I don't mean to be insensitive...

[Tsuguri]

...But why do gas stations take EVERY little thing they can find as a reason to hike their prices? The hurricane in New Orleans. Tragic? Yes. Catastrophic? Most likely. But why does something that happened to a place 800 miles away that is in no way related to our oil procuration cause gas prices to jump between FORTY AND SIXTY CENTS? The day before I heard about the hurricane, the lowest prices I could find for regular were around $2.70 a gallon. The highest I had seen was $2.94. The VERY NEXT DAY, the previously lowest priced gas station was listed as $3.31 a gallon. And that was a freaking Speedway. I drive a minivan (shutup), an my wages are already skimming the bottom to pay for my gas money. The lowest I can find now is a Shell station at $2.97. When Shell is the lowest priced gas station around, you know something's wrong.

Don't get me wrong, my heart and sympathy goes out the families and people that lost so much in this most recent natural disaster, nor am I trying to devalue their suffering. But the money grubbers who run these gas stations can take a nice long suck on my scrotum for all I care. [/rant]

[Tasselfoot]

RE: I don

Tsuguri... I suggest you search CNN.com for some economic answers to your questions.

The short of it regarding the hurricane is this: All of our gulf oil spots were shut down, thereby negating us of a large amount of our US produced oil for a few days. Combine that with the fact that the NYMEX, the New York Mercantile Exchange (where Crude Oil is traded, which sets the price for buying oil and thereby sets the price for gas stations, somewhat) reacted to the hurricane AND the gulf oil production very poorly, with oil prices going from around 67 up to 72 or so in a day or two. Then Bush announced that we'd be tapping into our Oil Reserve, and that lowered the NYMEX Oil price back to 68 or so... but, while the hike in prices is easy for gas stations to do, as they need to meet their costs/margins, they can be slow to lower them back down as well, for obvious reasons.

But, that is a short on why the prices shot up based on Katrina. Hope that helps somewhat.

[Tsuguri]

RE: I don

Well that certainly does shove a sock in my mouth. My only excuse can be that I have dial up, and loading ANY news related website takes a good 10 to 15 minutes, so I may not be informed as I could be. Regardless though, these prices are killing me. >_<

[Skikamukazi]

RE: I don

That is A horrible excuse. The gas prices get jacked up everywhere be...cause things like that effect everywhere... If that makes any sense.

[Tps222]

RE: I don

I heard it's like $6 down where the hurricane hit. I think its like 3.60 here in NY.

[stretchypanda]

RE: I don

According to Good Morning America, gas in Atlanta was almost $6 and the governor of Georgia was threatening station owners with prosecution.

[Tasselfoot]

RE: I don

As of yesterday, prices in both the burbs and in the city of Philly were under $3 for 87. Around 2.92-2.96. I think I'm going to have to fill my tank again today too, or at least early tomorrow... Driving 50 miles a day to and from the city sucks.

[Tokzic]

RE: I don

Solution: Get an electric car.

[evilbutterfly]

RE: I don

I don't have a car, and the bus is free, so I don't have to worry about gas.

[Reach]

RE: I don

$1.30 here a litre, so, pretty expensive. Seriously wtf is up with you people still using imperial.

Yea so you can all stop whining. That's $4.92 a gallon here. GG

[Tasselfoot]

RE: I don

Reach... $1.30 CANADIAN? or USD? Cause 4.92 USD vs Canadian is a BIG difference.

[Reach]

RE: I don

Not really.

$4.15 USD then. I still have to fork out 4.92 dollars a gallon. Put stocks aside, that cash is still coming out of my pocket.

[Tasselfoot]

RE: I don

Not gonna argue that its still alot, but 4.15 vs 4.92 is a big difference.

[esupin]

RE: I don

I hear that scooters are all the rage(No, they're not called mopeds. Those are different).

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-scooters26aug26,1,3888548.story?coll=la-headlines-business

[nforcer06164]

RE: I don

I saw $3.35 at Speedway on my way to school today. What's really disgusting is that I heard a woman was on her way to work yesterday, and saw gas at a certain station was $2.68 a gallon. She figured she'd go there after work. Well, the day ended, and she went to said station... BOOM. Up 61 cents to $3.29 a gallon. Disgusting. Chicago area, by the way.