[proud okie]

That means the raw material costs $3.10 a gallon.

Unless the writer tells how much gasoline a gallon of crude produces, this information is meaningless.

[SAJ]

Yep, this writer's a putz. You want to know roughly what a refiner makes on motor gasoline? Easiest thing in the world.

Take the wholesale price (front-month RBOB futures, Sep 2009 at the moment) of motor gasoline, call that A. Then, take the wholesale price of WTI crude on NYMEX, divide it by 42, and call that B. The wholesale profit margin, aka the 'gasoline crack', will equal A - B, in cents per gallon.

The writer's smokin' some SERIOUS weed if he thinks that the gas crack is anywhere near 33 cents right now. Try 12 cents, putz. (I haven't looked tonight, but I guarantee you I'm closer than he is.)

Sheesh.

[an amused spectator]

Unless the writer tells how much gasoline a gallon of crude produces, this information is meaningless.

Well, we can certainly pee on the writer's leg about the information in his piece, but before we get carried away, try stopping a hundred people on the street and asking them how many gallons there are in a barrel of oil.

The main stream media has made that information a very little-known factoid.

And if you don't know that factoid, your opinion on gasoline & oil prices becomes just about worthless.

My point is that those hundred people you stop will have VERY strong opinions on gasoline and oil prices, but 98 of them will fail the barrel test - and therefore, unlike many Freepers, they can't crunch the numbers to arrive at a reasoned opinion on the matter.

Which is exactly the point that the media and the politicians want them at...

[gogeo]

That means the raw material costs $3.10 a gallon.

Unless the writer tells how much gasoline a gallon of crude produces, this information is meaningless...

Well, no. It may not be complete, but it's hardly meaningless.