Gas Prices – not complaining (this time)

  • Brian Klawitter
    Keymaster
    Minnesota/Wisconsin Mississippi River
    Posts: 59992
    #1279267

    Today in River Falls WI Unleaded was $3.65.

    Today in Lakeland MN Unleaded was $3.69.
    (It’s been a very long time since WI was less expensive than MN)

    Today in Hastings MN Unleaded was $3.45.

    Today in Red Wing MN Unleaded was $3.60.
    I filled up in Red Wing.

    Since I picked up a Freedom debit card I automatically receive up to a .10 per gallon discount and at the Freedom Store in Red Wing, they give us old timers a .05 discount on top of the .10 cents.

    I was surprised at the price differences around the area and am jealous of the people that live in Hastings.

    targaman
    Inactive
    Wilton, WI
    Posts: 2759
    #1106190

    I want a logical reason why the price has went down. Can somebody please explain? Is it because pug farted?

    mark-bruzek
    Two Harbors, MN
    Posts: 3867
    #1106194

    Quote:


    I want a logical reason why the price has went down. Can somebody please explain? Is it because pug farted?


    Elections! Always happens. That way it is one less topic the current party has to explain/debate because everyone forgets it was $1/gal 12 years ago. Society simply forgets about it because it is cheaper than it has been recently.

    mplspug
    Palmetto, Florida
    Posts: 25026
    #1106195

    Quote:


    I want a logical reason why the price has went down. Can somebody please explain? Is it because pug farted?




    If it were, Id eat ice cream, split pea soup and drink a beer every night for my fellow Americans.

    I thought there was a refinery that is back online after a fire and the ethanol mandated blends are switched back over to pure gas for the winter?

    googled it

    chappy
    Hastings, MN
    Posts: 4854
    #1106197

    $3.39 in Vermillion. They don’t have non oxygenated tho.

    drifter295
    Hastings MN
    Posts: 413
    #1106200

    I filled up today in Hastings, the manager of the station was at the store so I said hello and asked why the prices were falling so quickly. He replied the refinery has changed over to the winter blend it’s cheaper to make….so my question back was….if the winter blend is cheaper to make, why don’t we use that blend all year? He just smiled and walked away, is there really a winter blend?

    igotone
    Posts: 1746
    #1106201

    Quote:


    I filled up today in Hastings, the manager of the station was at the store so I said hello and asked why the prices were falling so quickly. He replied the refinery has changed over to the winter blend it’s cheaper to make….so my question back was….if the winter blend is cheaper to make, why don’t we use that blend all year? He just smiled and walked away, is there really a winter blend?


    If there is: it must have 2 have less water in it

    DaveB
    Inver Grove Heights MN
    Posts: 4469
    #1106219

    I saw a $.20 difference a mile apart in Eagan.

    It helps to shop

    suzuki
    Woodbury, Mn
    Posts: 18621
    #1106224

    Quote:


    jealous of the people that live in Hastings.


    They deserve cheaper gas after having to deal with that bridge traffice jam all this time.

    sandmannd
    Posts: 928
    #1106225

    The winter blend thing is a joke. It’s purely political. Doesn’t it seem odd this started happening the day after the debate when Obama had the $2 increase in gas over his 4 years shoved at him?

    Randy Wieland
    Lebanon. WI
    Posts: 13475
    #1106231

    Down here, i refer to it as the revolving 12 cents. They gouge Milwaukee, lower the price there and jack up Madison area by 12 cents, that goes down and Richland Center goes up. That drops and Wausa area takes it. When that drops, Milwaukke is back up again. The repeat until you sick of following it…..For years I ave watched this “bubble” in the pricing bounce around the sate like a revolving door. Why?

    kooty
    Keymaster
    1 hour 15 mins to the Pond
    Posts: 18101
    #1106236

    There was and article in the Wall Street Journal the other day about prices coming down. They mostly attributed it to the winter blend issue.

    Last Thursday, filled up the rental in Lincoln, NE $4.05. Landed in Bloomington, filled up my truck for $3.65.

    cat-stevens
    Rochester,MN
    Posts: 449
    #1106245

    $3.50 a gallon, better than $4.00 plus. The new normal. Things sure are looking up!

    gordonk
    mpls
    Posts: 145
    #1106246

    The biggest reason gas prices are down is that the spec funds are liquidating. We have the largest surplus of crude oil in nearly 25 years here in N. America and gasoline usage is down about 4% from last year.

    The price of gasoline futures has dropped about 30 cents in the past two weeks as the spec funds bailed out. We do not have a competitive market in energy like we do in say corn. With corn, you have thousands of producers and many hundreds of users, from grain elevators to ethanol plants, livestock feeders and exporters. If prices get out of whack, one side sits and the other gets active, pushing prices back towards “fair value”. In crude and gas, there are only six producers in the world, basically, and they control the product from the ground to the pump. When speculators drvie the price up, they just peg the price there and keep all the money.

    Right now, the US is producing an excess of gasoline, but we are now exporting record amounts of gasoline to other countries with higher priced gas. Much of that is courtesy of the sanctions on Iran and from the lost crude they’d be selling.

    The next time you hear drill baby drill, just remember that the oil we are now getting is being exported to keep our gasoline prices high so that Exxon can make record profits and still not pay any Federal taxes. Sweet deal.

    I trade this stuff for a living and I just covered my shorts yesterday. Gas futures are up two cents this morning, so don’t worry, after the election, they’ll go back up.

    jerry b
    western WI
    Posts: 1506
    #1106252

    One of the tasks I undertook during harvest was to haul fuel for the field eqt. A little co-op station in Warner, SD was where I filled the field truck. One day gas went down 10c to $3.85 and diesel went up 21c to $3.99 for dyed off road fuel. Over here in Pierre it was over $4 for unleaded regular. These people aren’t afraid to stick it to ya. Harvest and pheasant season combined- -wow! jerr

    Mike Stephens
    WI.
    Posts: 1722
    #1106263

    Sorry but I’m not getting that warm & fuzzy feeling yet.

    mossydan
    Cedar Rapids, Iowa
    Posts: 7727
    #1106264

    I’ve been following the prices for years, and I admit I don’t know a whole lot about what accurately pushes them up and down. I know that supply and demand may be of limited influance and also speculators. I look at it this way; when prices can be charged by everybody involved to lift those prices, where everybody involved in the whole chain can make more money, think they won’t?

    When prices are already high and everyone thinks they can add on thier 2 Cents, think they won’t? I’ve said it befor and I think everybody is involved in price fixing, think they won’t? I think when the opportunity is there they will do it everytime and they say its smart and sharp business tactics to do so.

    I listened to Ralph Nador and old presidential canadate yesterday on Iowa public radio and He explained it very well and in terms almost everybody could understand. Hes neigther pro Obama or Romney and as far as I’m concerned he hit it on the nailhead. We’re all being reamed,,,because they can. Why won’t the democrates and replublicans let any third party canadates in, because they have solutions and neighter of the other two parties like what they have to say.

    The voteing public has just two choices and its just a choice for those two, they can define thier solutions but when I heard his one hour interview I was convinced were being reamed because he layed out many and simple solutions. One was put the power of the voters back to work and he laid out how simply it can be done, alot would be amazed at how little power and choices we currently really do have. I’m not that gullable and what he said made perfect sense to me and without a doubt would work. Both canidates don’t offer any of those choices and solutions to deal directly with whats going on. I’m convinced now that a vote for eigther one of them is not a correct vote, don’t consumers need a more powerful vote. I know this is a political statement but I thought it had to be heard, we have no control over prices and we should and could.

    ace_hurlburt
    Stillwater MN / Houston Tx
    Posts: 131
    #1106276

    The summer blend evaporates more readily in warm temperatures so states convert over to a ” winter Blend” somewhere around the 30th of October each year. Essentially it is a less quality fuel due to the way it is refined and would evaporate more quickly than the summer blend on a warm day. It is also cheaper to refine allowing more volume into the distribution stream thus lowering prices.

    Brian Hoffies
    Land of 10,000 taxes, potholes & the politically correct.
    Posts: 6843
    #1106278

    The only price tracking I do is Super America. They always seem to be the first to raise the price and the last to lower the price.

    Would be nice to have gas wars again. Wayyyyyy back in the day I managed a gas station on West 7th in St. Paul. I changed the pump price 6 times in one 18 hour period one time when we got in a war with the guy down the street.

    Jeff Bennett
    Lake Puckaway Wi.
    Posts: 1180
    #1106357

    $3.43 AT THE WISCONSIN DELLS YESTERDAY

    riverdog
    Posts: 90
    #1106372

    I’ve heard a million different theories on what makes the price do what it does, but all I know is there has to be a way to moderate these prices while some rocket scientist comes up with an alternative energy source for us all. I can’t imagine the % of income the average person is spending on fuel for their vehicle, not to mention the impact it has on food prices and every other thing. The more I spend of fuel, the less I spend on everything else. High fuel is kicking our economy in the butt. You can talk jobs all you want, but if a new hire is spending all his income to run his car, what’s the point?

    chomps
    Sioux City IA
    Posts: 3974
    #1106381

    I’ll say it again, doesn’t matter I just put $20 bucks in anyways.

    chomps
    Sioux City IA
    Posts: 3974
    #1106385

    oh yeah, I saw $3.22 this AM

    mplspug
    Palmetto, Florida
    Posts: 25026
    #1106390

    Quote:


    I’ll say it again, doesn’t matter I just put $20 bucks in anyways.



    Me too, because filling up is nice, but it cost a lot more.

    fish-them-all
    Oakdale, MN
    Posts: 1189
    #1106393

    On Wednesday I drove to Rochester. Gas was 3.44 in Coates and 3.73 in Oakdale. The gas stations in Coates always seem to be less from my experience, so if you are driving on 52 to Rochester or driving north to the cities on 52 stop in Coates for gas if you want to pay less.

    Grouse_Dog
    The Shores of Lake Harriet
    Posts: 2043
    #1106396

    3.38 in Bloomington.

    mossydan
    Cedar Rapids, Iowa
    Posts: 7727
    #1106397

    Me too Pug, I usually put $20 worth in when I need gas, the other day I put in $30, it made me feel like I had more money in my pocket because I was spending more. This is not a plug for Ralph Nador and hes in his 80’s, but what he said really had a big impact on me and I haven’t heard that kind of talk since to 70’s. Hes got a book coming out soon on how to fix the economy the right way and I think I’m going to buy it and I rarely buy books. I don’t want to rattle anyones cage but from the way he explained things were being taken to the mill in alot more ways then just the price of necessities. In other words you keep telling people things and eventually they will begin to believe it if they don’t hear anything else. What he had to say he would become Obama and Romneys worst nightmare.

    sandmannd
    Posts: 928
    #1106408

    Problem with putting $20 in is it’s what 5-6 gallons. How far dose that get anyone. Lucky for me I bus back and forth to work and just have to drive to a park and ride. I fill for $60 about every three weeks.

    Denny O
    Central IOWA
    Posts: 5819
    #1106416

    Ya but it cost me 5, $20. back to back fills to satisfy my empty tank today! (D @ $4.09) Heading for LOW before sunrise in the morning.

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