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Pain In The Pump: Gas Prices On The Rise
baltimore.cbslocal.com ^ | 04-03-2018 | Staff

Posted on 04/03/2018 1:05:55 PM PDT by Red Badger

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — The cost of gas is up across the country, including in Maryland, and is inching toward the highest price in three years.

Gas is going up about a penny every other day — 15 cents in the past month.

“We’ll be paying the highest prices for this time of year since 2014,” said Christine Delise with AAA.

Gas companies are changing over to a different summer blend. To do so, some refineries shut down, leading to the classic market principal of supply and demand. A tighter supply means they can demand more for your fuel.

Demand is up as people are driving more, and crude oil prices are up $15 per barrel compared to this time last year.

“Every time crude oil prices rise a dollar, consumers will pay roughly 2.4 cents more per gallon,” Delise said.

This week, the average price in marylMarylandxactly the same as the nationwide average of $2.67 a gallon.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: automobile; crudeoil; diesel; drill; energy; epa; fracking; fuel; gasoline; highway; lowermpghigherprice; mpg; petroleum; pump; tax
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To: Red Badger

Always happens about this time of year. The oil companies sideline production/refineries etc. to go to summer blend. Usually eases up right after Memorial Day. Talk to EPA . . . .


21 posted on 04/03/2018 1:52:43 PM PDT by t4texas (If you can't run with the big dogs . . . STAY ON THE PORCH!)
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To: Mr. K

Fuhgeddaboudit........Their ‘state of the art’ refineries are all broken.............Even Russia and China are bailing................

Even Venezuela’s Russian and Chinese sugar daddies are dumping the socialist hellhole:

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3644594/posts


22 posted on 04/03/2018 2:09:51 PM PDT by Red Badger (The people who call Trump a tyrant are the same people who want the president to confiscate weapons.)
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To: FreedomNotSafety

So what does the government have to do with an immediate increase in consumer gas prices every time the oil futures rise, but a significant lag in cost adjustments when oil futures drop?


23 posted on 04/03/2018 2:19:32 PM PDT by Bratch ("The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke)
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To: Red Badger

And some areas are forced to use ethanol gas only, which actually pollutes the groundwater more than just pure gasoline.


24 posted on 04/03/2018 2:31:27 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Bratch

I give, what? But there are market forces that cause prices to go up and down as you described. Is your question somehow related to my post?


25 posted on 04/03/2018 2:32:17 PM PDT by FreedomNotSafety
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To: Socon-Econ

Yes. It would also be healthier for all of us.


26 posted on 04/03/2018 2:32:52 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: FreedomNotSafety

Not especially, except for the fact you mentioned dissatisfaction with the oil companies.

I believe a lot of the public frustration revolves around the seemingly one-sided aspect of the supply-and-demand formula when it comes to gas prices.

A simple explanation would go a long way, IMO. But it’s always double-talk from TPTB.


27 posted on 04/03/2018 2:49:23 PM PDT by Bratch ("The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke)
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To: Red Badger


28 posted on 04/03/2018 3:24:31 PM PDT by Theoria (I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive)
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To: Red Badger

Gas is cheap. This happens every year. It will go back down soon.


29 posted on 04/03/2018 3:34:21 PM PDT by SaxxonWoods (DACA is going to be a riot!)
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To: Red Badger

Gas always goes up during school breaks, holidays and summer. Just like chocolate prices go up every Easter.


30 posted on 04/03/2018 3:34:48 PM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: bgill

This happens every year twice when it’s maintenance and fuel-blend switch time. Fairy tales have nothing to do with it.


31 posted on 04/03/2018 3:37:06 PM PDT by SaxxonWoods (DACA is going to be a riot!)
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To: Red Badger

“We should build more refineries, if THAT is the real problem”.....

They’re shipping it out of the country as fast as possible, give ‘em a break. Thus, we pay more for OUR gas, much like our medicines.


32 posted on 04/03/2018 4:10:04 PM PDT by DaveA37
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To: Bratch

The gas retailer seeks to maximize his selling price. All sellers act somewhat in unison because they have the same benchmark, oil. Together that makes pricing seem coordinated. An economic maximum is that prices are “fast to go up and sticky (slow) to come down”. Gas isn’t the only item to exhibit that behavior. The retailer will quickly raise his prices in anticipation of demand and his replacement cost of gasoline. Do you insure your house for what it cost to originally build? Or what it cost to replace today? The retailer must replace his gas, so prices go up. If his replacement cost is going down then he tries to hold on to his gain.

The retailers can manipulate prices so readily because there are so few of them. The government has made it very expensive to operate a gas station so the barrier to entry is very high and competition is limited. We are lucky that convience stores look at gas as a way to drive store sales. The retail margin on gas is razor thin. Not every transaction but on the average.

Gas ranging 40 cents within a day from say 2.40 to 2.00 is retail arbitrage. That’s free market forces at work and insure we have supply. The fact that it averages 2.20 instead of 1.60 is the government.


33 posted on 04/03/2018 5:39:26 PM PDT by FreedomNotSafety
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To: DaveA37

This is the still the free USA and there is no collective ownership of gas as you imply when you say “OUR” gas. The owners sold their gas and shipped it out. You are of course free to buy gas and sell it overseas if you wish and become part of that mysterious elite class of Americans known as owners. It’s easy to do via the stock exchanges. You’ll get filthy rich right?

The lesson of shale should re-explain to even so called Freepers (many who seem to prefer government diktat) that profit is a good thing and that it will drive supply up until the excess profit is gone. Selling overseas helps assure profitability for the owners and makes them willing to invest.

It’s not a mystery and the opportunity to get rich is available to all to invest in oil and gas. Of course so is going broke. Or just complain about others who take the risk.


34 posted on 04/03/2018 5:49:30 PM PDT by FreedomNotSafety
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To: FreedomNotSafety

Thank you for the explanation.

However, despite your concise rundown of the market forces, the public still sees a retail price that goes up nearly instantaneously while remaining at a premium level after oil prices come down. That gives the appearance of price gouging.

Plus, voter suspicion of our institutions seems to be at an all time high. How long before the clamoring begins for even more regulation?

Despite their narrow profit margins, the oil and gasoline industry needs do a better job of addressing the situation; otherwise, it could very well be taken out of their hands.


35 posted on 04/03/2018 7:36:18 PM PDT by Bratch ("The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke)
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To: Bratch

I think the people have enough recent experience on government intervention on oil to know better. But if they don’t they will just relearn the painful lessons of governemt regulation.

There is not much to be done to address ignorance and superstition.


36 posted on 04/03/2018 8:02:52 PM PDT by FreedomNotSafety
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To: FreedomNotSafety

“when you say “OUR” gas”...

Saying “our gas” was not intended or about ownership, it meant produced her in the U.S.

Hope that clears it up for you.


37 posted on 04/04/2018 4:26:25 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: DaveA37

Nope. “Our” is a possive pronoun. No other way to use it except to mean belonging to us. Doesn’t matter if it is produced in the USA the owners have eberight to get what they can. Being produced in the US doesn’t give it special status for protection so that it will be cheap. But if was “our” oil belonging to us then you could make a case for it.


38 posted on 04/04/2018 2:12:44 PM PDT by FreedomNotSafety
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To: Red Badger

Fake news. Gas prices doubled in the 2 months of Buttcrack Hussein’s regime. I saw regular gas go as high as $4.50/gal and was sure I was going to see $5. So now we’re whining about gas that is just touching $3/gal (unless you live in California, Hawaii, or one of the other loser states). WHATEVER.....


39 posted on 04/08/2018 3:34:43 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (Liberalism is a social disease.)
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