Gas prices where you are located?

[BlackDiamond]

Isn't Capitalism, aka Greed, Wonderful!

While it is tempting to blame increased fuel prices on greed ( and the loss of Russian supplies due to the embargo) and certainly the oil companies seem to be doing well (although they are involved in lots of markets besides fuel production and sale) we shouldn't forget that it has been a deliberate policy to discourage domestic production as a way to encourage development of renewable energy. If you wanted the "green new deal" well you are getting what you wished for.

 

[Bob Dylan]

While it is tempting to blame increased fuel prices on greed ( and the loss of Russian supplies due to the embargo) and certainly the oil companies seem to be doing well (although they are involved in lots of markets besides fuel production and sale) we shouldn't forget that it has been a deliberate policy to discourage domestic production as a way to encourage development of renewable energy. If you wanted the "green new deal" well you are getting what you wished for.

Please read the Post about Record Profits for American Oil Companies.
I hope you'll agree that this is due to Greed, not a failure to produce more Domestic Oil, Which is another Catagory for discussion.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

While it is tempting to blame increased fuel prices on greed ( and the loss of Russian supplies due to the embargo) and certainly the oil companies seem to be doing well (although they are involved in lots of markets besides fuel production and sale) we shouldn't forget that it has been a deliberate policy to discourage domestic production as a way to encourage development of renewable energy. If you wanted the "green new deal" well you are getting what you wished for.

(1) Russian oil is a non-factor in the US and is still sold to India and China, (2) in the American market renewables rarely compete with petrol products, (3) the US has some of the lowest taxes on petrol products in the developed world, (4) oil companies are making record profits from selling oil-based products, and (5) the Green New Deal never passed. That leaves your post 0-5 but thanks for playing.

 

[Skyline]

$4.05 for regular is the cheapest this week in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, up from about $3.85 recently. The high point was $4.19. Under consideration is a temporary tax reduction.

 

[west point]

Buy in Georgia if traveling. State tax per gallon suspended. 7% sales tax still on. $3.79 SW of ATL.

 

[Bob Dylan]

We hit $2.00/litre today. Since there are basically 4 litres in a US gallon, with the dollar conversion that's around $6.20USD/gallon. A lot of that is tax of course, and we're about the middle of the pack when it comes to Canadian provinces. Diesel averages around 15% higher.

At least you pay with Loonies and not American Dollars!

 

[McIntyre2K7]

It's $4.49 for regular here and $5.59 for Diesel at the gas station down the street from my house. However the gas station (WAWA) has a promotion going on where if you pay using their app, you get 15 cents off a gallon between now and June 12th.

With everyone coming down to Tampa (to live and visit), I don't see the gas prices going down anytime soon since everyone has to drive to get around. If the area had good public transit, maybe prices would have dropped.

 

[tomfuller]

When I drove to LaPine Oregon yesterday morning, the price at the Shell station in Crescent was $4.999 for regular. I got $20 in LaPine at $4.699 which brought the tank up to half. Then I returned to Crescent, the price was up to $5.099 for regular. Diesel has been over $5.20/gallon for more than a month now in Oregon.

 

[gswager]

Just filled up gas at $4.39 per gallon at Costco in southern Idaho.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Gas here in Austin is running between $3.999 and $4.19 per Gallon depending on what Brand and what Location one buys from.

Diesel is over $5 a Gallon everywhere with a High of $5.69 I've seen.

Prices are going up Daily and people are starting to top off daily which is causing lines like the bad Ole Gas Shortages of the 1970s!!!

 

[flitcraft]

Prices at the station across the street from my university jumped 50 cents to 5.49 a gallon this week. Can't point to a reason why, since crude oil prices drifted down a little. Wait till school gets out in June--it'll be crazy, I think. Or rather, crazier...

 

[gswager]

Yup, summer is coming- travel season so the demand would be high if the economy doesn't affect them greatly.

 

[Willbridge]

As a veteran of gas shortages and price fluctuations I found this thread to be interesting. From these experiences I've learned that:

• the low price during an economic downturn is considered by customers to be the normal price later on.
• mass media usually do not correct historical comparisons for inflation.
• price rises eventually provoke political grandstanding.
• when an adequate supply (i.e., no gas station outages) exists, prices only increase to a level where customers start to take sensible actions to save money. Then prices hit a plateau. When this started, I predicted that the plateau would be US$4 a gallon (California is a special case.)
• the only way that it will sharply increase further is if supplies are interrupted. In that case, the market goes nuts, hoarding sets in, and crazy behavior like the guy filling his pick-up bed with gasoline sets in. Then the State Fire Marshall gets his or her 15 minutes of fame.
• the use of credit for gasoline and Diesel purchases results in a time lag before customers begin making adjustments.
• unfortunately, customers who feel forced onto transit or rail travel are a surly bunch. and look for things to complain about. As schedules are written for average loads, buses in particular tend to run late when there is an unplanned boom in ridership.

A user-friendly chart showing average annual U.S. gas prices and also the inflation-adjusted prices.

Historical Gas Prices By Year: What Affects Them [1978-2022] (axlewise.com)

 

[Willbridge]

That's very true - I lived in a town of around 30k in Sweden. The city bus service shut down in summer when school was out - it was essentially for school kids to get to school. There was a commuter bus service to the next city (around 50k, about 20/25 minutes away - I think that there may be rail now) and infrequent service to rural areas (also mainly school or long distance). And it was a railway town - the trains to Stockholm were bustling. Cycling and walking was easier, however, thanks to sidewalks and trails (usually paved and plowed) that went pretty much everywhere in the suburbs.

Some of the North American perception of really great European transit service is because we're using the systems for different purposes. Many of the suburbs have little interest for tourists. A few years ago I went out to Hönow, a suburb of Berlin, by riding the U5 and found the biggest bicycle park-n-ride that I had ever seen, probably built when this was part of the GDR. It was little used. I walked to the interesting village center. A suburban bus was an alternative, but it only ran every two hours. After a look around I walked back across the city limits to the excellent transit service.

The suburban buses are better patronized than their U.S. counterparts, partly due to the school ridership mentioned above and the price of gasoline (and the subsidized price of Diesel in the bad old days).

Here's a sample of 2002 prices per liter in Berlin, when the U.S. average was $1.44 per gallon.

 

[BlackDiamond]

(1) Russian oil is a non-factor in the US and is still sold to India and China,

I only mentioned Russian oil and an aside. Even if we don't import Russian oil, its non availability certainly affects the world price and this the price we pay as supplies overall are tightened.

(2) in the American market renewables rarely compete with petrol products,

I thought the whole point of promoting renewables was to reduce demand for petroleum products? I guess I'm missing something here.

(3) the US has some of the lowest taxes on petrol products in the developed world,

No argument here but this has little to do with the point I was making. Politicians know that proposing an increase in fuel taxes is a third rail, like privatizing Social Security.

(4) oil companies are making record profits from selling oil-based products,

I wonder at what point increased profits goes from being a sign of good management and becomes "greed". Seems somewhat subjective.

and (5) the Green New Deal never passed. That leaves your post 0-5 but thanks for playing.

Just because the GND never passed doesn't mean that administration policy, which appears to lean toward placating the "Greens" in the party, isn't trying to move in those directions e.g. cancelling the Keystone pipeline, discouraging new oil exploration, etc.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

Some of the North American perception of really great European transit service is because we're using the systems for different purposes. Many of the suburbs have little interest for tourists. A few years ago I went out to Hönow, a suburb of Berlin, by riding the U5 and found the biggest bicycle park-n-ride that I had ever seen, probably built when this was part of the GDR. It was little used. I walked to the interesting village center. A suburban bus was an alternative, but it only ran every two hours. After a look around I walked back across the city limits to the excellent transit service.

The suburban buses are better patronized than their U.S. counterparts, partly due to the school ridership mentioned above and the price of gasoline (and the subsidized price of Diesel in the bad old days).

Very true - as sort of an off topic tidbit or aside, Sweden shut down most of their streetcar systems in Octobre '67 with the switch to right hand driving (only two cities kept theirs along with the remnants in Stockholm). Norway has been opening and closing the two systems outside of Oslo on and off for years.

 

[MARC Rider]

I thought the whole point of promoting renewables was to reduce demand for petroleum products? I guess I'm missing something here.

Just because the GND never passed doesn't mean that administration policy, which appears to lean toward placating the "Greens" in the party, isn't trying to move in those directions e.g. cancelling the Keystone pipeline, discouraging new oil exploration, etc.

In the transportation sector, petroleum replacement is a long-term project. Not only do battery electric cars need to come down in price to be affordable to the masses, but charging infrastructure needs to be built out, too. This is all happening, but it's not there yet.

I'm also not sure what government policies have been enacted over the past two years that have discouraged petroleum production. And more oil exploration is not any sort of panacea, as the easiest to find and cheapest petroleum has already been discovered, so any new discoveries will only be economic to produce at high prices of gasoline and other petroleum products. And the Keystone Pipeline is irrelevant, as it was just going to ship cruddy Tar Sands goop down to Louisiana for refining and export.

 

[flitcraft]

wonder at what point increased profits goes from being a sign of good management and becomes "greed". Seems somewhat subjective.

Well, when commodities are in short supply because of wartime, we tend to call increased profits "profiteering." Seems the shoe fits here...

 

[slasher-fun]

Here's a sample of 2002 prices per liter in Berlin, when the U.S. average was $1.44 per gallon.

View attachment 28422

Currently ~2.10€/L, that's 8.29$/gallon.

EDIT: not sure about how that is in the US, but in Europe gas prices are displayed with all taxes included.

 

[MARC Rider]

I wonder at what point increased profits goes from being a sign of good management and becomes "greed". Seems somewhat subjective.

Well, in government contracting world, they actually had a method for calculating allowable profits. I had to study it, even though I wasn't involved in such calculations (I was what was known as a "contracting officer's representative," at a contracting officer, which is the technical manager of the contract, the terms of which had previously been negotiated by the actual contracting officers.) It's pretty arcane, but I don't think it ever exceeded 8% of the costs. This sort of thing is mostly used in cost-plus contracts, in which the contractor takes virtually no risk. Of course, the total costs include labor costs loaded with overhead, so there are ways for the contractor to get more gravy out of the contract than the calculated "profits." Fortunately, our contractor didn't also charge outlandish items to the project costs, the sort of thing that is apparently more common in some military contracts.

I suspect that the oil companies will claim that they're taking risks, and that high profits at one end offset losses at other times, though I think they have the market sewn up so well that the risks are very well controlled. Anyway, I haven't seen a major oil company go belly-up in a long time, if ever. Another thing to keep in mind is that the production and sales of gasoline isn't 100% vertically integrated. The big oil companies I believe drill, pump, and refine the stuff, but the distribution is independent and so are the retail outlets. So there's other places where profiteering can be happening outside of the big oil companies.

 

[SwedeC]

One thing regarding big oil taking risks. We could be having lower prices in the future but those who drill and those who build refineries are scared crap-less over what this changeable administration might do.

If I put in a few billion to build a new refinery I want assurance that I'll be allowed to use it, not have it yanked out from under me.

 

[Asher]

Just this eve, $6.29 per gallon for the cheapest gas. Hawthorne Ca. Ridiculous.

 

[west point]

Suspect that it is trading back and forth raising the price of oil each time. House of cards will collapse sooner or later.

 

[Tk48states]

Oil is a worldwide commodity and price is mainly governed by laws of supply and demand, while governments can intervene to manipulate prices availability and use eventually determines costs. Interesting to note ask anybody in US the current S&P index number and few will know the answer, ask current price of gasoline and anybody with a car will know.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

It's been my understanding that there have been petroleum leases on Federal land that have gone unleased - and that some new ones have been released recently. My assumption is that they were unleased because of the cost of extraction vs oil price.