Featured Be Very Glad you have a Prius

Interesting background:

Further Look: The Gas Crisis in California - Gasbuddy Gas Prices

 

Oh liter I missed that that make a little more sense. I told my moms speed reading classes would get in trouble one day

 

I'm glad I have a Prius.

**this is in my Persona... So anything over 50 mpg gets me giddy.

Almost 56 mpg for almost 55 miles.



My best trip yet. This was the drive home today from Amish country (outlets) back home to the Philly Burbs. Pretty much perfect p&g rolling hills as I took the scenic back roads

 

Drivers angry, resigned about gas-price jump - LA Times

/rant on
California Government has conspired to make the california gasoline and diesel market extremely inefficient. This has led to refiners under investing and timing maintenance to cause these price spikes. Its all controlled by carb, but makes little sense from a public policy point of view. If they simply reduced the number of special blends, killed the dumb rules, eliminated AB32 from natural gas, gasoline, and diesel and simply honestly added another $1 fuel tax, prices might drop and the government would have more revenue. As it is lots of effort is wasted to make it hard to fill up the cars. Its crazy that they spike the price to import foreign refined fuels instead of making rules simpler and using domestic capacity. But if your goal is to demonize oil, you regulate to make price spikes.
/rant off

Oil (wti) is under $52/bbl. Regulation provides this hidden variable tax. Be pissed at the right people people. Gas in LA is $1.28 more than the national average. Most of this is not the direct taxes but the regulatory hoops and loopholes.

 

you do understand how government works, right?

 

$2.579/gal here.

Before the prices started going down last fall we used GasBuddy app on a trip to CA, and it was amazing to see 60-80 cents difference withing 30mi range. It is interesting to see there are parts of country with prices <$2.17/gal

 

i wonder what the price would be with taxes equivalent to other states.

 

GasBuddy shows 2.16 lowest in TN, SC and AL. VA lowest 2.19

Part of the cost is the gas formulation, while our tax isn't higher by much (<3cent), formula is different, so is the lowest price.

here is link to review on why prices are different: Why do gasoline prices differ across U.S. states? | Econbrowser

 

thanks. so taxes are the biggest factor, then formulation then local crude price?

 

For a couple decades we had a Sunoco refinery in the county till somehow it went belly up...

One would have though that with a refinery so darn close prices would be a little lower... Nope.

 

Do you have the patience to wait for the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV to come to the states?

 

Gas was $2.28 this morning.
IMHO that's still too expensive to waste by driving a car that gets 20-mpg.

 

It does not work that way. Two refineries may have competed.

 

Amazing? In my town, that is normal. Today, a single zip code adjacent to me shows a 65-cent difference in under 2 miles, and that is a bit lower than normal. When prices were moving fast over the winter, the spread was over $1/gallon.

Traveling this spring, when I needed fuel, GasBuddy revealed a $1.70/gallon difference within walking distance across the CA-AZ border. The CA stations were on the Interstate, while the AZ station was off-highway. But knowing my low fuel gauge behavior well, I felt comfortable to continue another 45 minutes and saved some more.

 

Bumps in price by highway situated stations is common. They are just profiting from the laziness of many a driver.

 

The biggest factor for the cost is the regulations which cause under investment in California refineries, coordinated maintenance and shortages to spike prices. These regulations include a large number of summer and winter blends, carbon content of the fuel and AB32 emissions trading scheme. Refiners react by low investment and emergency maintenance along with coordinated change overs to the blends.

In most of the country the cost of oil, taxes, transportation, then blend required in that order. Washington, Oregon, and Alaska get higher prices based on California's inefficient refineries (in terms of cost and maintenance not energy).

 

That would all go away I presume if CA went to the cleanest fuel year-round. The implication is that refinery influence is keeping the hodgepodge alive in order to manipulate the market.

 

You kind of expect things like this going from suburban to urban, or crossing jurisdiction lines. No that was within same locale.

There was a jump from $5.98/gal in Death Valley to $4.21 on US395, but that was more of a "taking advantage of tourists" than real life scenario.

 

Within a given State, real estate also plays a role in the price of gasoline.

For example, in California, in a more rural area where property values and property taxes are low, gas prices also tend to be lower than in an urban area like SF, LA, or SD. The price difference within California can be well into the double cent range and sometimes over $1.

 

we're mostly $2.99 in northern Va., although the cheapest non-Top Tier price is $2.67 here. The $2.19 for Va. quoted above is for rural Va. where there is about 5 cents less gaso tax plus they do not have to use EPA reformulated gasoline like we do in this part of the state. Looks like the EPA reformulated gasoline has a high premium at the moment, but 25 cents more for RFG is perhaps typical.

I also feel higher gaso taxes in MD and PA trickle over to us in northern VA, because the marketers try to hold status quo prices over the borders.