[Geko45]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shannymara', 'I') just took this photo at Kroger in Palestine, TX:

[oil4u]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', 'I') suspect nothing of it. It's just a ploy to get more money out of you . But it's probably just the refinery. The ethanol thingy is so old that I'm pretty positive it's all been phased in.

[12volts]

Yes there is something going on? My wife runs a station here in Houston and has had problems getting fuel. It started with diesel after the hurricanes last year and then with unleaded around the time of the switch to ethanol. It is hard to get good info from my wife

She has talked to the drivers and they say it has to do with the loading racks for the tankers. Drivers that would run 6-8 loads a day are now lucky to get in 2-3 because of the wait time to get loaded. But the other day she said that she had a fuel drop that came in from Dallas?? I wish I could find out why Houston with all of the refinaries would need to get gas from Dallas..

She also said that some stations could only get 100,000 gals a day max? I have seen some stations run out at times like the wifes store and the local Kroger and even the RaceTrack down the street from the shop where I work and they have like 16 pumps..

So I don't know if it is a problem with the supply or with getting the trucks loaded

I heard on the radio today that one station in town now offers E85 and it is 10% cheaper than unleaded but of course you get 10% less milage too..

I just wish my wife was a better source of information than she is because what I learn from her just makes me ask more questions?

[aflatoxin]

the asphalt plant I was at today had a problem getting enough of the heavy asphalt oil used to make paving material.

They were told that it was the loading rack causing the problem.

A year ago, one phone call, and 15 minutes later the truck showed up with the asphalt. Nowadays, it is a major issue for them.

[pea-jay]

I think we will see more of this, mostly at the independent gas stations first. As the majors deal with refinery issues and their supplies dwindle, what easier way to ensure that they have gas? Slow down deliveries to unaffiliated buyers. Part of the upside of being an independent is to purchase your own fuel from whichever supplier is cheap and ready. The downside of course is they DONT have to sell if they don't want to.

[deafskeptic]

The corner Exxon station was out of premium, and midgrade gas. I had to fill my car with unleaded gas. I never use a grade higher than unleaded anyway.

[BlisteredWhippet]

Silly Fools!

This is just MTBE crossover shortages.

I rip off your arms and beat you about the head and shoulders!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12421486/

[FairMaiden]

Hmm..I'm confused...is ethanol the problem or the solution? I thought it was suppose to be one of the "saviour" alternatives I keep hearing about?

[BlisteredWhippet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shannymara', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BlisteredWhippet', 'T')his is just MTBE crossover shortages.

[BlisteredWhippet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FairMaiden', 'H')mm..I'm confused...is ethanol the problem or the solution? I thought it was suppose to be one of the "saviour" alternatives I keep hearing about?

[strider3700]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FairMaiden', 'H')mm..I'm confused...is ethanol the problem or the solution? I thought it was suppose to be one of the "saviour" alternatives I keep hearing about?

[FairMaiden]

LOL...I was being sarcastic...yesterday I was presenting on emissions and we got into the oil supply question. Everyone seemed to agree that we had nothing to worry about bc we have ethanol. Sheesh...and these ppl are suppose to be the ones that "get it"...

[TommyJefferson]

(link)

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'V')alero said Friday it was restarting normal production at its Corpus Christi, Texas, and Delaware City, Delaware, refineries after brief weather-related outages. It added that repairs on its Port Arthur, Texas refinery, would cut into gasoline output for another 10 days.

Refining companies Citgo and Flint Hills also reported refinery production cuts in Corpus Christi, which was battered by severe thunder storms on Thursday.

[Pablo2079]

I hadn't heard that they had started doing this..... the government just doesn't seem to get it.


http://www.news1130.com/news/national/a ... t=n071143A




$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')New Brunswick gas stations turn off pumps to protest price regulation
11, 2006 - 1:07 pm

By: KEVIN BISSETT

FREDERICTON (CP) - Some motorists across New Brunswick had to search for gas Tuesday after almost 100 independent gasoline retailers turned off their pumps for several hours to protest price regulation.

Service station attendants told motorists they had no fuel to sell, or that they couldn't afford to sell it at the regulated price set by the province's Conservative government when regulation came into effect on July 1.

"I'm just getting ready to go on vacation today and we're hearing this could be across the province," said Carmella Hill as she was turned away from an Esso station in Fredericton.

Some stations that remained open had line ups because of vehicles diverted from other locations.

Kevin McCann, the New Brunswick sales manager for Wilson Fuels, said independent retailers operating under the Ultramar, PetroCan, Shell, Esso and Wilson banners took part in the protest.

Most had begun pumping gas again by mid-afternoon.

Angela Andrews went to three gas stations in Fredericton before finding pumps that were working.

"I think the government should let the gas stations set their own price, if they want to raise it or lower it," she said.

The province set a maximum price of $1.12 a litre, but has allowed retailers to add a couple of cents to cover transport costs.

However, the retailers say the government has done nothing to ensure there is a profit margin when refinery and wholesale prices rise.

The formula used to set the price allows for a six-cent-a-litre profit margin for wholesalers and five-cents-per-litre for retailers.

McCann said there's not a lot of choice when there are only two refiners in the Maritimes.

"You've got Esso or you've got Irving, and guess what? Their pricing is virtually the same," he said.

Energy Minister Brenda Fowlie defended the new regulation system but she also opened the door to possible changes to the legislation.

Fowlie said she's willing to allow the dealers and wholesalers to renegotiate their contracts and profit margin, but it has to stay within the 11-cent range set out in the legislation.

"If the retailers and wholesalers feel they can't work within their margin percentage, one or all could make application to the Public Utilities Board, and if they were successful it would apply to all wholesalers and retailers in the province," she said in St. John, N.B.

But McCann said the minister is starting with the wrong reference point because the government uses the benchmark price of oil sold in New York when setting the maximum price for gas in New Brunswick.

"She's using New York Harbour, and we don't buy New York Harbour, and none of the other wholesalers in the province buys New York Harbour, they buy off the Saint John rack, so that premise is out the door even before we get started," he said.

The New York price is about 3.3 cents a litre lower than the Saint John rate.

The Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island government's also use the New York rate to set their regulated prices, but McCann said both have set maximum pump prices at about $1.15 a litre.

"That extra 2.5 cents goes a long way in this business," he said.

The federal Liberals consumer affairs critic said Premier Bernard Lord should be lobbying Ottawa for changes to the Competition Act because there are only two wholesalers in the province.

"With a dysfunctional gasoline market in which one or two players basically control the price at wholesale you have a very serious situation," said Dan McTeague, an MP from Ontario.

"They inflate the refinery price and they compress the retail price to such an extent that the retailers go out of business."

Meanwhile, Tom Adams of the Toronto-based research group Energy Probe said the government can't ensure lower prices for consumers in the long term through regulation.

"There's nothing that politicians or regulators can do beyond tax relief to change the game," he said.

Rick Brewer, a Liberal member of the legislature who leads an Opposition task force on petroleum pricing, said the province rushed regulation without weighing all the possible repercussions.

"The premier said that if this didn't work he would pull the regulations back off the table," he said. "How long will the premier make New Brunswickers suffer by not getting a commodity like gasoline, which is a necessity today."

Gas prices in New Brunswick are about the middle of the pack in Canada.

According to the weekly survey of pump prices by M. J. Ervin and Associates issued on Tuesday, the highest prices was in Whitehorse at $1.22 per litre.

The lowest price was about $1 per litre in St. Catharines, Ont.

[XOVERX]

It's way too early to impose price controls. Price of gasoline isn't nearly high enough to seriously threaten economic breakdown or collapse.

Someone in high places in New Brunswick is playing politics in a way that is completely counterproductive to the problem of oil depletion. Which is exactly why it is highly questionable that mankind can avoid the consequences looming in the near future.

[Novus]

How long do they expect retailers to sell gas at or below cost? Gas stations aren't charities that pay people to drive. Driving is not a right it is a privilage. Learn it and live it.

[mistel]

This has been a subject on many radio talk shows here in Toronto. You get the usual complainers who say the government should step in and force lower prices, Whaaaaaa!!!, then ocaisionally a call comes in from someone with a peak oil point of view who says we need HIGHER prices, not lower. That always throws the host for a loop. Quite entertaining

[Kingcoal]

Price controls were an early seventies tactic. They didn't work then and they won't work now. You either have a market economy or you have something else. The 'something else' never works.

[Leanan]

Premier Bernard Law announced a dramatic energy plan last spring, promising to cut fuel taxes, regulate prices, and cap utility rate increases.

It's not working so well.

This guy is defying the law and raising prices anyway.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') small independent retailer has defied Nova Scotia's new gas-price regulations.

Buns Kavanagh, owner of Canso Garage in Canso, Guysborough Co., has bumped his price to 119.9 cents per litre.

"I'm trying to survive, I guess. I'm trying to keep my employees employed and trying to keep a little gas in the community," said Kavanagh.

[strider3700]

The govs of the east coast provinces are having trouble lately. the West coast is booming, a crap box in a neighbourhood that will get you broken into nightly is worth $400,000 out here but you can get big beautiful houses on huge lots for less then $20,000 back east. The west has a shortage of people and employers are doing anything they can to find new employees but the east has high unemployment rates. The govs back east decided limiting gas prices may make them more popular. Long term they will be wrong.