Fuel Prices Spike

Sounds like the economy is improving . . . or it is just the usual, mid-winter jump. Prices stay high until October/November.

Bob Wilson

 

Combination of refineries down for spring maintenance and the switch to more expensive summer blend.

 

I heard they sent a bunch to California because there was a shortage out there.

 

Around here, gas went up around 30 cents in the last couple of weeks while diesel pretty much stayed the same.

 

Ho-hum. Count your blessings; I was in Italy in November, € 1.72 for benzina, a few cents one way or the other for gasolio.

 

^^^Lets see (1.72 x $1.36)/0.2642 gal = $8.85/gal

 

Dang.. missed the dip.. only problem about filling up only a few times a year.. don't get good price averaging. Maybe I'll fill up before it gets worse.

 

Here in Southern Indiana, gas has jumped 45 cents give or take a penny here or there in the last 7 days.... But I am still under 9 cents a mile in my 11yr old prius. If I didn't have to make an in town 2 mile round trip in the mornings to take the kids to school I would be hovering around 7.8 cents a mile. But oh well, I'm still getting almost twice the mpg compared to my old car...

 

The rich boys playing with futures again......

 

It's the oil companies twice a year scam of "gummint regs" and "maintenance". We see it every summer and every winter. Nothing to do with either though it makes for a good excuse to increase profits as one can see in the oil company financial statements. The continuing recession has seen gasoline usage dip slightly from 2007 peak.

 

West coast prices are 3.75? Where can I go to get that price? I saw $4.02 on my way to the shop this morning. I'll find out the real price when I fill up later this morning at another station.

 

umm. If it was not government regulations why would they spike highest on the west coast every time? There is no reason LA needs different gas from Houston, but CARB has regulations in place to make the blends extremely different, even within the state. That means only California refineries can make it, and it will be more expensive. CARB also has gone after the refineries future profitability, which means they under invest and more maintenance emergencies will happen. They schedule maintenance when it will make them the most money. The second spike last year ended when the governor suspended CARB rules and allowed winter blends.... of which scientists even at carb said were unlikely to increase pollution. I can only assume CARB wants these price spikes. There are seasonal factors that do cause small changes in price, but remove the California and Oregon and Washington that are dependent on their refineries and the increase nationwide is small.

Average California gas prices surge, top $4 a gallon in L.A. - Los Angeles Times

 

Just filled up @ $4.02 per gallon.

1/02 = $3.64
1/12 = $3.64
1/19 = $3.64
1/29 = $3.78
2/07 = $4.02

 

This price spike brought to you by California regulators. The people of California also voted for AB32 which IIRC had the low carbon fuel initiative. This actually does nothing to reduce the carbon in the nations fuel, but it does make California refineries less profitable while keeping out fuel from refineries outside the state.

A few things would help. California could work with cities like Houston and the EPA to come up with a warm weather summer fuel formula that could be used in many high pollution places around the country. California could remove oil from cap and trade, which likely won't work anyway, and choose a higher tax rate for oil and refined products instead. That would remove the low carbon fuel and refinery cost uncertainty to get more investment in the state. With the current regulations its going to get worse for the next couple of years.

 

I just read an article on gasbuddy.com where legislatures are looking at doubling or tripling the fed gas tax.

 

Lawmakers Consider Raising The Federal Gas Tax For Road Repairs - keyetv.com Austin News, Weather, Traffic KEYE-TV Austin - Top Stories

If my math is correct it would go from (96.00/.184=521) 18.4 cents per gallon to (250.00/521=.48) 48 cents per gallon for the tax. Increase of 29.6 cents per gallon.

SO... 10 gallons of gas would cost $2.96` more. Wait, that's not much. I have yet to put more than 6 gallons in my Prius at a fill up. So my current 10 gallon projected cost to fill up (at current prices) would go from 35.99 to 38.95? DO IT! We need the funds to fix the roads and should have been done a long time ago! I'm still making out ahead on this!

Where it would hurt is for those who have SUVs and blow through 30 Gallons of gas a week. 3*2.96`= 8.88 making their 107.97 fill up be 116.85. Those SUV drivers are going to be hating it. Or those big pickups with dual tanks. 60 Gallons would go from 215.94 to 233.70.

It's really not that much of an increase. But over the year if this were to occur weekly:

(assuming the Prius has to be filled weekly. I'm no where near weekly in the need to fill)
Prius = 52*2.96= 153.92 more/yr
30 Gal SUV = 52*8.88 = 461.76 more/yr
60 Gal Truck = 52*17.76 = 923.52 more/yr

So those that would be hurt the most are heavy mile drivers or those with gas guzzlers. If you notice though, the extra cost in a tank of 60 Gal Truck is 17.76, take away the decimal point and use internet logic, the founding fathers and the signers of the declaration of independence approve of the tax being at this rate.

 

Yep, I didn't realize this was on my local news. I hope they phase it in over a couple of years. The florist they interviewed said he wished that they had put in an escalator to rise it. That would be the best way. Others like cato think an oil tax is better than a gas tax, if we want to push oil use down.

I don't think spending will change much, congress will just change from taking it from the general fund.

The guy they interviewed is a big local florist that needs many trucks to do deliveries. It will also go into food costs and other costs that are heavily dependent on fuel prices. It isn't very large compared to the price swings of oil.

I don't use as much gas as you. I just estimated 310 gallons per year, which comes out to an extra $93. Keye estimated $150 for the average texas driver. Your numbers look high, but we will be paying more for other things.

Its about time to do this. The timing is never right. I would have it phase in and have future increases built into the thing. I hope we are using less gasoline 10 years from now.

 

IL has gone up from 3.20 to 3.75, while just over the border went from 3.13 to 3.54

 

Yes the Midwest has gone up too this year as mentioned in that LA times piece and the one bellow, but it is not locked in for spikes like California. It is likely a one time event.
Midwestern states skew national gas price average » Local News » Niagara Gazette