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Post by Mike on Oct 26, 2005 23:01:01 GMT -5
Hmmm... We haven't seen prices like that since long before Katrina. I filled up today in Houston for $2.59, which is a good price lately. I guess a bit of irony is that I was a few miles from major refineries that produce most of the gas for the country. Oh well....somebody's gotta pay it. NOT!!!!!
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Post by chadgumbo on Oct 27, 2005 13:29:12 GMT -5
I understand your frustration Mike. When I lived in Dallas back in 1980, I was always paying a good deal less for gas than what my parents were paying in Iowa. I always figured it was because I lived closer to the source of the gasoline - the refinery. They didn't have to transport it as far, hence my savings. I don't get it. You would think that gas in Houston would be noticeably less than here in Minnesota. Maybe the dynamics of supply and demand in Houston, as compared to here is something that is factored in. But there's no shortage of drivers on the highways and streets of Minneapolis, I can tell you.
Rochester relented a little today, as the pumps are at $2.29 a gallon.
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Post by chadgumbo on Oct 27, 2005 22:14:13 GMT -5
From my favorite source of satire, here is an archived article from the June 27, 1998 issue of The Onion.
That little weekly rag (it's published at the University of Wisconsin) really cracks me up ;D
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Post by Scott Hays on Oct 28, 2005 10:13:36 GMT -5
The Onion is available on-line (www.theonion.com). It is pretty good!
I would like to refer everyone (at least, everyone who is interested) to my post on page 1 of this thread, dated about September 23 (or was that 13). This was written shortly after members of Congress created a committee to research price spikes in the cost of petroleum products at the same time the petroleum companies were announcing (again) record profits. Has anyone heard from that committee? Have witnesses been called? Is there a transcript of testimony? Has the national media covered those hearings? Have editorialists and opinion-shapers commented on such hearings?
Am I alone in wondering just what became of the zealous effort to hold the big-3 accountable?
Well, to help put that into perspective, here is what has been reported about recent Congressional action in relation to energy and oil-profiteering. Yesterday, the House Committee on Energy (or something like that) added a provision to the pending appropriations bill (the one that suddenly fiscally conservative conservatives have created to generate the $50 billion needed to pay for Hurrican Katrina Relief ... you know, the one where they were going to repeal the last patently pork-barrel laden appropriations bill but instead decided to save money by cutting funding to Medicaid, college loan programs, food stamps and the like but NOT by eliminating the $60 billion tax cut that stands to become permanent if not eliminated?) that (1) approves drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, and (2) allows states to opt out of the national ban on off-shore drilling, which expires in 2012, by allowing them to share in any royalties that might arise if oil is discovered. Item one is attached to the appropriations bill because it takes ANWAR out of the fillibuster range, and the democratic minority -- obviously, though flawed, the only voice for environmental protection and preservation left in the country -- will be helpless to block it, as it has in the past. Item two also includes more tax breaks and incentives for the oil companies to build more refineries using older, less clean technologies (and to even avoid certain emission control standards altogether).
In other words, while speaking out of one side of its mouth about the supposed evils of "gouging", the Congress is passing out yet more perks (at our expense) with the other. Instead of investing in alternative energy sources, or supporting research to find new forms of energy generation and/or application, it is just more of the same old reward the boss who pats me on the back!
And that reminds me of another (related) issue. Did anyone catch the news bit about the city council meeting in New Orleans yesterday where a line of speakers -- all local construction workers -- addressed the city council with concerns about not being able to obtain work from the outside contractors who had been brought in to rebuild New Orleans? A couple of these tough construction guys were actually crying as they tried to describe their (fruitless) efforts to get work.
Hmmm ... I wonder (not) why they can't get a job ... and who is getting the work instead?
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Post by Mike on Oct 29, 2005 11:15:59 GMT -5
Scott wrote: "while speaking out of one side of its mouth about the supposed evils of "gouging", the Congress is passing out yet more perks (at our expense) with the other. "
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Post by Mike on Nov 2, 2005 22:32:13 GMT -5
Well around here a gallon has finally crept down to $2.39 & 9/10ths, but at least it's not $2.40. ;D I think "they're" going as slow as they can and hoping for another hurricane or uprising in lower Mongolia or something. Poor guys are doing anything they can do to try and get their profits up to where "they" think they should be. Wherever that "happy" plateau may be....
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Post by Rollin' Mark on Nov 3, 2005 9:09:23 GMT -5
Saw $2.27 in CT yesterday, and we have one of the highest gas taxes in the Country!
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Post by Mike on Nov 3, 2005 11:34:44 GMT -5
Yeah, TX has a pretty hefty gas tax also. I drive to Oklahoma a lot, and there's a .20 to .30 difference just from crossing the state line. I usually "top er off" at the last stop in OK coming back. The almost invisible gov't "investigation" has revealed that many station owners are helping to themselves to some gouging. So many hustlers now daze! Why just recently Mr. Patel at the local Chevron was telling me that "we are standing here losing our socks..." ;D
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shred
Junior Member
Posts: 54
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Post by shred on Nov 3, 2005 12:24:09 GMT -5
Hey all,
No pity for you here, we must have the highest taxes of all. Being Northern Ca. and EPA guidelines. Add on to that transportation up the hill into the mountains, average price is still between 2.89 if you drive to main town or local at 2.99 for the cheap stuff...............Shred
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Post by Rollin' Mark on Nov 4, 2005 8:09:30 GMT -5
Thought you all might find this interesting: www.gasbuddy.com/index.aspYou can use this to find gas prices all over the country. 1.99 in Whitman, MA this am. 1.80 in Mission, Texas 2.42 the lowest reported in CA
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Post by Mike on Nov 12, 2005 10:08:26 GMT -5
Yep, I bought gas all this past week in the Rio Grande Valley for $1.85. Man, what a bargain . Funny how it has rather suddenly started sliding downward as the senate actually starts asking a question or two. I have been reading about how the majors have bought up or bought out any investor groups that have tried to build refineries over the last several years to keep supplies "low". In a few cases they have threatened to ruin any banking institute that loans to these groups. Also while claiming that supplies were "dangerously" low they float billions of barrels of crude to foreign countries that don't really need it at less cost per barrel than the American going rates. Of course they will say that the fault lies with the EPA. That's like saying it's the media's fault that Dubya is such a greedy retard.
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Post by Scott Hays on Nov 12, 2005 11:21:54 GMT -5
I've heard those things, too. I am also wondering just where the $10 billion in profits registered by Exxon in the last quarter was invested (or any of the previous $100 b for the year). No refineries (hence the "low" volume), no pipelines, no tankers. Oh, I know ... it's all gone to pension plans for its workers.
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Post by chadgumbo on Nov 28, 2005 8:55:42 GMT -5
Gas continues its slooowwww, but steady, slide downward in Minnesota. Sunday November 27th showed prices of $2.08 in Rochester, and I gassed up in Minneapolis when I took my son Ben back to school. It was a $1.98 there. First time I'd paid less than $2- in quite awhile.
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Post by chadgumbo on Jan 3, 2006 18:12:39 GMT -5
And the see-saw continues. After gassing up for $2.02 in my hometown in northern Iowa on Christmas Eve, the year started off with gas in Rochester at $2.24. 9/10 on New Year's Day. Up 26 cents from November 28th.
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Post by Mike on Jan 3, 2006 23:32:05 GMT -5
Up 26 cents from November 28th. Yup...that's because they're predicting hurricanes next year...somewhere?
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