$2.05/gal in the DC suburbs, under $2.00/gal in the hinterland of Central Virginia.

There's probably something in that, but gasoline is not directly tied to per barrel oil prices.  I don't know about the Wholsale/Retail spread, but there could be alot of legitimate variables that go into that, depending on where you live.  I know supply-and-demand is the reason prices jump on Thursday and go down again Sunday night....

We have minimum per-gallon gas price laws designed to prevent predatory price wars.  We also have a very high gas taxes which are about to go higher, and now that the Environuts have sucessfully diverted the tax-give-aways for the oil companies, to themselves, we can look forward to more wackiness with gas prices...

...and those evil oil tycoons will get the blame....I'm sure they don't mind, though; they laugh all the way to the golf course...or the yacht...or the Riviera.....

There's nothing wrong with profits.  The issue is that the oil companies and retailers are trying to sell the American people on one set of factors, that are out of their control (global oil prices, storms, conflicts, etc.), to justify higher gasoline prices, then try to get the people to forget.ignore those factors when the price of gasoline stays high despite a marked decrease in those factors.

If you want to make more money, more profits, that's fine.  Be honest and admit that's your goal.  But don't try to obfuscate the truth by pegging your pricing on the cost of oil going up, or the need to immediately raise retail prices on the need to cover higher future prices, because when the price of oil drops and along with it the need to cover higher future prices, you've got nowhere to hide. 

Are retailers going to take a hit because they're going to have to sell gasoline at a lower price than what they paid for it?  Probably.  And I think they could make the case to most people of explaining that "we have to keep the gasoline prices high because our tanks are filled with gasoline that we paid for when the price of gasoline was higher or else we'll lose money", but that's a tough case to make after you've made the case that "we have to charge more for cheaper gasoline, that we paid less for, in order to cover the higher costs of gasoline in the future."  They are in effect telling Americans that consumers have to cover the costs of paying more for gasoline at both ends of the price model, while the retailer incurs none of the costs.  I think most Americans are savvy enough consumers to say "Hey!  We paid you more upfront to cover higher gas prices! Why don't you apply that money to cover your losses for selling the gas at a lower price UNLESS you just want to keep that money as profit."  That's what's really happening, and this is a bad time to be trying to play a shell game with gas prices.

In response to inquries from the MSM, the oil companies and retailers respond with two primary reasons: the price of crude oil (for the oil companies) and the price of gasoline on the spot gasoline market (for retailers).  As the price of oil goes up, the price of a gallon of gasoline on the spot market goes up with it.  I think that most Americans get that concept.

Where the problems come in is how fast flucuations in the crude and spot gas markets impact the price at the pump.  Oil companies can't really control the price at the pump aside from pumps that they own.  Pump prices are set on the price of gasoline on the spot market, plus delivery costs, plus whatever profit the retailer factors in, plus taxes, which is why gas prices are generally within a few pennies from retailer to retailer.  They're usually using the same delivery methods, the same delivery systems, and obligated with the same taxes.  When the price of crude drops, so drops the price on the spot market, which is the biggest driver of pump prices.

So if I have 5,000 gallons of gas that was bought at a spot price of $1.25, and I sell it at a price based on a spot price of $1.65, I've made $2,000 in profit off that gasoline.  When I refill that 5,000 gallon tank with gasoline that I'm paying $1.65 for, I might use that $2,000 to help defray the increased cost of filling the tank, but I'm going to make that $2,000 back once I've sold that next 5,000 gallons at the $1.65 price.  So in the end, I've made $2,000 in extra profit.  Now when the spot price goes back to $1.25, and I'm stuck with 5,000 gallons of gasoline bought at $1.65, I can use that $2,000 to cover the loss from selling gas bought at $1.65 at a price based on $1.25 a gallon, or I can just keep selling as much of that 5,000 gallons at the $1.65 price before dropping the price and whatever part of the $2,000 I can keep is just a bonus for me.  Ordinarilly I would say keep the prices as high as possible, but the retailers made the case that rapidly increasing crude prices were needed in order to protect their business, and the consumers paid for that protection.  Now that the crude prices are going down, the retailers want the consumers to keep paying more to maximize their profits, which is not what you want to be doing with a bunch of Democrats in power.

Good thing algore only invented internet - think what hppen if invented math.

There is no sense in being stupid, if you can't prove it! - my dad

Um... economi.l...ecomi...comin...comics.

YUeah - and yer pint wuld be?

ACA

...

Acaiguana says:  "I love blind Monkeys and any inference that I am making fun of blind Monkeys would be wrong.

I didn't know that you had to study economics or have an oil engineering degree to understand that if the price goes up on a barrel of oil (Neil Cavuto says it takes at least 2-3 weeks to reach the gas station) that that would lead to an immediate raise at the pump. I didn't study delivery systems but I would guess if the price of oil increases today, that would not affect what I have in the ground at my service station, since it has already been delivered and paid for. But obviously you think it would.

The price of a barrel of sweet oil is now the cheapest in 2 years. That means almost 9 months pre-Katrina. We all know that the feared losses of the poor oil companies were passed on to us-their $8billion QUARTER profits show that.

My argument is if the price of a barrel is now the lowest in 2 years, why are the prices not nearer to the lowest in 2 years?

Not liberal, not conservative. Just a simple question and/or observation.

As far as your 'Correction' let me paraphrase.

I realize that you think workers have no claim on any dime produced in this country like the good capitalist that you are. Whatever happened to slavery?

Your assumption of me is just as assinine.

You might want to do some fact checking before using Katrina damage as a reason dejour for gas prices going up.  Gas prices skyrocketed after Katrina, and the stated reasons were exactly as you indicate... damage to refineries, ports, pipelines, distibution centers, etc.  But... when the prices came down a few months later, almost all of that major damage was still in place.  The only damage that had been repaired was minor, non-production-threatening damage.  So how is that gas could go from $2.50 to $3.00+ to $2.50+ when there was no major repairs completed?

What did happen to bring the prices down was that Congress started "rattling their pens" at the oil companies, and once there was talk of investigations, new taxes, and closer scrutiny, the oil companies and retailers AMAZINGLY discovered that they could sell gas at lower prices, continue to make record profits, and do all this while all the major stuff that Katrina broke was still broken.

Well, how do you expect the refinery maintenance to be paid for?  Sounds to me someone is desperately scouring the earth, looking for a free lunch!

"HAV3 TH3 BRIDG3S OF INSANITY B33N CROSS3D AND FOR3V3R R3TRACT3D???."  - Meshuggah, "3ntrapm3nt", from Catch Thirty Thr33 (2005)