Topic: Gas Prices

[saratogaWX]

But, not all areas in California have gougers.  Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) has Diesel for $5.25 to $6.19,  Regular $5.25 to $5.39 - down about $0.35 from last week.

[CW2274]

But, not all areas in California have gougers.  Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) has Diesel for $5.25 to $6.19,  Regular $5.25 to $5.39 - down about $0.35 from last week.

Granted, less is less (see how long that lasts), but it's nothing more than lipstick on a pig.

[Jim_S]

Diesel here in eastern Washtington is $4.85. Regular is running from $4.25 to $4.49. Slightly down from a week ago.

[stevebrtx]

We were down to $3.71 yesterday at Murphys so maybe the fever has broken, but still a long ways from $2 gas!

[ocala]

3.89 here.

[racer3]

4.09 here

[Bashy]

But thats gallons, try over £2.00 a litre......

[stevebrtx]

Looks like $10USD per gallon if my math is correct. That's pricey to be sure.

[stevebrtx]

Well, $3.69 - - - but $63 to fill up a small Jeep SUV? And, to make it worse I had just pulled out of an AC supplier where I wrote a check for $2.400 partial partial payment for the new system?

[jimi]

But thats gallons, try over £2.00 a litre......

£1.70 up here for diesel, petrol £1.58 ( thats after the recent tax reduction)

[ocala]

Back up to 3.99. 

[CW2274]

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/california-gas-stations-insane-prices-will-make-your-jaw-drop

[stevebrtx]

I got out of there in '65, never looked back and turned down several high paying jobs since. There's an easy solution to the problems, all the voters have to do is fix the problem!

[Jim_S]

Prices have been staying steady here at about $4.25/gal. (average). Costco is $3.99 and a few stations are up at $4.45.

[ocala]

Went back to the beginning of this thread. October of 2014. Hard to believe it's been 8 years. A lot of those posters from back then are long gone.

[CW2274]

 

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/california-raise-gas-tax

[saratogaWX]

Why are you banging your head .. you aren't in California.  The article you cited says

The tax is used to fund roads and other infrastructure projects; the state's Legislative Analyst's Office projected the tax will generate about $8.8 billion in revenue during the 2021-22 fiscal year.

and

California already has the nation's highest gas tax at 51 cents per gallon. The levy will rise to 53.9 cents per gallon at the beginning of July.

  A $0.029 rise in state tax/gallon is hardly a thing to get excited about. 

California uses the gas tax to fund roads/infrastructure projects.  We don't have toll roads as some states do.  We do have bridge tolls to pay operation/upkeep expenses.

Yes, the base price of gas here is high at 5.50-5.70/gallon with some outliers above $6/gallon. 
The state does keep a Estimated Gasoline Price Breakdown and Margins which shows

April 25, 2022	Branded	Unbranded
Distribution Costs, Marketing Costs and Profits	$0.62	$0.65
Crude Oil Costs	$2.54	$2.54
Refinery Cost and Profit	$1.52	$1.49
State Underground Storage Tank Fee	$0.02	$0.02
State and Local Tax	$0.12	$0.12
State Excise Tax	$0.511	$0.511
Federal Excise Tax	$0.184	$0.184
Retail Prices	$5.51	$5.51

Here's where we started in 2022

1/3/2022	Branded	Unbranded
Distribution Costs, Marketing Costs and Profits	$0.59	$0.62
Crude Oil Costs	$1.91	$1.91
Refinery Cost and Profit	$1.18	$1.15
State Underground Storage Tank Fee	$0.02	$0.02
State and Local Tax	$0.10	$0.10
State Excise Tax	$0.51	$0.51
Federal Excise Tax	$0.18	$0.18
Retail Prices	$4.50	$4.50

versus where we were at the start of the last year (2021) when prices started soaring having stayed around 3.10 or so for quite a while.

1/4/2021	Branded	Unbranded
Distribution Costs, Marketing Costs and Profits	$0.37	$0.45
Crude Oil Costs	$1.22	$1.22
Refinery Cost and Profit	$0.73	$0.66
State Underground Storage Tank Fee	$0.02	$0.02
State and Local Tax	$0.07	$0.07
State Excise Tax	$0.51	$0.51
Federal Excise Tax	$0.18	$0.18
Retail Prices	$3.10	$3.10

You can see the big jump is in the first 3 line (Distribution, Crude price, Refinery price) -- a $0.029 rise in State tax is negligible compared to the raw crude cost and refinery price/profit.

[CW2274]

Why are you banging your head .. you aren't in California.

Seriously? If you think for one second high gas prices in California, let alone the rest of the country for that matter isn't killing us....

I'll leave it at that.

[saratogaWX]

I think you misunderstood .. your article cited California specifically.  Yes, other states have high gas prices too, and it is seriously impacting our various economies.  There's some extra 'mystery' stuff going on in California (see https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-03-14/gas-prices-vary-from-place-to-place ) that gives us an extra at-the-pump-cost despite us having local refineries and oil wells producing.

Our $5-$6/gallon is still much lower than many international prices (Europe especially).

https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices/

[CW2274]

Our $5-$6/gallon is still much lower than many international prices (Europe especially).

Fine and dandy. Not only do I not live in Cali, I don't live in Europe either, nor do I care about their pain at the pump. We should NEVER have been placed in this position as we can manufacture all the energy this country needs, here....and export as well. What a concept.

[SoMDWx]

Very True. No reason why we are placed into a position of dependence from other nations when we have the full capability to be energy independent. This whole climate issue is driving businesses into the ground and creating a national security risk. There are ways to slowly move to renewable energy sources while still maintaining a balance which least affects the economy. Cooler heads and common sense needs to prevail.

[stevebrtx]

Cooler heads and common sense needs to prevail.

Unless you know something about DC that none of us knows, we're screwed. When I lived in MX, the DF was the equivalent and just as elite and screwed up as our head shed. I believe we will reach a point when there will come a major shift, a massive change in the way we govern and operate. I'm 79 so I don't expect to live long enough to see that even though my family typically lives long - but, I'm hopeful for my GGkids etc.

[CW2274]

Cooler heads and common sense needs to prevail.

a massive change in the way we govern and operate.

Although it'll probably never happen (never say never...) but I think no more career politicians. You serve your four years or whatever and you're done. No pensions either. Have a REAL job and serve your constituents then take a hike.

[stevebrtx]

I try never say never. I've been adamant against, first the Cloud concept, it's stupid, a ripoff and I avoid it every chance I get. Next, Windows 10, I swore I would NEVER ever go to Win10, I'd go Linux first. Well, I ran myself into a corner the other day, I saw an ad for Office 2021 at a good discount and as I'm still using Office 2003 I thought it worth the investment. Of course totally not thinking about whom I was dealing with I bought it and went to install it and it said MUST BE INSTALLED ON A WINDOWS 10 MACHINE. In that instant the "duh" was all over me! It was non-refundable of course, so I was stuck. But, I had a spare PC that arrived as Win10 and I hed converted it to back to Win8.1 and I thought ok, I'll just put 10 on there and install and whatever. So, I started into it and like all upgrades, nothing went well and after two days of fighting I won and got Win10 installed - the one thing I swore I'd NEVER EVER do?

The dream list you describe with term limits, no pensions etc takes us back to the founding days and the spirit of our governance - and that will NEVER happen. Maybe some limited terms and I can't imagine any of the perks of the job going away which compared to dolling out $30B here and $30B there is chicken feed. Why not doll out $30B to us folks living in inflation on Social Security? - but, I digress. The thing we all forget to factor into these hopes and wishes for elected people is that they are two things, humans with human nature and secondly they are snakes, that's why they became politicians. Once you accept those two things you understand why things are the way they are - at least until we the voters to change them.

[Jim_S]

Went back to the beginning of this thread. October of 2014. Hard to believe it's been 8 years. A lot of those posters from back then are long gone.

Thanks for the suggestion, it was fun going through the old posts.

Prices are a little over $4 here. Early this week I filled up at $4.27 now the same station is down to $4.19.