# You want $1.30 a gallon??? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 27, 2006, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433 "2006-04-27T11:12:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/81 "2006-04-28T02:01:15Z")
> [@liberty](#): > > I drive an economy car. I’m against suvs and pickups if you don’t need them. Of course, i drive an 8 wheeler, but my company pays for the fuel Well, as long as the company pays the fuel that means the oil isn’t really being used, right? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![liberty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/958977/32.png) [@liberty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/82 "2006-04-28T02:11:33Z")
no, I’m just not paying for ut. ---
**Author:** ![liberty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/958977/32.png) [@liberty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/83 "2006-04-28T02:14:43Z")
that’s 18 wheeler, not 8 ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/84 "2006-04-28T02:22:46Z")
(As mentioned earlier, but with different numbers based on the increased price.) 1 barrel of crude = $75.00 1 gallon of crude = $1.78 (I see a problem already.) Taxes (depending on location) = $0.46 Absolute base cost for a gallon of gasoline = $2.24 Let’s say a gollon costs $2.85. And I’m high-balloing the price up here and low-balling the taxes. YMMV. That’s a total profit of $0.62 per gallon. (Give or take.) From that 62 cents there’s the cost of refining it, maintaining the refineries, cleaning the equipment to formulate the seasonal blends, covering MTBE suits, paying the workers that refine it, their benefits, the drivers, railroad companies and pipeline workers that maintain the shipping lines, wages to local drivers, and the gas station owner himself. Oh, and all that rebuilding some companies in a certain area have to perform. It’s funny how these Senate hearings are so pressing this close to an election. Where was the outrage last spring? Back then the housing industry was plugging along building bigger and bigger houses that require more and more energy to heat and cool. Most often in the exurbs that those commuters are now living in bitching about the cost of gas. If you can’t afford to get to work, buy a house closer to work, or build smaller. Not every drop of oil goes to gasoline. Also realize you’re not the only one using the gasoline. Exxon and Shell may be based in the US, but they aren’t only selling to the US. Ever hear of China and India? Take one gallon of crude and split it among the US, China and India. You get one third gallon, not 3 gallons. The profit touted is earned world-wide. Not just from the American rube twice the wholesale price at the pump. But that is all for nothing in the arena of public opinion. Americans see a high (relatively) price of a gallon of gas and get pissed at the White House. The opposing party seizes on this ignorance and plays it up. And it’s working. Whatever. I’m buying stock in bottled water. That’s where the price gouging is and there are no investigations aimed at that industry. ---
**Author:** ![liberty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/958977/32.png) [@liberty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/85 "2006-04-28T02:31:03Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > (As mentioned earlier, but with different numbers based on the increased price.) > > 1 barrel of crude = $75.00 > > 1 gallon of crude = $1.78 (I see a problem already.) > > Taxes (depending on location) = $0.46 > > Absolute base cost for a gallon of gasoline = $2.24 > Let’s say a gollon costs $2.85. And I’m high-balloing the price up here and low-balling the taxes. YMMV. > > That’s a total profit of $0.62 per gallon. (Give or take.) > > From that 62 cents there’s the cost of refining it, maintaining the refineries, cleaning the equipment to formulate the seasonal blends, covering MTBE suits, paying the workers that refine it, their benefits, the drivers, railroad companies and pipeline workers that maintain the shipping lines, wages to local drivers, and the gas station owner himself. > > Oh, and all that rebuilding some companies in a certain area have to perform. > > It’s funny how these Senate hearings are so pressing this close to an election. Where was the outrage last spring? Back then the housing industry was plugging along building bigger and bigger houses that require more and more energy to heat and cool. Most often in the exurbs that those commuters are now living in bitching about the cost of gas. If you can’t afford to get to work, buy a house closer to work, or build smaller. Not every drop of oil goes to gasoline. > > Also realize you’re not the only one using the gasoline. Exxon and Shell may be based in the US, but they aren’t only selling to the US. Ever hear of China and India? Take one gallon of crude and split it among the US, China and India. You get one third gallon, not 3 gallons. The profit touted is earned world-wide. Not just from the American rube twice the wholesale price at the pump. > But that is all for nothing in the arena of public opinion. Americans see a high (relatively) price of a gallon of gas and get pissed at the White House. The opposing party seizes on this ignorance and plays it up. And it’s working. > > Whatever. I’m buying stock in bottled water. That’s where the price gouging is and there are no investigations aimed at that industry. yet, xom brings home 9 billion dollrs for first quarter, ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/86 "2006-04-28T02:32:15Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > I just showed this thread to a couple of friends of mine. Here is what the wife said > [@](#): > > You know a lot of people boycott hookers, but I don’t hear about the price of blowjobs going down. Your friend has obviously never been to _Sugarsmackrabia_! It’s **Dooku** -approved! Rent one of the private booths and ask for “Karl.” ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/87 "2006-04-28T02:33:13Z")
> [@liberty](#): > > yet, xom brings home 9 billion dollrs for first quarter, Which should give you some idea about just how much freaking gas we are using every day. Learn to walk once and awhile, people! ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/88 "2006-04-28T02:37:25Z")
> [@liberty](#): > > no, I’m just not paying for ut. Well, yes you are. I drove truck for 8 years. If you’re a company driver, you may still be keeping your head above water, if you’re lucky enough to drive for a company that imposes a fuel surcharge. Or get paid by the mile straight up. If you’re an OO you’re getting killed by the large fleets that can work on single percentage profits. Do you haul every good you purchase to the store? No? You’re paying the increased shipping charges at the counter. Everyone is affected. Even if your company gives you a check for the fuel, you’re paying for it or another trucker’s fuel. Are you new to driving or just obtuse? You’re paying for the fuel. ---
**Author:** ![liberty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/958977/32.png) [@liberty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/89 "2006-04-28T02:47:50Z")
I do drive for Werner and I am relatively new. I have 14 months under my belt. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/90 "2006-04-28T02:51:12Z")
Gas stations make a killing on gasoline, no matter what they’d like for you to believe. Looking at [this chart](http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/pdf/pages/sec5_55.pdf) (warning:small PDF), you can see that profits usually exceed 10%. That’s over 5 dollars profit from me when I fill my tank. That’s a hell of a lot of candy bars. ---
**Author:** ![liberty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/958977/32.png) [@liberty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/91 "2006-04-28T02:55:11Z")
I do drive for Werner and I am relatively new. I have 14 months under my belt. ---
**Author:** ![liberty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/958977/32.png) [@liberty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/92 "2006-04-28T02:57:18Z")
ok, indirectly, like everyone else, I’m paying for it. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/93 "2006-04-28T02:59:02Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > Gas stations make a killing on gasoline, no matter what they’d like for you to believe. Looking at [this chart](http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/pdf/pages/sec5_55.pdf) (warning:small PDF), you can see that profits usually exceed 10%. That’s over 5 dollars profit from me when I fill my tank. That’s a hell of a lot of candy bars. See, we need a little more info for a comparison. Chicago, Milwaukee, etc always have higher prices than up here because of different formulation demands. On top of that a gas station’s profit margin isn’t universal. Ever hear of “zone-pricing”? One gas station can charge more than another in the same zip code, but both pay the same wholesale. Based on this, it’s the same as one station charging $5 for a pack of smokes and another charging $4. The tobacco company gets the same level of profit, even though the overall profit on a pack gets skewed by the pricing. If anyone can show me how the CEO of Exxon gets a $400 million retirement deal based on 200 million drivers, I’d love to hear it. For now, I’ll hang onto my Bush-loving idea of the rest of the world using the same oil. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/94 "2006-04-28T03:00:49Z")
> [@liberty](#): > > ok, indirectly, like everyone else, I’m paying for it. Indirectly? Well, in that case I guess you’re not _really_ paying for it. But I like idealism. I just hope you’re a professional and stay vigilant. On top of the bridges and between the ditches. Stay safe and drive safer. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![liberty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/958977/32.png) [@liberty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/95 "2006-04-28T03:13:30Z")
I try. now, to get 4 wheelers to behave and understand how trucks operate and not pass me from behind when i’m backing into a tight-a\*\* family dollar store ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/96 "2006-04-28T03:14:00Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > See, we need a little more info for a comparison. Chicago, Milwaukee, etc always have higher prices than up here because of different formulation demands. On top of that a gas station’s profit margin isn’t universal. Ever hear of “zone-pricing”? One gas station can charge more than another in the same zip code, but both pay the same wholesale. Based on this, it’s the same as one station charging $5 for a pack of smokes and another charging $4. The tobacco company gets the same level of profit, even though the overall profit on a pack gets skewed by the pricing. Why would you need more info? That’s national data. If you want to argue that one gas station makes more profit than another, then sure (no clue why you even bring that up as a debate point, as I can’t imagine anyone thinking otherwise), but that’s not the argument being put forward. The argument has been that gas stations make little to no profit on gas. The chart I linked to smacks that notion down hard. If half of the gas stations make 1% profit, then the other half are making over 20%. I’m not feeling particularly sorry for service station owners. As an added note, traditionally, stations make a smaller percentage of profits when prices rise, but make up for it by making insanely high profits when the prices drop. That’s even true when there is absolutely no indication that they are overpricing when it rises. They basically raised prices approximately in concert with raised costs, but lowered them much more slowly than their costs lowered. I’m REALLY not feeling sorry for them. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/97 "2006-04-28T03:47:25Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > I’m REALLY not feeling sorry for them. I’m not feeling sorry for them either, they would make a profit selling gas at 10% below wholesale period. I’m trying to hammer it to anyone that doesn’t realize it that Big Oil isn’t the sole place to lay blame. They may be a small part, but there are 50 different things to look at when looking at Big Oil profits. People forget there are 6 billion people on Earth and the 300 million in the US aren’t making up the full profit of the oil companies. Taken as a whole, that profit percentage takes a drastic drop when factoring in world wide use. But in an election year, it’s easier to get a guy filling up at $3/gallon to forget the fact he’s paying a higher mortgage payment because his house is twice as big (and costs twice as much to heat and cool). He forgets that the oil is used in prducing the energy to heat in cool it in many cases, thus reducing the available oil to make the gas so he can drive 60 miles each way to the office. I wonder what the markup is and profit gained from a gallon of gas sold in Beijing, L.A., Chicago, Fargo, Seoul, London and Oslo to Big Oil. Anyone have that data? ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/98 "2006-04-28T03:50:33Z")
> [@liberty](#): > > I try. now, to get 4 wheelers to behave and understand how trucks operate and not pass me from behind when i’m backing into a tight-a\*\* family dollar store Not to hijack, but good friggin’ luck. You’re the bad guy and they are always right. Trust me. Get used to it, you’ll always be the bad guy. Get their shit to the store, but don’t expect any acknowledgment that their lives (always more important than a slog like you) would fall to shit if you locked and walked. Goes with the job. Good luck with it. ---
**Author:** ![liberty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/958977/32.png) [@liberty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/99 "2006-04-28T03:52:45Z")
yup. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433/100 "2006-04-28T04:05:43Z")
> [@](#): > > yet, xom brings home 9 billion dollrs for first quarter So what, if that figure is about 10% of the company’s revenues for the quarter, like someone else said? What, in your view, is the proper percentage of profit a publicly-traded company should make? If it’s less than ten percent, why aren’t you bitching about Microsoft, to use just one example? Actually, we just had a thread about that a couple weeks ago. As I recall, it didn’t end well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-1-30-a-gallon/354433.md?page=6)