Why is our gas so expensive?

[AlaskaSnowSafaris]

That's a pretty ignorant statement.

The oil companies, which had their taxes increased still sell the oil to the refiners based on market prices. The refiner's are their own companies and are not included in the producers tax, therfore the refiner's could care less how much big oil is taxed, they still pay the market price for the product.

I hear people say the high fuel prices are just the oil companies getting back at us, but that could only be true if Tesoro or Flint Hills was owned by one of the producers.

Are Tesoro and Flint Hills the only refinery's selling to all the stations? I hear flint hills is have $$ problems. They are the one's we should be mad at!

How do the refinery's set the price to the stations? How do the stations set the price?

 

[Remmy]

My Brother just drove through Texas and sent me a text message about the $1.43 per gallon he paid for fuel there. How can we be paying nearly 80% more every time we fill up our tank.

Last I heard we were paying more per gallon than Hawaii.

 

[akmclean]

I dotn think this is the whole problem, but every time i pass two competing stations right next to each other I see people fueling up at the more expensive one almost every time. In some cases ive seen 5 cars paying nearly 10 cents more a gallon at a station only 200 feet from the cheaper one where the lot is empty. I know it only amounts to a couple bucks, but without any competition they have no incentive. In the end its kind off silly because they just want you to come in and buy a soda. Thats where the profit is.

 

[summit56]

Here is a list of averages for the states. http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/sbsavg.asp

I cant beleive we pay more than Hawaii

 

[zaxxcmx925]

Then why is Homer's price at 2.99?

 

[pernikm]

...everyone needs to keep in mind we are pretty much 100% dependent on the oil companies in this state. without them we die, no one has jobs, period.... oh wait, there really isn't a dam thing we can do about it and they know it. so.... pass the lube baby, maybe it won't hurt so bad.

pv

(at least people are still complaining about and not JUST looking at pump price)

Almost sounds like the "company store" of lore whose soul has been sold...

 

[bignick]

think on the bright side next year gas will be so cheap.

 

[AKCoop]

Why don't we all pitch in an start a fuel partnership like they do out west.

We all pitch in, have a mangement team started for the consortium, then purchase enough fuel to get it up here for near market price and each person is able to use the amount of fuel purchased initially, Make a minimum purchase amount to buy into the "partnership" and get it at near market price.

My $.02

In 1997 and 1998 when I was in Saudi Arabia, the USAF was paying $.08 gallon for fuel. They built a 1.4 BILLION gallon fuel cell under the base to refuel all the planes in case of an "emergency" departure of the country.

10 years later, paying $3.60 gallon for a "dirty" fuel......DIESEL... ULSD additives don't cost $1 gallon..........

Also if congress was serious they would force the oil companies to release some of the patents they own for fuel conserving inventions (i.e., 100mpg carbs., fuel delivery patents, etc.) Oil companies really started buying these up after the last fuel embargo.

 

[Adrenalin]

hate to burst your bubble but carbs dont determine MPG. i guess what im saying is there are no 100 mpg carbs. its all displacement that makes up the fuel / air needed to make an engine run which is around 30,000HC ppm

 

[AKVECTOR]

So the question I have is it truely the refinery charging too much or is it the stations. I see wholesale fuel is selling for around a $1.00 a gallon. So that tells me that the fuel station is making a $1.80 a gallon. I feel it is has nothing to do with supply and demand. 1st they said we were consuming too much fuel and the refineries can not keep up. Now they say we do not use enough fuel. So hence the lower 48 uses more gallons a day therefore the price is lower because they are making money on the volume of fuel.

I think the stations are greedy!!

 

[Summit Klunka]

It's just R@PE?

Grab your ankles and walk backwards! (later in the criminal photo line up) There are 4 suspects who may have r@ped you, Regular, Mid-Grade, Premium, and Deisel! 5 suspects if you count Deisel #2 w/ high flow nosle. The only protection is to Lube up and TAKE IT, TAKE IT, TAKE IT!

 

[Prayn4snow]

Price of gas hits lowest point in nearly 5 years!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/gas_prices

Check out the latest info on this site. It is no surprise to us that Anchorage is the highest price, but my surprise was the nation's lowest price was $1.46 in Cheyenne, Wyo....Oh well, there goes our energy rebate....wait, I spent that already

 

[chris112lee]

So the question I have is it truely the refinery charging too much or is it the stations. I see wholesale fuel is selling for around a $1.00 a gallon. So that tells me that the fuel station is making a $1.80 a gallon. I feel it is has nothing to do with supply and demand. 1st they said we were consuming too much fuel and the refineries can not keep up. Now they say we do not use enough fuel. So hence the lower 48 uses more gallons a day therefore the price is lower because they are making money on the volume of fuel.

I think the stations are greedy!!

I hope you dont honestly believe that. Many stations pump 6,000+ gallons a day. If gas stations made 10,000 in profit per day just on fuel everyone and their brother would try to open one.

Very rarely do gas stations make more than $.10-$.20 per gallon profit. That's a fact.

 

[AK800RMK151]

Why don't we all pitch in an start a fuel partnership like they do out west.

We all pitch in, have a mangement team started for the consortium, then purchase enough fuel to get it up here for near market price and each person is able to use the amount of fuel purchased initially, Make a minimum purchase amount to buy into the "partnership" and get it at near market price.

My $.02

In 1997 and 1998 when I was in Saudi Arabia, the USAF was paying $.08 gallon for fuel. They built a 1.4 BILLION gallon fuel cell under the base to refuel all the planes in case of an "emergency" departure of the country.

10 years later, paying $3.60 gallon for a "dirty" fuel......DIESEL... ULSD additives don't cost $1 gallon..........

Also if congress was serious they would force the oil companies to release some of the patents they own for fuel conserving inventions (i.e., 100mpg carbs., fuel delivery patents, etc.) Oil companies really started buying these up after the last fuel embargo.

Not nit picking but ULSD has two more refining steps in addition to making Low sulfur Diesel (LSD) although i agree with you the "extra" cost passed down to the comsumer is bull...the rifineries got major tax breaks to become compliant with the new ULSD production deadline. They were supposed to build the addtion to the LSD plant up here on the slope, but the oil companies claimed it would cost them 300+ million to add the two steps in the process to make ULSD, but why did it only cost the North Pole refinery 23 million to do there upgrade? HMMMMM....so get this now they are shipping all the ULSD from North Pole and Kenai to the Slope to meet our needs because the state would not give BP and Connoco the tax breaks they wanted to build the USLD add on up here. This keeps demand higher which is one reason prices are higher according to the suppliers (kenai and North Pole) the rabbit hole keeps getting deeper.

 

[AKCoop]

I understand that the ULSD has the extra steps needed, what I'm saying is the national average is $.80 per gallon higher than regular unleaded, which has how many steps involved beyond creating a #2 diesel product? We have been slowly groomed to ACCEPT higher prices as a way of life, and the industry the whole way to the bank.

Just my opinion.

BTW carbs do not determine MPG, they do however determine the the efficency at which fuel will be atomized in the intake track. This increased efficency is one part of the equation in the MPG game.