Gas Shortage? (Pineville, McDonald: salaries, cost, safety)

[mullman]

I just filled up at an Exxon and there was not a line per se, but the lot was full with 2-3 cars waiting.
Other stations in the area looked similar, meaning busier than normal, but not a line or a run on fuel.
WBT is covering the increases which are happening this morning at the pumps.

[bigbri20]

Here we go again with the price increase....

My aggravation is, as someone mentioned before, it 's quick to go up 10-20 cents a pop but when the oil was declining it took almost two months to drop 40 cents.

I understand the stations will charge what the refineries are charging them for the wholesale, I get it...what I don't get is why the stations raised their price 20 cents overnight. They did not pay for that gas in their tanks at the 4-5 dollar a gallon price that it just reached yesterday. To me, it's gouging. They shouldn't be allowed to raise the price what seems like almost every few hours....there should be some law that says they can only raise that price when the first shipment of a higher wholesale cost arrives.

How about we move the refinieries to St Louis? We can send the ships up the Mississippi, and not have to worry about hurricanes stopping our refinery production.

[flexysteve]

This public panic causes gas prices to go up. If the people didn't get in an uproar about prices shooting up to the moon. "I heard prices are going to be $35 a gallon next week" then other morons wouldn't get in a rush to buy it.

Gas is like anything else. If our cars ran on gold then would their be such an uproar about prices changing so much?

The reason prices are high are because the dollar is worth so little in the world market compared to what it used to be and because people are willing to pay for it.

If I owned an oil company I'd be charging as much as I thought people would pay. If they don't like it they can walk or ride a bike or develop their own method of energy production to power a vehicle. Or you could even buy a boatload of stock in Conoco or Exxon Mobile and rake in the money...since they felt I was making "too much" money and they could make a fortune as well. Or invest in oil commodities if you feel prices on those will rise and cash in.

[bibit612]

Okay, hubby just called to ask me to fill up. His experience as he filled up at about 8:30 this morning: Some gas stations (he filled up in Fort Mill) stops the tank at 10 gallons, regardless if you paid by credit/debit card. A guy he was talking to just finished pumping gas at $3.99 and as soon as his nozzle stopped, it went up to $4.99! Price gouging is definitely happening at $0.20, $0.50 and up to a $1 per gallon. I had a quarter of a tank left and had to fill up tonight anyway, but had to do it this morning as it's definitely happening. Unfortunately, I am on empty so had to do it one way or another.

[mullman]

Originally Posted by bigbri20

How about we move the refinieries to St Louis? We can send the ships up the Mississippi, and not have to worry about hurricanes stopping our refinery production.

Exactly.
It is embarrassing that a storm or two can have such an effect on the USA.

We need an energy policy which is more than just sending troops to where the known oil is located.

[NCyank]

Yup, I got a call from hubby too. Mostly because we were planning to be on the road in the truck this weekend, otherwise we could have waited.

[Hoagie58]

Originally Posted by bigbri20

Here we go again with the price increase....

My aggravation is, as someone mentioned before, it 's quick to go up 10-20 cents a pop but when the oil was declining it took almost two months to drop 40 cents.

I understand the stations will charge what the refineries are charging them for the wholesale, I get it...what I don't get is why the stations raised their price 20 cents overnight. They did not pay for that gas in their tanks at the 4-5 dollar a gallon price that it just reached yesterday. To me, it's gouging. They shouldn't be allowed to raise the price what seems like almost every few hours....there should be some law that says they can only raise that price when the first shipment of a higher wholesale cost arrives.

How about we move the refinieries to St Louis? We can send the ships up the Mississippi, and not have to worry about hurricanes stopping our refinery production.

One simple word: NIMBY. Same attitude tha has kept any new refineries from opeing since 1976!! That's 32 years people- our population has increased by more than 50%, and we're still working with the same number of refineries. Same applies to nuclear power plants- more than 30 years since one has opened. And people wonder why there's energy problems.

As for the OP's question- here's a dandy litle article from the Disturber:
Fearing Ike, some stations ask for 10-gallon gas limit | www.charlotteobserver.com

[InSouthPark]

Originally Posted by ruiner

You do realize that the "Oil Companies" make pennies in profits from gasoline sales, don't you?

Yeah...Exxon only made a profit of 1,168,000,000,000 pennies for thier fiscal year (that is 11.68 billion dollars for the math challenged)!

[QC Misfit]

I dunno! This morning my local fill up was $3.65 I dropped the kids off and came back to fill up. It was already $3.99. I drove back down the road and filled up for $3.69 however some of the pumps had the bags on them to say out of order.

It truly is amazing that gas can jump .30 cents a gallon in one day but take 2 months to fall. Didn't they just cut off the refinery's this week?

I hate we are this dependant on gas.

[Damemeow]

The rates we are paying today are not very different from what we paid in Florida during Hurricane Wilma and post Katrina. The price bump is probably temporary... if it makes you feel any better, Europe pays $5-$6 all the time.

It's a good time to think about utilizing wind power and converting our cars to use natural gas. Off shore oil drilling won't solve oil dependence, and would only lower gas cost by about 2% in about 15 years.