Cost of gas before Defcon

[astcell]

And to think folks will take 5 hours off work to sit in line to save $15. My time is more valuable than that!

Best price I saw was a dealer who won a trip to Hawaii by having the lowest gas prices, and he chose the lowest amount possible to pump at: 1/10th of a cent per gallon!

[highwizard]

Oh, gas is now down to $0.94 here in Colorado Springs at a few locations, but it is only good for today (June 7, 2004)

*I guess two of our local radio stations are having a taken over and as part of it you can fill up for 94 cents a gallon at one of the Shell Stations and another gas station that I'm not sure of.*

You guys aren't lucky, you don't have Wawa out there who has unheard of low gas prices! Woohoo!

[lil_freak]

And to think folks will take 5 hours off work to sit in line to save $15. My time is more valuable than that!

It wasn't that bad of a wait, I only had to wait about ten min. before I was able to pull up to the pump. Plus, I didn't take time off work to do it.

You guys aren't lucky, you don't have Wawa out there who has unheard of low gas prices! Woohoo!

We may not be, but I'm happy anyway.

[skroo]

So, it looks like this was pretty much dead & buried almost two months before Defcon, but thought it might make an interesting comparative exercise to see how much gas has gone up since the original post.

Here in Los Angeles, the highest price I've seen recently is $2.77/gallon for 87-octane. We've had an almost 25% increase in the cost of a gallon of gas over the last month (it had stabilised around $2.00/gallon in most places) with an eyeball average of around $2.40 at most pumps.

gaspricewatch.com is pegging the national average at around $2.09/gallon - compared to the $1.76 average from last March, this is a 19% increase nationally over the last seven months. What this means is that the additional 20% increase seen in the LA area over the last month is completely out of line with what's happened nationally.

To put this in perspective, I found a gas receipt in my car a couple of months back from mid-February. That vehicle uses 91-octane (premium) gas, for which I paid $1.72/gallon. Given the usual 20c/gallon difference between premium and regular unleaded, this means 87-octane prices were probably around $1.52. For the sake of argument, I'll give myself a 3c/gallon handicap and round up to $1.55. That's an 85c/gallon difference (based on the current $2.40 gallon) in seven months, or an increase in price of approximately 55%.

I'm calling bullshit on the oil companies. Two things come to mind here:

- The oil companies are deliberately gouging California drivers - more so than the rest of the country. We rack up the most miles per annum of anywhere in the US, therefore we put the most money in their pockets, making us an easy target for fleecing. Crude oil prices are through the roof, yet there is no apparent reason for the 'shortage' being reported beyond production cuts backed up with vague rhetoric about 'production issues'.

- We have a presidential election coming up. I'll risk sounding paranoid to suggest that this is a calculated effort to force voter opinion towards a change of government.

Quite frankly, I'm getting sick of this crap. What's worse is that nobody appears to be actually taking any sort of stand against it in the media - which is what's required to get the public's attention drawn to the issue in order to force the oil companies to change their behaviour.

As much as I am opposed to government regulation of industry beyond basic controls, this is getting out of hand. Someone needs to step in and fix the fucking problem.

[Voltage Spike]

As much as I am opposed to government regulation of industry beyond basic controls, this is getting out of hand. Someone needs to step in and fix the fucking problem.

Unregulated commerce with necessities can be a problem. Protesting is not an option for most people, so what else can we do besides cry to our government?

You could also make the argument that we are getting the lowest price due to competition, so the government doesn't need to regulate the industry. However, the assumption is that there are many people out there with the drive and resources to become competitive in the nation's oil market.

In other words, I want cheap gas, but I'm too ignorant of the situation as a whole to change it.

[allentrace]

Around here in northern Kentucky it is about $2.08 for 93 octanes. However I do understand the complaint about the oil prices in California having lived there for 8 years. I see the problem as being mainly OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) who have 11 countries as members, which currently supply more than 40% of the world's oil and possess about 78% of the world's total proven crude oil reserves. Sadly this nation has high demand for foreign oil something, which I have to say we can solve by opening up our own oil reserves mainly in the ANWR. Something, which is controversial but would no doubt be effective. That is not to say that I want Alaska as one big oil field, considering I spend at least 2 months out of the year up there in Skagway where my fathers family lives. I just think it makes more sense to control our own oil futures, (pun intended) than to let some Arabic princes finance our destruction which OPEC has done so in the past.

"OPEC decisions have a large influence on world price of oil. A good example of this in action was the oil shock following the Yom Kippur War, which led to fourfold increase in the price, which lasted five months, starting on October 17, 1973 and ending on March 18, 1974. Also, OPEC nations agreed on January 7, 1975 to raise crude oil prices by 10%. Unlike many other cartels, OPEC has been successful at increasing the price of oil for extended periods. Much of the success of OPEC comes from the willingness of Saudi Arabia to tolerate cheating on the part of other cartel members and to cut its own production when other members go over theirs. This actually gives them good leverage, since with most members at full production, the Saudis are the only ones with spare capacity and the ability to increase supply if needed." -Wikipedia