I suppose I should start an oil company too? Maybe an insurance company? Possibly a company to rebuild foreign nations that we have destroyed? Any other great ideas?

Market manipulation is different than trying to make a profit.

I would say it's due to speculation and trading on the open market. All you have to do is create a scare and the prices go through the roof, regardless of supply or demand.

Market manipulation? So what you are saying is that all the gas station owners in every city get together and decide what day they will raise their prices and by how much. Oil is driven up and down by traders, and speculators, and just like corporate stocks, sometimes what drives it up and down does'nt make any sense but that's the world we live in.
But to say the gas station owners are a bunch of crooks and making the price of gas go up and down aint the case. Are they making money, yes they probably are, that does'nt mean they are all crooks.

Exactly!!! KIll all of the speculators and traders!

Certainly not all. I think the independent station owner is at the mercy of what the big guys are doing, both on the up and down slope of pricing. He is a non-factor in market pricing and is doing like most of us, trying to make a living doing what he knows how to do. Nobody will ever convince me that the big stations are playing fair. Big companies don't play fair, it's been proven time and time again in this country. Market changes don't make it to the pump in 20 minutes and as far as I know, the Arabs and the traders aren't aware of the day spring break starts in Grand Rapids, MI, but gas jumped .35 that morning at 9 AM.

I am an independent owner of a gas station. Most stations are. Just because they have a BP, Conoco, Phillips, or what ever other brand you want to through out there doesnt mean they are not independently owned. The price of gas changes once every 24 hours. If the price of crude on the market goes up on the market you can bet that the price of gas will change the next day. If you don't like buying gas then quit boating and buy an electric car. It is a business and people are going to make money but I can tell you gas profits at a station are not going to make a payment on anything.

Exxon Mobil profitted over 40 billion dollars last year but i guess they are not price gouging huh

$3.39 for hi test...........$3.24 Reg.......In Pompano on tthe water.

I agree. If you want to put the blame on oil compainies that is fine. But to put blame for high gas prices on station owners is not right. If I could make the same profit margin as exxon I wouldn't even have to open my store.

Same report we heard last year. And the year before that, and the year before that...