
14.15 30.3 Phil 66, east CO
15.27 31.2 Brothers, west KS
14.35 28.5 Shell, Kansas City, MO
15.42 35.5 Shell, Spencer, IN
5.10 25.5 BP, Indianapolis
15.60 31.1 Kroger, Elkins, WV
6.95 27.7 Exxon, home
Overall avg: 30.3 mpg. I would say I may have "overfilled" the tank in Kansas City, which was reflected in the "best" mileage of the trip on the next leg. The top-off in Indy resulted in as per usual for me, low mpg.
there is zero variation in ground temp at ~8 foot depth. (all the more restful for the dirtnap).
gagrice i sympathize with your frustration and was measuring an even larger percentage mpg drop when RFG1 with ethanol or MTBE was mandated/introduced to Cali around 1993.
a class action suit would be useless - everything is as it should be , by intentional design of the RFG mandate/approach. But sir what are you doing driving gasser vehicles in the first place? You know better! A local dude drove to VT and bought a 1980 diesel rabbit for $395. it's in *incredible* shape. 55 mpg, of course. 130k miles, so it's got about 900k to go before it needs a new engine. :shades:
the goal of the RFG/Cali-gasoline approach is to charge consumers more $, consume more gallons, so urban air quality will be measurably better due to the 1% of crapbox cars that will have reduced emissions with RFG/E-10 compared to 100% gasoline. Oh, there's that little bonus of more tax revenue for the state. Who knew?!
Trying to sue California for their RFG/designer/strict fuel giving less mpg is like trying to sue the Intelligent Designer for gravity. Not gonna do it. Not at this juncture. Wouldn't be prudent.
87 was $2.77/gal, $2.87 for 89 and $3.04 for 93 IIRC.
$3.07
$3.19
$3.29
The majors are two cents more.
$ 3.059 for 87 octane
$ 3.159 for 91 octane
and the cheap 85 octane is $ 2.959
Kuanakakai, HI, still selling unleaded 87 for $3.89/gal, topping the nation in ghastly price.
Here in Willcox, AZ, we're averaging $2.97/gal for 87.
The current national average is $2.96/gal for 87 no-lead.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
I filled up again after about 157 miles. That included driving out the the fairgrounds on Sunday, driving back home, and driving to work and then to the gas station yesterday. It was mostly highway, although I did sidetrack for a few miles and go up in the mountains. Took 9.9 gallons to fill back up, for about 15.8 mpg.
As bad as those figures sound, I was actually pleasantly surprised!
As for gas prices, it was $3.159 down here for 93 octane, and I think I paid $3.059 up there in PA.
Should read
$2.79
not
$2.19
They do that all the time (have misprints showing as the lowest in the USA)
The speculators and traders are back to driving it up. Just read an article with most "experts" stating the barrel price is aiming to beat the $76 mark we had last year, tickling $80. Seemed like the article was written just to boost the speculators and traders on to record prices.
One had the nerve to state consumers are fine with +$3 fuel, attitude being we could care less if the barrel price shot to $80 and fuel shot back to the $4 levels of early June. :mad:
I'm filling up today to beat the increase (have to get fuel for the mower anyway), at least for another week.
The $3.01 ~ $3.02 stations are now at $3.29 to $3.35 for 87 octane (my usual Meijers is at $3.29). So I noticed two price increases from them, one by roughly 10 cents and then an additional 17 cents.
The stations that were in the $3.08 ~ $3.10 range (Shell, Speedway, Mobil, BP) yesterday morning were $3.49 in the afternoon!!
I got "lucky" though. I went to the local Mobil by the house and the sign price was $3.15 but the pump price was $3.099. I filled up then went back and filled the gas can as well.
What the cuff is going on. :confuse:
But then the oil companies discovered a leak in a section of a refinery for BP in Whiting, IN (near Chicago) and there's a purported problem in Kansas at a refinery. Odd they raised the prices to $2.99 and then to $3.19 rapidly. That took care of the dropping gas prices.
There's an alleged shortage hence the need for the higher prices (Economics 101 they say). But I haven't seen any stations with "Out of Regular" signs on the pumps... no shortage--just high prices.
Local station is down to $3.17. Prices are dropping. Gas companies need to find another refinery to take offline for a time to raise them back up :sick:
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
$2.73 is about the lowest in town.
We've been over $3 for months, even when all the others were reporting below $3 fuel. There were a couple places downstate like Danville that had $2.999 but that's $3. Dekalb was in the $2.99 ~ $3.05 range until yesterday. We've been in the +$3 range since May 1st. The most I've paid is $3.53 (May 29th) but that was in the NW burbs. In Chicago at that time, petrol was $4.00 near downtown, over $4.00 in downtown. Chicago's been running in the $3.15 ~ $3.30 range, depending on where you lived; downtown higher. The lowest I've seen in the past 2 weeks was $2.95 for 87 octane at a Citgo near Fox Valley Mall, but you had to get a wash and buy at least 10 gallons.
In terms of Kansas are you talking about the refinery they're taking offline permanently? If that's the case it's a crock because that refinery has been pegged to close for years and was producing practically nothing anyway. The Indy deal, a little too shady, multiple stories going on about that one.
take the 14-15mpg my Pathfinder is getting. It might be traded for a Subaru Outback
this weekend. Only 16 payments left too.
When I see stations without regular I'll believe we're below needed output.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I saw that as well. I can't remember the exact percentage (too lazy to look up the article), but I believe it increased from ~87 to 90.3.
What's funny are the back to back to back articles of there's an inventory surplus, not wait that was artificial as supplies have dwindled, oh someone sneezed and the booger put a hole in a supply pipe that caused a massive rupture and explosion...
It's basic supply and demand where they have the supply and they demand we pay crazy prices. I've already cut back to darn near the minimum and I'm still getting hit hard. The Oldsy won't be seeing the light of day for a LONG time.
"...oh someone sneezed and the booger put a hole in a supply pipe that caused a massive rupture and explosion..."
Classic, simply classic. That's about right for an explanation of their "great need" to make it all right account-wise and make sure they're effectively gouging us to the fullest extent.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
In the other direction from my home, Hess went up minimally to $2.75, so I filled up one vehicle yesterday and topped off the second one today. Tomorrow, my wife will fill up the third, so we should be set for a while.