Anyone notice???

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hughbie

hughbie

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Joined
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Springfield, Missouri, USA.
for example - today oil prices fell below $100 a barrel from a high level of $147 just a while ago.

today in Springfield Missouri (i know, our gas is cheap compared to other places) but gas prices are around $3.59 a gallon

do the math.....oil prices have decline apx 34% but the gas prices have only gone down 20 cents.....and that's only around 5%

there has got to be some price gouging going on.......just who do we complain to?

i don't know about ya'll, but i'm getting tired and sore about being screwed and not even being kissed!
 
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One thing that would help would be for Alaska to lower its tax on a barrel of oil. From what I read, Alaska has four different taxes on oil ..... on average, three-quarters of the value of a barrel of oil is taken before it leaves the state. We might not be able to control the price of foreign oil, but Alaska would be a start.
 
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DocStram said:
One thing that would help would be for Alaska to lower its tax on a barrel of oil. From what I read, Alaska has four different taxes on oil ..... on average, three-quarters of the value of a barrel of oil is taken before it leaves the state. We might not be able to control the price of foreign oil, but Alaska would be a start.
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Since oil is for the most part Alaska's #1 export, it is easy to understand the taxation. Especially when it brings in more than most all the other industries combined. And I don't know about others but the State of Illinois sticks it's hands deep enough into my pockets with taxes throughout the year and then expects more come tax time. At least residents who have lived in Alaska for over 1 year get a rebate check.

And your right, we really do not have any control over foreign oil, and with it making up the majority of what we use, asking for Alaska to ease it's taxation on it's oil is a bit of a moot point in this case. Besides, it really isn't the suppliers of the oil that is gouging us, it is those who refine it.



On a little different note, here is a rough idea of what comes from a barrel (42 gallons) of crude:

gasoline 19.5
distillate fuel oil 9.2
(Includes both home heating oil and diesel fuel)
kerosene-type jet fuel 4.1
residual fuel oil
(Heavy oils used as fuels in industry, marine transportation and for
electric power generation) 2.3
liquefied refinery gasses 1.9
still gas 1.9
coke 1.8
asphalt and road oil 1.3
petrochemical feedstocks 1.2
lubricants 0.5
kerosene 0.2
other 0.3

Add them up and you'll find the yield to be 2.2 gallons more than the barrel contained because of a processing gain.
 
hughbie said:
for example - today oil prices fell below $100 a barrel from a high level of $147 just a while ago.

today in Springfield Missouri (i know, our gas is cheap compared to other places) but gas prices are around $3.59 a gallon

do the math.....oil prices have decline apx 34% but the gas prices have only gone down 20 cents.....and that's only around 5%

there has got to be some price gouging going on.......just who do we complain to?

i don't know about ya'll, but i'm getting tired and sore about being screwed and not even being kissed!
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To answer your question if you suspect your area gas stations are "price gouging" report it to http://gaswatch.energy.gov/ . I agree this does seem to be gouging. However, they also know prices are like this. I went into the station today and the cheap stuff here was $3.79 3 hours later it was $3.89. I also like to at least have my pants down before being screwed but their is only so much one can do.
 
This whole gas thing has been ticking me off. Personally, what I am going to do is NOT buy gas ever from the stations who have really jacked up their price over the last few days (compared to the normal gouginig) . I also overheard one gas station owner complain (can you believe it?) to a customer that he makes 10 cents on a gallon and the credit card company charges 5%. If that isn't a bunch of crap, nothing is.
 
GBusardo said:
This whole gas thing has been ticking me off. Personally, what I am going to do is NOT buy gas ever from the stations who have really jacked up their price over the last few days (compared to the normal gouginig) . I also overheard one gas station owner complain (can you believe it?) to a customer that he makes 10 cents on a gallon and the credit card company charges 5%. If that isn't a bunch of crap, nothing is.
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Actually I think that may be correct... the individual gas station owner makes very little off the sale of gasoline... the big money makes are the suppliers and refiners. (And the government of course.. )

The gouging is coming from the distributors, not the gas station owners.
 
DocStram said:
The number one producer of oil for the US is us. But, number 2? It's Canada.

I don't know about you, but that surprises me.
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If you lump foreign oil (crude) into the same barrel, it makes up 62 percent (average of 6 different sources) of our crude oil usage today. That only leaves us supplying 38 percent ourselves. Seems we are the minority, not majority. And Canada (1,960,000 barrels a day in July) is our #1 foreign supplier with Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Venezuela, and Nigeria rounding out the top 5 in that order.
 
You can find the reason for some of the high gasoline prices by going to the Houston Chronicle website and searching for the highest paid executives in Houston. Top of the list is the CEO of ConocoPhillips. Ready for this??? He was paid more than $50 last year. Fifty MILLION, that is. Of course, his base salary is only about $3.5 million. The rest is incentives, options, etc.

Heck, I could probably pay off all my debts and have enough to retire on if I made $50,000,000!
 
GBusardo said:
This whole gas thing has been ticking me off. Personally, what I am going to do is NOT buy gas ever from the stations who have really jacked up their price over the last few days (compared to the normal gouginig) . I also overheard one gas station owner complain (can you believe it?) to a customer that he makes 10 cents on a gallon and the credit card company charges 5%. If that isn't a bunch of crap, nothing is.
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Gary , the only thing he got wrong was the CC companies charges , the only one who charges that much is American Express all the rest only charge 3% .
A friend of mine who is the owner of a local gas station (not a company owned station, no name gas) was over here tonight (I'm teaching him how to turn pens) and we read your post and he said "If you want proof of the millions you seem to think he's making , we can get together and he will show you his invoices for his gas purchases" he is making 13.5 cents a gallon for regular 87 octane which he is selling for $3.53.9 a gallon and out of his wealth he has to pay rent , electric to run the pumps , payroll for the 4 guys that pump the gas , liability insurance , workers comp , etc . It's not the stations who are making a killing it's the oil companies and their distributors who are making the obscene profits , he makes almost nothing on gas , it's just there to bring in repairs .
 
hughbie said:
for example - today oil prices fell below $100 a barrel from a high level of $147 just a while ago.

today in Springfield Missouri (i know, our gas is cheap compared to other places) but gas prices are around $3.59 a gallon
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That price is actually up from its pre-Ike low. I got gas for less than $3.40 last week here in Springtown.
 
ldb2000 said:
Gary , the only thing he got wrong was the CC companies charges , the only one who charges that much is American Express all the rest only charge 3% .
A friend of mine who is the owner of a local gas station (not a company owned station, no name gas) was over here tonight (I'm teaching him how to turn pens) and we read your post and he said "If you want proof of the millions you seem to think he's making , we can get together and he will show you his invoices for his gas purchases" he is making 13.5 cents a gallon for regular 87 octane which he is selling for $3.53.9 a gallon and out of his wealth he has to pay rent , electric to run the pumps , payroll for the 4 guys that pump the gas , liability insurance , workers comp , etc . It's not the stations who are making a killing it's the oil companies and their distributors who are making the obscene profits , he makes almost nothing on gas , it's just there to bring in repairs .
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Butch, This guy knows exactly how much he is paying for the CC charges. He was, to put it politely, exagerating. I could accept that the gas stations are making say 13.5 cents, but how can the price go up 30 cents overnight when there was no delivery? I can't believe every gas station in the country got a delivery thursday night. Thats my beef and that's taking advantage of the situation.
 
ldb2000 said:
Gary , the only thing he got wrong was the CC companies charges , the only one who charges that much is American Express all the rest only charge 3% .
A friend of mine who is the owner of a local gas station (not a company owned station, no name gas) was over here tonight (I'm teaching him how to turn pens) and we read your post and he said "If you want proof of the millions you seem to think he's making , we can get together and he will show you his invoices for his gas purchases" he is making 13.5 cents a gallon for regular 87 octane which he is selling for $3.53.9 a gallon and out of his wealth he has to pay rent , electric to run the pumps , payroll for the 4 guys that pump the gas , liability insurance , workers comp , etc . It's not the stations who are making a killing it's the oil companies and their distributors who are making the obscene profits , he makes almost nothing on gas , it's just there to bring in repairs .
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Hear hear!!!! Like I said, the bulk of the profits go to the refineries, who usually, own the depots that the stations buy their bulk from. Marathon owns the local one and every station within probably a 100 mile radius or more get's their gas here. And Marathon owns probably over half of the gas stations around here. U.S. oil or foreign, the refineries for the most part determine what we pay for it. That is one reason every time there is the chance of some nasty weather in the Gulf, gas prices begin to rise.
 
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Gary , most stations raise their prices in the morning when they open for the day after they find out what the price will be for their next delivery , whether they take that delivery a 9 am or 9 pm because , by law , they can only change their price once a day in this state .
On some days they can get 2 or 3 deliveries all at different prices but can only change the price once so sometimes they make a little more and sometimes a little less . Gas for most stations is a loosing proposition and is sold to bring in customers for other things , repairs , convenience stores and things like that .
Look at most service stations who do repairs , quite a few have stopped selling gas for this reason , and many convenience stores who sell gas have brought in deli's and stuff to make their money , check out the Wawa stores , they have cheap gas but they sell a bottle of soda for $1.75 , thats where they get you .
 
I agree.......Especially when you travel down the road and the price may be a bit lower. I have seen as much as 10 cents difference within 5 minutes city driving. And no, I haven't crossed state lines.

So who do we report gouging to anyway....

The government seems to be in the back pocket of the OIL companies. So be careful who pats you on the back. They reach into your wallet with the other hand.
 
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