From owner-freebsd-chat Tue Mar 7 14:59:43 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from smtp05.primenet.com (smtp05.primenet.com [206.165.6.135]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D0C4837C112 for ; Tue, 7 Mar 2000 14:59:39 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tlambert@usr09.primenet.com) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by smtp05.primenet.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) id PAA12738; Tue, 7 Mar 2000 15:59:25 -0700 (MST) Received: from usr09.primenet.com(206.165.6.209) via SMTP by smtp05.primenet.com, id smtpdAAALMaGYy; Tue Mar 7 15:59:12 2000 Received: (from tlambert@localhost) by usr09.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id PAA02965; Tue, 7 Mar 2000 15:59:16 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <200003072259.PAA02965@usr09.primenet.com> Subject: Re: Great American Gas Out To: brett@lariat.org (Brett Glass) Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 22:59:16 +0000 (GMT) Cc: nate@yogotech.com (Nate Williams), dennis@etinc.com (Dennis), chat@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <4.2.2.20000304133643.0417e100@localhost> from "Brett Glass" at Mar 04, 2000 01:39:32 PM X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL2] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > >The reason gas is so expensive is CA is because a couple of refineries > >blew up last year, and due to the monopolies shared by the gas > >companies, there was no-one lef to take up the 'demand' when they quit > >producing. > > > >Demand stayed the same, production was reduced, price goes up. Simple > >economics.. > > Exactly. And the monopoly is government-granted because it mandated the > special gas. California also has special and arbitrary requirements for > milk which keep out-of-state vendors out and raise the price. The refineries have been back on line for some time. Most recently, there was a survey that tried to determine if people would buy sundry items at a gas station. Gas stations use the gas to draw people in, and then sell convenience store items. After the results of the survey, gas prices have gone up in excess of $0.50 per gallon in the Bay Area, in less than 2 weeks, for a total of 140% of the price two weeks ago. I don't know whether to blame the survey, or political manuevering for the Tuesday primary, to get people pissed off at the incumbent candidates... 8-). Luckily, my car gets 64 miles a gallon on the highway, 38 in the city, so I will not have to fill up until after prices have gone back down. During the last set of gas hikes, I got through almost totally unscathed by the higher prices (I had to buy $1 of the expensive gas, while it was on its way back down). I think my next car is going to be one of the new Fords, with a Hydrogen fuel cell. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message