Posted: 6/7/2004 7:32:10 PM EDT
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Oil supply is not the issue right now, refinery capacity is. There has not been a new refinery built in the US since 1976 IIRC due to cost of compliance with enviornmental regulations. at the same time different blends of gas are required in different regions of the country and gas produced in GA or TX cannot be piped to NY or AZ etc, so if stocks in NY dwindle they cannot be supplimented with gas from another region(also due to enviornmental regs). Also as I understand it the current shortage occured just as refinerys around the country shut down to change production from winter to summer blends(agian mandated by enviornmental regs) further exacerbating the shortage --supply and demand took over and the price went up --demand you may note never fell off, every gas station in sight had customers waiting to gas up. Here in western PA I ahve noted in the past 3 days a decrease of .10 a gallon all grades IE last week 87/89/and premium were $1.99/2.03/and $2.13 respectively this week it is 87-$189, 89-$1.99 and premium is now $2.03 a gallon hopefully this means prices will start dropping across the country as production gets back up to speed. edited to add : --oh well forget it then |