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Report Your Local Gas Prices Here (retired discussion, please see the new one)
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PF Flyer
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Pickups & News & Views Message Boards
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
This week filling up in the SF Bay Area $2.09 at Alpha Gas, $2.19 next door at Chevron (regular).
What? I was not equating the recent price increases we've experienced with higher prices elsewhere. Prices overseas are higher for different reasons that why our prices go up. Oil companies operate in a free market and to an extent, it is an oligopoly, sure. But, that's a function of the industry. Think how inefficient it would be to have 100s of companies trying to refine oil all over the place at the same time. Prices would likely be higher since the current oil companies have been able to secure tremendous economies of scale.
I tend to be cynical when I want, but I simply am not in this case. I don't presume that somewhere someone is gouging us just because they can. Why do I believe this? Because, in the world's largest gasoline market, we enjoy one of the lowest average gasoline prices in the industrialized world. So, if we were prone to being gouged by the horrible oil companies, why aren't prices even higher?
The problem is not supply of oil, OPECs cuts or even the filling of the SPR. It's a refining issue--our demand for gasoline exceeds our ability and/or capacity to refine it as quickly as needed.
At any rate, I really don't understand the problem. If the price is too high, it is like any other product, use less. Whether it be buying a smaller vehicle or driving less. And I am not talking about forcing people to drive hockey pucks--you're free to drive whatever you want--I'm not a tree hugging crybaby who thinks Hummers are a sign of the apocalypse. But don't complain about your gas costs when prices increase if you drive a vehicle that is relatively inefficient.
Look at it this way and it's an example I've used before. Many people in my small town commute to a larger city 30 miles away.
Let's say I drive a vehicle that gets 15 mpg. I use 4 gal of fuel/day for my commute (for the purposes of the example, ignore running around town, etc). At $1.50/gal my fuel costs are $120/mo for my commute. But at $2/gal, my costs are $160/mo. So is that $40/mo a massive difference? Having been in bad spot before, I know it can be. But, should I then rant and rave about anyone but myself for driving this 15 mpg vehicle? No. The price is what it is--it certainly is not gouging and it isn't illegal. You can choose not to pay.
Gouging is what happened in our town on 9/11. 2 stations in town raised their price by $0.50 to $0.75 a gallon. 2 did not. People, for whatever idiotic panic-driven stupid reason, were lined up around the block for gas. I was at a quarter tank and filled up days later when I needed gas. I refuse to buy gas to this day from the stations that raised prices. That's the market at work, because one owner who raised prices was embarrassed in the local paper.
Soapbox off. Sorry to offend, if I did.
Anywho, petrol here in good ol' Chicago north side is averaging $1.979/2.079/2.179, based on casual observation.
PF Flyer
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Pickups & News & Views Message Boards
Albuquerque $1.67
Santa Fe $1.79
El Paso $1.64
Amarillo $1.60
Denver $1.74
Durango $1.79
Flagstaff $1.95
Tucson $1.91
Las Vegas $2.12
The biggest jumps from last week were Flagstaff and Tucson both up 6 cents.
kcram
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Smart Shopper and FWI Message Boards
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Gas on the north side of Chicago is still holding at $1.999/2.099/2.199 at most stations.
It's actually in Shorewood -- but who's heard of Shorewood? :-)
The intersection of Route 59 and Black Road has the Dominicks with the gas pumps. Their advertised price is $1.78, but the Dominicks card gives you three cents off per gallon. In the olden days, there would be special, unannounced times when you would get 6 cents or even 9 cents off per gallon. Haven't had one of those in a long time.
There was a Dominicks on Jefferson Street, but it closed a while ago, along with alot of other commercial properties.
Don't tell me you're a JCA grad -- my wife is an alum of Providence Catholic, ya know!
Shorewood's a nice little town, though not as little as it used to be. We did get two car dealerships in the past couple of years.
in a vain attempt to keep this on topic, the gas stations by the car dealerships (and I55) are about 10 cents/gallon higher than Dominicks.
BTW-our sunny-sun-sunshiny weather we experienced today is going to last throughout the weekend and get a tad warmer day by day, too. We'll be in the 70's and sunny this weekend. Whoo-hoo!
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
We'll be breaking the $2.50 barrier soon. Prices seems to be rising about .5 cents a week now out here.
Cheapest I can find for premium anywhere I've looked is $2.29.
PF Flyer
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Pickups & News & Views Message Boards
Bottgers,I am far from a Bush supporter, but I have to ask, what exactly do you expect Bush (or any President, for that matter) to be able to do? OPEC is cartel. It controls a large amount of the current production capacity, but also future production. They can choose, in their own right, how much or how little to produce. They could flood the market and probably bring prices down 50 cents (or more). But, that doesn't solve increased demand, Iraq instability, etc. I've said it before and apparently, it bears repeating. Oil prices, in large measure are set by futures markets. Futures traders are wacky for often inexplicable reasons. They drive up the price because they THINK demand will be very high or OPEC MIGHT cut production or whatever. pf flyer's report of 1.699 in his area is seemingly incongruent with my report of 1.829--an area that does not use reformuated gas and is nearby a larg(ish) port (Green Bay).
Our price is not higher because of OPEC. In fact, it is probably impossible to pinpoint a singular reason why--likely a result of 5 or 6 or 10 variables.
If you sold widgets and you were prescient enough to know exactly what market equilibrium was for your product everyday, wouldn't you produce that many widgets? Similarly, OPEC knows if it produces too little, prices will become so high as to affect demand and if they produce too much, prices will fall to the point of not being economically intelligent.
As it is, most OPEC members have a poor history of following quotas anyway--so what matter is what's actually produced, not what the committee decides. (Which might explain why, despite all the talk of decreased production, pf flyer's prices have not gone up).
Lastly, you cannot deposit crude oil directly into your tank. It must be refined into gasoline. Thus, if OPEC produced every drop of oil it possibly could, that still might not affect gas prices, as refining capacity in the US is near maximum already and most refining is done here, since it doesn't pay to refine it elsewhere and THEN ship the huge numbers of different refined products to us.
So, since you expect the POTUS to solve this supposed crisis, I'm wondering what your proposed solution would be? What do you suggest?
Not trying to make any SENSE here, just rambling out loud...
PF Flyer
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Pickups & News & Views Message Boards
Let me ask you this, if what OPEC does doesn't control, or at least have a profound affect on gas prices, then why is it every time there's even talk of tight supplies due to either a decrease in production, or an OPEC refusal to increase production to meet an increase in demand, the price at the pump jumps almost instantainiously? OPEC and big oil companies run the world and that's exactly what's wrong with this whole picture.
Now if the price doesn't jump around Friday of this coming week here, I may have to check the snowfall accumulation in the infernal regions... the Penn State spring football game is on Saturday and the stations around here NEVER miss a chance to have 60,000 extra people filling up to go home at a slightly higher price.
PF Flyer
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Santa Fe $1.82
El Paso $1.65
Amarillo $1.66
Denver $1.78
Durango $1.82
Las Vegas $2.13
Flagstaff $1.98
Tucson $1.91
All of these prices are up from last week. Albuquerque's prices just started to go up yesterday to $1.75 per gallon.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Exxon - $1.689
Shell - $1.619
Mobil - $1.599
Hess - $1.599
Raceway - $1.579
NJTPK (Sunoco) - $1.669
This is NOT self-serve!
......Bush is just sitting back and doing nothing about these gas prices.
You must be on his Cabinet if you know this to be true.
The idea of running an oil company IS to make profits. Are they supposed to make NONE?
Not just the oil companies.