If the QHW is going to feed me a line of crap, there're gonna need a bigger spoon.
After reading Saturdays article on why the price of gas is going up in Quincy, it took me about 40 minutes and 2 cups of coffee to blow this story to shame. It's taking me longer to write and explain how I came to this conclusion.
First. Do you think a "convenience store director of operations" is going to tell you the truth ? First statement is there will be a "temporary interruption of fuel flow" then says "The Magellan pipelines are expected to be off line for as much as a month." Huh. What?
My comparison of this statement is a temporary interruption is that that your power will be restored after we fix this problem in an hour vs. the hurricane has torn out the entire power lines to the area and it will be days until the power is restored.
A quick search on Google with the Magellan statement turns up nothing.
Another search on Google for Magellan Pipelines turns up their company website. It shows that the pipeline runs from OK up to Chicago. OK hang with me here. The assets page shows the pipeline in detail.
The first terminal is in Columbia MO. A search of this so-called "gas outage" shows nothing. Next terminal is Palmyra MO. Next is Heyworth IL. Closest locations to this is Bloomington and Springfield IL. Another search shows no problem here either. Also shows that Bloomington gas prices are 10 cent cheaper than Quincy. Looking at SPFLD gas prices, they are also 10 to 15 cents cheaper too.
So....I do have some knowledge of how pipelines work and I know that a pipeline that runs through the Midwest runs THRU the Midwest. Cost would prohibit it from running from OK to Columbia, OK to Palmyra, OK to Heyworth. Keep up with me here. So if the the SAME pipeline feeds the Columbia, Palmyra, and Heyworth, How come they don't have the same supply problem WE do???
How come gas is cheaper in Bloomington and Springfield that runs thru the SAME gas line that feeds Palmyra in the same state with the same taxes ???
I do believe we are gettin' hosed at the pump.
13 comments:
I agree. Between fuel prices & ameren, it’s a 1- 2 punch. People are just getting their final high ameren bills from the winter. Good article in HW about area food banks running dry because people are struggling to pay for gas & ameren.
A couple of things I did, I took offense to WGEM running a story recently on people driving off w/o paying at gas stations. They did the story, it seemed, as kind of a "pre-emptive" measure in the interest (and likely request) of local oil companies. Even in the story they said it hasn't even happened here yet except in one instance. But the inference was "don't you be doin it". What I told the news director was that I'm not condoning stealing gas, but who are the real thieves here, if thievery is implied? Oil companies make 36 Billion in profit last year, and food banks are running empty? So now we get gouged at the pump and get called "thieves" by WGEM.
I also called each area gas distributor and told them I didn't appreciate the hikes. Lotta good that did, I know.
What I'm saying is, the media shouldn't play into the oil companies and Ameren's BS lines. Great post Fire!
Thanks a lot, Wilson, for letting my "desperate meaures for desperate times" secret of taking the CM couopn to West Quncy out.
Like you, Fire, thought the excuses were extremely comical.
Love the way the oil companies(big and small), play the local and national media like fiddles. Thanks for calling this to light, Fire.
I don't dispute the results or your investigation but I am having trouble understanding exactly what you are concluding. Do you think the retailer (C-Store Operator) is making any more money as gas prices rise?
If the retailer is at wholesale plus, say, three cents when gas is at 1.79, he's at three cents at 2.89 or 3.16. He's making the same modest profit and his percentage of gross is going down. Let's at least get mad at the right folks here.
Refiners (Exxon, Mobil Wholly Owneds) have increased their per gallon net from .09 in 91 to .49 this year. What incentive do they have to kill the golden goose and build out greater capacity.
Everybody wants to look at the alleged Morgan Stanley futures manipulation forty cents of the increase is right under our noses in the gulf states and even a few just offshore.
In other words the guy who runs the C-Store is making a helluva a lot more money selling lighters, chinese compasses and other gedunk than he is pumping gas.
Not to take away from any of your points just to suggest we not have any local lynchings.
The government collects far more in taxes on every gallon of gasoline than the oil companies collect in profits.
The very politicians who have piled tax after tax on gasoline over the years, and voted to prohibit oil drilling offshore or in Alaska, and who have made it impossible to build a single oil refinery in decades, are all over the television screens denouncing the oil companies. In other words, those who supply oil are being denounced and demonized by those who have been blocking the supply of oil.
When the two most heavily populated nations on earth -- China and India -- have rapidly growing economies and rapidly escalating importations of oil, how could that not affect the world price of oil? After all, the price of oil is determined in the international markets, contrary to conspiracy theories that keep turning up whenever gas prices rise.
Those conspiracy theories have been investigated time and again, without uncovering anything. But it is still a clever political ploy to ask for more investigations when gas prices rise. If nothing else, it distracts attention from those who have been blocking all attempts to enable us to use our own oil.
People with no experience in business, no knowledge of history, and utterly ignorant of economics do not hesitate to leap from high prices to greedy profit-makers.
10:22
Why don't they, like they did a few years ago, drop the gas tax. Remember when it got to 1.65 a gallon, and everybody freaked, and they dropped the gas tax? Those were the good old days, I guess.
Sucks because my one guilty pleasure is taking road trips, day trips, around the area ( St. Lou, KC, Chi, etc). Travel ain't down, so don't wake UMRB up, he was right! We'll keep paying it like the weanies we are! That's totally on hold now. Check out megabus.com, though!
UMR:
Didn't say I was mad at the c-store operator just that the statement he made on the pipeline problems couldn't be found by myself on the web. The only story I could find was a article from Iowa and how they were running short on gas and trucked it in from IL and they were STILL selling it cheaper than here.
AND...if the c-store operator is not responsible for the gas increase, then why interview him ?
AND...Why would you make a statement that would just MAYBE cause prices to rise due to a shutdown ?
AND.. if the statement was true, why could I not find another article on it from areas that are suppled from the same pipeline?
Just rambling here but am fairly tired of random "quotes" in the media that don't hold an ounce of truth but are fed to us daily.
On another note, a trip to illinoisgasprices.com has a chart on the left hand side to show the retail price of gas and the crude oil barrel prices....
Somebody is raking in the profits.
Thanks for stopping by !!
I think Fire is right here.
You didn't see a statement of how the refinery fire would not affect the delivery of fuel.
Every time gas jumps, they run a article on how much higher it's going to get to strike fear into motorists.
The quickest path to evidence of collusion is a trip across the bridge to LaGrange. Why, if the free market or refinery fires or government taxes were the cause of the high prices, should you be able to get gas for a dime less in LaGrange than in West Quincy? Only one answer I see....that the WQ prices are jacked up.
LaGrange is further into Missouri, a state where gas taxes are lower. West Quincy stations know that they can charge slightly more than those further west, because their primary customers are Quincians who drive across the bridge to get cheaper gas. West Quincy has no market for their gas except for East Quincy.
But shouldn't competition and the invisible hand of the marketplace be at work in West Quincy and not in LaGrange? WQ has what, five stations? And LaGrange only one? Last time I checked, competitors agreeing to keep prices artificially high was also known as "illegal restraint of trade." Or maybe there's something at work here that I'm not aware of.
It's Greed
I get tired of the gas station (read convenience station) owners whining about how they only make x cents a gallon on their fuel.
That's gotta be BS; how in the hell do they stay in business then? Ain't no frickin' way they're making it up on gum, 32 oz. soda, cigs and Red Bull.
Maybe it's from lottery tickets, but I doubt it.
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