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Wholesale Gasoline Shortage In California Causes Gas Stations To Shut Down: Hoarding Next?
"The squeeze is on, and people are doing desperate things," is how one independent described the situation in California. As Bloomberg reports, a shortage of supply along with drastically higher wholesale prices of gasoline has caused 'mom-and-pop' gas stations to close down as their margins are destroyed. Even larger firms, such as CostCo, are closing sites due to the shortages as Los Angeles and San Francisco gas prices jump 30-45c in a few days.
As one owner noted: "I can get gas, but it’s going to cost me $4.90 a gallon, and I can’t sell it here for $5," and another added that "we’re going to start shutting pumps Friday, as gas is costing me almost $4.75 a gallon with taxes. There’s no sense in staying open. The profit margins are so low it’s not worth it."
The problem is likely a short-term one according to some as the temporary shutdown of local refineries (after Chevron's Richmond refinery fire) and maintenance is completed but it is clear that even a short-term blip in wholesale prices (whether driven by local supply or global geopolitics) causes pain as it would appear we are close to 'inelastic' levels of demand.
- *VALERO SAYS SUPPLY IN CALIFORNIA HAS TIGHTENED
- *VALERO SAYS IT HAS TEMPORARILY HALTED SPOT SALES IN CALIFORNIA
California gas has not fallen as the national average has...
Via Bloomberg:
Gasoline station owners in the Los Angeles area including Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) are beginning to shut pumps because of supply shortages that have driven wholesale fuel prices to record highs.
Costco’s outlet in Simi Valley, 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, ran out of regular gasoline yesterday and was selling premium fuel at the price of regular, Jeff Cole, Costco’s vice president of gasoline, said by telephone. The company hasn’t been able to find enough unbranded summer-grade gasoline to keep its stations supplied, he said.
...
Prices Jump
Gasoline at the pump gained 8.3 cents to $4.315 a gallon in California yesterday, according to AAA.com, 53.1 cents more than the national average of $3.784. In Los Angeles the price was $4.347. Gasoline futures for November delivery on the Nymex rose 11.15 cents to $2.911 a gallon at 1:35 p.m. today, after falling yesterday to a 10-week low. Retail price movements tend to lag behind those of futures.
...
“I can get gas, but it’s going to cost me $4.90 a gallon, and I can’t sell it here for $5,” Ravi said. “If you come here right now, I’ve got some diesel left. That’s all. My market is open, but no gas.”
A Chevron Corp. (CVX) oil pipeline shut down last month, an Oct. 1 power failure at Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM)’s Torrance refinery and units down at other plants have cut supplies in the market.
Spot California-blend gasoline, or Carbob, in San Francisco surged 30 cents to $1.40 a gallon over futures, also the highest level since at least 2007, at 1:12 p.m. New York time.
‘Not Worth It’
“We’re going to start shutting pumps Friday,” Sam Krikorian, owner of Quality Auto Repair in North Hollywood, said by phone yesterday. “Gas is costing me almost $4.75 a gallon with taxes. There’s no sense in staying open. The profit margins are so low it’s not worth it.”
Exxon’s 150,000-barrel-a-day Torrance refinery may flare gases for a week as it restores production after a power failure that shut some units and slowed output from others, Gesuina Paras, an Exxon spokeswoman in Torrance, said by e-mail Oct. 2.
Chevron’s Kettleman-Los Medanos pipeline, which carries crude from Kern County to Northern California refineries operated by Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Tesoro Corp. (TSO) and Valero Energy Corp. (VLO), remained shut after elevated levels of organic chloride were detected in the oil.
Phillips 66 (PSX) is also scheduled to perform maintenance on process units at its Rodeo and Los Angeles refineries this month, people familiar with the schedules said.
Chevron’s 240,000-barrel-a-day Richmond plant, the largest refinery in Northern California, has been running at reduced capacity since a fire Aug. 6.
’Squeeze is On’
“The squeeze is on, and people are doing desperate things,” Bob van der Valk, an independent petroleum industry analyst in Terry, Montana, said by e-mail yesterday. “The mom- and-pop gas stations are having to close down from either not being able to obtain gasoline from their regular distributor or cannot afford the break-even price of almost $5 per gallon.”
...
Short-Term Problem
Van der Valk called the price surge a “a short-term problem.” Wholesale costs should start falling as Exxon’s refinery returns to normal operations and other plants finish maintenance.
...
“Everybody is concerned about what might happen,” he said. “The real question is: How long is this going to last and what can the state do?”
...
The independent gas station owners are typically the first to run out of fuel and shut their pumps when spot prices surge because they often lack long-term contracts to buy from fuel suppliers at set prices, McKeeman said.
Via Contra Costa Times:
"It's a combination of low inventories and multiple California refinery problems," said Tom Robinson, head of Robinson Oil Corp. "Really since the Chevron Richmond fire, inventories have been tight. As other refinery problems occur, there isn't much or any available inventory.
"Retailers are not yet reflecting the wholesale price increases they have experienced, so unless supply problems improve quickly, retail prices will definitely be going up."
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Yea?
If it's a state of such smart and astute individuals why is:
Their UE rate 12%
Their state saddled in debt (385 billion)
CA the only state that has had 4 municipalities go bankrupt
A state that has 4 million 100 thousand people on food stamps
There an exodus of people from the state
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230444460457734053186105696...
Why in 2010 did California have more foreclosure filings that any other U.S. state
The number of people unemployed in the state of California equal to the population of Nevada, New Hampshire, and Vermont combined
CA the state with the highest electricty prices
The state of California ranked dead last out of all 50 states in the number of emergency rooms per million people
And all kinds of other shit
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/22-facts-about-california-that...
It's because CA is a state full of retards.
lol. give me a break mr. 1 week 1 day.
It's the most innovate state in the nation.
It's #3 for most start up companies.
And #4 for the most creative.
and the fact that it pays more taxes than all other states, one could even argue it's the most productive.
and that sparky, is why your half-assed, over-generalized, hate mongering is fucking unadulterated bullshit.
good day.
Yes, it pays more taxes, but don't forget it also recieves considerably more federal dollars for all those start-ups douchebag.
Go look up the federal loans and grants (these don't even have to be paid back) going to cali. So yes, they are much better at extracting taxpayer funding to begin with. eventually other states will say "fuck you". Solendra is in California, how did that work out for the taxpayer again?
oh i'm sorry, asshole, i didn't realize i was barking up your tree.
but since you picked the fight, why don't you explain how financial statistics correlate to intelligence - let alone 'retardation' of the entire state's population?
Creative? Like the shit Hollwood spews out? Or the p*rn the San Fernando Valley spews pimping out daughters. Or the bands that suck big time.
The last decent band that came out of CA was The Byrds. The Doors were okay but Jim was from NW Florida. The Beach Boys were okay until they started hanging with Charlie. No Doubt? They have to do covers of Talk Talk songs cause they suck so bad. TV or comedy from Hollywood. The most creative thing is probably Honey Boo Boo and I do not watch TV of Hollywood shit.
Yeah - real creative. Not that NYC is very creative either.
Oh. Then I guess this is not a good time to offer you a chance to invest in my most recent Silicon Valley startup.
California has some 12.2% (~38mil) of the entire population of the US within its borders, not including illegals. Maybe if the retards that come here from third-world countries (Mexico, Columbia, UK, Michigan, etc.) would go back home, it'd be a nice place to live again.
Welcome to California; now get the fuck out.
nice coastline - like the small places like Pismo beach
Don't worry, their electric trains will save them
Brent is now negative.
http://blog.quantsig.net/2012/10/04/oilol/
Quoting a very wise commenter on ZH:
"You won't have warning. Oil scarcity will show up one day when you can't get gas. Price won't tell you. News won't tell you. Only the red needle on empty will tell you. And it won't be much longer."
(wise commenter's initials are CiO)
And that wait list for a Tesla is 12 mos long!
but i thought the ny fed fixed the gasoline problem by capping the price of nymex crude ? wtf ?
Look, guy, not all problems have a solution and not all problems can be fled.
The EIA is calling just about anything that comes out of the ground "crude". Old refiners can't deal with some oil being presented to them. They can't make money on it if they have to invest billions to change their process to handle, say, thick gooey Venezuelan oil. So they don't. They shut down.
Saudi Arabia is consuming INTERNALLY an amount of oil that is growing exposively. They have the good stuff. We're left with sludge to refine and our refineries can't refine it.
There is no fix for this. Prepare.
Most refineries cannot refine the thick and sour (high sulphur, cracks most steel...) crude from Venezuela. Except for the US Gulf Coast refineries. That is why Chavez still sells his thick crude to us, we are among the few who can actually deal with it.
+ 1 for excellent observations.
The ONLY reason prices are spiking in fascist republic of Kalifornia is because they have their own QUEINT, QUEER & QUIXOTIC blends of refined petroleum products, and they won't accept the more interstate & pedestrian blends from right over their own damn borders. The economic benefits of STANDARDIZATION aren't rocket science.
Not quite....
It has to do with the US petroleum distribution system being effectively chopped in 1/2 by the Rockies...
I didn't realize New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, et al. were on the other side of the Rockies from California.
How else do you explain the price drop as soon as the artificial boundary of California regulatory regime is crossed.
Technically they've had plenty of warning. From you.
Who cares? The stock market is UP!
DavidC
Not to mention the NY Yankees won last night . Its all good... Until its not
Yanks can't win when a Republican is in the White House. Thus, they are going for broke this year.
Krugman: "what is this??? Inflation for ants?!?!?!?"
So there is demand after all, who would have guessed it? < sarc off >
Every time they intervene in oil, gasoline skyrockets. This is a completely predictable reaction when you consider blowing up refiner hedges gives them a cost to pass on. Eventually you put enough people out of business and the rest can name their price.
Way to go Obama.
I was wondering how long it would take for this to be Obama's fault. That guy is dangerous!
Hoarding next?
My god, this sensationalized shit gets old here.
True. Most folks don't have 500 gallon fuel storage tanks hidden on their property ... like me.
Regards,
Cooter
P.S. Just kidding, I can walk to work (or take the bus). And gas is 4.40 where I live which is typical without circumstances to push it higher.
the fact is the U.S. EXPORTS huge quanitites of refined product (gasoline included) from Hosuton every day. the big buyers are Brazil and several other S American counties. Being personally aquainted with individuals who are in this trade, this business about geoplotics and hoarding is utter nonsense and does not square with what's happening in the U.S. petroleum industry now. (By the way, we've been exporting alaskan crude to Asia for the last 20 years or more)
Yup, and the price of ANS is always higher than Brent which has been higher than WTI for quite some time.
http://www.tax.alaska.gov/programs/oil/prevailing/ans.aspx
Regards,
Cooter
Well I sure hope this doesn't get worse. I'll really miss those beautiful LA sunsets if the air there ever clears up.
But theres still Facebook and it tax revenues Bitchezz!!!
Thank god my bike gets between 58 and 66 MPG.
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/
Uh.... no.
2012 Zero S Electric Motorcycle 100 mile rangeInitial Deposit: $1,000
Starting at: $11,495.00Maybe this is a stupid question, but can someone explain to me why the retailers can't raise their retail prices to a profitable price level? I don't understand that part.
because you live in a state controlled economy (aka socialist/communist prison)
So, what you're saying is that there are retail price controls, state mandated, in California? I live in PA and I didn't know that. Do other states do this? Honestly, I didn't know about this.
It doesn't look like there are hard caps based on a brief check, but the problem may actually be SUPPLY.
CA requires gasoline formulations that are specific to that state, so there's relatively little total demand for "CA-approved" gasoline. There are refineries in CA which had trouble recently, reducing that supply. Lots of their imported gasoline has to be shipped through the Panama Canal.
In theory, a single station could raise its prices, but who'd pay those prices if people can drive a mile and pay less?
The Californians have demonstrated they're WILLING to set price caps on various things, but after that summer of rolling blackouts in the early 'aughts, maybe the legislature is still bit-shy about the idea.
Thanks for that.
Some gas stations are owned by the refinery (e.g. an Exxon station gets its gas where?). This is just verticle integration. Some gas stations are independantly owned. They can buy from any refiner, but they typically have smaller volumes and have to pay a bit more.
I think the refiners are squeezed to make deliveries, so its coming out of the ass of the independants who are seeing their prices pushed up due to the supply constraint.
I don't know this business real well, so if I messed it up, please correct me. I do think this is generally accurate though.
Regards,
Cooter
Pelosy made it a felony...
I didn't think they used gas in California -- thought they just hitched a ride on Nancy Pelosi. Thank me for the image burned in your brain later
worse: Feinstein - my icon is her from her Sr. Prom
And you big government liberals out there in CA can shut the fuck up about the gas prices.
It's your fault a gas refinery hasn't been built since the 70's you freaks.
Get on your bikes and STFU.
Couldn't agree more.
Sold my car (which was getting around 36-38 MPG) and got a bike that averages close to 60.
Buying gold is a hedge against the stupidity of central bankers. Buying a bike in California is a hedge against stupid liberal Californian voters.
A motor bike wouldn't be practical in NYC unless it was covered and more stable then two wheels can be. The weather is shit in winter and the roads are awful (the terrain underlying the streets is rocky and rolling, the unions make sure that street quality is good enough to last a few years but bad enough to ensure a lifetime of their employment).
I saw partially covered bikes in Paris with a dual-front wheel design that was not a trike but more stable than a bike, as if the two wheels set closely together acted as a very thick single wheel. Not sure of the company that made them.
Transit upticks plus gas upticks is suddenly making such a buy look feasibility.
An Italian company Piaggia. The people who brought you the Vespa.
Thankfully, the winters have been pretty mild these past couple of years for the mostpart.
I commute in from 60 miles due north each day, by motorcycle. When the weather doesn't suck, it is just about the ideal form of commuter transportation for an area with almost constant crazy traffic jams and shitty parking for cars. It helps that the bike is a dual-sport style so it can take the shitty rutted and potholed roads.
I get 60MPG and with insurance and repairs, it's cheaper than the train.
There was the BMW C1 that was a fully-covered bike/scooter that never came over to ConUS, allegedly because BMW didn't want to sell it here unless there were no helmet laws to contend with. In the end, they didn't want to have to fight in 30+ states' legislatures to get it done, so no BMW C1 for us.
Piaggio has a scooter with two front wheels on it. I haven't seen a covered version.
Benelli has a scooter that is fully covered that would probably be considerably cheaper than the C1. There was chatter a couple of years ago about that coming to ConUS, but no such luck.
thanks, I had googled it and that's the one.
The ones I saw in Paris were more or less "all-weather" in that they had a cab that was open on the left and right but covered completely on the y-axis from windshield to rear. In fact I remember a zip lining for sides with enough open space underneath to put your feet down on pavement as needed. I could use one of those and would pay about $9000 for it.
Of course you would never see it here. Score another one for Detroit-supporting "safety" legislation. Nobody loves you like the Federal Government loves you.
http://www.theautomoto.com/
Freaks is a nice word to describe the legistators/citizens that approve of this policy's unbelievable denial from reality.
It's your fault a gas refinery hasn't been built since the 70's you freaks.
Well, no, that's really stupid bullshit, dude. Refineries just aren't good long-term investments, and require huge upfront capEx to bring 'em online. No one wants to make those loans.
If it were a problem of "liberal Californians," there should plenty of refinery construction in the "conservative" states, right?
There ain't.
I'm not a Californian (thank God!) but this shortage is definately spreading. Both in terms of price and shipments out of CA, it really sucks in that respect. I hope everyone has spare gas cans, you might just need them to get the hell out of dodge.
California marketers by law can sell only refined products produced (crude) that comes from the state. spot shortages can and do occur as the state has it's own additive rules as well, so stop the nonsense
Everything in CA is backwards.
This is affecting the entire West coast...not just CA.
No Peak oil?
Meanwhile in Peru, we are having great bearing sales there... New wheel bearings help improve mileage!
http://tinyurl.com/9fdmgyp
over 5 bucks a gallon for premium in Marin.
HAHAHAHAHAHA.....! Gluttons, paying the lowest gas prices in much of the world and STILL whining...
Agree. Gas is CHEAP in the United States, when priced in anything other than dollars. Priced in silver, gas should cost $6.25/gal. or so.
DRINK!
FECK!
Arse!
Girls!
I moved out of Cali. in July 2012 and never looked back.
Watch out, California has a history of chasing down ex-residents (or even people who never set foot in Cali) to collect taxes. They seize your assets via the banking system and then you have to prove yourself innocent rather than them prove you guilty. Just another reason to keep your shiznit out of the banking system I guess.... and keep your feet out of California.
God I hate that state.
Exactly right. It took me three years to free myself from licensing a vehicle in CA.
CA DMV somehow found me on the East Coast, then followed me to the midwest. Bastards.
I abondoned that sinking ship in '05. They still send me Registration notices for a car I sold in '02.
that's like 3 months ago brah
As proclaimed pompously by the other 'american', manking only make changes in time of crisis.
Maybe, as all the 'american' brain located in California can no longer drive around, 'americans' are going to deliver on those super energy sources as they claimed to be able to.
'Americans' overcoming their environment, the show of this century, just stay tuned and enjoy...
You'll be chewing your hat when California will develop an app for that.
AnusMonotonous, you have indeed bit into the mattering thing, very much graviting, the crustiest bit of an important citizenismistic something.
As pompously declared by ManKing: Chinese Citizen tasts like chicken! Yum yum, Soylent Chinaman! World food shortage solved! Rendered fat make most excellent lamp fuel too - better than whale blubber - now American Citizenismists need only find a way to make Chinese fatter . .
Got Coke and McDonalds?
This clearly points to IMMINENT war with IRAN.
Clearly.
Can we run a post with some photos of Iranian missles, speed boats, and infantry marching in formation?
They're going to have to come up with a really good way to sell another war to folks - if/when the straight gets shut - if even for 2 minutes - the POO is going to ballistic and this shit with supply disruptions will go global instantly. Folks will get pretty pissed if they can only get a 1/4 tank at $10/gal on odd or even days.
The fuel bill for my scooter is up to almost 90 cents per week now! This is getting out of control. I had to seach the junk drawer for quarters this month instead of dimes and nickles to fill it up.
Just be careful not to spend the silver ones....
Stock up! Sta-bil and HDPE jugs. I like the ones that Welches Grape Juice come in from Sam's. Thick and sturdy. I fill up the 5 gal red job at the station and keep plenty stored -- just in case. My scooter gets about 80 mpg.
5.48$ a gallon in Canada.
And just imagine, it'd be $5.58 if you had to pay in US dollars. Heh.
Canadian dollar??? That's like wampum...not backed by the Fed like the US greenback!!!
This brings back memories to when i was just a young buck. I can remember a line of cars on my block stretching around the corner waiting to get gas from Petes Cheveron station . 1974. BTW, Cigarettes were just $1.75 a pack
Oh yeah. I'm older than dirt. I recall gas at 24 cents for my Cushman Silver Eagle and ciggys were 24 cents a pack. You got a penny back under the cellophane for a quarter from the machines. No ID required!
Cheapest gas I ever found in the day was 19.9 cents. This was at a "gas war" intersection with 3 stations at the intersection. And I needed cheap gas 'cause my 53 Olds Rocket 88 literally drank it through its 4 barrel carb. When you mashed on the pedal you could see its gas gauge sink.
I remember the gas wars. Competing stations right across the street from each other battling over a penny. Prices went that low but I seldom bought gas enough to care. Remember Amoco's "white gas"?
say i have a refinery fire and it costs me 100,000 dollars and i'm in bed with the competition(corruption) and they take up the slacke and make an extra million. nobody knows wtf and we meet again with a brown envelope to exchange and plot the next "fire'.
fire sale bonuses!
Bush's fault
Independents will juice prices then start going dark. The majors will supply their network of stations. net net less competition in the long run.
Yep, non-megacorp businesses gone....and everyone "employed" by the US govt.
What system does that sound like?
The corps wanted this done like, yesterday.
Send in Helicopter Ben to drop gasoline from helicopters.
bamy gas cards next, gotta get to the store to use snap card credit...
And it's gone.
No shortage of gas in the California legislature. Now if they only could bottle it............................................................................!
Can someone explain to me something that doesn't make sense in this article.
There are supply shortages and gas statins shut down because of lacking profit margins? How does that work exactly? Don't shortages drive the prices up? Don't they create opportunity to drive up margins in the process? Which is, if 9 out of 10 gas statiosn close down, the remaining guy can set hit price as high as he wants and people will have no options but to buy?
Gas station owners say something that to me is a self-contradiction: "There is a shortage of a commodity. We can buy, but we won't be able to sell it."
How does this work again?
The only rationalization I can come up with is that the stations aren't allowed to set their prices according to supply. If that is indeed the case, I have no argument. If it isn't, the article's full of shit.
Yes, the article's full of shit, but you can't rightly blame the journalists for recording what dumbasses SAY.
Hey Julia- I thought the same thing. Most states have some form of anti-gouging law on the books, usually covering not just gasoline but such other vital goods as food and medicine. (Almost all of these laws, cover a specific kind of gouging -- jacking up prices after a disaster or emergency) California's law is typical. For 30 days after the proclamation of a state of emergency, the price of goods vital to public health and safety can't rise more than 10 percent. That includes gas. But the law contains a big exception. No business can be prosecuted if its own costs rose at as high a rate or higher than the prices it charged after the disaster. In other words, if a gas station owner has to pay 15 percent more for wholesale gasoline and raises his pump prices 15 percent in response, he's safe. I'm not aware of the "emergency" that caused this [other than inflation] so it doesn't make sense.
Other possibility is laws that many states have so that you can't "lower" your price impacting this. These are to keep the mom & pops from being underpriced by the big oil guys. Not sure if Cali has this and the big guys have to RAISE their prices to a certain level. Bottomline is that GAS everywhere is getting more expensive. I expect $5+/gal here in Fema6 region before too long
Thank you for the explanation. In such case, Californians should do what Canadians typically do - head across the boarder to fill up. No supply shocks in Canada (yet).
Might work if you're in San Diego. Or Needles. But California is a big state.
I'm into goughing.....Yea, make money and fuck you......
It's all in support of Moonbeam's train/rail plan.
Big Oil speech coming to a soap box near Obama. Somehow they will be scapegoated. Does Hugo Chavez have to tell Obama that it's now his opportunity to nationalize the oil companies for the good of cali drivers? Nah. He's got Axlerod and Rahm to let him no not to let a good crisis go to waste. Carry on.
More a problem of or symptoms of crony capitalism coming home to roost after many decades of not putting in place alternative means of transportation and fuel.
Mom and Pop stations? My COSTCO is shutdown for gas ... hot dogs still available
The real point of this article is missed:
Rationing by price works until it doesn't. Once price rationing fails there is rationing by other means ... by way of physical allocation/shortages.
The merchant insists the shortages are temporary but only if the customers can afford to meet the higher prices. The customers' price is unaffordable because they cannot gain credit needed to buy it. At the same time the price is high because there are shortages which are both the cause and consequence of high prices in a vicious cycle.
High prices are required to bring new fuel supplies to the marketplace, the old, cheaper supplies are exhausted. The same high prices are out of reach of the customers, he cannot use the fuel to make enough money to pay for it.
If customers cannot meet the needed price, the supply of fuel shrinks. Fuel shortages become permanent. They might disappear from California but emerge elsewhere: New England, Mexico,r Europe or China.
Wall Street's credit embargo in Europe is designed to allocate shortages there, away from the US. This embargo strategy, which is designed to bankrupt debt-dependent EU nations is the US energy policy. It's not fracking, which is propaganda.
Is the strategy working? Look to California ...
Thank you...
I was starting to worry about this place...
That being said, you are a tad ahead of schedule....
Nary once has anyone made the connection between the loss of 2 mmbpd of refining capacity in Europe (remember Petroplus) and the import of European gasoline. The US imports gasoine into the NE, and exports diesel from the Gulf Coast....
We left Cali awhile ago, and won't go back. 10% state tax. 10% sales tax. Ungodly cost of living expenses. They have taken the "sunshine tax" to a whole new level. Those fuckers need to go down and get back to sanity instead of being a chronic libtard fiefdom, attendant with all manner of ill shit.
If you'd only bought a place in the '70s, you'd have been getting a specTACular deal on property taxes.
They'll fix that like TOMORROW.
Every day will cost the Progressive Capitol of the world, and international Mecca, their savior votes!
An executive order will come any second to release from the strategic oil reserves so CA can have $3/gal gas until Nov 4th.
THEN it can go to $5 after the election, all bets/promises/guarantees/thoughts/deeds/actions/responsibility is off!
After last night it's like TPTB changed their mind and want Mitt instead of Barry.
That story sounds like the first page of one of those novels where the hero ends up being the only one not eating a neighbor.
Why can't they ration by issuing ration coupons or whatever they issued during WWII?
If people simply pay $5 problem solved. Rationing achieved.
I'm paying ~$9.
I see. The people don't want to pay $5. It's like they have some sort of US reserve currency entitlement issue.
"Why can't they ration by issuing ration coupons or whatever they issued during WWII?"
That tends to make people happy if the supply/price point is what they personally want (say.....5 gal/week at $3/gal).
They're less happy if they're the guy who needs 20 gal/week and would pay the $5/gal, but his neighbors don't want to pay market rates and are limiting his supply to get their rate.
In Santa Monica I waited in line twice in the 70s and odd even license plate numbers determined your day.
It won't last long just until obumer loses Calif.
Should have let them drill I guess.
But my instinct tells me the job is fkin' way over his head and he knows it.
Part of the, look at me, I've made it society. Actually I don't give a fuck how much gas is. I drive a ferrari and lambo. Plus I like the Alfa GTV-6 the most. Got stock thru Vanguard in all gas investments.
""Van der Valk called the price surge a “a short-term problem.”"
Don't believe any fooking talking head like this arse hole. There's always those that come out and immediately yell out the "keep calm, there's nothing to see here" bullsheet.
Looks to me that it's NOT just the small independents... hello, even Costco is shutting pumps down? This seems to be a real crisis brewing.
I'm surprised that Costco is selling Premium gas at Regular gas prices. All of a sudden my V-12 Ferrari runs on regular fuel now.
Let the North, East, West, and South, civil wars begin!
Didn't we do this dance before in California; as I recall it was 2001 and the resource in "short supply" (pardon the pun) then was electricity. Shortage brought to you by the fuckers at Enron. And wasn't it something to do with "plant maintenence" shutting down the power stations?
When you wake up to find prices up 40 cents a gallon overnight at all the gas stations, it makes one wonder just who the fuck is regulating the industry (answer: nobody). I just paid $4.65 a gallon for unleaded regular at Chevron. Yesterday it was $4.29 at the same station.
The guy who helped Enron write the California electrical market deregulation bill was Jim Brulte. I'm sure some of his constituents made hundreds of millions of dollars off that deal.
You can thank the California legislature for this. They have enacted all sorts of environmental rules for CA gasoline that other states don't have. So gasoline has to be refined specially for CA and when one of the CA refineries goes offline you can't simply bring in gasoline from other states to replace it. That and the CA gas taxes make CA gasoline among the most expensive in the nation.
You have got to ask yourself why it is always CA that all these energy companies are preying on. Why doesn't Texas ever seem to get shafted? Maybe Californians are not as smart as they think they are.
Is that a joke?
Texans are shafted because they live in a place that Satan rents out when he vacations in HELL.
Californians live in a climatological PARADISE.
Stupid is as stupid does, cowboy.
Left CA years ago. Sold my old shabby 1200 sqft house (to some sucker who is probably deeply underwater by now, if he hasn't already defaulted) and bought a much nicer 2500 sqft house + 10 acres (with money to spare) And I just filled up my tank for $3.37/gal.
No regrets whatsoever. Never going back.
y'all I'm seriously considering taking a job in Saudi Arabia
would start in Dec for 1 year contract home for summer etc. I could save/stack over $2k a month
on a scale from 1-10 how terrible an idea is this? I am a single twentysomething woman and I couldn't bring my gun.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=is+zerohedge+blocked+in+saudi+arabia
Well the money part is very enticing BUT...
1. No alcohol. prohibited to possess, sell, or even consume alcohol in SA.
2. If you are female, then sex is good, if you don't mind being raped occasionally. Rape occurs regularly in contractor situations. Western justice is non-existant there.
3. Work hours could be quite high depending upon what kind of work.
Sounded like she'd be on the corporate-owned plantations. They have alcohol and security to protect the employees from the Saudi "savages" on the other side of the wall.
Yes, I agree sounds like a repeat of the Enron rolling blackouts...
feeding the squirrels 8 dollar a bushel corn will make for some pricey stew come winter when the BB pistol comes out. Still will be delicious. Bow hunting legally for deer 25 minutes west of O'Hare Int Airport will help the meat bill this winter. Could walk to work but don't. If SHTF though I will be out of the Chicago Metro area and back to Michigan far from Detroit or Flint/Pontiac. Stack that silver folks. Look at those squirrels a little differently too.
This debacle reminds me of a story I read a while ago. Sixty Days, Next Year: http://www.newcolonist.com/dim_ages.html
Refine a beaners bowel movement. Got to be lots of hydrocarbons with all the grease, beans and corn coming out of the rear end of the dirty immigrant.
Why is this a problem? Doesn't everybody in America have an ObamaVolt now?
"If it's all the same to you, I'll drive that tanka....." -Mad Max
Torches and pitchforks are next unless we finally do what's right and ARRESTS THE CRIMINALS... http://tinyurl.com/cd5cyjo/
Organic Chlorides in the oil is definitely interesting. They took a tanker of waste oil contaminated with either PCBs or solvents (latter from the drain oil of service stations which also let chlorinated solvents comingle, former was widely disposed of in old fuel oil tanks to dispose of through boiler furnaces) and let it get into the stream.
I find it odd, because when you're disposing of oils, the FIRST thing the receiving guy does for the pick up company is utilize ChlorInOil or equivalent strips to test for it. The fasted way to piss off your recycler, or tank removal vacuum tanker sub, is to try to run some chlorinated contaminated oil by them. And the shit costs in the neighborhood of a buck a pound to destructively incinerate.
Organic Chlorides in the oil is definitely interesting. They took a tanker of waste oil contaminated with either PCBs or solvents (latter from the drain oil of service stations which also let chlorinated solvents comingle, former was widely disposed of in old fuel oil tanks to dispose of through boiler furnaces) and let it get into the stream.
I find it odd, because when you're disposing of oils, the FIRST thing the receiving guy does for the pick up company is utilize ChlorInOil or equivalent strips to test for it. The fasted way to piss off your recycler, or tank removal vacuum tanker sub, is to try to run some chlorinated contaminated oil by them. And the shit costs in the neighborhood of a buck a pound to destructively incinerate.
Is the article here implying that it falls down to just problems with refineries as the cause?
This is California. We are insane. In-f'in-sane. This isn't about refineries. It's about an insane regulatory policy that makes us more and more dependent on our own gas production. Our refineries are forced to produce cleaner fuels that have a special formula attached to it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_use_in_California
In essence it means California cannot, CANNOT import fuel. Not only can it not import the fuel the regulatory comissions make refining fuel here virtually unprofitable, if not wasteful. Because of environmental regulations it could take years just to get a license to build a refinery, and when most refineries aren't making that big of a profit to begin with it's just not a viable place to do it.
We in California pride ourselves in leading the nation in many things. Well here you go guys, Over-reaching government regulations, near outright socialism, presenting you the clearest, and best example of what all ofyou already know to be true. I hope the rest of the 49 states are watching us closely.
This is way more important that the BS report that came out today.
In a sense, it's almost orchistrated. "Let's have a big hullabaloo about the BLS NFP report, have some estanblishment type yell "conspiracy" towards a heated election environment, and have the MSM and everyone pay attention to that"......just as gas (quietly) rises higher than Marion Berry at a Crack Convention.
Gas is $3.89 here in MA today. I expect it to hit $5, nationwide, by Feb (and $6 in CA).