Storms have been around forever. In the 50s, 60s and 70s, there were storms in Texas, Louisiana etc. and gas prices never moved. Now, 3 rain drops fall down south and prices skyrocket, games are cancelled, the news is plastered with models, predictions etc. What is the difference? Or is everyone so busy they just say eff it and pony up.
OT: Gasoline and Hurricanes/Storms.
- Thread starter denniskembala
- Start date
How do you know gas prices never moved? Do you have records?
I can't answer the rest of your question because it's too obvious.
I can't answer the rest of your question because it's too obvious.
Scroll down and part of the question is answered. Hardly a change until into the mid 70s.
https://inflationdata.com/articles/inflation-adjusted-prices/inflation-adjusted-gasoline-prices/
"Rocket up, leaf down." The rule of pricing gas. Ever see gas go down 20 cents in a day? But we see if go up 20 cents in a day once or twice a year, especially in PA where the gas tax is the highest in the country.
Ah heck, I'll reminisce about yesteryear and gas prices.
I still remember when the first Sheetz opened in the Bloomsburg area, next to the old WalMart on Route 11 just outside of town. It eventually got into a price war with a nearby Exxon station, with one having gas at 78-cents per gallon and the other at 79-cents per gallon. This was in the mid-1990s.
I still remember when the first Sheetz opened in the Bloomsburg area, next to the old WalMart on Route 11 just outside of town. It eventually got into a price war with a nearby Exxon station, with one having gas at 78-cents per gallon and the other at 79-cents per gallon. This was in the mid-1990s.
I have a feeling you are trying to get into a neo political rant, so I will let this go with this - what happened in 1973 that greatly affected gasoline prices and altered the way America looks at non renewable fuel?
Gas prices go up 30-50 cents in one day 4-6 times a year in Michigan. Then they trickle back down.
The gas tax has nothing to do with this phenomenon.
I track the price of fuel for my job (diesel, not gasoline) and I have records back to the early 90's. I can tell you that hurricane's definitely have impacted the cost of fuel since that time. And watch out, other costs will follow because FEMA and the big retailers are paying trucking companies 3 to 4 times the normal rate to take loads to TX. This reduces the overall trucking capacity nationwide because every trucker is going for that big payday.
Wait to when they announce that we might have a colder winter forecast and see what happens to heating oil prices.
All right youngster - and some older-timer - can come along and one up this, but ... I remember, when I was pretty young, my dad complaining that the price of regular gasoline had gone up above 30 cents/gallon at the Hess' in Lima. The tax alone on gasoline in PA is now over 58 cents/gallon. Of course, we'd have to do the historically adjusted pricing for any of this to make sense.
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There are laws in many areas to prevent such price gouging. However, they never seem to be enforced. In Ohio, you are not allowed to change your price until after the tanker truck comes to the station. But I have seen the stations change prices 3 times in one day many times on days when they never took delivery of gas. The rules are always broken and never enforced. Gas Buddy has stated that Columbus has some of the most consistently volatile gas prices in the country and I have been witness to this over the last 18 years. The general rule of thumb is that the lowest prices are Tuesday and Wednesday and the highest prices are on the weekends, especially OSU game weekends.
I'm sure that there is price gouging on the retail end of the distribution chain. With the refineries located in many of the coastal hurricane prone areas of the country, I'll bet that the selling price (or futures value?) of gasoline, diesel, and propane go up when there is a threat to the manufacturing and distribution of these fuels.
yep, it's all about $$$$. the never is, was or will be a gas shortage in the us. all about corporate greed.
Just my barstool prediction but I don't think they will have to announce it. I think its going to be an early winter, not sure about overall cold or amount of snow but definitely coming sooner than most of us on the east coast would want.
When I went back to Western PA in august the Fire bushes and Sumac were already starting to turn.
Last week on the drive to SC I noticed the tops of some trees are already changing.
Not to mention that in the Balto/DC area we've had August temps that felt like Sept. and now Sept. that feel like October.
I want to know why the price goes up for the gas that is already in the tanks below ground.
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Because the cost of replacing it is much higher than it was before.
Three drops of rain fall?! Either you are writing this tongue in cheek or you don't have a clue about Houston. Fifty inches of rain in one week is just a tad more than a few drops of rain.
Are suppliers taking advantage of things right now? Of course they are. They always will. But Harvey knocked out 20% of the nation's refining capacity (source: LA Times). The storm also adversely affected pipelines out of the southwest.
I understand that you now have to pay more for fuel, and that stinks. Would you rather be living in a shelter in the Houston suburbs for the next month and then return to a home that has been destroyed by a flood and has little resale value even if you want to sell? Would you prefer to carry all your possessions in the sack you threw them in when you were evacuated? I think paying a little more for gasoline is far preferable to the former.
Are suppliers taking advantage of things right now? Of course they are. They always will. But Harvey knocked out 20% of the nation's refining capacity (source: LA Times). The storm also adversely affected pipelines out of the southwest.
I understand that you now have to pay more for fuel, and that stinks. Would you rather be living in a shelter in the Houston suburbs for the next month and then return to a home that has been destroyed by a flood and has little resale value even if you want to sell? Would you prefer to carry all your possessions in the sack you threw them in when you were evacuated? I think paying a little more for gasoline is far preferable to the former.
But why didn't these "things" happen with storms in the 50s, 60s, 70s and part of the 80s? Why wasn't gas going up ridiculously?
Price increases are good. That means supply will be stretched to accommodate demand. You prevent the price increases you will see empty stations.
In NJ post Sandy they had a no gouging rule. This prevented many fuel stations from opening and left a ton of fuel in the ground.
Why? The power was out. To run the station a generator was needed to be brought in to power the pumps.
Who's going to bother with that for a maximum 10% increase in price per gallon?
LdN
Well those raindrops did knock out 20% of US refining capacity. So there's that. Lose 20% of something, the price goes up.
I doubt this a new phenomenon. When the Pharoah lost 20% of a wheat harvest, prices would go up.
It probably took longer to implement the price increases because of abacuses and stone tablets and all. Nowadays just a couple of computers set retail gas prices all across the country. Revisions sent out twice a day. Doesn't involve human beings at all.
What can you do. It's capitalism. Worst economic system in the world, except for every other system....
Futures markets speculation and effects of refining capacity are some of the things that come right to mind.
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The difference is in the olden days there wasn't anywhere near the extent of Corporate Greed that there is today. The world changed in 1987 when Gordon Gekko announced "Greed Is Good". That's been the "bible" of our society ever since!
Tell that to the ghosts of Jesse Livermore, J.P. Morgan, etc...
Hey IL, if I remember correctly, you used to run wild on the floor of the CBOE. I bet you have some stories to tell.
I find your categorization of hurricane Harvey as "3 drops of rain" quite insensitive. I live in TX, and watching neighboring counties and cities try to get by as they are covered by a year's worth of rain over 2-3 days has been quite devastating. Some entire towns are completely without infrastructure here... no electricity, water, wastewater, etc., and some areas are planning to be in that state for a month or more. Homes are completely destroyed, some by winds and some by floods. People were killed. I only hope you are fortunate enough to never experience a similar disaster.
The 3 drops was TIC, but you missed it. Here's how it is. Refineries were shut down or not repaired/reopened. Why? To artificially inflate prices and use these excuses of diminished capacity, even though the technology today has the capability it did back then due to increased efficiency. This is all bullshit about the capacity has been affected. As sheep, we go along with this bullshit, and just shell out whatever is asked. We're too busy.
Fewer drivers, cheap gas, abundant supply, refinery capacity was not maxed out as it is today.
Also likely that less of the nations refining capacity was in the gulf region back then.
The issue isn't supply, it's delivery of said supply. Major highways are flooded, the tankers can't deliver the supply that they have. At least that's the problem down here. Austin had lines around the block for gas last weekend thanks to panic buy behaviors. People were waiting for 30+ minutes to fill up. Some morons were filling up buckets, 50 gallon drums, and whatever else they could because they feared that gas wouldn't be available when they needed it, or that prices would rise. The panic buy actually created a self-fulfilling shortage in Austin, tons of stations ran dry and many still are. This is why a price increase wouldn't have necessarily been a bad thing. Supply and demand, Econ 101. The demand here skyrocketed, therefore prices should have gone up to curb the demand and ensure supply for those that need it. Prices crept up here and some complained of price gouging, but the price increase wasn't nearly enough to stop the panic buying. So now many places are out of gas.
I've found it usually goes up on Tuesday (here in Columbus). Got lucky on our way out to Baltimore last weekend--hit a place in Grantsville, MD for $2.24--everywhere else it was 20-50 cents higher. The same place was higher on the way back on Monday, though--about $2.65 as I recall).
I think you will see fairly large profits reported by the major oil companies in the 4th quarter this year. Their costs have gone up and infrastructure repair will be an additional expenditure but they always charge well above those expenses because they can and have a ready excuse for it. Where I think we will all see some major increase will be for car insurance - there are 10's of thousands of destroyed cars and while some will not be covered by insurance many will and car insurance rates have already been going up due to the dramatic increase in auto accidents primarily by distracted drivers. Flood insurance will also take a hit and again even though many were without it many did have it and will need to receive funds to rebuild.
They always make out on any excuse to raise the price but as I filled today at like 40 cents a gallon more it was cheap compared to being in Texas or Florida
Bullwhackey. The price should go up when they buy the next load. The load in the ground should be reflected at the pumps by the price they paid for it. It's criminal, just like cell phone companies charging two minutes for a 61 second call. Pure, unadultered, government approved theft of billions if not trillions of dollars. I'd like those bastards to go to a store, buy something for $101.00, hand the clerk $200.00, and not get $99.00 back in change. Minutes were money. There's still some minutes plans out there and I assume the bastards are still robbing the public.
