Jstain1 said:
SE Michigan is $2.05, Toledo Ohio (about 45 miles south) is around $1.69.
When you consider that there is as much and more light crude now than last year you can readily see who's to blame for the price. it's not OPEC as you would first assume. Actualy it's the refiners right here in the good Ole USA.
With Exxon and the likes posting 63% and higher profits, it becomes obvious that they are doing quite well in spite of the increase in costs to them. They not only pass it along to us, they bump it up to just make sure.
Several articals can be found on the web about this.
Excuse the
inadvertent pun in advance, but discussing the reasons behind high gasoline prices can be inflammatory!
In my town (about halfway between Chicago and the Illinois/Wisconsin border) we have
2 Mobil stations (price disparity about 12 cents per gallon on each grade of gas - both open 24 hours - cheaper one has car wash.)
2 Citgo stations (price disparity about 1 cent per gallon on each grade of gas - both open 24 hours - more expensive one has car wash.)
2 Marathon stations (price disparity about 12 cents per gallon on each grade of gas - one open 24 hours is lowest - the more expensive one is only "service" station in town with mechanics.)
1 British Petroleum station (open 24 hours, directly across street from most expensive Citgo, it is consistently 10 cents higher per grade than the Citgo.)
The next town over has similar disparity between brands, but each comparable type is about two cents/gallon lower than our town, so that the highest and lowest price in their town is still two cents less than ours - each town has EXACTLY the same sales tax structure.
Monday, the average price jump per station was 11 cents/gallon from a low at 7:00 am to a high at 4:00 pm.
My cousin manages operations for a big, independent fuel tank farm which collects and stores fuel from pipelines and barges (several different refineries) for redistribution via tanker truck. He claims different brand trucks fill from the same spigot. My cousin stores diesel, kerosene, some heavy oils besides 87 octane and 95 octane - middle grade is blended at station pump.
His tanks are always full - no shortages.
Oh yeah - one other thing: the Hummer (less than 10 mpg) dealer in our town is selling about three a week off his lot and the pace doesn't seem to slow because I see different ones every week as I pass by a row of 15 in the lot facing the street. By the way - ALL the public roads and most of the private drives in our county are paved and get excellent snowplowing every winter.
