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[iski]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/sky-high-california-gas-prices-have-a-green-additive-1437174504

Mandate a California specific niche gas formula that few refineries produce, shut down some area lower cost nuclear power plants that generate electricity which places greater demand on refineries to supply  fuel for electric power,  drought decreases electric production from hydro, & state enacts cap & trade that forces a number of smaller refineries to close.

Yep, obviously a huge oil company conspiracy.  No other posible reason.....

[JCZ]

iski that addresses why we pay so much more in California however, I don't see where it addresses the huge fluctuations.  As the news media confronts the oil companies here in California they claim it's due to a refinery that had to shut down due to scheduled maintenance.....yet the other refineries are still exporting.   

The most recent example.....it jumped $.75 a gallon in just a couple of days and when the media got all over it.....it went back down (at the refineries, not at the pumps).  The article you posted a link for just doesn't address this kind of thing and it happens every few weeks.....over and over.   

[JCZ]

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2015/03/24/california-lawmakers-question-massive-gas-price-changes/

[grc]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/sky-high-california-gas-prices-have-a-green-additive-1437174504

Mandate a California specific niche gas formula that few refineries produce, shut down some area lower cost nuclear power plants that generate electricity which places greater demand on refineries to supply  fuel for electric power,  drought decreases electric production from hydro, & state enacts cap & trade that forces a number of smaller refineries to close.

Yep, obviously a huge oil company conspiracy.  No other posible reason.....

Yup, and those things help explain why the average price in California is significantly higher than the average price in Paducah.  But they don't explain the overnight $.50 and up increases that occur not only in California, but also here in the Chicago metro area and many other places.  And btw, we also have reformulated "clean burning" fuel mandated here, as do many parts of the country that have air pollution issues, and our gas prices are currently in the $2.59 - $2.89 range. 

In this area we also get hit with overnight $.50 increases at the pump, for no discernible reasons.  A common occurrence here is to get hit with a big increase when the refineries make their annual shift to summer blends from winter blends, as if that required rebuilding the refinery or something, and then again when they shift back to winter blends, and then again whenever something happens globally that makes it easy for the futures speculators to bid the price of crude up.  It doesn't matter that your local refineries aren't paying that inflated futures price, and probably never will, but it's instant justification for a huge hike the very next business day on the fuel that's already sitting in storage.  Then when the latest scare tactic turns out to be another BS deal, and the storage facilities are filled to overflowing with fuel no one is buying, the pump prices finally start dropping by a penny today, maybe two pennies in another couple days, etc..  In one or two months we might make it back to where the prices were before the bogus increase.  Then the local refineries decide they all have to shut down for routine "maintenance" during the same time period, creating an artificial shortage (on paper only, the storage tanks are filled to the brim) that justifies another big pump price bump even though demand is still low and supply of both refined products and crude oil is excessive.  Funny how supply and demand never enter the equation except when the results are in favor of the oil industry.

When they do these things repeatedly, it's not hard to understand why many people believe a conspiracy exists, at least on a local or regional basis.  It's not the retailers who are driving this, it's the refineries and the distributors who are setting the price.  Gas stations around here survive on profits from the attached convenience store, not the fuel. 

Jerry

[2k]

Costs a pile to live there for sure. But all you have to do is look at salaries...........most at least twice what they are in the sticks of NC.

[dayne66]

Quit yer whinin'.....$1.43.9/l for 94 here in Nanaimo....that's $4.19us/us gal!!

Well...most of you quit yer whinin'.....I scrolled back and saw $5.39/gal....ouch!

Diesel is $1.16.9/l here.

[iski]

Yup, and those things help explain why the average price in California is significantly higher than the average price in Paducah.  But they don't explain the overnight $.50 and up increases that occur not only in California, but also here in the Chicago metro area and many other places.  And btw, we also have reformulated "clean burning" fuel mandated here, as do many parts of the country that have air pollution issues, and our gas prices are currently in the $2.59 - $2.89 range. 

In this area we also get hit with overnight $.50 increases at the pump, for no discernible reasons.  A common occurrence here is to get hit with a big increase when the refineries make their annual shift to summer blends from winter blends, as if that required rebuilding the refinery or something, and then again when they shift back to winter blends, and then again whenever something happens globally that makes it easy for the futures speculators to bid the price of crude up.  It doesn't matter that your local refineries aren't paying that inflated futures price, and probably never will, but it's instant justification for a huge hike the very next business day on the fuel that's already sitting in storage.  Then when the latest scare tactic turns out to be another BS deal, and the storage facilities are filled to overflowing with fuel no one is buying, the pump prices finally start dropping by a penny today, maybe two pennies in another couple days, etc..  In one or two months we might make it back to where the prices were before the bogus increase.  Then the local refineries decide they all have to shut down for routine "maintenance" during the same time period, creating an artificial shortage (on paper only, the storage tanks are filled to the brim) that justifies another big pump price bump even though demand is still low and supply of both refined products and crude oil is excessive.  Funny how supply and demand never enter the equation except when the results are in favor of the oil industry.

When they do these things repeatedly, it's not hard to understand why many people believe a conspiracy exists, at least on a local or regional basis.  It's not the retailers who are driving this, it's the refineries and the distributors who are setting the price.  Gas stations around here survive on profits from the attached convenience store, not the fuel. 

Jerry

Companies take profit when they can, or they would cease to become companies. Oil company profits, as a % of their overall portfolios are well documented.  This industry, like so many others in our less thsn perfect "capitalist" society, suffers under enjoys the regulations of various governing bodies that tell it how to blend it's products as well as where those mandated blends can be sold. Then sometimes, for some reasons, people use more energy.  Historically people drive more during the summer months in North America.  Demand increases greater than supllies.  None of the above could possibly provide any logical explanation for a gas price increase.

The only logical explanation for any price increase on petrofuels, as I already stated, is a huge conspiracy by the huge greedy bad mean etc. oil companies. Guilty as charged, no doubt.  As Cheech & Chong said so well many years ago, paraphrased -  Bailiff whack their pe......nevermind.


I have found from observations over my more than a few years as I glide into my planned curmudgeondom, that given the opportunity, "stereotypes are real time savers".  It explains some things well at some times.

[iski]

Quit yer whinin'.....$1.43.9/l for 94 here in Nanaimo....that's $4.19us/us gal!!

Well...most of you quit yer whinin'.....I scrolled back and saw $5.39/gal....ouch!

Diesel is $1.16.9/l here.

Since is frozen there most of the time, will prices drop when the Global Warming causes Canada to thaw out?   

[JCZ]

Jerry, when the rest of the country ends up with reformulated gas (it's coming folks.....just like catalytic converters on all vehicles) and the extreme, unexplainable price fluctuations then they'll understand.   

Dayne66, I wish we were only paying $4.19 a gallon.   

Something else that the refineries can't explain.....here in California two years ago (they had reformulated gas long before two years ago) diesel fuel was more than gas.  Now, diesel fuel is much less than gas.  What happened there?     Not complaining since I drive a diesel Superduty and only have my bike that's gas.....justsayinzall.

This topic sure has interest......

[iski]

Fun reading for the whole family.

http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/

[grandpadoc]

Fuel is the USA's number one export and has been for some time. The attitude of the oil companies is "well your all driving fuel efficient vehicles, so why should we make less money".
In SoCal because of the drought we are trying to conserve on water, but my water rates just went up because "we are selling less water to our customers, so why should we make less".
I guess we should just get used to it. 

[JCZ]

The cost of living the good life Lou.   

[moscooter]

 
It's amazing how over the last many, many years,  The politicians of the state continue to Californicate themselves over these (environmental) related concerns,  lack of water to save some small fish from getting killed by clogging up the pumps while allowing good water to flow directly into the sea...........thus shorting the farmers of much needed irrigation to maintain their crops..........then there is the billions (with a B) in unfunded pension plans that continues to grow.......on and on.

[iski]

One of the benefits of my living to an nearly advanced age is a recollecting of year to year occurences.  JCZ each year, for as long as I can remember, people have a tendency to complain ruminate about certain things on a seasonal basis.  Some do not apply as well to Cali, as in folks in nothern states seem perturbed by a cold weather event involving frozen H2O (s) in winter, folks in the south & west are every bit as perturbed by the heat of the hot summer with no falling H2O.  But almost each & every year (exceptions are years when people travel less for economic reasons or whatever) as demand for fuel increases due to travel and/or air conditioning due to heat/cold, gas prices increase.  Historically they spike during the warmer summer months.  Add in declining refinery capacities & some years the price spike is greater.  Each year as gas prices increase, folks blame the oil companies.  It's like the swallows in Capistrano, only different.

Of course as I have posted 2 times already, greater consumer demand placed on a government regulated cafe regional menu fuel supply combined with other increased seasonal energy demands on petrofuels could provide no logical reasons for any price increases.  I think the bad evil greedy etc. oil companies are sticking it to the state of California, because they want to.   No other reason makes any sense whatsoever.

I have worked in Cali and vacationed in Cali many times & to my great relief & the even greater relief of the state's citizens & wildlife, there is a less than zero chance that I would move there.  Ever. 

[Chains]

Today in Knoxville, unleaded regular was $2.14, premium was $2.56, of course i had almost a full tank when passing thru