Ack Gas prices

[Muzikman]

In the Pittsburgh area a station owner makes about 10 cents a gallon.

I can't find the article right now but I read it in either the Post Gazette or the Tribune Review the other day.

[CKY_Alliance]

Want cheaper gas? Go drop kick an environmentalist. It's the main reason why we can't drill in new locations and set up new refineries. The Pres. is supposed to announce he's releasing the oil reserves today. Big deal, it still has to be refined and with our weakened capability (even more so now) it'll be a good while before we see any benefit. Hell Atlanta is about to run out of gas in just over a week because the pipeline going in is damaged and they have to use a special type of gas to meet environmental laws. I drive 45 minutes each way to work and at this point I'd let them throw an oil field up in my living room if I thought it would help. Right now gas here is 2.50 or so for the mid grade stuff but they say it'll go up another .20 in the next few days.

Agreed on the enviromentalist...theres good oil in alaska but nope it might hurt the animals..even though its proven that places where the pipeline is beign used the animals actually benefit from the heat produced (i beleive something liek that)ehh owell gas went form 2.47 to 2.67 here...ii guess its better then what some of you are paying.

[CKY_Alliance]

In the Pittsburgh area a station owner makes about 10 cents a gallon.

I can't find the article right now but I read it in either the Post Gazette or the Tribune Review the other day.

Really? wow i was always told they make like 1 cent a gallon like someone else said..i belive that is after all overhead though which isnt bad...is the 10 cents before or after all bills and such are paid?

[Lohman446]

My personal thoughts - general strikes work to get the governments attention to the needs of the people in other countries....

[Muzikman]

Really? wow i was always told they make like 1 cent a gallon like someone else said..i belive that is after all overhead though which isnt bad...is the 10 cents before or after all bills and such are paid?

It did not state before or after in the article, but when you read it you get the impression that it is before the overhead. I know I read it in either Sunday or Monday's paper, but can't find the article online.

Basically the article was about why gas station A has gas for up to 15 cents cheaper than gas station B when they were right next to (or just down the road from) each other.

[TheDuelist]

Welcome to the world of $4 a gallon gas prices folks. Katrina has shown the United States its foolishness for putting too many of its eggs in one basket. Hopefully it will drop to $3.50 in the near future.

[lopxtc]

Care to expand your reasoning on this one ...

Aaron

Katrina has shown the United States its foolishness for putting too many of its eggs in one basket.

[TheDuelist]

Too many of our vital refineries in one area which is known to get hit by major storms. I understand that historically we as a country didn't conceive of something happening on this scale but I hope somehow we can learn from it and realize we need theses things spread out so there is less of an impact to our economy.

Of course the other side of the coin is that the refineries were built were people would allow them to be built and in our "modern" era most cities would balk at such things being built in their communities but something is going to have to be done.

[PyRo]

I was reading something on the intertron the other day that said the owner of a gas station makes approx. $.01 on every gallon sold....discuss

(this is mind you the owner/operator, not shell, mobil, etc.)

They usually make about $0.05 to $0.10 a gallon depending on the station. It's just today a lot of them saw the opportunity to make $0.50 or so a gallon and ran with it.

[Muzikman]

Well, it's not so much the refineries but the pipe lines and the government (state that is).

Here is the deal. There multitudes of different types of gas. CA has different gas than TX which has different gas than PA. I can't remember which states require what gas or how many different types there are, but I am sure if can be found on the internet. There is a vast system of pipelines that transport this gas through out the country. There are a handful of pumping stations. When CA needs their gas the line running West has to be cleared, flushed and then the "special" CA gas has to be pumped. Once that is done, the line needs to be cleared, flushed and then the next place gets their gas. It's rather complex and very expensive. If we had more refineries we would not have to pump the gas as far and if we as a nation standardized on the type of gas we use we would not have to do all this back flushing of the pipe lines. It's a stupid system and we need to spend some serious money on updating it.

[Muzikman]

Interesting article

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/analysis_publications/primer_on_gasoline_prices/html/petbro.html

[mutigerfan04]

Gas here in the St. Louis area just went to $2.99 a gallon. Rumor has it that it will be $3.25 by Monday. Oh well take life as it comes and keep going.

[Resurection]

A couple of side notes to this discussion:

1. Global problems - The vast majority (i've heard too many different percentages to be sure) of our grain product is shipped out via New Orleans and this situation has serious repercusions to the worlds food production as the US is a major provider world-wide for grain.

2. Local problems - Almost half of Florida's (my home) natural gas for powering the electric stations comes out of the New Orleans area and is now in serious jepordy (sp?) of not making it to FL.

Holy crap man, every time I turn around the problems and repurcusions of this storm are expanding worse and worse.

[MarkM]

I would be willing to bet that the average American pays more in gas taxes over a year (because of more use) than the average European. I don't know where to look that up but you do understand what I'm saying I'm sure .10 / gallon tax for 100 gallons is more tax than .40 / gallon for 10 - obviously numbers for illustration only.

Doubtful, as I am a reasonably low milage driver and only last week I spent $200 on fuel of that the actual cost was only about $45 in real costs, the rest was taxation/profit...I am as you were being very general with those figures. On an average week I only spend around $100. But then again you could be correct in your assumption but then only because of the widespread use of gaz guzzler vehicles. I seem to remember the figures for the Mustang 5.0 being released and basically they said that the car was very efficient and exceeded the goverment suggested numbers...yeah if you drove at 25mph in top gear. So all figures can get fudged that is just a more extreme example.

[Will Wood]

You guys should google to see if your states have a similar website..
http://www.mainegasprices.com/
I've always used this since I started driving.. find the cheapest gas around.