Posted on 07/29/2016 8:52:37 AM PDT by Lorianne
Wholesale gasoline in California became the cheapest in the country this week, but that change has largely gone unseen at the pump, where consumers are still paying the highest prices in the continental United States to fill up their cars.
Ample inventories along with relatively stable refinery operations and imports has driven down the spot value of gasoline in Los Angeles at the wholesale level by more than 60 cents since mid-June.
However, that has not translated to similarly lower retail fuel prices for consumers because of peculiarities in California's market. The declines in the state's retail gasoline market over that period of time have averaged less than 14 cents, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
On Thursday, wholesale California gasoline was trading below $1.20 a gallon. The spread between California's wholesale and retail gasoline markets was about $1.50 a gallon the week to July 25, about 40 cents wider than a similar spread in the New York market.
California is one of the most expensive places in the United States to produce gasoline because of the state's unique blending requirements and its relative isolation from the rest of the country, which makes securing crude oil to refine pricier.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
“The refiners are essentially pumping up the street price because they have a lock over the retail gasoline market. With the prices the weakest in the country, it can’t be those laws. It has to be the pricing behavior,” said Jamie Court of Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit advocacy group in Santa Monica.”
Who are you angry at? Kaliporna has just about regulated gasoline production and distribution out of existence and then they add $1.00 worth the fees, taxes, carbon credits, and sales tax.
They have caused consolidation of retail gas into the hands of a few refiners who own their own distribution and who dumb enough to do business in California.
So hopefully your anger is directed at governemnt.
Good freakin grief. Are you f’n nuts or what?
Read the damn article again.
I have plenty of animosity for government.
I also have animosity for other entities that screw the public over.
I read the article did you understand it? Do you understand how government regulations work to limit competition? Do you understand that when government regulations limit competition, cause higher expenses and investment cost for the, now heavily regulated companies, that they will charge more? The California government has enabled the high prices. Get made at them not the refiners/retailers the are not screwing anyone over.
California wants high prices. They want limited and EXPENSIVE distribution.
I suppose the health insurer are screwing the public.
The electric companies.
The water utilities.
Huh I wonder what California has so many entities screwing them over?
Of course it is. Are you blaming Wall Street or their government enablers?
Maybe you know some righteous companies that refuse to profit from government laws and regualtons?
The cost of the refined product ready for sale has dropped by 60 cents.
The price at the pump has dropped by 14 cents.
When you grasp that, we’ll continue.
Noticed it’s still slightly more in Houston - $2.09/gallon.
Interesting that our corner of Arizona is cheaper than where the oil is...:^)
Our suburb is at $1.90 and the cheap Tucson places are $1.75-$1.79 per gallon
Plus the Fry's (Kroger) discounts you mention.
There is one busy major intersection not far from me that has a gas station on each of the four corners. All of them seem to have a constant gas war of sorts going on. Went by there last weekend and gas was $1.76 at one, $1.77 at two others. The highest was $1.79 but they gave $.05/gallon discount if you paid with cash. Five miles down the road is one lone station with nothing else around and it was $1.98/gallon. There is just no rhyme or reason to our prices in the suburbs except in Houston where it is always more expensive.
I get it. They are pocketing $0.46 windfall. So think hard who created the conditions that allow them to do so?
When you grasp that the refiners/distributors having pricing power due to Kaliphorna’s wacko laws and regulations and then maybe we can have a rational discussion as to who to blame for the pricing and who has the power to keep it from happening.
If I owned refining/distribution in Kaliphorna I would hammer the pricing every chance I got. It won’t be long until they are regulated out of existence and Eklectriv Kar nirvana will have arrived.
I filled up yesterday. It’s gone down 30 cents since I filled up 1 1/2 wks ago.
If the topic were government abuse, I’d be right there with you. Every response you make trying to drag this off topic is failing. Each time I point that out to you and you ignore it to try again, what do you think that causes you to look like?
$0.46 cents a gallon time ten to twenty gallons times 20 million people, yep that’s a fair amount of change.
This artificial floor for pricing, is what they will use as the starting point when the cost of crude goes back up to $100 a barrel. And then we’ll be paying $8.00 a gallon.
At that point you’ll be back to say that’s only fair, and of course it’s all the government’s fault.
No, actually not all of it is.
I address government on gas tax issues.
I also address oil firms that screw the public.
It was a $1.64 yesterday in Rocky Mount, VA.
I thought the topic was your assertion of unfair gas prices and screwing the public (well, at least as the public exists in California). I wasn’t sure from your original post who you where blaming but you have made it clear that you blame the companies. I disagree with that and blame the government. Seems to be on topic.
In a market that is not restricted by government regulation companies compete on price. In one that is heavily regulated with little competition like refining and distributing in California, companies do not compete on price. That situation is the fault of the government or do you expect profit making companies to act like charities and charge what you can afford?
Why is gasoline so cheap in Ohio and many other states? Did the refiners and distributors get some sort of fairness religion and decide to give us a break? Or do these other states have more refiners and distributors because their state isn’t regulating them out of existence which means they must compete on price to keep market share?
So what is the fair markup? Tell us all what is fair for these companies to make. I am sure the companies would not mind signing on for a guaranteed fair profit.
You know, about all you have proven so far is that you are very dense. You have a problem with rationalization. You are not capable of addressing the issue that was raised on point.
Once again, first paragraph you’re off blaming government again.
Tell me bright path, did the government raise their slice of the pie to prevent prices from falling? No. The government did nothing here more than they normally do.
Did the same refinery situation exist before the drop in crude? Yes. A new situation can’t be blamed there either.
I haven’t complained about the percent of profit either. I expect them to make profits. This isn’t about normal profits. It’s about reaping excessive profits by refusing to pass along some of the crude oil savings to the public.
Prices go up, and these oil firms claim a need for profits. Prices go down and these firms do not reciprocate for the public.
They keep the prices artificially high, and then will raise them way beyond reasoned the next time crude oil prices rise.
Price drop 70%, public gets 25% in savings. Price goes up 70%, the price to the public goes up 200 to 300 percent.
I’ve seen this dog n pony show play out for decades here in California.
Why does California have a different blend of gasoline? We have a natural catch basin that runs from the beach inland to the Riverside area. In this are there are about 17 million people.
The air does not circulate well in this area. It’s called an inversion layer, and if the blends of gasoline were not different, we would see severe health problems.
I’m not happy paying higher prices than the rest of the nation, but then not all this is attributable to the special blends either. California has a very high level of gas taxation per gallon.
I lived here during the 70s, and you could see a haze just looking to the businesses across the street. It sometimes looked like the place was being gassed.
These things being said, the government is not specifically the problem here. Yes it needs to be addressed for over taxation, but this is a clear issue where the price of manufactured gasoline has gone down 60 cents per gallon, and only 14 cents have that has been passed along.
Instead of siding with your fellow citizens, you insult them, blame on the state, and at this point still haven’t figured out the oil companies have not been fair to the public at large.
If you can’t grasp these issues, why continue to convince everyone of it?
I grasp the issues. What don’t you grasp about causation? Answer the question: Why are refiners/distributors able to make higher margins, price gouge, be unfair to the Kaliphorna Konsumer more sonthan any other state?
Give me your solution to the unfairness you so righteously rail about. What is you wish to see done? Are you hoping the greedy profiteers will become charitable and lower their margins?
I would assume that any company this astute on profit gouging is a hugely profitable enterprise that has a soaring stock prixe. They must just be killing it with Kali so profitable. Must be a dozen companies fighting to get in.
Kali should be kissing the feet of any company willing to operate a refinery or gas station.
Oh, I blame Wall St. for gaming the bio fuels credit market and government for creating the conditions that allow them to do so.
Refining companies that are required to purchase bio fuel credits deserve a level playing field in which to do so, not the loaded dice game the Wall St. sharks are operating.
I’m not going to provide an answer to your question, because it is off topic.
So far you can’t grasp that. Look, you’ve failed miserably at trying to address this issue.
This is a business decision to screw the public.
Thus the business is the focus and not the state.
The state didn’t decide to only pass off 14 cents of 60 to the public. The business did.
Of course they kept the extra margin. If Kali doesn’t like businesses charging more than its citizens think than’s fair they can regulate it like a utility. It worked out really well for your electric rates didn’t it.
See, they kept the extra margin because they could. It’s what a business does. In most states they could not do that because the do not have the wacko laws and taxes that drive out businesses and give the remaining businesses pricing power. So in most states the prices come down. Not yours though.
So if fixing your unfair gas prices via fixing the cause is off topic then let’s discuss something that is. What is the fair profit margin that should be added to wholesale gas prices? Take the wholesale price (maybe you should check oil prices to make sure the wholesalers aren’t making mint on you) is of gas, add all the fees and taxes and regulatory compliance expenses, and then add (Pick Your Number) for margin to get to the fact final price. How much? Please name the fair price for gas or at least the fair formula for determaining gas prices in Kalifonia.
I’ve only been here since 1998, but in the eighteen plus years I have been here, you are the most obtuse individual I’ve met.
A PRIVATE BUSINESS MADE A BUSINESS DECISION TO ONLY PASS ON 14 CENTS OF THE 60 CENT DROP IN IT’S COST OF PRODUCTION.
In this instance you are trashing the state because it allows a free enterprise system to exist. Granted it does all sorts of things to taint that, but those issues are not the problem here.
You are confronted with something you don’t like, so you try to blame it on something else. It isn’t working.
California’s draconian laws didn’t cause this. Get over it.
How about this theory: in California Big Government supports Big Business, and Big Business supports Big Government.
I’m not sure California supports any businesses. We’ve had a number of very big businesses move to other states, and I’m certain California’s state government was a big motivating factor.
California’s government looks at everything as it’s divine entity, to be tapped to pay for it’s wildest (nightmares) dreams. Small businesses, large businesses, toll roads, income taxes, sales taxes, utility taxes, Robin Hood fees and taxation, property taxes... over regulation...
I’ve been told California’s start up businesses have to jump through ten to twenty more, no make that ten to twenty TIMES more hoops that start up businesses in other states.
It is a mess here. None the less, businesses that screw the public need to be addressed too. The state gets it’s share of blame, believe me. When the private sector screws the public as well, it needs to be called on it. It is outrageous for a business to have it’s costs reduce by 60 cents and only pass on 14 of it to the consumer.
I’m not asking them to take a hit on profits, because profits should be the same as they were before the 60 cent drop in production costs, if they passed that savings along.
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