So ... Why ARE gasoline prices going up ... THIS time ?

self ^ | May 21, 2009 | knarf

[knarf]

I admit to being confused.

[Concho]

Holiday weekend. The prices will also spike for 4th of July and Labor day when there is large anticipated travel and profit potential.

[Beagle8U]

If you call 70 cents a gallon in the past month a gradual increase.

[Tarpon]

Our naive one has shut down most sources of new oil and the Cartel knows it. Coal can be converted to liquid fuel for much less than $50 a barrel equivalent. Nuclear can supply clean electricity. So if we really want energy independence, the USA has plenty of resources to do just that. Maybe ZERO will use some of the stimulus money to do real jobs, like building new energy sources, instead of windmills and BS.

$2.65 a gallon for premium locally yesterday.

Drill here drill now, pay less.

We truly have a control freak show in Washington.

[Red Badger]

The speculators........................

[HenpeckedCon]

Evil “Big Oil”, what else?

[tx_eggman]

Let’s see .. on that little engine of the free market, the NYMEX, the spot price for crude has gone from $41.15 on February 18 to over $60 today ... could that have something to do with it ???

[norwaypinesavage]

Try Bill Clinton. He implemented a summertime program requiring 17 different blends of oxygenated fuel, depending on your location in the country. For instance, I live between Lansing and Detroit. In the winter, the whole area can buy the same fuel. In the summer, Lansing has a suburban blend, Detroit has an urban blend, and we have a rural blend.

The law of supply and demand rules. The stations can no longer call their suppliers and find the cheapest source; they must find an available source with their particular blend. The supply evaporates [so to speak]. Every year when this program kicks in there is a huge spike in prices. The timing varies, depending on the status of gasoline in inventory. It is a little late this year due to the recession.

The media and others try to blame the fuel suppliers and the gas stations. It is actually the fault of President Clinton.

[Red Badger]

Plus there was a fire at a refinery in Delaware, IIRC.............

[elpadre]

IMO opinion the president's disciples are causing the rise in some way as he stated a while back that gas at the pump had to be $4.00 to get his economy busting energy plan through Congress/

[central_va]

Think of the world economy as a EKG of a heart attack, there will be wild fluctuations until it goes flat line. The “stimulus” was an adrenalene injection, making the future fluctions worse. Flat line is still coming ....

[muawiyah]

Hey, at that rate it'll be $9 in a year, and $15 in two!

My word!

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

” 47 fuel blends for different parts of the country.”

That’s not true! It’s 57 different blends. One for each state!

[Dixie Yooper]

The price of crude oil is $62 a barrel. Production of crude is down. Demand is rising. China's economy is coming back to life. Obama is flooding the World market with dollars.

[george76]

Printing money .

The Federal Reserve is buying the US Treasuries that Communist China and others will not buy.

Thus the US dollar is worth less.

Oil and other commodities are / will be more expensive.

[Prokopton]

You would have to ask those that manipulate the market and I don’t know of any of them that post on FR.

[presently no screen name]

I was replying to a post that stated the reason for the rise was because of Memorial Day weekend. I have seen it rise each week for the past month - meaning it wasn’t a memorial day crisis. It has risen approximately $.40 to $.45 in the past four weeks here in NY.

[BallyBill]

When the price gets near $4 again, I'll start my conspiracy alert.

[PeteB570]

“Yeah, that and refiners having to change to “summer grades” which are more expensive to make.”

A big problem with the number of summer blends is there is a “line” at the refineries for each product. The refiner makes a “best guess” as to the quantities.

An above normal demand in one area will cause shortages until the refiner can get back to them. Jump the line and somebody else will be short.

[chemicalman]

Ethanol.

[Red in Blue PA]

An oligopoly is NOT a free market.

If I wanted to start my own oil company and had the resources to do so, I would have to jump through hoops and it would take several years to get it off the ground (at least).

A few players controlling a commodity which everyone needs is NOT a true free market.

On this, I agree with Bill O’Reilly.