On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:30:29 -0700, Mark & Juanita
wrote:

Renata wrote:

On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:39:12 -0700, Mark & Juanita
wrote:

Renata wrote:

On Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:34:44 -0700, Mark & Juanita
wrote:
-snip-
We have gas prices going up now because of
the required cafe blends for each specific city that requires refinery
shutdown and reconfiguration every year.
-snip-

Uh,... nope. Cafe blends have been around for years. Prices hadn't
"surged" like they are these days.


Uh, yes. Every spring at changeover time, gas prices have surged. Look
up comments last year at about this same time. In the past, there has
always been a run-up prior to Memorial Day and the summer driving season,
but with the advent of cafe blends, the runup has been larger and higher.

Surging since September (well, really, longer, but we'll just focus
here for the moment). We ain't seen surges like this for some time if
ever. Yet, we've had the annual, actually, bi-annual, blend
changeover for some time. Hmmm.


The facts just don't bear you out. Looking at
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_history.html
and breaking down the data into weekly segments for each year, then
demeaning the data for each year shows a price band for each year that
stays within a band of 80% to 120% of average price for the year. Highest
price tends to be about week 22. Biggest "surge" actually occurred in
2005 with prices jumping to 135 percent of yearly average in week 36, a
true anomaly compared to the rest of the data. De-meaned weekly relative
changes have similar characteristics.


Interesting charts. What I noticed is that prices seem to reach a
high point around Sept., and either hold fairly steady or fall a bit
thru about March, when they start on the upswing again. Exceptions
are, for example, in 2003, presumably due to the run up to O.I.L.
This lines up with the increased demand during summer. However, this
past year, prices started rising and continued to do so. Yet, demand
is supposedly down.

When was the last time prices rose 100% over the course of a year?
Or, so abruptly in a few months?


The "surging since September 2007 doesn't match the facts either. Gas
prices dropped from June to October, rose slightly from October through
December, dropped slightly from December through February 2008 and started
rising again through the present. I'll post the spreadsheet on abpww.

According to you, it's ALL the environmentalists' fault for wanting to
protect the caribou and have clean air.


I would lay 95% of this at the environmentalist's feet. Please, spare me
the idea that if people want fuel we want dirty air.


I see. The dollar dropping 50-60% in value has nothing to do with it,
at all, at all? Agitating in the M.E. - nada? Seriously?


Oh, and maybe if the oil companies would keep the refineries they
already have open (closed one recently in CA) they wouldn't need to
build new ones.


Any idea why they closed the one in CA?

No. Heard it on one of the news broadcasts. Caught tail end of
story. Haven't been able to find anything about it on google (albeit,
a cursory search) so maybe the rest of the story was kinda important.

Renata