ya its pretty retarted how it does that has droped .50 cents in the last 3 weeks. I hear alot of people thinking its normal and they are liking the drop and they are not thinking ahead when its going to back up to 3.00 bucks agian

 

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Just bought gas. Phillips 66 regular unleaded - $2.059

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Is that a typo? It's $2.46 around here. Amazing how happy people are to pay $2.50 now. Remember the stink when it topped $2?

 

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Just bought gas. Phillips 66 regular unleaded - $2.059

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Is that a typo? It's $2.46 around here. Amazing how happy people are to pay $2.50 now. Remember the stink when it topped $2?

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No typo. Two dollars and five point nine cents per gallon.

I saw it predicted to be UNDER $2 just before the election.

 

That's cool. Must be a big difference in state taxes or something. Oh well! It won't affect the way I vote! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

this is no different than any year i can remember, gas starts going up right before memorial day weekend, and starts dropping right after labor day w/e(i got home from camp on 9-6-06, gas had dropped a full 30 cents)

this has been going on for years on end, the oil companies dont have enough refineries or storage(so they say), so they claim it to be simple supply and demand.....

funny how #2 fuel oil prices typically go just the opposite

the only way our govt can truly influence the prices at the pump is when the pols decide it will make us all feel better if they "suspend" the gas tax...wake up!, govt will make up the lost revenue elsewhere folks

 

I dont care if it goes down to $1 per gallon as Americans we still need to use ethenol and bio diesel and promote the renewable energy. E-20 will run fine in all gas vehicles and reduce our dependance on foreign oil by 20% Bio diesel will work in ALL diesel vehicles and repace the lubricity in the new EPA mandated ultra low sulfer diesel.
Ask any old bootlegger how an old Buick V8 ran on pure grain alcohol, (ethanol) clean & fast!

 

At Costco in St. Louis they were selling regular for $1.99.9 yesterday.

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E-20 will run fine in all gas vehicles and reduce our dependance on foreign oil by 20%

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Maybe. Maybe not. There have been seemingly respectable university studies conclude that it takes as much as 20% more energy to produce alcohol from grain than is in the alcohol produced. I certainly don't know whether that's true or not, but it seems as likely to be correct as the claim of 20% savings of imported oil.

What I am very sure of is that if it were economically feasible (meaning profitable) to produce alcohol for fuel on a large scale, businesses, including oil companies, would be scrambling to do it, and government subsidies and guarantees wouldn't be needed. And if alcohol were cheaper to buy than gasoline, drivers would switch to it in a heartbeat.

Here in farm-state Illinois, alcohol is heavily subsidized for motor fuel, both directly and with a cut in road-use taxes. There was an article in the local fishwrapper a few weeks ago about a station starting to sell E80. Great News! Cheap Fuel! was the slant of the headlines. The article stated the current prices for regular and E80. I don't remember what they were, but I calculated that the E80 was about 10% cheaper. Near the end of the article it mentioned that alcohol contains about less energy, so your mileage will go down by about 20%.

Maybe they'll eventually figure out how to produce alcohol more cheaply. When they do, I'll buy it.

 

I heard something on the news today regarding summer vs winter gas mixtures. They said the winter mixture,from the refineries, are cheaper. I tryed to find out why, but to no avail. I still think it's just gouging during the high driving season.

 

I just paid 2.36 at the local mobil.

 

Apparently the price of crude has dropped. If it costs less to buy, it stands to reason the selling price can be less.

Is the price of labor any less now? What changed?
Nothing? Then it must be the cost of the raw materials - crude.

The oil company profits remain about the same - in spite of the news media hype. Sure the profits are alot of money, but look at the profit as a percentage of the gross sales, it's very low compared to any other business except government itself - the government that takes taxes out of your pockets.

 

Jim Lou check out www.earthbiofuels.com Do some research and you will find that the cost is in the blending of the fuels more than the production of E20. I can use E-80 im my carurated vehicles and it runs fine, but unless your injected computerized engine is set up for E80 it will see it as a "thin" fuel and overcompensate, giving you less fuel milage. Its sad to say, but there are no American oil companies. So they are fighting it tooth and nail. OPEC hates it, renewable fuels cut into thier profits! As an OTR driver thier greed has really cut into MY profits. I of course use diesel, and I use alot of B20 and get B-100 when I can get it. 100% bio diesel, nothing but soybean oil! When I pump 250 - 300 gallons of B100 into my truck, I just say thanks to the American farmer, and know I'm doing my part to get the ******** out of my pockets. By the way, I get B100, B20 and regular diesel for the same price.
I was in Neb. E20 was a few cents cheaper than reg unleaded. Same in KS dint see any Ethonol in OK or TX.

 

The lowest I've seen was $2.429 at the Cookery in North East, Maryland. I was gassing up after a visit to, of all places, Washington, D.C. on Saturday evening.

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Just bought gas. Phillips 66 regular unleaded - $2.059

Hmmmmm, getting close to election time. The only thing I hate more about government doing this for political reasons is the government being ABLE to do this.

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Would you please explain how 'the government' does this???

I would think that it would be in the incumbants(either the Congress or the Administration) interest to keep gasoline prices as low as possible all the time, if in fact they have control of them. If they do have control, why do they let them rise and risk political damage??

 

Gas here is 2.29 Diesel is 2.60 and It just did come down. Figures I buy a diesel a few years ago when diesel was cheaper than gas and wala now gas is cheaper than diesel.


As for the politicians. I would not at all be supprised to find out the previous posters were right on either side of the issue. Oil is a hot topic and to be the one who solves the problem even on the short term makes you a hero in alot of folks books.

I just want to see the price of diesel go down. I don't pay anything for gas. It just rides in on trailers screaming take me,,, take me,,, and since I can't dump it out I filter it and run it in the wife's car.

 

Well we hit bottom yesterday. $1.98 last night, $2.24 this morning when I went to fill up.

 

not sure how the govt effects prices.. since the gas taxes dont change... it would be the oil companies that change the prices... and i know there are ties to the govt... but like stated above.. it does this every year...

 

I came across this graph and thought it was interesting. Notice the slight price gap between US and them.

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SOURCE

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I think CJTaz has it backwards. It's not the Government affecting prices, it's the big oil companies affecting Government.

Prices are not regulated by Gov. but no one will convince me there is not some price, uh, manipulation (yeah, that's the ticket) going on between companies.

CNN reports national average of $2.50 this morning and price is expected to continue to fall for a few more weeks.

 

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Prices are not regulated by Gov. but no one will convince me there is not some price, uh, manipulation (yeah, that's the ticket) going on between companies.

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I think it is less manipulation than complete inflexibility. Big oil has tied our cost directly to the stock market. Any increase in stock price, for any reason, gets passed directly on to the consumer. What other business other than energy gets to immediately pass on expense increases to it's customer base, without control or consequence? I know I don't. My customers could care less what my expenses are and if my costs go up, I had better be able to offer something to offset that cost or they are going elsewhere. I have competitors. Big Oil does not. Their pricing structure seems to be pretty much fixed no matter the company and they all toe the line. How else can you account for virtually identical pricing no matter the company you purchase your fuel from?

I am quite certain the scenario goes pretty much "How much profit will we make this quarter gentleman? Fifteen billion? Everyone agree?" and then come hell, war, or high water, they will get their $15B no matter what price you and I have to pay.

 

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How else can you account for virtually identical pricing no matter the company you purchase your fuel from?

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Easy! If any company tries to charge significantly more than the others they will suddenly sell much less and make less profit. Make the price significantly lower than the others and their gas will sell so well that they'll soon run out of stock, have nothing to sell and lose money.

For a penny a gallon cheaper you'll drive across the street if there isn't a line at the pump. For a dime cheaper you'll wait in line. For a quarter cheaper you'll drive across town and wait in line.

 

What, NOBODY knows why the price of gasoline went down?

It wasn’t alignment of the stars. It wasn’t divine intervention. It wasn’t magic.

 

taz, did you read the posts here at all?

several of us hit on parts of the answer...

supply and demand...free market economy...basic economic theories here

demand for gas rises at memorial day, therefore, they can (and do) charge us more--conversly, demand for home heating oil(#2) goes down around the same time, so they lower the price to keep it moving out of the tanks

reverse this process on the day after labor day

no tin foil hats required for this one, in fact it's the same process with any commodity, more demand=higher price

geez, even i can see the logic in this, after all...NO company is in business to LOSE money

im sure there are more factors involved(i am not a big company exec), but it is not the great republican-christian conspiracy thats out to destroy all that is good/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

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What, NOBODY knows why the price of gasoline went down?

It wasn't alignment of the stars. It wasn't divine intervention. It wasn't magic.

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Football season....you can't have a tailgate party without the tailgates in the parking lot. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

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jeepnut_nh asked:
taz, did you read the posts here at all?

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Yes, I did. I found them, , , , er, , , , ah, , , , entertaining, even humorous at times.

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jeepnut_nh said:
supply and demand...free market economy...basic economic theories here
demand for gas rises at memorial day, therefore, they can (and do) charge us more--conversly, demand for home heating oil(#2) goes down around the same time, so they lower the price to keep it moving out of the tanks

reverse this process on the day after labor day

no tin foil hats required for this one, in fact it's the same process with any commodity, more demand=higher price

geez, even i can see the logic in this, after all...NO company is in business to LOSE money

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Well, it might be argued that it is supply and demand but it could be argued that it is not. You assume that it was the demand that went down though. The demand didn't lower enough to cause the drastic drop in price that we saw.

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jeepnut_nh said:
the only way our govt can truly influence the prices at the pump is when the pols decide it will make us all feel better if they "suspend" the gas tax...wake up!

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jeepnut_nh said:
im sure there are more factors involved(i am not a big company exec), but it is not the great republican-christian conspiracy thats out to destroy all that is good/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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jeepgod said:
not sure how the govt effects prices.. since the gas taxes dont change... it would be the oil companies that change the prices...

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jeepete said:
I think CJTaz has it backwards. It's not the Government affecting prices, it's the big oil companies affecting Government.

Prices are not regulated by Gov. but no one will convince me there is not some price, uh, manipulation (yeah, that's the ticket) going on between companies.

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xjy173 asked:
Would you please explain how 'the government' does this???

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I'll be happy to. It's a system that has been in place since the late '70s following the Great Oil Crisis. The federal government put oil into a reserve to be released as necessary to offset temporary oil market highs. George (the W stands for war) Bush declared that he would release oil reserves. A few days later, the price of gasoline at the pump made a drastic drop. I haven't heard as to whether any has been released yet, it may have been just the threat. It may have been just a perceived increase in supply.

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xjy173 said:
I would think that it would be in the incumbants(either the Congress or the Administration) interest to keep gasoline prices as low as possible all the time, if in fact they have control of them. If they do have control, why do they let them rise and risk political damage??

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We have limited reserves and thus, limited influence on the lowering of oil prices. Our current administration doesn't seem to be limited on attacks on oil producing countries thus, limitless influence on raising the prices.

Most of our oil imports come from Mexico, Canada and Venezuela but the Middle East prices affect all prices.

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stumblefoot said:
I dont care if it goes down to $1 per gallon as Americans we still need to use ethenol and bio diesel and promote the renewable energy. E-20 will run fine in all gas vehicles and reduce our dependance on foreign oil by 20% Bio diesel will work in ALL diesel vehicles and repace the lubricity in the new EPA mandated ultra low sulfer diesel.
Ask any old bootlegger how an old Buick V8 ran on pure grain alcohol, (ethanol) clean & fast!

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First, who elected YOU to determine what Americans should support?

This "as Americans" was tried with respect to the alleged WMDs in Iraq. If you didn't believe in Iraq WMDs, you were un-American. Didn't work then, won't work now.

I have no objections to running an engine on alcohol. On a small scale basis, it works fine. I do have some questions if you want to promote a large scale program though.

Alcohol can be produced from many crops. Generally speaking, there is always a surplus of something to produce alcohol from. With a large scale ethanol production program, that surplus is gone.

When demand rises, will prices not follow?

Do you really want your fuel supply to compete with your food supply either directly or indirectly in the feed for livestock that you dine on?

How would you propose to produce the necessary crops to produce enough ethanol to supply America with fuel?

Do you intend to use emanate domain to force all Americans to forfeit their land and live in 12x12 efficiency, high rise apartments so that their land can be used for the production of fuel?

What land will be left to keep us in food?

How are you going to supply fuel in the winter months? Will you store it or would you cover the entire USA with a dome as a greenhouse to grow crops year round? Maybe the greenhouse effect could be enhanced?

How long will the soil produce the premium crops for alcohol?

What would you do with the waste from the alcohol production process? When alcohol is produced, the alcohol content from a fermented batch starts out very high. The content starts dropping until the alcohol content is less than beer. The batch has to be dumped but still has an alcohol content. You'll have drunk cows and chickens if you try to use it for feed. Drunken chickens were the way a lot of moonshiner's were detected.

Speaking of drunken, how would you keep minors from siphoning their party beverages out of their tank?

I think that you have your work cut out for you before we convert America to biofuels.

 

If you are thinking of the time just after Hurricane Katrina, President Bush indicated that he might release some of the oil reserves to offset the loss of crude supply created by the damage to the Gulf of Mexico oil platforms. When oil industry experts stated in the media that the proposed release would have little, if any, downward effect on at the pump prices, Bush tabled the idea. IIRC, the strategic oil reserve has never been released into the marketplace for any reason since its inception in 1970. Its original purpose was to provide a fuel source for the US military in the event of a US/Soviet War where sea lanes may have been in jeopardy. There was some talk of releasing it during the Oil Embargo of 1973 but nothing ever came of it.

Thank you for your opinion but I don't think the oil reserve is the answer.

On the ethanol issue, why don't we grow more crops on the land that lies unused in order to keep prices high? That way, the fuel use crops would not lessen the amount of crops for destined to be food. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

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If you are thinking of the time just after Hurricane Katrina, ...

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No, I'm speaking of a couple of weeks ago.

 

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IIRC, the strategic oil reserve has never been released into the marketplace for any reason since its inception in 1970.

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You're way wrong! First off it's inception wasn't until after the Oil embargo of the early 70's.
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President Ford set the SPR into motion when he signed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) on December 22, 1975. SOURCE

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Unless you mean the idea as it's inception, in which case they mention it being first proposed in 1944.I invite you to visit the DOE's web site. Here's a link.
DOE Web site

This particular page is a history of the MANY time the reserve oil has made it to the market place. Including during "Desert Storm", after Katrina, several times in 1996 to raise revenues and others.

CJTaz, you don't believe G.W. Bush makes any significant decisions on his own do you? I think you give him too much credit. Besides, there are plenty of other reasons for gas prices to fall.