Higher gas price is a feature, not a bug!

From Obama's Energy Secretary Chu in 2008: “Somehow,” Chu said, “we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”

Not saying that Chu set the fire, but the fire does help achieve Obama's goal.

Even worse - Chu does not own a car; making him immune to any gasoline or diesel price increases. He has made clear by his various statements that he doesn't really give a rip about the gasoline or diesel end user.

How about the oil companies and their exutives pay 35% taxes as most of those earning a living do?

Pricing in the commodities market place will always be a mystery.

When things like this come up I always hear a bunch of nonsense about supply and demand. Those factors do not seem to control the price at the pump.

Supply and demand, my arse. Every Monday, the gas at the local stations jumps up 16 to 20 cents. Every Thursday, it goes down. In a holiday week, it stays down.

It's been this way all summer, especially since a QuikTrip went up across the street from the established station.

This week, however, they both went up on Sunday night. (I've checked; the rest of the stations in my 'burb all follow suit.)

That's just plain price-fixing.

The west coast is a very tight gasoline market and it's not easy or cheap to get gasoline into it from outside of it. It's always been that way as various FTC and GAO studies on west coast price spikes have shown.

Mike -

You are right about the difficulty of getting gas into or out of the wet coast market. There simply is no major east west pipeline, and neither railroad tanker cars nor over the road oil tanker trucks can move volumes sufficient to make a dent in supply for the west coast. And whats true about refined ghasoline is also true about raw crude. West Coast gets most of its crude from Alaska; very little comes from Mid east, and zero from west Africa or North Sea.

Whats fascinating though, is that whenever there is an east coast / gulf coast hurricane, or refinery fire or shut down on the east or gulf coasts, gas prices here in the PNW go up in lock step with the prices in the affected areas in the east or gulf areas.

Why, if I was a cynical fellow, I'd think that there was refiner price gouging and profiteering going on when an east or gulf coast hurricane is reported, with a straight face by the clueless network TV talking headsn, to cause price spikes in PNW gasoline costs.

For the refiners, "'Git a rope!"

Government meddling and regulation have a much larger impact on fuel prices then just supply and demand. That group of looters also gets the same profit per gallon no matter what gas is going for.

Good news: Tigard Fred Meyer is installing TWO recharging stations during their ongoing remodel! Expect Chevy Volt sales to spike!

There is a gasoline pipeline between the refinery in Anacortes, WA, and Portland.

If you want to benefit from the excess profits of the oil companies, why not invest in them? Or invest in the pipeline companies like Kinder-Morgan. Many pay dividends much better than any bank deposit.

I'm sure this wil go over real well on this site but anyhow this is from and FTC Report "The Commission has conducted several major investigations of allegedly collusive behavior in the petroleum industry. In 1998, the Commission launched a three-year investigation of the major oil refiners= marketing and distribution practices in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington (the AWestern States investigation”).4 In another investigation of alleged collusive behavior, the Commission issued a report in 2001 on its nine-month investigation into the causes of gasoline price spikes in local markets in the Midwest in the spring and early summer of 2000.5 Neither investigation detected evidence of a horizontal agreement on price or output, or the adoption of illegal vertical distribution practices at varying levels of supply. More recent investigations examined allegations of collusive behavior in gasoline markets in Arizona, the Atlanta area, and the Mid-Atlantic region. These investigations did not detect illegal activity.