Is this gouging.....
87 octane....
2.79/gal here, and 3.39/gal 20 miles down the road........
Someone explain........ Free market?...... Economics.... I would think the same truck delivered most if not all the gas to the stations in this area, and so price differentials are kind of blurry..... hmmmmm
Exxon and others started this by making the statement that they had not had any price increases in years (that is true), then it was the granola-eathing/tree huggers and anti-refinery rhetoric, and then it was hurricane Katrina, then Rita, then a temperature fluctuation in a flux capacitor in Guatemala, the sun-rise was delayed for .0000013 minutes due to sunspot activity..... Hell, they just need to be honest in regards to price hiking...... It is basic economics..... greed at times.....
I realize that they need to keep their investors happy, but they also need to realize that they are pricing the economy into decline. The rubber industry is massively scaling back right now, and so are a lot of other petroleum based industries. People making 6.00/hour cant afford to drive to work, so it is easier to stay at home and get a check that will eventually cost .50 to mail because of fuel costs (can you say "welfare state?").
Watch food costs skyrocket in the near future for a variety of fuel related reasons... If farmers cant get a premium price for their product, they will go under financially, then we have less farmers to supply the "world"and the same or growing demand, and a price increase, etc....you think they can stay in business if they cant afford to plow their fields..... Our economy is tied very deeply to fuel and its costs in a multitude of ways......
I could go on..... just my .02 worth
and...
Just feeling cranky about the wayward pricing of gas......