QUOTE(Steve Thacker @ Jan 16 2004, 10:46 AM)
What I don't understand is why the price of gas on the left coast is more expensive? WTF?
Its the same darn gas! Is there something going on here that I don't see. You fellas out there pay three prices for the same darn thing we do here in the midwest (items). Me thinks someone is getting ripped off (calif consumers).
The problem is, it's NOT the same darn gas.
At least that's the excuse the oil companys whine about.
I drive past oil wells on my way to work. They pump the crap out of the ground here. In fact, I live near Pismo Beach - "Pismo" is a Chumash Indian word meaning: "black gooey crap the seeps up out of the ground".
And I paid $1.86 for 87 octane gasoline today.
Taxes, yeah, sure, I don't mind paying my fair share, as long as it's spent wisely and not scammed into somebody's pocket. Roads cost money. Schools cost money. Military costs money.
But California environmental regs ask for special blends. The oil companies call them "botique" blends, because they don't want to do them, and they want to make everyone think that it's a big difficult deal to provide clean fuel, low sulfer-content, etc. So they try to make it sound like Californians are a bunch of pansy crybabies, because we don't like breathing sulfuric acid like they do in Houston - after all, we're just a bunch of transplanted spoiled rich liberal snow-birds. Not tough cowboys like they got in Texas. (Houston, by the way, is now smoggier than LA - because of these env. regs). So they use this as an excuse to jack up prices, while they work to get these laws backed-out. (it's on the Guvornator's agenda, by the way - I'm really glad I don't live in LA). Especially during times of supply-constraint, because having to provide two different kinds of gasoline taxes their storage and transport capacity.
Personally - I'm willing to also pay the few extra cents for the cleaner gas, if it means my valves don't get crudded up as quickly, or my muffler doesn't rust as quickly, or the forests don't get burned away by acid rain, or my kids don't die of asthma at age 10. As long as it's not some scam to fund a new sound system for the oil company CEO's third jet.
I mean, I'm a big boy, I'm a capitalist, and I understand supply and demand and free markets. I'm willing to pay extra for a quality product.
But gouging is gouging.
Diesel prices do fluctuate, but nothing like gasoline. They're not taxed as highly, there aren't as many regs for special blends (the blends are seasonal, and pretty much universal, as I understand), and if the big oil companies wanted to put the squeeze on consumers with diesel, nearly every other company would lobby against it, because they rely on diesel for transport of goods. I wouldn't like it if EVERYBODY switched to diesel, because it's another nasty pollution problem (fine-grained ash particles) - but one that can be solved with technology. (zeolite filters).
VW makes a Diesel engine that gets 50 mpg on the highway in the Beetle, Golf, and Jetta. Unfortunately, in 2004, they're banned in California.