Okay, it's easy to just sit and complain about the price of gas. But honestly, as long as the pricing makes sense, I have no problem with it.
Of course, it makes no sense whatsoever.
For the last month or so, I loosely tracked the WHOLESALE price of a gallon of gas. I began when it traded for $2.22 a gallon and the stations around here were selling it for $2.95. For approximately three weeks, the price of gas (and oil, for that matter) fell rather steadily. I can't remember if it was an intra-day price or if it closed here, but one time I recall the wholesale price of a gallon of unleaded fell to $1.99. And yet, the signs in Eau Claire and my hometown of Osseo remained the same at $2.95. Fine, I figured. We are looking very short term so maybe the oil companies are looking at more of a long-term picture (because that's EXACTLY what they did post 9/11 and Katrina--suddenly the gas in the tanks was going to be sold for quite a bit more). As long as wholesale trades in that general range, I figured price at the pump should remain constant. This week, oil and gas "rallied". Yesterday, wholesale gas hit $2.23--one penny higher than it was when I started this little survey. And the signs all around the Chippewa Valley changed, moving up 4-5 cents. So, for three weeks the cost of gas to the stations goes down around 10% and the price remains unchanged. The price essentially returns to the level it started at and the price to us goes up.
Stay mad, people.
