The Dis-United States of Gas Prices

Bear with me here...

The four basic laws of supply and demand are:

If demand increases and supply remains unchanged, then it leads to higher equilibrium price and higher quantity.

If demand decreases and supply remains unchanged, then it leads to lower equilibrium price and lower quantity.

If supply increases and demand remains unchanged, then it leads to lower equilibrium price and higher quantity.

If supply decreases and demand remains unchanged, then it leads to higher equilibrium price and lower quantity.

This is what I was taught in school. I am sure that you were taught the same. I can only assume, then that you will find this as confusing as I did.
Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/dis-united-states-gas-prices-182602059.html

Or you can read the news publication quoted in the following:
The Dis-United States of Gas Prices: Why Fuel Is So Cheap in Denver

By contributors@theatlantic.com (Jordan Weissmann) | The Atlantic – Thu, Feb 23, 2012 1:26 PM EST

Thanks to America's overwhelmed oil pipelines, some lucky drivers in the Rockies are getting a big discount on gas.

Reuters
Right now, it's very, very good to be a commuter in Colorado.
Gas prices have been on the rise for the past two months, as the international game of chicken between the West and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program has sent global price of crude oil up above $120 a barrel. In California, an average gallon of fuel now costs more than $4. In New York, it's about $3.90. Even in Houston, the gas-pumping heart of U.S. refining capacity, motorists are paying more than $3.50. The run-up has many contemplating whether gas prices could break the U.S. economic recovery, as they nearly did in 2011.
Yet up in the Rockies, as well as in parts of the Midwest, motorists have been getting spared, relatively speaking. As this map from Gas Buddy shows, prices in states such as Colorado, Idaho, and Utah are lagging well behind the national average of $3.65. As the U.S. Energy Information Administration points out, prices in the Rocky Mountain region were actually falling towards the end of January, even as the rest of the country saw average fuel costs tick up.
It's not unusual for U.S. gas prices to vary by region, sometimes drastically. All sorts of factors come into play, including local regulations, gas taxes, and the distance from the nearest refinery. But those aren't the reasons behind the big discrepancies we're now seeing in American gas prices. There's a much bigger issue at play that speaks to the strange state of the country's oil supply.
Right now, the United States has a big glut of crude oil sitting in the middle of the country, and no easy way to move it. The combination of surging production from Canada's tar sands and North Dakota's Bakken region has overwhelmed the existing pipelines to the Gulf of Mexico, where it would ordinarily be refined and shipped onto the global market. As a result, the price of American and Canadian crude oil is trading at a steep discount to varieties from elsewhere in the world. After all, with fewer potential customers, oil buyers can dictate friendlier prices. West Texas Intermediate, which is traditionally considered a benchmark variety of crude used to price other types, is selling for about $106 a barrel. But according to Oil Price Information Service analyst Tom Kloza, oil from North Dakota has recently been selling for around $83 a barrel. Canadian crude has been trading for even less.
"I've never seen anything like it, this kind of [price] diversity," Kloza told me.
The big beneficiaries of this strange situation have been refiners in the West and Midwest, who get cheap oil, while refiners on the coast have had to continue importing the most expensive varieties from abroad. According to the EIA, before 2011, refineries in the Rocky Mountain region paid about $3 less per barrel of oil than the national average. By November of last year, they were paying $16 less. Those discounts get passed on to drivers in places like Denver, where gas is currently averaging $3.12 cents a gallon.
That good fortune might soon be coming to an end, however. Owners of the Seaway pipeline are planning to reverse it's flow in June, which will allow it to begin shipping 150,000 barrels of oil a day from Cushing Oklahoma, where most of that Canadian and North Dakotan crude is currently sitting, to the gulf. Eventually, it will be able to ship 400,000 barrels a day. If the new pipeline capacity can ease all those backed up supplies, it means prices will rise. Goldman Sachs is now urging investors to go long on American crude futures. In other words, the bank is telling it's customers to buy cheap while they still can.
So no, unlocking that big supply of oil won't do much for gas prices on the coasts. It'll just make American and Canadian oil equally expensive as the stuff drilled up in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. And it'll mean higher gas prices in the middle of the country. So those commuters in Colorado will finally be suffering with the rest of us.
End of news quote.

I learned a long time ago that when "experts" and "analysts" say that there is going to be a rise in prices then, low and behold, the prices rise. If they say that there is going to be a reason for them to rise they go up and yet sometimes there is no reason. Just some report stating that they have said that the prices are likely to go up with the same end result. Many, although, not enough even still know that there are still cast quantities of black gold sitting here in American soil and while it was once being harvested it was, slowly, more and more left behind and forgotten about. I have seen the fields of drilling rigs of varying sizes with some running and others shut down over in Kansas... I feel that I am straying from the point. It seems that no matter what "they" have the ultimate sway over fuel prices. It almost seems as though they wanted to stop using what we had of our own and deplete as much of the rest of the world's oil supply before the world figured out what happened. Now the oil companies are making bank. I can't honestly believe that there was any other reason other than greed and the act of taking advantage of peoples fears that led to the current level of gas pricing... I know that drilling and all the research that goes into it is expensive... But surely it isn't that much different than it was before {dare I go so far as to say it. I swear I am not a lunatic conspiracy theorist... but...} 9/11. What happened was a tragedy. There are plenty of explanations as to why it happened... But I am NOT here to discuss such things. I am merely using it as a reference point in time and nothing more... More gas usage cannot hurt the American economy let alone any economy! It just simply does not make sense... I'm Sorry.

 

I thought the price jump wasn't 9/11, but after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Some sort of punnishment.

 

Key word: Inelastic Demand

No matter what the price, we have to suck up and buy it anyway. The prices go up because they want them to. We don't have a whole lot of options. Walk? Ride a bus that either gets you to work an hour early or 45 minutes late?


<rant> And yes, much of Alaska is untapped, and the Texas oil didn't dry up, it was capped. Big ol' piggy bank to save for after we've used up every one else's supply. </rant>

 

Reason #1691 not to elect anyone with ANY ties to the oil industry into the Presidency or an office of power!

 

i think that the reason for higher gas prices have a connection to the green agenda. c4c didnt work like they wanted. so up go the gas prices. $8 per gallon will force the rest of the suv owners out of them and into the small cars. that will also assure that the only people who will buy pickup trucks and vans are those who need them. trust me this isn't planned.

 

Your are right Ian, its all planned and planned way in advance. They will eliminate the gas suckers and then there will be a huge stockpile of oil. Then they will slow down production and charge us even more for it because they will say there is another gas shortage.

Just shut the country down for a week. Everyone just stop driving, shopping, working, just rough it for 1 lousy short week. Then see how fast the Government changes their tune. I rough it every week, there is weeks when we could not shop or go anywhere but work and home, because we was broke as a joke. So it wont hurt me any to sit home and do nothing.

 

Gas prices make little sense. There are too many variables thus the strange pricing depending on location.

The Chicago area is well known for the highest prices in the lower 48. They have 18 different blends required and few refineries. Mixing and blending does cost and switching the refineries from one blend to the other adds to the price.

The San Fransisco are is generally the highest in California even though they are surrounded by at least 8 refineries. It's their punishment for continually electing Nancy Pelosi to the House.

The rest of California pays more as punishment for electing stupid goveners and Dianne Fienstien to the senate. We pay the highest gas taxes in the country then to the delight of Sacramento when the prices goes up they get more money to waste. We also have to pay sales tax of 7.25 cents on the dollar. $4 gas delights those in Sacramento as they get more sales taxes.

The other states haven't figured out that to increase revenue they too should apply sales taxes to gas.

So, why is it that diesel fuel (a waste product of gasoline production) has always cost more than regular? Simple. Or elected officials decided that we need to refine it more to remove sulfer. Ching, ching....more money for government to waste and the high cost delights the oil companies.

The only truth Obama has said in a long time is that we cannot drill our way to lower prices. This is due to the REQUIREMENT that all oil be traded on the open market. This way the speculators get to run up the cost of oil. This delights the oil companies and government.

So, how did oil get deregulated? Thank President Reagan!

There you have it. Simple.

 

Park the wagons boys, lets all find old pick-um-up trucks and start running these!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA7GQLV-T3U&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ag6LoqcVsM

 

Admittedly, I was a little hesitant in posting this thread, especially with my opinions. But I felt like I needed to. There are so many technologies that have come and gone that would be a great service to the auto industry. There is a guy who, thankfully is rich enough to support himself, his research, and his staff, and he has been designing a carbon composite material to be used for making the frame and body of cars. It is amazingly light weight and harder and stronger than steel. I won't deny the fact the I generally don't give crap about aerodynamics. I like style and artistry and that is what I want to see with cars. We could do that with a material like this.

Over the last few years Zoe and I [mostly me but she has done her own research worthy of credit] have done extensive research concerning cars. It was spawned by 2 things: our need for a car and an ad I found in one of my old National Geographics. Ad below:

As you can see the three wagons in the ad from 1980 all get better mileage than many of the cars now. This forced us to wonder why and to do learn about it. Back then I used a certain site to look up fuel economy for vehicles and I even looked up my old wagon [the midsized fox body Marquis from 1980] and according to this website it only got 15 mpg city. I know for a fact that it got as good if not better gas mileage than my current 03 KIA Optima, which gets around 18 mpg on good days. After looking into the site a little more closely I found 2 things that bothered me. One it was a government site and two, all mileages given are adjusted to modern calculated estimates or something to the like. How does it makes sense to say that the miles attributed to vehicles in the past decades are not equal the to miles used today. Did a mile measure differently back then? Example. I found a listing of the 1980 Datsun 810 Wagon [like the one above] that stated that this wagon only got 13 city/16 highway. What?! Again I ask was a mile measured differently back then?

I have had a dream for years of getting some old monster of car/wagon/hearse with a hearse being the most likely of choices, and getting the engine out of it. I have some designs that would combine steam and electrical technologies. I have done quite a lot of study on these 2 powering systems and I feel that some of the approaches have been close to an answer while some are lacking. I have found many people that believe that such alternatives are outdated and useless to us in the modern times. One such newer technology the I feel hasn't been given the attention it deserves is the compressed air engine [a favorite of Zoe's] and I agree with her...

I would love to see thing like this get more attention and then to have conversion kits produced for sale to the regular driver like you and me. It is entirely possible and completely doable. Unfortunately it is, in a sad way, a pipe dream, because the powers that be will most likely shoot it down because there are too many of them with ties or are in the pockets of the oil industries, or if there is by some chance a kit produced it will be far too expensive for far too long that none of us on here could possibly afford it any time soon. There ws a movie that had a mention of conversion kits. You just bring your old car in and they will convert it over to the new technologies for cars of that day, which also flew. That movie was Back To The Future 2:
http://backtothefuture.wikia.com/wiki/Hover_conversion
http://backtothefuture.wikia.com/wiki/Goldie_Wilson_Hover_Conversion_Systems
Although I know that flying is not an option right now for cars, nor do I think that it should be. Not as long as there are so many irresponsible drivers still on the road...

TBC...

-X

 

Go back to the site and do a little more "research". They explain the differences here.

GOVT SITE

Miles are not, and were not measured differently, then or now.

 

That's the beautiful thing about research... It is never finished.

 

How many people realize that when Rudolph Diesel invented his engine, his two primary intended fuels were peanut oil and hemp seed oil? He wanted to keep the farmers independent of fuel monopolies and self sufficient.

It was later discovered, with some modification, that Diesel's engine would run the waste sludge left over from gasoline production the came to be known as diesel fuel.

 

Xavier, Can I apply your principals to the fact that a 16oz glass of orange juice in Missoula, Montana iz .95 cents and the same 16 oz's in Wildwood, Florida IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GROVEZ THEY WANT $2.95 And az Lilly Tomlin usta say: Phough, and that's the truth

 

I know that there is a lot that I don't understand. I'm not stupid but sometimes I don't get things. I love to learn. Sometimes all I can do is infer and judge for myself what it seems to be going on and even then I know that I can be wrong. I am, unfortunately, gifted with the usual youthful stubborn opinion nature...