Funny story, just 4 days ago premium was at 2.32, today its at 2.54.....i didnt notice anything in my area that should cause a spike like this, and i bet no-one else in their areas saw any cause for such dramatic raises in prices either. Who's lying to who?

 

Nobody's lying to anybody. Read the posts in this thread.. Gas prices.....and profits.....are a very complex issue, but basically revolve around supply and demand. Right now we are beginning a transition season from lower levels of winter driving to increased spring driving with warmer weather, and more demand for gas. ( for one thing, often, when the first warm temperatures arrive, all the Snow Belt people that have their RWD and convertible sports cars locked up or restricted for the winter bring them out for some sun and fresh air). Even if some gung-ho suppliers jack up their prices prematurely just in ANTICIPATION of higher demand or tighter supply ( which sometimes happens ), if they can't actually SELL the gas at those new prices ( which means the market conditions aren't REALLY there ) then they will have no choice but to drop the price again.

You might reply that if several companies or suppliers in one area agree to all raise their prices or otherwise manipulate them, to make it very difficult for motorists to actually FIND lower prices, then that nullifies the natural law of supply and demand. Yes it does, at least to an extent, but that is also clearly illegal, and those guilty of it can be prosecuted and locked up. In many states, the Attorney General's office is constantly on the watch for this, and 1-800 special phone numbers and web sites are set up to make complaints of possible price gouging.

 

You guys are spoiled...

 

Compared to Norway's prices, yes, I agree with you. But the difference in prices is not in normal market supply-and demand, but in the outrageous taxation in your part of the world....a government-imposed system.


But this is not Norway. In the U.S., gas prices are more a gauge of normal market supply-and-demand economics. The population here simply won't put up with Scandanavian levels of taxation and pricing.

 

mmarshall, i understand that supply and demand play a prominent role in the prices of gas raising, but should the increase in price go up so much in the matter of a few days is all i'm asking? What i'm saying is basically in those few days time, less than a week, has demand really gone up that much at all?

 

The answer, as I see it, is both yes and no. (and though I know a fair amount of economics and supply-and-demand laws, I do not consider myself an expert by any means ).

Demand IS going up due to the end of the winter low-driving season ( although the latest big winter storm in the Midwest and East will supress it down again for a few days ) In addition, some of the available supplies of oil are being redirected to the National Strategic Petroleum Reserve to replace that which was previously released from the NSPR, especially after the hurricanes of 2005. This, of course, reduces the available supply left for gasoline refining. Demand is also going up worldwide, especially in China and India....and both, being in the Northern Hehisphere, are approaching the end of winter and the beginning of spring like we are (though much of India is a tropical or semitropical climate).

Now, in reference to your specific question about if this trend is enough to account for ALL of the pump price increases of the last few weeks....down to the last penny.....that is difficult to answer conclusively. It IS, IMO, enough to account for a good part of it.

 

Nuclear power plants to extract hydrogen from water are being built in the world, just not the US because everyone is so anti-nuclear. Even though Nuclear waste can be stored and accounted for, not released into the air we breath like gas/oil/coal but people seem to have no problem building non-nuclear power plants.

 

Still not at what I would call objectionable levels, but it is definitely rising. Shell 87 octane now $2.29 in my neighborhood, 93 octane $2.54.......from a recent ( and also November ) low of $2.09 and $2.32.

 

At the bp station I use, 87 octane was at $2.48 yesterday. I didn't notice what 89 and 93 were at.

 

IL, for some reason, seems to be rather expensive, as Lexbob2 illustrates...and other posters from IL have verified this. Don't know why, unless it is just local gas taxes. IL doesn't have to deal with special, complex, limited-market gas blends like CA does, which drives up the price.