[Leanan]

AOL's top story is high gas prices. They're posting some of their members' stories.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')I am a truck driver and have watched my fuel bill go from $1,000 a week in May/June to $1,300 a week now."
"I live in Deltona, Fla., and last night all of the gas stations on route to I-4 (a major highway in Florida) were all closed or had a line 30 cars deep fighting for gas."
"Thursday morning I paid $2.89 for regular gas, Thursday evening at the same pump, I paid $3.19. By Friday morning at 2AM, I paid $3.50. What's next for me?" -- NY limousine driver
"Paying $2.95 for regular, up 30 cents since Tuesday."
-- cyoshimoto
"Paying $3.89 in Connersville, Ind... Diesel is still only $2.79."
-- hrowljr
"No problem with the price of gas here in eastern Florida... there isn't any."

[Armageddon]

i am keeping my car, my wifes car, and my work van filled up every day. im in st.louis and its 2.99 here. seems like a bargain compared to some of you people. thankfully i have a quick trip gas station only .5 miles from my house.

[Free]

Just saw a german TV-report about a gas-prize insurance (against sudden prize rises). If the gas prize rises a certain amount within a certain timeframe, the insurance covers the difference between lower and higher prize....

Clever idea, I only hope that insurer is insured himself....

[bp_jason]

Do people know realize wholesale prices for gas on the gulf coast are near $4.00. In the midwest wholesale is $3.60. Stations selling below these levels are selling at a loss. NYMEX is not wholesale. PLATTS quotes are close to wholesale.

[I_Like_Plants]

I'll by walking by the station I used to go to most of the time in the morning too, have to remember to take a look at the prices.

[jdmartin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DoctorDoom', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jdmartin', 'W')e use a small ford ranger for meter reading...it's mostly rural.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jdmartin', '$')4 per gallon

[k_semler]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Muffloj', 'I') just got a phone call and was told we may be rationing gas as of 7:00 this afternoon only 10 gallons at a time. any one heard this . is it true?

[pilferage]

Your networking both disturbs and fascinates BP!

++PC

[No-Oil]

Do any of you have locking fuel filler caps/falps on your cars ?
Do you know why ?
Becuase of the fuel shortages in the 70's, when ordinary people resorted to stealing gas because they could not afford it or there was none to be had.
I remember seeing whole streets of cars sitting with their flaps open where the fuel had been robbed in the night. In the early 70's NO cars had locking fuel caps !!!!!
Be warned it will happen again.

In the 79/80 fuel crissis when many cars had locking fuel caps, the purps resorted to using a screw driver, to pop a hole in the fuel tank from below & catch the fuel in a pan. So guarding the filler point is no defence. Most cars have plastic tanks now that make this sort of theft even easier !
Be careful.

[DigitalCubano]

JD, keep those posts coming. I find the anectodal posts enlightening because they put all of these issues in the proper context (i.e. how they affect real business and folks).

I have yet to hear of any hoarding up here in Massachusetts. Prices in the metro Boston area are pretty much in the lower $3.00 range for a gallon of regular unleaded. However, there is some price disparity among the different gas companies, with Shell gas being priced a good $0.10 more than their competitors across the street. My family tells me that it's a different story down in the metro Miami area, as a good number of stations are out of at least regular grade. Having lived in and visited a number of US cities in the past decade, I find that few places are more car dependent than South Florida (Houston might be worse). Even with $3.00+ gas my pleas to them about biking and walking to take care of some errands are still falling on deaf ears.

On a lighter note, my family thinks that I am some kind of economic savant given how I warned them to hoarde on Sunday! Peak OIl awareness: bringing the family together and making the parents proud.

[Leanan]

This story from USA Today is fascinating: LINK
People are really going nuts. Truckers are going broke, because they quoted prices weeks ago.
This is so insane. People waiting in line for hours, just to save $5 on a tank of gas.
In my town, the gas station that had the low price yesterday ($3.19) is now up to $3.39.

[thorn]

In Frederick, someone told me that a gas station did not increase their prices as the others around it did. So people just drained it, the station ran out of gas!!! It was around $2.89 while the others were $3+.
Highest I saw was $3.49 this morning. It was a "Lowest Price" station. BP down the street was $2.99, I think they should change their name to "Highest Price"
I heard the the independent stations that buy the lower end gas that comes from the gas that gets mixed in the pipeline between batches. They do not have contracts so are paying more for gas now since the gas is not flowing.

[zceb90]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', 'W')e are confident that our customers really need to fly since we've managed to suppress the railroad system so effectively for so long. We are also confident that they can charge ever more on their credit cards too.

[gluc0se]

From my mom's friend in North Carolina:$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')orgot to tell you -- gas stations closed yesterday here & in nearby towns.
Word is they won't open for 4 days. The news this a.m. said 47 stations in Charlotte are outta gas. North Carolina in general is running out.---Laurie

[SupplyConcerns]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Toecutter', 'D')id I not say GM was against electric vehicles? I know they're betting the future on SUVs and that they're $300 billion in debt. Peak oil will kill them off since they made bad choices years back, unless big government keeps propping them up with our hard earned tax dollars(which will likely happen).

[frankthetank]

Gas was 2.99 around here and i haven't seen/heard anything locally to suggest we are running out of gas.

Anyone want to take a shot and say when prices will fall to preKatrina levels (roughly 2.50 locally)??? I say Halloween...HA HA

[Revi]

Your dad could get a lot of GM's smaller vehicles and sell plenty very soon. Suzuki will still be turning out cars people need and want for a while yet (and they are a GM subsidiary)

[Leanan]

Motorists, many whom are residents of Biloxi, Mississippi, push their car to conserve fuel as they wait in line to buy fuel on Interstate 10 in Biloxi September 1, 2005.
LINK
The California attorney general is opening a gas-profiteering investigation: LINK
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ecause America's most-populous state gets none of its crude oil and little refined product from the hurricane-devastated Gulf of Mexico, California Attorney General Bill Locker said, retailers should not be using the disaster to explain a spike in prices

[DoctorDoom]

No signs of shortage here in the golden state. Prices have bumped up about 20 cents, with regular unleaded right around $3.00. I am wondering if we will have to reduce our consumption so that gas can be diverted to hard-pressed regions in the east. I'm prepared to do this, but no one here is going on TV to ask us to conserve and there is little awareness that we might be impacted - it is business as usual. (I don't mean to characterize my fellow Californians as heartless - pretty much everyone I know is sending money to the Red Cross in response to the disaster, it's just that people don't yet see that it might affect them personally.)

My mom lives in Virginia, according to her there are already reports of people driving away from the pump and not paying, and reports of people siphoning gas. No shortages, this is just how they are reacting to high prices. Here in California you have to pay before you pump, usually with a credit card. In Virginia there are still a lot of stations where you go up and pay afterward, and these stations are closing pumps except for the ones near the cashier so he/she can watch for thieves.