First off, any rumor of $4.50+ gas in the Midwest is FALSE.
Just home from work and posting here to help aid in killing false rumors.
First of all, don’t expect shortages of gas. There is no need to panic buy, prices will come down over time, but the worse thing folks can do is think there isn’t enough gas. Thanks to the Canadians, we have oil flowing in from up North. Some Midwest refiners can refine the lower quality Canadian crude oil, so we really shouldn’t be worried. The only worry I have is how fast the Gulf refiners can get back online. Most pipelines and refiners in the Gulf are either still closed from Gustav or have closed due to Ike.
I don’t see prices going any higher this weekend than $4.25 MAX. It shouldn’t even get that high. The Governor is well aware of the situation and appears to have Michigan’s resources ready to fight gouging.
I have to say, gouging isn’t even likely. With so much competition, one station that starts to gouge would have to be followed by more. With corporate owned Speedway, it simply isn’t likely.
More later.
Patrick
Hey guys just to let you know gas is selling for 5.00 in mt pleasant and 4.99 in Clare as of 7:00pm friday night. So much for the governor fighting gouging.
I drove from Nashville to Knoxville today. Prices were on the high side of normal this morning in Nashville with only a 10 cent overnight hike. As I drove down I-40 I started seeing $3.99, then $4.09, then $4.49. The wife reported an AM fill up in Knoxville at $3.79, then they changed it to $3.99 as she left the parking lot. She heard a report of stations running out of regular unleaded in some parts of town. By the time I got to Knoxville mid-afternoon, everyone was charging $4.49. I decided my 3/8 of a tank was adequate and will hold out since I am flying rather than driving next week.
Todd, do you have pictures to prove that or do you just believe the morons on the radio?
Speedway in Mt. Pleasant is $3.919 and Clare is $3.949.
This isn’t the first time that radio stations have spread rumors like this, I just don’t understand why people make up this crap and call it in.
For the record the Governor is the only one doing any gouging. The State is making WAY more off a gallon of gas than the stations.
I’m hearing rumors that Citgo and Shell had price increases around 25 cents tonight and Valero at 35.
As of 9PM, Marathon still hasn’t released a price change, which is nice since it will be effective back at 6PM. But, it doesn’t really matter because they also put us on allocation, and locked us out for the rest of the day at most terminals.
Don’t be surprised to see some stations without gas tonight or tomorrow morning. Most stores sold today close to what they normally sell in a week. There just isn’t enough trucks to catch up on the inventories for a couple days. Being allocated on how much we can haul, complicates things. There isn’t anything that you can do when you are locked out for the day.
Now the question is if Marathon has a 20+ cent wholesale increase, will Speedway try to go up on Saturday or loose money all weekend?
Ok, we finally have a price change. 18 cents up for brand and 25 for unbranded.
Now we will see what Speedway does on Saturday.