I just got a phone call from someone warning me that gas prices are up a DOLLAR locally right now because of the impending hurricane (note: we’re at minimum 13 hours from any ocean).
I bought gas this afternoon for 3.59 a gallon. Supposedly, it’s up to $4.59 right now and there are lines long enough to shut streets down as people try to buy gas before it gets worse.
I’m guessing (really more hoping) this goes back down tomorrow morning when everyone calms down. Anyone else experiencing this kind of naked fearmongering?
Not today, but two days ago gas around here shot up from $3.41 to $3.79.
I’ve seen it from $3.39 to $3.79 - all within a 10 mile distance.
A dollar would be back up to about where it was a couple months ago. Not too bad I suppose.
There have been a few reports that it will go up by 12.9 Canadian cents per litre (45 US cents per US gallon) at midnight tonight. That’s from a base price of 123.9 c/L (439 US cents per US gallon).
Now, if this kind of thing is apparent enough to be predicted, how can we say that the gasoline distributors aren’t colluding on prices? Are we really all drawing from the same couple of refineries?