Gas price increase BEFORE hurricane hits Texas

[cardsfansince82]

Interesting. Gas is the lowest it's been in a long time here and is even down 10 cents or so the last few days.

[ThatGuy]

Gas was in the $3.40 to $3.50 range just a few days ago, and I've seen it as high as $4.59 just a couple hours ago. Good thing I didn't remember to fill up my car…

[cardsfansince82]

Gas was in the $3.40 to $3.50 range just a few days ago, and I've seen it as high as $4.59 just a couple hours ago. Good thing I didn't remember to fill up my car…

That's just absurd. I don't think the price even jumped that much on 9/11. Only 20% or so of the nation's refineries are going to be shut down and I can't imagine they will be shut down more than a few days. There's no reason for the price to be that high.

[Spider John]

Gas was in the $3.40 to $3.50 range just a few days ago, and I've seen it as high as $4.59 just a couple hours ago. Good thing I didn't remember to fill up my car…

I heard someone call in on talk radio yesterday and said gas had jumped that high in Knoxville, and I thought to myself "I hope That Guy filled up yesterday."

Earlier this week gas in my area was in the 3.40's range. One place I passed yesterday that usually has the lowest price in town was at 4.14 per gallon, and people waiting in line. Another station had police sitting in the parking lot next door to keep people from lining up out in the street trying to get into the lot.

[stlouie_lipp]

It went from $3.91 a gallon to $4.49 overnight.

[cards2468]

Stations have to make enough on what's in their tanks to pay for what's going to be delivered next time.

This would be correct except for crude oil prices are still dropping (down to $100.66 per barrel as of right now. So as of right now they would be paying less next time, not more.

Yes, it went up about .10-.15 here in St. Louis today but it had already jumped .20 earlier in the week so we're up .30+

I heard them mentioning early in the week that people in KY and IN were opening investigations into the .30-.40 overnight price hikes as oil prices continue to drop.

There were some law suits in Ohio after Katrina when gas in some areas there jumped to over $5 immediately. Granted there eventually was a gas shortage to the point some of us were filling up with premium because regular was hard to come by.

[Radbird]

Great. Just in time for our drive up to Wisconsin to get the kid moved in for another school year.

[phins]

Where are you located?

Price will always go up to areas supplied by the gulf coast, in anticipation of future supply being down, but it shouldn't have gone up 53 cents in a day. Sounds like local price gouging to me.

++

One of the largest factors in speculating futures contracts on oil, is weather patterns.

Good thing is, those who speculated on things going about as well as could be hoped, got rich on this deal, and oil barrels fell under $100 for the first time in a while.

[ThatGuy]

Apparently a gasoline chain here in Knoxville thought it would be a good idea to call the local news stations before the hurricane hit to say, "OMG, we're running out of gas! It's going up $0.80 a gallon ASAP!" This created widespread panic across the city, and everybody rushed to fill their cars up in an attempt to beat the price hike. Surprisingly enough, this created a major gas shortage, and now we've got a lot of stations that have only premium fuel (if any) left. I'm still looking at about $4.50 for regular unleaded around campus, and any gas station with cheaper prices is either packed with cars or completely out of gas.

So yeah, I now get to enjoy some of the highest gas prices in the entire nation. This area of the country is usually one of the cheapest, so the reversal of fortune is like a nice kick to the nards. The prices probably would've ballooned somewhat even if that gasoline chain hadn't alerted the local press, but I still want to drop kick whoever it was that picked up the phone.

[jim]

SInce it went up before the hurricane hit in anticipation of it, when will it go down in anticipation of the refineries being back to full capacity?

Rat bastards. What a great business - no risk. Every single thing that happens gets passed on in it's entirety to the consumer.