I paid $3.58 this weekend in Indiana (The Tax State) for regular unleaded.

DT

It certainly didn't used to be that way. Indiana has recently raised their taxes. Before that, it was the place to go for cheap gas and cigarettes. The fucking Illinois cops would watch the Indiana gas stations and cigarette shops for Illinois residents buying smokes so they could nail them for bootlegging. I never got caught, but I bootlegged plenty.

It's actually a couple of cents cheaper by me - the local Citgo was at $3.56 last night, IIRC.

[sends up the DONGER signal]

This is a fantasy scenario, but if America were to convert all of their current Oil Power plants to something else, what would that do to supplies of crude?

Still 2.99 here in Virginia

You mean electrical power plants? If so, almost half are coal-burning. Petroleum fired plants make up something like 5%.

Hmmm, I thought there were more than that. I knew coal was the majority however.

Any new breakthroughs with oil shale mining?

I don't know. I doubt that there will be unless the price stays high.

Depends on the American, and that is what concerns me. Simply put, the people who are saying the gas prices are no big deal are the people who can afford to buy the gas without having to give up something else. The folks that are getting hurt are the ones who just make it (or don't always quite make it) from check to check. Twenty gallon gas tank, gas a buck higher than a couple months back, go through a tank a week that's $80 a month.......lots of people can't cover that and have to give up something elsewhere.

I donated some groceries at a local food bank today. There were quite a few people in line to get some help. Most of them looked like working class folks. I wondered how many of them were needing help with food because of gas prices, maybe people who were barely making it before and now coming up a little short.

National retail average is now $3.09

Just think, the higher the gas prices, the more fat people will be sitting next to you on full flights...

Yes, it's amazing how those obese people always complain about "not being able to fit inside a Honda," yet that manage to squeeze into an airplane seat.

After 6 years of commuting from 45 minutes to an hour I finally found a job very close to home. Unless it's pouring rain I get to walk to work and back everyday and couldn't be happier about it.

Neighbor here just got back from a trip to Texas. He's friends with a refinery exec and visited with him during the week. His friend told him they are making 90 cents a gallon profit on the gas leaving the refinery. He also said that before gas went up they were getting 16 to 18 cents a gallon profit.


No, we're not being gouged.

You mean when crude was $25/barrel?

Actually, he said it was just over a year ago when they were getting the 16 cents profit.

And profit is still profit (income over expenses). The cost difference between the $25 and $75 barrels is being passed on as well as the 5x higher profit margins.