What in the world is the gas stations deal???
Prices here in town have gone up 2 cetns a day for the past week bringing us to a 18 cent jump in about 5 days! $1.69 to $1.87 for the cheap stuff.
I understand Georgia has prices up to 60 cents lower than the rest of the country, but whats the deal with sudden steep climb????

Summer pricing time. All the stations around here in Marietta jumped 10 cents in one DAY (QT is now $1.85 for cheap stuff). Also, oil is at $40 a barrell right now. Blame OPEC, they want more money.

I would love to blame OPEC but I have a strange suspicion it's greedy oil companies that are more to blame.

Did you ever notice that when the price of crude jumps up, gasoline jumps up too, VERY FAST ... but when the price of crude goes down, gasoline prices float down, very slowly and gradually, sometimes over weeks? In electronics we call that "Hysteresis", but in the oil industry it's just called "milking"

"Summer pricing" is a crock. It's the same crock that makes me madder than hell every year when the power company doubles their rate per kilowatt-hour, as if electricity suddenly got twice as expensive to generate, overnight.

Scott

Hey DON"T BUY GAS ON MAY 19!

I'm not wild about rising gas prices myself, but the reason prices jump overnight is due to the supply chain. Gasoline retailers must increase prices at the pump to make sure that they can afford to but gas NEXT week, too. The profit margin for retailers is very low. We are fortunate that we have such low prices (compared to the rest of the nation!), and this is due to the fact that a major oil pipeline ends in Doraville, and this keeps transportation costs low.
I often wonder why prices didn't skyrocket like this in the '70's. Gas was still cheap, you just couldn't get any!
I'd rather pay more, than go without!

It's times like this that I'm glad I own a '69 VW Beetle!

Renegade why no gas on the 19th???
Yeah you guys are lucky with that Doraville pipe as gas tends to be cheaper up there than here in Macon.
Heres something interesting though....
On one of the main throughfares in Macon (Zebulon Rd.) There are three gas stations and a WalMart all sell the cheap stuff for $1.87 incresaing at 10cents a grade. However I can drive two exits south (abt 5 minutes) on 475 to US80 and gas is a whole lot cheaper. Raceway $1.77, Walmart and Kroger $1.76 w/ 3 cent discount, and inerestingly enough there is a Marathon directly across the street that sells for $1.85 (go figure). So I dont get this! Why is gas so cheap 5 minutes south???

IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES.

AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF OVER 4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES.

THEREFORE MAY 19TH HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT UP THEIR BEHIND" DAY AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY.

THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT.

REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF GASOLINE GOING UP BUT AT THE SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES, TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH EFFECTS PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING, BUILDING MATERIALS, MEDICAL SUPPLIES ETC. WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE DO!

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE DAY, WE WILL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN.

SO DO YOUR PART AND SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND MAKE MAY 19TH A DAY THAT THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES SAY "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"

As I suspected when I read "IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED" without any indication of who calculated it, this is an Urban Legend. See the Snopes article Pain in the Gas.

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Originally posted by Allen Lacy:
As I suspected when I read "IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED" without any indication of who calculated it, this is an Urban Legend. See the Snopes article http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/nogas.asp.

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I'm glad that the Urban Legends and Snopes websites were put up by someone as I have seen so many of them over the years working in computers. I have referred quite a few people there since they came online.

I think it should be a law that you have to take a class before being given an internet connection at your home.
It could be a one-time class with a very simple exit test, just to make sure people know about urban legens, virus protection, scams, and the impact of forwarding emails and addresses to other people.

A.R. didn't mean to steal your thread with my rantings.
I hope the prices will go down as I know you have to make long trips to attend GGA meetings.
Maybe someone can bring gas station gift cards to the next meeting for the raffle.

Kenneth

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Originally posted by ScottJ:
I would love to blame OPEC but I have a strange suspicion it's greedy oil companies that are more to blame.

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And this is the extact belief trap that certain politicians and their media shills would have you fall in! However, this happens EVERY year at about the same time. It is a supply issue. Here are a couple points to ponder:

1. Over the past decade several refineries have closed, but new refineries have not been built to take their place. Why?

2. In an attempt to improve air quality, states require special blends for use during the summer months. However, this is done on a state by state as opposed to regional basis. Therefore, the summer blend required by Georgia may be different from that of Alabama or Florida.

As for me, I just laugh at everyone else, as I have a 3 mile commute.

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Originally posted by RenegadeLegend:
WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE DAY, WE WILL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN.

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THEY already have the message ... as gas prices have risen, the public continues to buy large gas guzzling trucks and SUV's and drive around with one person per huge vehicle ... again and again. I wonder how high gas would have to get before people would begin to think about what they are doing ... $5.00/Gal???

A number of years ago I was a consultant working for BP when they bought the SE assets of Gulf. The purchase included 27 "terminals", which are the tank farms where tanker trucks fill up for delivery to gas stations. I learned a fair amount about the gasoline distribution business. A couple of facts:

1) From the refinery, gasoline is delivered to the terminal either by pipeline or by barge (e.g., in Florida).

2) There are at least two pipelines that supply Georgia, one of which continues to the Northeast states.

3) The further a station is from a terminal, the higher the cost to the station operator as the truck delivery cost goes up with distance. However, nowadays so many stations are corporate-owned that private stations are at a cost disadvantage.

4) Most gasoline is fungible, and stations can get gasoline delivery from any terminal. The only exception is Amoco (with the "white" gasoline). Additives are blended at the pump, not at the refinery.

5) Finally, gas itself is a low-margin business, which is the reason almost every station has a mini-market attached. Gas is the loss-leader. Interstate exits often charge less to get more customers, and can afford to do so since there is a higher volume of traffic than in-town.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KVOM,

Gas Think a gallon of gas is expensive? This makes one think, and also puts things in perspective.
Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29, that's $10.32 per gallon
Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19, that's $9.52 per gallon
Gatorade 20 oz $1.59, that's $10.17 per gallon
Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25, that's $10.00 per gallon
Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15, that's $33.60 per gallon
Vick's Nyquil 6 oz $8.35, that's $178.13 per gallon
Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85, that's $123.20 per gallon
Whiteout 7 oz $1.39, that's $25.42 per gallon
Scope 1.5 oz $0.99, that's $84.48 per gallon And this is the REAL KICKER Evian water 9 oz $1.49 that's $21.19 per gallon? $21.19 for WATER, and the buyers don't even know the source. (Evian spelled backwards is Naive.) So, the next time you're at the pump, be glad your car doesn't run on water, Scope, or Whiteout, or God forbid Pepto Bismal or Nyquil. Just a little humor to help ease the pain of your next trip to the pump.

Ive seen this before on the GC forums. There is one missing though. The one on the forums had the price of Printer Ink per gallon, it was around $1000 a gallon.

While we're doing calculations:

I moved to Atlanta in 1967. Bought regular gas for my '66 VW Beetle for 24.9 cents. If the average inflation were 6% per year (not far off considering the late 70's and early 80's) for the ensuing years, gas would be $2.15 per gallon today. Considering the OPEC and the way humans have increased demand with modernization of more of the world....

BTW, the Beetle got about 40 mpg. My Honda gets 28 on the road. QED.

As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy, and they is US!"

Just FYI the correct quote is "We have met the enemy and he is us."

I used the Inflation Calculator which says the overall inflation from Jan 67 till Apr 04 is 471.43% which means if 24.9 gas went at that inflation rate it would now cost $1.17

This message has been edited. Last edited by: AllenLacy,

Given that gas was about $1.17 18 months ago, the calculator is pretty close. However, inflation is measured on purchasing power of a basket of goods, so comparing to a single commodity is not really valuable, esp. when it spiked like oil has recently.

If you look at oil during the 1982 oil embargo, the adjusted price in 2000 dollars was over $50/barrel, 25% higher then today.

You might want to check the websites linked from LINKS TO GASOLINE PRICE DATA FOR GEORGIA

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Originally posted by CharlieP:
I wonder how high gas would have to get before people would begin to think about what they are doing ... $5.00/Gal???

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Well, it looks like my guess may have been close ... this is a quote from a recent AOL News article about Hummer sales:

Buyers of luxury S.U.V.'s are not counting pennies at the pump. "If gas was $5 a gallon, I'd probably forget about the Hummer, but if it was $3 a gallon, I'd buy the Hummer," said Mr. Bergen. "I'm not being a big shot," he added. "It's not a major issue for me."

Say, Trailerman, you wouldn't have that useless old '66 Bug laying around would ya?
My '69 Bug gets about thirty miles per gallon and it's "built" (well "built" for a bug!). I enjoy it even more when gas gets this high! I sold my 1979 Bronco last year because it was too expensive to feed, although it was tremendous fun!