gas price hike...

Makes no difference what the price is but just noticed something yesterday (Easter Sunday). Wife and I drove by a gas station late saturday evening and saw the fuel price, then went to breakfast and for a walk in the local wildlife park (around church time and daytrip start time). Fuel across the board at the same station was 13 cents a liter higher than about 9 hours before. Drove by the same station yesterday evening (8 hours later) and it was all back to where it was the night before. This wasn't a mom & pop place either and the other stations that were open were doing the same at varying degrees......

Someone tell me again how that free market and supply/demand is such a good thing......

Always pays to keep fuel in your vehicle and plan a little.

They know we need gas.

Folks here are having fits , gas price is $1.40 pre litre.

I have heard that the oil companies are exporting
gas and diesel to keep the supply here where they
want it to make the most profit.

Went to mother-in-laws for dinner yesterday 30 mile from home and gas is always cheaper there so we fillup over there . Gas here is 4.05 . We pull in to station we always go to and it is 3.79 , across the street it is 3.91 and there was as many people over there as the place we were . A few cents Dont make alot of change eather way but $.12 across the street why would anyone be over there ?

Of course they do! That's why more subsidized ethanol is shipped and sold southwards, they still make a higher profit. And really, that's what I would do, too, in our capitalistic world. What gripes me are folks saying that we need to drill more so we get to oil independence. Fact is and always will be that unless you restrict the sale of domestic energy, mainly oil and gas to the domestic market (some would call that "socialism, communism")and limit profits, we will never have even a shot at energy independence. Great carrot on a stick and works with the ill informed! Especially in an election year!! -- Don't "they" just love "us"??!!
A sarcastic Ralph in OK.
BTW, I really don't mind the bottleneck in Cushing, OK, keeps the price of gas down in Oklahoma... (unleaded 3.75 in SW OK)!!LOL

We are exporting ethanol to south America also, because they
get more for it. We can never drill our way out of this,
conservation is the only way.

Gasoline or energy for that matter is a commodity bought and sold on the world
market. If the value of our dollar goes down in world , say because someone is
printing money so he can give it to people to vote for him or they can give it
back to him so he can buy advertisements encouraging US to vote for him our
gas prices will go up. Additionally you have emerging economies like India and
China that are starting to use much more gas, I have heard some of these
governments are even subsidizing energy costs for their population. About the
magic price increases during peak travel periods, was it price gouging? maybe
retail gas sales is a cutthroat industry, I'm not saying it was right but it
might be a business decision that they made to stay in business. In Wisconsin
they can only change prices ONCE a day, however if they violate that law the
ELECTED District Attorney, Attorney General and Consumer Protection division
of the department of Agriculture won't get off their over paid unionized half
moons and do anything....AND WE REELECT THEM!!!!! So whose fault is it? If the
gas business is such a gravy train buy yourself a store and cut the fat hog.

Someone tell me again how that free market and supply/demand is such a good thing......



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You think a government command economy will work any better?

Around here, there are "seasonal" increases. Since we're 30 miles outside of Louisville, KY...the price always goes up [just as hotel/motel room prices rise] just before the first Saturday in May [Kentucky Derby Day]. They may or may not go down before the annual Memorial Day weekend price increase, at the end of May.

In the last few years, hotel/motel room prices spike again, along with gasoline prices, just before the first weekend in August, when the NSRA Street Rod Nationals bring 13,000 cars and a related number of guests into Louisville.

My guess is, what you saw was an Easter price spike. Don't know if people go to visit family on Easter as much as they did when I was a kid, but I would imagine there's a significant amount of travel on Easter weekend...and some stations are more than willing to cash in with higher prices.

That said...gasoline prices on Saturday were between $3.99 and $4.09 a gallon for regular around here. Across the bridge in Brandenburg, KY, the pump price was $3.83 a gallon. With my Kroger discount points, I paid $3.63 a gallon. Since I had some business in Brandenburg anyway, it was well worth waiting until I got there to fill up.

Tell you how supply and demand are a good thing. How about how it brought a fledgling country to the leader of the world in about 150 years.

How about how our standard of living is higher than anywhere else int he world.

I could list more, but it wouldn't help.

So if you don't like free markets, what do you advocate to replace them? Collectivism?

If the oil industry weren't so highly regulated perhaps more people would start oil producing companies, incresing competition and supply, thereby lowering prices. How's that for a solution?

We can drill our way out, and we will, while you standby bellyachin the whole way.

North Dakota has 200 years worth of oil. Texas nearly as much, and Alaska too We have more oil in the US than they do in Saudi Arabia.

But you can go on huggin trees and telling us how a non-existent industry will save us all.

Kook

Go do 15 minutes of research on how much oil is still in the ground in the continental US. We have enough to meet our needs for 300 years.

Limit profits? How about the government come in and limit YOUR money. You'd be ok with that, wouldn't you? No? Just the other guys? That's what I thought.

Another lefty kook.

Gas prices here are about the same as last year--$3.89 gas and $4.14 diesel. Drove to Dallas last spring and that was average on whole trip. So they haven't went up since last year much.

Indiana Red, it looks like you didn't understand the meaning of my post at all even though I "signed" it with "A sarcastic Ralph in OK" and that I pointed out that ".....that's what I would do, too,...."
As far as the reserves are concerned, sure, there's plenty, never disputed that, but the fact I pointed out is that a large portion of US oil is exported, and we import at the same time the other portion (to make up 100% of our need)because doing it that way makes the most money to the oil companies. Therefore independence from foreign oil will not happen. (True independence would be reached by producing 100% of our domestic oil needs AND keeping it here with no imports of oil from abroad.)Hope this clarifies it a bit more. Your "lefty kook" Ralph from Oklahoma.lol

The Federal Reserve Bank has been printing money for years, they are a privately held company, the government only makes coins these days, banks control the rest. There is your free market at work.

The same Companies are here, You can bet London to a brick {originally termed by a race caller] that the price will rise just before a holiday when more traffic is on the road and this Easter was no exception. Tie that in with the up and down of the dollar. The Govt. makes nil efforts to control it because of their vested interest, fuel tax.

Just want to refer to my answer to your comments a little further down in this thread: Drilling for and extracting the oil from the ground is bringing the oil to the market. Here, we no longer live just in our country economy, with a meager ~330 million inhabitants, but in a world economy with more than ~7 billion + (or 7000 million) people that want and need the same oil. I can sell it to 330 million and make a profit, or I can let the other ~6700 million people compete and drive up the price, thus making so much more money for me. Guess what I will do, what you will do? We actually will do the same thing. That's capitalism, the law of supply and demand.
Let's say I envy you making so much money of oil and other energy. I can buy you out, can compete or start chipping away from your advantage by making your oil and energies worth less and at the same time increase my (currently worth almost nothing) alternatives such as wind, hydro, solar etc. I hire the best lobbyists, PR companies and start chipping. That's what BP (British Petroleum) is doing! Why are they doing it? because there is a (and I didn't say "the only" future) in it and BP, as well as others would like to be the first at the table and hold on to their newly created shares and MAKE MONEY!!
Pretty good examples include: telegraph, phones, wireless. Or candles, light bulbs, fluorescent, LCD, or records, 8-tracks, cassettes, CD, memory sticks/digital/chips. I think you get the picture.
Have a great evening, IndianaRed, and I am glad that we can all post our thoughts here, however common or odd they may seem to others,. Ralph in Oklahoma.