gas prices $5 per gallon this summer or fall??

[justatransgirl]

$5 gas - GOOD - it will keep all the "little people" off the road and out of my commute! the past few months has been wonderful, the traffic between San Diego and LA is down about 15%.

I'll gladly pay an extra couple of hundred a month to be able to actually travel down the road.

Now if somebody can just fix the *$%&^*# roads in California so we don't need 4WD monster trucks to negociate the freeway I'll be in heaven.

Giggle,
TS Jamie

PS - NATIONALIZE THE OIL COMPANIES! THE OIL BELONGS TO US ALL!

[trish]

First a confession: I’m dizzy when it comes to money. I hate balancing my check book and filling out the income tax forms (don’t get me wrong, I pay my taxes with patriotic pride…I’m just confused and bored by the task). Anyway…

So I go to

http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/margins/index.html

and find that on of May 5 this year, 13 cents of each $3.90 retail that Californians spent on branded gas went to pay for distribution costs, marketing costs and the remainder of the 13 cents went to profit. This leaves a maximum profit margin of only 0.13/3.90 = 0.033%. But major integrated oil and gas profits are reported to be 9.5%. I presume that either 1) I’m being an idiot (it happens once or twice a day); or 2) the real profits from oil aren’t made at the pump; or 3) the reported figures don’t represent what the labels seem to indicate.

BTW: I spend $60.00 per gallon on cappuccino.

[Oli]

First a confession: I’m dizzy when it comes to money. I hate balancing my check book and filling out the income tax forms (don’t get me wrong, I pay my taxes with patriotic pride…I’m just confused and bored by the task). Anyway…

So I go to

http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/margins/index.html

and find that on of May 5 this year, 13 cents of each $3.90 retail that Californians spent on branded gas went to pay for distribution costs, marketing costs and the remainder of the 13 cents went to profit. This leaves a maximum profit margin of only 0.13/3.90 = 0.033%. But major integrated oil and gas profits are reported to be 9.5%. I presume that either 1) I’m being an idiot (it happens once or twice a day); or 2) the real profits from oil aren’t made at the pump; or 3) the reported figures don’t represent what the labels seem to indicate.

BTW: I spend $60.00 per gallon on cappuccino.

Nothing dizzy about you Trish. The key is integrated, the large oil companies own (wholly or in part) the refineries, the shipping and the distribution. Look again and compare the differences between the refining costs of branded and unbranded vis the distribution costs.

[trish]

No, I was being ditzy...didn't notice profits were also included with refinery costs as well. For May 5 this makes the upper bound for the profit margin for branded oil 100x(.13+.24)/3.90 = 9.49%.

[trish]

When publishers of periodicals report 24% profit margin do they really mean 24 cents of each dollar the customer spends goes toward binding, distribution and oh yes, profit? To me it seems a bit silly for California to report it that way and also makes the profit seem larger than what it is.