Memorial day must be coming....

[Jeff Monson]

Unleaded went from $3.79 this morning to $4.09 in a matter of minutes. 30 cents is quite a hike, cant tell me the gas stations aren't smiling for a couple days.

[Harley Reasons]

Dang, and I thought the jump from $3.15 to $3.24 was bad.

[David Weaver]

Must be coming from the west like the weather, as it hasn't gotten here yet. You guys get a lot of tourists in ND, like campers and such?

When I lived in gettysburg, it seemed like the prices fluctuated to nail the tourists. 10 miles away, gas was always 10 or 15 cents cheaper despite real estate costs being the same.

One of my favorite sayings for the thinly veiled ripoff games is "the customer is always ripe".

[Harley Reasons]

That's why I LOVE the Gas Buddy app on my phone, you can shop for the cheapest fuel for miles down the road or in your home town.

[Brian Elfert]

Apparently two refineries in the Chicago region are shut down for upgrades and causing gas prices to skyrocket. They are both upgrading to be able to handle the heavy crude out of Canada. You don't think maybe the refineries colluded to both do this at the same time to drive up prices do you?

This sucks. I'm going to have to figure out how to cut my driving to stay within my fuel budget. I've averaged between 900 and 1000 miles a month over the past year. My budget will allow for about 800 miles a month at current prices and I drive 500 to 550 miles a month for work. Fuel was $3.75 just a few weeks ago and I could drive over a 100 miles a month more on the same fuel budget.

[Dick Latshaw]

They are both upgrading to be able to handle the heavy crude out of Canada. You don't think maybe the refineries colluded to both do this at the same time to drive up prices do you?

C'mon Brian. The oil companies are our friends. They are creating all kinds of jobs. Haven't you seen the TV commercials?

[Tom Fischer]

More likely the EPA ordered the scheduling.
We have two electric utilities near here (eastern PA) shutting down next year.
They couldn't afford the new EPA emission mandates.
Electric will be going up as well as gasoline.

[Rick Potter]

For years we have a local refinery or two shut down around this time of year for repairs or maintenance. I am sure it is coincidental. Price took a big jump here a couple days ago.

It's my understanding that no new refineries have been built around here in over forty years, either. We used to have a gas station on every busy corner, most have been replaced by banks.

Rick Potter

[John Pratt]

I filled up on the 10th of May at $3.37, yesterday the station I get gas at jumped to $3.85. Memorial Day travelers, graduation season travelers, schools-out vacation time, etc. What I find amusing is that it is illegal for gas stations to collude to set prices, and yet all the stations change their prices at the same time of the week and even at the same time of the day most times.

[David Weaver]

Weather still didn't blow in here. $3.55 monday, and still $3.55 today. I ride the bus, though. But I do pick up the bus next to a gas station.

[Harley Reasons]

I filled up on the 10th of May at $3.37, yesterday the station I get gas at jumped to $3.85. Memorial Day travelers, graduation season travelers, schools-out vacation time, etc. What I find amusing is that it is illegal for gas stations to collude to set prices, and yet all the stations change their prices at the same time of the week and even at the same time of the day most times.

Now all stations are connected via Gas Buddy app on a smartphone. One goes up, all go up, one goes down, well, we'll get around to dropping prices after our next tanker load. Gouge, Gouge, Gouge, don't worry the suckers will pay whether they want to or not.

[Jeff Monson]

Apparently two refineries in the Chicago region are shut down for upgrades and causing gas prices to skyrocket. They are both upgrading to be able to handle the heavy crude out of Canada. You don't think maybe the refineries colluded to both do this at the same time to drive up prices do you?

That is what I have heard also. It really makes me mad that they cannot schedule "maintenance" independently of each other, secondly why cant they do this on the part of the season where the demand is the least? Makes absolutely no sense to me. The fuel stations working as a "team" also gets under my skin, how can they all raise the price at the same time? Can you tell me they all fill their holding tanks a the same time? I know that their cost is going to go up as these refineries are shut down, but why do they have to gouge people on the fuel that they already have on hand? I'd bet with the hike they took yesterday that some are profiting over .50 cents a gallon.

[David Weaver]

Unless they were regulated to do maintenance at a specific time, I'm sure they are well aware that the industry as a whole can harvest more if they schedule maintenance strategically.

[Jeff Monson]

Unless they were regulated to do maintenance at a specific time, I'm sure they are well aware that the industry as a whole can harvest more if they schedule maintenance strategically.

You are most likely right David, the industry defiantly needs to harvest more, we know times are tough in the oil business

[David Weaver]

Well, they do have a duty to their shareholders, just like every other public company. I'm sure most of us have oil stocks in our portfolios. They have generally been good to us, stock-wise, when a lot of other stocks weren't. All of the money goes somewhere. Once you're forced to hand them over, you just have to figure out where and then try to get it back.

I do think that we are in an era where the oil companies do have to work pretty hard to actually get the oil, and a lot of what we're getting out of the ground is energy and labor intensive and we're going to end up paying for that. Being from the marcellus region, I'd love to toot the horn for natural gas, but progress in figuring out how to get that in passenger cars seems to be pretty slow.