Well, perhaps the prices are artificially fixed where you are, but just in
my little part of this small, Central California county, I've seen a wide
range of prices.  Fortunately, the cheapest station that takes credit cards
(there's only one around here that doesn't) is about spitting distance from
my house.  It was at $2.879/gal.  Just up the freeway, I saw $2.999, and
in an adjacent city, I saw $2.939 right across the street from $2.969.

That may not change the profits for the gas companies; they're still likely
to have a good year.  But that's only because we let them.  If we simply
consumed less gas, then the pendulum would swing the other way, and they'd
have to lower prices.  Judging by the stretch hummer limo thing I saw last
night, people aren't willing to make that change.

(Tax breaks are a separate issue and I have no real arguement with you on
that one.  :-)

Dave

On Wed, Aug 31, 2005 at 07:02:20PM -0300, Gary Nolan wrote:
> Check the profits for the next quarter for the oil companies it's not the
> law of supply and demand. It's the law of gouge and squeeze then put
> consumer (pardon the pun) over the barrel and have at it. If it was supply
> and demand the there would be varing prices at the pump. But instead all the
> stations increase to the same price within 20 minutes. We here in Canada are
> paying taxes on taxes on gas and every time the price of gass goes up so
> does the amount to the government in taxes. When was the last time you or I
> received a tax break, when was the last time the big oil companies received
> one?
>
> Gary

--
+--David Oksner-----http://www.case.net/--+
|Sattinger's Law                          |
|  It works better if you plug it in.     |
[log in to unmask]

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *