Tony's Rant on Gas Prices: Part 17

[AnthonyDeAngelo]

Call me a ding, a dirty old man, an aging porn star or whatever you like but I just don't get it. Here we are with all this extra oil and the prices of gas continue to rise.

And what ticks me off is this - Cam and I live in an area that's full of the stuff and we see the tankers moving it from here to there all the time. And we see the happy faces of our friends who get their regular payouts from their leases so... what the fuck? Why does our local gas cost so MUCH more than our neighbors in Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Francisco or LA?

Well today, I was reading something and it kind of makes sense (I think) but I'm not real sure. I think I need that 6yo explanation one more time to get this Yahoo report...

Crude oil is getting cheaper — so why isn't gas?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090215/ap_on_bi_ge/gas_prices_unhinged

[Seth]

They're inching it up now so that by the Summer driving season we'll be used to paying well over $4 a gallon again.

Plus what might happen if Exxon Mobil doesn't post yet another record breaking quarterly profit?

[desslock]

And what ticks me off is this - Cam and I live in an area that's full of the stuff and we see the tankers moving it from here to there all the time. And we see the happy faces of our friends who get their regular payouts from their leases so... what the fuck? Why does our local gas cost so MUCH more than our neighbors in Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Francisco or LA?


You do not know why?

Well to start - you live in a state which under the guise of environment protection requites the sale of a specific kind of gasoline.

You know how gay porn costs more then straight porn because of its smaller market and higher cost? Same with the gas you are having to pay for.

Steve

[basschick]

i believe their gas costs more than gas sold elsewhere in the same state...


You do not know why?

Well to start - you live in a state which under the guise of environment protection requites the sale of a specific kind of gasoline.

You know how gay porn costs more then straight porn because of its smaller market and higher cost? Same with the gas you are having to pay for.

Steve

[desslock]

Well here's another factor -

How's your area's inventory of underground storage tanks doing? Cities typically have underground tanks which can store several days worth of gasoline for an area, however constructing new facilities has become progressively more difficult either by environmental groups raising legal actions or neighborhood groups blindly fearing something as terrible as a tank farm within several miles of their house.

Here the local Austin NIMBY crowd defeated the construction of a new tank farm --- which means that my town's gasoline supply now relies on a just in time inventory system.

Los Angeles may be like Houston, which has a number of storage tank facilities --- which means for the consumer that prices will not be as volatile.

Steve

[Mickey]

as a european i cant take your rants on gas prices seriously seeing how we pay aprox the same for 1/4 gallon as you do for a gallon...

so from the bottom of my "i am driving a small compact car" heart i ask that you STFU - you have it way too good over there and if you didnt buy V12 gas guzzlers when you could easily get by with a small normal car you wouldnt really have a problem...

----

please dont take the text above too personal, its just my normal text for when people from the US complain about gas prices.. i personally fully understand that any kind of price raise from what you normally pay is a bitch no matter where you are in the world but the text is designed to push some buttons just for fun...

so no hard feelins i hope :)

[Squirt]

Gosh I'm not sure where some of you are getting your info but the reason gas prices are going up, when we have an oil surplus, is because of the futures market, which is people betting on the future demand for oil.

This is why they should shut down the futures market! It's like gambling on how high prices will go, and in the process, making prices go higher. Who benefits from any futures market? Business, rarely the consumer.

But don't expect Obama to come to the rescue real quick.... they'll wait for extremely high gas prices to get everyone scared again, and suffer, then he'll come up with an emergency plan for the auto market to drastically change to green cars, just at the same time they'll be asking for more funding ... this summer :cool:

http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/commodities/cfutures.html

Crude Oil Pares Gains, Trades Near $38 on Slowing Global Demand (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602013&sid=acN4cLmLU1VU&refer=commodity_futures)