Now, we’re used to the slightest blip in middle east security or tiny bump in the price of light crude sending prices at the pump immediately up, to begin a slow crawl back down.
But, the price of a barrel of oil has been skyrocketing and yet, we’ve been paying about $2.65 at the pump (in Maryland) for months on end now. I couldn’t find a similar chart for average gallon of gas, but I’ve been charting my own gas purchases, and it has actually dropped from earlier in the year, and held pretty constant for a few months now, as oil has climbed.
I know that oil barrel prices and pump prices don’t need to march in lock step, but this is the type of thing that always causes us to pay more at the pumps while Big Oil shrugs its shoulders and goes, “There’s nothing we can do”.
Personally, I find it kind of suspicious. Like “they” – and I do mean “they” – like the Fed and the White House know that we’re pretty much teetering on the edge of a recession. They NEED to cut interest rates right now to keep the country solvent, but we’re in real danger of major inflation.
I just find it astounding, and counter to everything I’ve ever seen, that these oil prices haven’t been reflected at the pump.
Come on, quit it. Whenever we have one of these threads, furriners always come in here and say “Well, you guys don’t know what it’s really like. WE pay high prices!”
But it is high for me. It’s not like my salary goes up to match the gas prices. If I can comfortably fit $2.65 into my salary I may (do!) have a harder time fitting $3.13 into my salary. It’s two different worlds and you guys always have to make it about yourselves.
Is it possible that, with the high market prices on crude, that whoever was sitting on large stocks of oil sold them off, and now we have a over-supply situation of gasoline, which drives those prices down? (This is not snark, but the exposure of ignorance.)
There are a lot of factors in pricing, beyond the cost of a barrel of crude. Indeed, crude pricing can affect what you pay, but more importantly right now is refinery production and capacity. The price increases you are seeing now are as likely to be the result of refineries switching from gasoline to heating oil production, as from the recent increases in crude pricing.
Once again, UK prices look the same as Canadian prices, but in pounds instead of dollars. Regular here is around 99c Canadian a litre.
:: checks XE ::
1 UK pound = $1.98 Canadian, so you guys are paying about double what we are.
Tax. Fuel duty is insanely high over here. Petrol is also subject to Value Added Tax (like most consumer goods are). And I think, by some quirk of logic, we even have to pay VAT on the fuel duty. :smack:
