Sep 26 2008
Gas crunch? or gas scam?
Before Hurricane Ike hit the Gulf Coast the prices of gasoline were going down. I actually paid $3.69 a gallon which I know is high but for NC that was low. Then in the course of a few hours it rose by $1 a gallon. After the hurricane in dropped down to $4.29 and even as low as $3.99 in some places.
On Wednesday of this week for no reason I can think of I couldn’t find any station with gas. I was almost out and had to pay $4.09 a gallon but I only put $20 in the tank. Yesterday on the way into the coffee shop I saw station after station closed except for 2 and the lines were a half mile long and this was at 5:30 AM. So when I got off at 11:00 AM I figured I had better get some gas or I may run out over the weekend. I finally found a station not far from my house that had gas. I passed at least 10 stations that were out. I ended up waiting 30 minutes for gas so I filled up at $3.99 a gallon.
What is the deal. I had someone tell me yesterday that they were paying $3.25 in Kansas City. Why are we paying almost a dollar more? Why in a place no where near the hurricane are we having panic, long lines and being ripped off? I know I won’t get it but I want answers.
What do you think?
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10 responses so far
We’re in desperate need of gas, where did you find gas?
Kevin…listen to the press…we aren’t being ripped off…there isn’t a gas shortage…there’s plenty of gas…etc., etc., etc.
Yeah…should I keep going, since you had to wait in line for 30 minutes?
Gas rose $.50 a gallon in a couple of hours, prior to Ike hitting. Then, it rose another $.40 by the end of that day…this is all BEFORE the storm hit…but, there’s not price gouging…
According to the state of Alabama’s governor, gouging is a rise of 20% above the 30 day average when a state of emergency is in effect. You’ll appreciate this…20% would have been $4.20 a gallon for us. Guess what every gas station went to? You got it, $4.19…
Nah…no one taking advantage of us!
M. Steve Heartsill’s last blog post..Hair Today Gone Tomorrow
Kevin,
Gasoline is actually 3.14 in KC for the past 2 days.
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K: Gas rose here to $4.19 a gallon. It is now hovering around $3.90. My daughter who lives in knoxville called one day and it was $4.39 and the next day $4.99. Pre-Ike. I am in agreement with Steve. Nope, no gouging. Yeah right!
bill (cycleguy)’s last blog post..Protecting Marriage
here in Mexico, on the Texas border gas is around 2.59-2.69 a gallon. but the bigger difference is diesel. a lot of us truckers are crossing over and filling up. its in the 2.39 range for diesel.
why?
they did a news story on it here. Washington, D.C. said it was a lower grade gas, so the channel 4 had the gas tested. turned out it’s the same. then D.C. said the mexican government is subsidizing it. this is sorta true. they just didn’t raise taxes on fuel the last 2 years.
i think it is all pretty shady
jonathan’s last blog post..Ike
As I understand it the reason gas prices are going up and they are disappearing from stations is because the government shut down something like 20% of the refineries because they are near the coast. They didn’t want people working in them when they were in potential danger. I guess it was a good preemptive move on their part but is wiping everyone out! Good news is according to 11 Alive everything SHOULD be back to normal after the weekend.
WRT supply, I had a friend in the fuel business tell me something when the first OPEC deal hit us a lot of years ago. The distribution system is pretty established and very slow to respond. When 100 million+ car owners get concerned about supply and start keeping their tanks full, what you have is a move of a few billion gallons of gas now being stored in gas tanks instead of in gas stations. Logistically, the system can’t handle that very well.
Kind of like grocery stores in Alabama running out of bread and milk 20 minutes after any weatherman mentions snow.
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Yep, my daughter lives in Charlotte too. She sat in line for an hour today and paid $4.19/gallon. This was after passing gas stations with NO gas. AND to top it off, the “pay at the pump” feature was turned off. Oy vey!
Actually, I read in the paper the other day that the SC Attorney General is investigating this situation.
http://www.scattorneygeneral.org/newsroom/pdf/gas2.pdf
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I’ll go you one better. Right as Ike was approaching, stations in Calhoun County, AL (Anniston/Oxford area) that still have old fashioned pumps were told to place “no gas” signs on their pumps. They had plenty of gas according to the proprietor. He told the news that his bosses in Bham ordered him to do that because his pumps didn’t go past $3.99 and they didn’t want to “lose money.” My question was how can you lose money on what you have in the underground tanks? If you paid less than $4.00 a gallong for it, sell it until you run out. Don’t make your workers lie to people. Sheesh!