Home > So, what do you think? > Archives > 2008 > September > 16 > Entry
The mysteries of gas prices
My wife and I drove down to the University of Georgia this past weekend to visit our daughter and watch the Bulldogs beat up my University of South Carolina football team on television.
It was perfect Herrin timing. With Hurricane Ike threatening Gulf Coast refineries, the oil companies did what oil companies do best - jacked up the prices of gasoline everywhere they could get away with it.
I was fortunate to have three-quarters of a tank on Friday, so I figured I could coast to South Carolina before having to refuel. As most of us know, the price of gas is always cheaper in South Carolina.
Yeah, so much for that logic.
We kept an eye on the signs as we drove down I-85. It’s funny. Gas stations during times like these become a lot like politicians who don’t want to answer a question. The politicans mumble. The gas stations suddenly develop “technical difficulties” with their electronic signs. They don’t want you to know how much they’re charging, so the signs display incomprehensible blips and garbage.
It’s the stations’ way of saying, “Never mind the signs, folks. Just exit the highway, pull up to the pump and then we’ll talk.”
I finally gave up on finding anything reasonable and bit the bullet for $3.99 a gallon. Only it wasn’t $3.99 a gallon. It was $4.05 a gallon because I was using a debit card. We have to pay for that privilege in South Carolina, it seems.
Still, by the time we got to Athens, I felt pretty lucky. Stations in Georgia were typically charging $4.09 or more a gallon over the weekend.
Ike spared the Texas refineries, fortunately, and by the time we got in the car Monday to come home, I figured we’d dodged a bullet. With the refineries intact, surely gas prices would be back in the $3.50 range, right?
Well, no. You see, it’s important for oil companies to jack up the price of gasoline immediately when there’s the slightest hint of a storm coming. It’s not nearly so important to bring those prices back down after the storm has ended.
I paid $3.89 a gallon on the way home and considered myself lucky.
But between the gas station lottery and radio reports about fuel prices, I thought of a whole bunch of questions.
Why are gas stations allowed on Friday to hike up the price of fuel that was bought (and sold) at a much lower price on Thursday? It’s not like the storage tank is suddenly costing them more.
In South Carolina, the price of diesel is lower than the price of gasoline. In North Carolina, the price of diesel is more than the price of gasoline. How can that be?
Across the street from the station where I bought gas at $3.89 a gallon on Monday was a station selling gas for - no kidding here - $4.69 a gallon. What kind of sense does that make?
A Georgia Public Radio report told us the average price of gasoline in Georgia Monday was $4.17 a gallon, but the average price of gasoline nationwide was around $3.78 a gallon. If the refineries in Texas process crude for gas stations nationwide, why was the national average so much cheaper than the prices I saw in the Southeast? Aren’t stations in other states affected the way we are?
I don’t have any answers to any of those questions. They just made a long ride home from Georgia seem even longer.
Comments
By George
September 16, 2008 9:12 PM | Link to this
Maybe you should have stayed home and conserve since you and your paper don’t believe in drilling. I’m sure you believe in conserving as long as it don’t apply to you.