Price of Diesel around the country ?

[barbwire]

D15treez; What you have to consider, while you are defending the oil industry, is, that the tax has been there all along, and, it(the tax), has not varied more than a penny per gal. for "YEARS". So I say that the tax is not even part of the current equation. It is simple to see that it is gouging, when the price raises by $. 50 per gallon in such a short time.

Another thing that the greedy people need to see, is that "everything" centers around the cost of fuel and therefore prices of everything will go up and eventually catch up to them, and then they are not all that far ahead anyway. Not to mention the fact that most of them have relatives, in other fields of employment, that are hurt directly by their greed. Not that any greedy persons care anyway. Corp. Exects. have a way of telling themselves that they are better than everyone else. "BUT" in the end, we all parish. THEN COMES JUDGMENT DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry about this , but it hurts trying to do an honest days work for an honest days pay, when you have to constantly battle your own countrymen (financially) to survive, for any decent standard of living. If I offended someone by this, well, you know what they say about getting blood from a turnip. A turnip is what I am, so come and get yours.....

 

[barbwire]

OK, lets just say that the government raises the price of fuel,oh say 5 cents. They would be able to raise the BILLIONS of dollars that they need , which would benefit EVERYONE suposedly. But How many people benefit when the oil companies gouge us in the name of some fear or another? A few hundred people? a few thousand? And remember, they don't just raise the price a few measily cents, they raised it a whole total 30% or more. Oh sure there is more cost today than there was a year ago,but not that big of an expence. Even though I am not what you would call "well to do" my cost of living did not raise 30%or more in the last 9 months. However, the cost of fuel is one of the things that hurt me most , as far as an extra expence.

And so there is no mistake, it was not the Govt. that is to blame for the latest increase. And how many millions of gallons of gas are sold on any given day? If they just took a penny for their poke... ... ... ... ..... Well, you do the math. Then take it times how many months. I don't care what anyone says, someone is getting filthy RICH. And guess whose back it is making sore.

 

[Leewhiskey]

1. 799 or so. Haven't looked lately cause I been driving the car. I think it is gouging. But, if it isn't, I have one question. Why, in almost every place I look, is diesel 20 cents more than regular gas. No matter what the cost of crude, diesel should be cheaper than gas because it is no where near as refined. Period. If gas is at 2 bucks, diesel should be no more than 2 bucks. That is price gouging.



In my personal opinion, truckers need to band together and stop for a couple days. This country would shut down soooo fast...

You think that would bring the prices down to what they should be? i. e. less than gasoline.

 

[JLEONARD]

$2. 099 yesterday in NW Ct.

Time to start runnin' fuel across state lines I guess.

 

[stg2500]

Originally posted by JLEONARD

$2. 099 yesterday in NW Ct.

Time to start runnin' fuel across state lines I guess.

I don't know if that will help. In RI the price of diesel is $2. 059. Not a whole lot cheaper.

 

[RoryTek]

You know burns my a$$ is that every time the fuel goes up the media sez that the local refineries are down for maintance. That was reported today on LA's channel 4 news. I've heard this the last time we had a fuel spike. Sounds like a big RIPOFF to me. Bend over baby!!!



Oh BTW long live biodiesel $. 50 gal



Red diesel is looking better too! No not me, never.

 

[Hohn]

Let's get this straight..

Moan and complain all you want, but the oil price is due to a number of causes, most of which can be traced to gov't regulation.



Gouging can ONLY occur when supply is artificially limited (i. e. not allowed to rise to meet demand). Imagine if all the stations were selling #2 for $2/gal. Along comes a new guy selling it for $1. 15. Who do YOU think would get the business? So, the guys who sell for $2 have a big incentive to keep new guys from coming in and selling for $1. 15.



So what tends to artificially limit the supply (or # of suppliers)?



1) Suppliers have a natural interest in limiting the # of suppliers. The more suppliers, the less power any single one of them has. Can you say "Corporate Merger"? Exxon/Mobil; BP/Amoco. Take your pick

2) Government regulation drives up the FIXED cost a supplier has to the point where only the big boys can afford the drill new wells, or increase production. The bigger companies have economies of scale that the small guys don't have.

3) All the producers are getting the same price (open market) for crude, so the company that can produce at lower cost, wins. The little guys are choked by gov't regulation and can't compete (higher cost). This relates to #2 and #1.

4) All the refiners pay the same price for the crude they buy (open market). Again, lower cost wins. The refinery is having to meet even MORE gov't regulation which drives up cost. Again, small guys can't swing it and close up.

5) end result is a regional monopoly on oil (small or large region). If you are the ONLY refinery in the area making #2, then you can charge a LOT MORE for your product than if you had competition. Consider that there are transportation costs for a rival refinery a long way away to ship their product to stations that would buy from you. That means that you can raise the price to the amount of your rival's price, PLUS his shipping costs. Why? All because there are no other suppliers near you to compete with.



Capitalism works, and is not to blame. But you can't expect it to work best when you have all this artificial stuff going on, and competition is being artificially limited.



Oil is usually thought of as a commodity, like wheat, beans, or corn. I think, though, that it should be thought of as a utility, like electricity. Plain and simple, we HAVE to have it, like we have to have electricity or telephone.



If we had a vast, interconnected oil pipeline running through each of the states, then that would allow oil company A in Texas to compete against oil company B in Oregon. We could move oil around the country easily, and localized monopolies would be harder to sustain.



We can get the price of fuel back down if we:

1) get rid of all these local blends of fuel, and set a federal, 50-state standard.

2) loosen of enviro regs on drillers

3)loosen enviro regs on refiners

4) build a pipeline across the US from coast to coast to make more competition among suppliers.



We may have to back to the early 1900's and break up an oil monopoly again. Do like with the Bell Telephone splitup.



Hohn

 

[SJRsCUMMINS]

Hohn,



That was a great post and I learned a lot from the small space in which you had to write it. My biggest question is who owns the refineries? Are the producers allowed to own them? Isn't the blend for gasoline the market standard... . ie. gas is sold as 87, 89, 91, 93, 94 octane... what other standard for gas is there and would the same hold true for diesel... ie... the cetane that is contained in the diesel at the pump is the stadard and advertsied as such.



Thanks

 

[Shovelhead]

Re: Let's get this straight..

Originally posted by Hohn



We may have to back to the early 1900's and break up an oil monopoly again. Do like with the Bell Telephone splitup.



Hohn

I have fond thoughts of "Mother" Bell.

Something like this was making the office rounds during the "Split-up" of the Bell System:



Company A shows high productivity and 2 Billion dollars a year in profits.



Company B can't get anything accomplished and is in debt to the tune of 2 trillion dollars each year.



Guess which company wants to tell the other how to run it's business.