Gas price gouging in N.C, GA, NY, PA, TX, IL, TN, NJ, MI, SC

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Drivers angry over gas prices
Lawmakers get involved when thousands of motorists make complaints of price gouging. Retail prices keep climbing, and the U.S. looks to Europe for emergency infusions of gas.

Consumer outrage over rocketing gas prices, particularly in areas of the country most affected by supply disruptions caused by Hurricane Katrina, has spread to the nation's lawmakers.

The Energy Department reported more than 5,000 calls to its price gouging hotline Thursday from around the country, although officials emphasized there was no way to immediately determine how many of the allegations were valid.

"In Illinois, prices are reported to have shot up 50 cents per gallon overnight and the state attorney general received more than 500 reports of price gouging," nine Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee wrote the Federal Trade Commission, asking the agency to step up its review of gas markets.
L I V E V O T E
Voting ends 9/8/2005
The gas spike is largely expected to be temporary. How much do you plan to cut back on driving while it lasts?
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# You can report cases of gouging to the Energy Information Administration here.
# Find out how to help those affected by the hurricane here.

"These increases go far beyond anything justified or relating to the market disruptions caused by Hurricane Katrina," wrote Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the committee's ranking Democrat, and the other members.

Energy Department spokesman Drew Malcolm said reports of price gouging were being turned over to the FTC.

A 'heart attack' for the oil industry
"There is some price gouging going on, but the American consumer doesn't really understand what's going on in the market," Dan Gilligan, president of the Petroleum Marketers Association, said Friday on CNBC's "Squawk Box." .

"If the Gulf of Mexico is the heart of the oil industry, we've suffered a heart attack," he said, and marketers are sending trucks 200 to 300 miles pick up product. "When the consumer sees the price go up 50 cents they assume that all goes to the station, and that's just not the case."

The states with the most complaints were North Carolina, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Illinois, Tennessee, New Jersey, Michigan and South Carolina.

Wholesale prices were cooling off Friday in early trading. Unleaded gasoline for October delivery fell 5.9 cents, 2.4%, to $2.35 per gallon in early-morning electronic trading; at 10 a.m. ET, it had fallen 16 cents to $2.5.

Hurricane Katrina shut down nine Gulf Coast refineries, disrupted gasoline pipelines to the Midwest and East and stopped 90 percent of the oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.

Retail prices keep climbing
The AAA reported Friday that the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline jumped 16 cents in a single day to $2.87. It is now up 58 cents in one month and $1.02 in a year. The average price of a gallon of premium is now at $3.16, up $1.12 in a single year.

Three states jumped over $3 for a gallon of regular: Indiana (up 36 cents), Michigan (up 31 cents) and Illinois (up 22 cents). If that's not bad enough, the real figure could be 10 to 20 cents higher given reports that some stations are changing prices up to three times daily, AAA spokesman Geoff Sundstrom said Thursday.

Gas prices: national average
Regular Mid Premium Diesel
Current average $2.87 $3.04 $3.16 $2.81
Yesterday average $2.71 $2.87 $2.98 $2.71
Month ago average $2.29 $2.43 $2.51 $2.42
Year ago average $1.85 $1.97 $2.04 $1.90
Source: AAA Fuel Gauge Report, Sept. 2, 2005

There have been isolated cases of unusually huge price jumps, including a gas station in Georgia that briefly charged $6 a gallon when competitors ran out of gas. In Michigan, there was a price jump of nearly $1 a gallon overnight, although prices then receded, according to Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who drove around his district on Thursday to gauge prices.

"Prices are averaging $3.19. It's as high as $3.58 from $2.61 on Tuesday," said Upton in a telephone interview. "My sense is the supply and demand equation does not fit a 60-cent (a gallon) increase in the last 36 hours."

Increases have been most dramatic in areas hit by gasoline shortages. Stations in and around downtown Atlanta had temporarily run out of gas, the Associated Press reported on Thursday. The same was reported in parts of North Carolina, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Arizona.

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Many retailers who did have gas had no clue when their next shipments would come in.

The situation was worse in areas closer to the hurricane's path. In southwest Alabama, gas lines of 100 cars were commonplace early Thursday, extending out onto entrance ramps along Interstate 10. And most of the gas stations were closed, not for a lack of gas but for a lack of electricity to pump it. People were sitting in their cars for hours in anticipation of when power would be restored and the pumps working again.

Help from overseas
The energy plight in the U.S. was drawing offers of help from around the world. Reuters reported that Europe will dip into its emergency reserves of gasoline to help the United States through the crisis.

Spain and Germany said they were ready and able to send fuel across the Atlantic in an operation coordinated by the West's energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency. The United States confirmed it had requested assistance.

Europe will also send unrefined oil. Read more here.

With the relaxation of pollution standards, the allowance of foreign ships to bring oil to the United States and now the attempt to get Europe to send actual gasoline, "They're pulling out all the stops to get the price down," John Kilduff, senior vice president of energy risk management at Fimat USA, told CNBC's "Morning Call."

How high will prices go?
How high will gas climb before prices cool off? There's no way of knowing until damage from the hurricane is fully assessed, but predictions of $4 gas are becoming more common. John Pearson, editor of financial newsletter "The Bottom Line," told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that $5 gasoline is very unlikely unless there is another supply disruption.

Demand could fall, he added -- not because of high prices, but because of inconvenience and long waits at gas stations.

Eight refineries were shut down due to Katrina, according to the Associated Press -- half of them producing gasoline. Vienna's PVM Oil Associates additionally reported at least three others flooded and power failures sidelining others for an unknown length of time.

Analysts expected some relief once electricity is restored to Gulf Coast pipelines and refineries, but they are unsure how long that will take.

A call to conserve
"Don't buy gas if you don't need it," President Bush told the nation in a brief television address on Thursday. Earlier in the day, he issued his own warning to gougers in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting, or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving, or insurance fraud," Bush said.

He added that Americans should conserve more gasoline in response to the crisis and said he expected Saudi Arabia to do "everything they can" to provide more oil, Reuters reported. He said eight refineries are down in the Gulf and "it's going to take a while" to get them going again.

Paul Hornsnell, head of energy research at Barclays Capital in London, told the Associated Press that the damage translated into an estimated 30-million-barrel loss in gasoline output -- a problem that cannot be solved by increasing crude production or siphoning oil from the U.S. petroleum reserve.

The problems soon could extend far beyond motorists' wallets. Energy experts say they are concerned about how hurricane damage to Gulf Coast natural gas and heating oil facilities will affect heating bills this winter. Rising jet fuel costs because of the hurricane also have put additional pressure on cash-strapped airlines.

In Georgia and North Carolina, state officials asked residents to conserve gas and government workers were ordered to limit nonessential travel. A suburban Atlanta vanpooling program also reported a 50% jump in participants since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on Monday.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/CNBCTV/Articles/Dispatches/P128021.asp?GT1=6938
 
Gas prices jumped big time in Toronto this week!

Monday morning it was 99.7 cents per liter, or $3.17US per gallon. Every morning since then it has gone up a little more, to the point where this morning it was $1.343 per liter! That works out to $4.27US per gallon! More than a one dollar rise in the price in under one week! Pure robbery if you ask me!
 
Patman,
it's equivalent to $3.75US at present down here.

There's no rhyme nor reason to it.
 
quote:

Originally posted by oilyriser:
Does anyone remember when the price of silver jumped to around $40/oz?

I rember that one. I also remember when Gold spiked to 600+ bucks in 70's dollars. I tried to sell but the drop took place in a few hours.
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BTW Gasoline on the NY Merc. after spiking to $2.62 dropped to $2.18. If Americans conserve in the next couple of weeks and don't panic it could drop more. But we are a bunch of sheep so its a crap shoot.
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This morning when I got out of work I saw a price range of $3.299 to $3.599 for 87 octane.

While I only drive about 3-4 miles to work, my fiancee drives 25 miles to work. I am really considering buying a cheap VW diesel and converting it to WVO. My dad did this back around the beginning of the year and he is laughing his butt of right now. Everybody thought he was crazy at the time. He has more WVO than he can use. If I get one, I'll just have to start driving 25 miles to use his garage as a filling station. I'll give him $1 a gallon to offset his operation costs and we'll both be happy.
 
I don't see people cutting their driving. Yep we have to drive to work. but other than that driving can be cut.
 
here in town, it varied from $3.19-$3.80/gal on friday... it dropped about 20 cents yesterday, and I haven't been outside today. Unless I'm getting paid, I don't drive my truck anywhere. And we've pretty much quit driving anywhere in the minivan either... We even walk the mile to the closest grocery store for non "grocery day" shopping..

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quote:

Originally posted by oilyriser:
Does anyone remember when the price of silver jumped to around $40/oz?

That was thanks to market manipulation by the Hunt brothers. They were only weeks away from controlling the world silver market.

Funny you should mention that. Our current fuel price increases couldn't have anything to do with market manipulation could they? Naw...
dunno.gif
 
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