Not a local issue at all, it happens here as well. It used to be that a local gas station would charge you a price reflective of the price it cost them to put it in the ground.
Now they all watch some fictitious 'futures' number daily, and adjust accordingly. The same thing is going on with jet fuel.
Isn't it interesting that EVERY single station in a city has the same price on fuel regardless of the company affiliation; it almost seems like they're talking to one another?

I guess I'm just numb. I just don't see how one could think 75 cents of tax per gallon is excessive (which it is), but 3 billion dollars NET profit per quarter is not. Imagine how the economy would be if gas were down to say one dollar per gallon and EVERYBODY were to profit by a robust economy, not just the lying thieving oil companies.

I do not begrudge anyone from making money, it's just I have a slight problem when the oil companies are making so much off the backs of everyone else, and they don't have the decency to be honest about it.

The refiners EARN the 3 billion by selling me a product I can use. What do I get for my gas tax? Nothing.

paved roads.

hey , at least in Missouri you can get a refund on gas tax if its used in a boat

I don't live in California so I certainly do not know. However, I would suspect that some of your gas taxes out there goes for building of roads, bridges, possibly even street lights. If none of this is true, and again I have no way of knowing, how do you get your roads built? If California has a way of "growing" the roads without taxes, maybe Florida could learn this technique.

I'm sorry, but I respectfully disagree with your assessment of the oil companies EARNING their profits. I am much more inclined to believe that they lie, and fabricate stories about anything they can possibly come up with in order to inflate the wholesale price of gas. I would suspect that most would agree with me. At least those without an oil company stock portfolio.

I think that fuel prices will go through the roof this summer. Perhaps this country needs an energy policy? Perhaps we need to start drilling for oil in our own country to cut the dependence on OPEC for our oil? I think this country is headed for an energy crisis. Last year's blackout in the North East was a preview. I'm not saying the sky is falling, but I do think the government needs to pay more attention to the issue. There is good news though. The country with the 2nd largest reserves of oil in the middle east is not a member of OPEC. If they stop shooting at each other and start pumping oil out of the ground they could have a very prosperous country.

Three billion dollars for an oil company? Big deal. Congress spends three billion dollars everyday of the week. At least the oil companies create high paying jobs in this country. Could be worse they could move all of those jobs to China.

I can see where this discussion could get political and go off topic very quick!

FO, in the interest of this NOT going political let's agree to disagree. But, for your information, in California we pay through the nose for our roads. We pay exorbitant registration fees on our vehicles, property tax's, local AND state sales tax just to name a few.

Unfortunately we're not a "right to work" state like Florida or Nevada.

Chuck, they are going up and will do so as the refiners switch over from winter formulation to a summer blend. It goes back to not having enough refining capacity thanks to all the environmental concerns. It leaves refiners no choice but to run plants at dangerous limits to keep the fuel flowing.

We have MASSIVE oil reserves in this country that are un-tapped. Go have a look at Cambridge Consulting quarterly press release and you'll get some idea of the capacity. If we could drill in Alaska we could lower our dependence on foreign oil in about 5 to 10 years.

You're right about the refineries. I drive a diesel car; price of diesel goes down in the summer as the demand for home heating oil drops.

And yes there are reserves in this country to tap into.

I was chatting with my father about energy just last night. He believes that we need increased fuel economy for cars. My fear would be that consumers would be forced into light, [and in my view] dangerous cars. Chevy's new AVEO doesn't inspire confidence.

http://www.intellichoice.com/reports...section/safety

Lofty, I agree with you in that we can agree to disagree.
Like I said, I don't , nor would I ever, live in California despite some of the wonderful things I have heard about it, for the reasons you listed above. Too damned expensive for a working stiff like me. We have the same weather and as good if not better boating without most of the problems. The traffic alone would keep me away.

And I completely agree with your asessment about drilling in Alaska. The "tree huggers" and "save the manatee zealots" are among the worst of the bunch. Sometimes I think they would exterminate the human race if they could. In their own right they are terrorists.

Out this way they are terrorists. They spike trees that can potentially kill a logger, they burn new housing developments, cut down power transition lines, hold protests on the Bay Bridge during rush hour. The whole bit. Florida's my next destination.