bfl
Excellent point. And every spring the summer blends kick in and prices go up. And every spring Big Media runs stories pointing fingers at greedy oil companies screwing the little guy.
And it’s not just that the summer blends are inherently more expensive. Different regions have different specifications. So if there’s a shortage in one region you can’t easily move stock across from another region. Government mandated inefficiency.
California requires their own unique blend so when in state refineries have a problem gas prices go through the roof because no one can come in and fill the gap.
Insanity. And we are all poorer for it.
I see a large drop in price just before the 2008 and 2012 elections.
All other years, the prices were quite steady.
The second chart shows that the “winter blend” theory DOES hold up - in the year of a presidential election (2008 and 2012); at least as far as is shown by the data for the years in the data sample.
Also factor in the extraordinary additional cost-effect of our weak, flaccid dlollar. It’s purchasing power, or lack there of, puts the U.S. consumer at an immediate disadvantage as soon as that imported barrel of oil leaves the ground from any corner of the globe.
Then there are the myriad taxes, fees and regulatory expenses incurred at every step of the way from drilling to shipping to refining to storing to sticking the nozzle into your car or injecting the plastic into a mold. And these costs are sucked up from every city, county, state and federal organization that’s able to get a bloody beak into the carcas of the American consumer. -Wb