Fuel prices - Page 2 - Montana Owners Club

Sweetfire · 03-22-2006, 05:53 PM

Jim,
I know refining is a problem and I agree with you, we should have more capacity. But how do they justify all these price increases in the past 6 months? Hurricanes and refinery shutdowns may effect prices after current stocks are depleted but prices last summer and this past week have gone up 10-16 cents in a single week, and within hours of the threat of bad weather or refinery closings, not because of it. Most retailers don't receive more than one shipment a week. That fuel was increasing in price every couple days while sitting in the ground under the gas stations. It only takes them a day or two to raise prices after an OPEC increase, but that crude oil won't make it to this country for months let alone be refined into fuel. But the most telling thing is that with all their crying about lost production, damaged refineries, OPEC increases, war jitters in Iraq, bad weather, and what ever, I never saw a single shortage or gas line in any area except around the Gulf hurricane damaged areas and that was because of electrical outages that affected the tank pumps at the gas stations and fuel delivery problems. There has been plenty of fuel we just have to pay their price. And while I'm ranting how come diesel, a by-product of gasoline refinement, costs more than premium gasoline? I need a drink and a nap.

Montana Sky · 03-22-2006, 06:25 PM

I am not as concerned with the profits of the oil companies as I am with our health care and education system. I also do not care what the $$ figure is on any companies profit, I watch the % of profit compared to the industrial average. If an oil company made $15 billion in profits but is less than .02% higher than the average I do not consider that to be "price fixing" or "price inflating". I would like to see the cable bill come down along with the cost of my vehicle insurance. Why is it the annual price of insurance goes up every year and nobody really says much about insurance companies taking advantage of us. Who regulates the prices?? Go back to the drug companies, a bottle of meds costing over $200 is crazy, but again we just pay it and head on down the road. I am still waiting for these "huge profits" everyone claims is happening with the oil companies to reflect in the stock price. I mean heck, go to the bank get a loan and buy oil stocks!!! That supposed money has to go somewhere in the company and we the stock holders sure want to know where every penny is. You bet we want to see that in our pockets, so where are all the stockholders??? Why is there not a huge uproar from them about all this profit, and why they are not seeing it?? Did anyone hear that Wal*Mart is getting into banking now? And they are getting into the health care system by hiring doctors to set up office in their stores. How big are we going to let Wal*Mart get?? Talk about huge profits at the expense of the American economy and tax payers... Enough said from me, I am not going to change everyones mind and I respect their opinion. I just wanted to throw out some information to get one thinking about the whole picture.

Sweetfire · 03-23-2006, 04:59 AM

Yea Dave, its a complicated world. I'm sure that if my rantings were made law they would just screw up things even worse. It just feels good to rant and rave sometime.

The Oldguard · 03-23-2006, 01:08 PM

We should have more capacity. But how do they justify all these price increases in the past 6 months? Hurricanes and refinery shutdowns may affect prices after current stocks are depleted but, check out the prices in the states that the Hurricanes hit, they seem to be a lot lower than the states out west.http://serv2.flyingj.com/fuel/diesel_print_CF.cfm

houseof many dogs · 03-23-2006, 02:19 PM

Montana Sky - Could you be comparing apples to oranges? Just look at those other industries - each of them has an alternative - generic drugs for the meds & Wal-mart has more competition than you can shake a stick at,etc.,etc. (Target,Kohls, etc.)
Now look at the oil companies: BP,Mobil and Shell operate in my town and there is NO difference in their prices! How do we explain that?

Bottom line is we need an energy policy and we will NEVER get one no matter whose "party" is in power. (Ross Perot was right (and only once!) - there's not a dimes worth of difference in any of them) Until private enterprise solves the problem and they will not act until we consumers make it profitable for them to do so.

Sweetfire · 03-23-2006, 03:23 PM

Looks like OKC wins Vernon. $2.329

Montana Sky · 03-25-2006, 03:36 PM

Every company has an industrail average to which it is compared against other companies within it same line of business. When you look at Wal*Mart they are over the average profit percentage within their industry, also take a look at the drug companies. If you look at their industry the top players are over the average. I just chose to use them as an example to compare high profits within companies we all shop, but yet there is nobody complaining about the "effects" from them. I sure wont even get started about Wal*Mart. But again this is just my opinion, I welcome thoughts from either side...

sreigle · 03-26-2006, 08:57 AM

As others pointed out, it is surprising the ways you can figure to juggle the budget when the desire is there. I'm sure for us there would be a point at which fuel prices would cause a problem but so far we have just adjusted in other areas of our budget. We average 3,000 miles per month, so fuel costs is not a small item in the budget.

houseof many dogs · 03-29-2006, 12:48 PM

Back to the original question, full timing in two to three years and the cost fo fuel. Well I just ran across an article in the NYT Automotive section that talked about diesels and why they are so popular in Europe (about 50% of the market) and not here. Couple of reasons, one diesel is not taxed as bad as gas in Europe and the other is that it is so efficeint.
Well, in the USA it seems that CA and Maine have decided that emissions from a deisel are too much and we need to have a 100,000 mile hands free emission system. They want universal low sulfur desel fuel - now here is the payoff-- the "experts" say the cost differential is from 1 to 20 cents a gallon! Of course, they say it will be on the low side of 7 cents or so - WANT TO BET? So in addition to all the other price increases you can expect, add 20 cents to it.
Finally, just as others have pointed out; just do what you feel is right and not worry about it!

richfaa · 03-30-2006, 10:18 AM

Ye Gads... This afternoon Fuel went up to 269.9 Gas and over 3.00 Gal for Diesel (302.9) 304.9) here in Northern , Ohio and that's at Speedway and Sheetz. We are not happy campers.New truck, New Camper on the way. Looks like really short camping trips this season. Where will this &*%$))*& end.I fueled my diesel School bus this afternoon at Speedway..50.4 Gal=154.43

houseof many dogs · 03-30-2006, 02:05 PM

BOHICA! What was the "excuse" this time Richfaa? We should just number them; you know, #1 - change from winter to summer blend, #2 Change from summer to winter blend, #3 might be colder than expected, #4 refinery shut down for maintenance, #5 the "fear factor" for the Future price of oil, and on and on and on!

When are we gonna get smart? Not anytime soon by the looks of things!

Montana Sky · 03-30-2006, 03:48 PM

Yahoo!!!!! =)

toolmanroy · 03-30-2006, 04:13 PM

I for one am happy that others in the country are paying what we have had to pay for diesel for a long time. This time we are actually on the low side at about $2.70. Last month it was $2.99.

Sweetfire · 03-30-2006, 06:06 PM

I'm not happy that any part of the country has to pay these kind of prices; because if I'm not there now I probably will be this summer.

toolmanroy · 03-30-2006, 07:27 PM

I just meant there is someone to share the misery! We seemed to have been singled out in the West for the highest prices in the nation for some time.

sreigle · 03-31-2006, 09:31 AM

Patodonn pointed out the two things you can do to reduce fuel costs. I might add a third -- drive more slowly. I find that hard to train myself to do but when watching the trip computer's readout on mpg, it really does make a significant difference.

One thing that can be a bit different in terms of fuel costs for fulltimers has to do with distance to get to the next destination. When we had a stick home, one year we might decide to drive to Zion National Park, a round trip distance of about 2300 miles, from our (then) stick home in Topeka, KS. As fulltimers, we don't have the return half of that so we buy fuel for 1150 miles.

Now, next trip maybe we want to go to Yosemite. 3400 miles roundtrip from Topeka. But, we're already at Zion. And it's only 500 miles from Zion to Yosemite. Two destinations. 5700 miles for two trips from a stick home in Topeka. 1650 miles for us as fulltimers. Yes, we will do more driving in a year's time but I think you see my point.

When we first started fulltiming we wanted to see as much as possible as quickly as possible. Vacation mode is what I call that. After awhile we started to tire. And we discovered by staying longer in one place we get to see far more than most people get to see. And we have time to relax and be retired. Do nothing days. Reality days - laundry, cleaning, etc. So now when we get to a major destination we stay a month. Sometimes two months if there is lots we want to see. An rv park with a daily rate of $25, well, that's 750 for 30 days. But that same park may have a montly rate around $350, give or take a hundred. So, not only do we save money on campground fees, we also get to see far more and the difference in cg costs helps with diesel costs.

Chuck and Carol · 04-09-2006, 12:12 PM

According to the news, our gas is now $2.91. Meaning of course, diesel will be higher

Our plans for the summer may have to be adjusted a wee bit.

Carol

Driftwoodgal · 04-09-2006, 05:23 PM

Here in Austin Texas I saw prices for diesel the same as regular gasoline, it is about time.

If I understand the refinery process from my husband, it cost less to make a gallon of diesel than it does a gallon of gas.

It was mentioned earlier on this thread that gas and diesel were cheaper in the states that were hit by the hurricanes. Hubby worked down in the New Orleans area until December 10th and he was paying about 20 cents a gallon more for diesel than gas. We live in an oil producing state (Texas) and our prices are higher than other states at times.

MontanaSky has a point about comparing water costs vs oil costs. But saying that what you could compare that with going to a movie and paying $8.00 for a ticket on an average of 2 hours and it is .04 @ minute, that doesn't include the drink and popcorn. All things are getting more expensive day by day. We were in hopes of touring the country on our retirement, but we may have to rethink that we might have to choose a part of the USA and investigate all of it at once instead of going back a second of third time.

I own mutual funds that have investments in the oil companies so it hard for me to know if the hand that is giving me returns is eating my arm off at the elbow. It looks like prices are being affected by the possible biodiesel and ethanol products that might be coming onboard. Can we go back to the days of price wars at $.025 a gallon?????

richfaa · 04-10-2006, 07:50 AM

Take a look at what Oil is doing on the commodities market today...Up 1.41 at 68.80...Hummmmm.

Montana Sky · 04-10-2006, 11:17 AM

Well I saw it today while up on the north side of town. 2 stations had diesel at $3.01 a gallon, here comes the summer increase.

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