Gas prices in Washington drop 50 cents in a month
BELLEVUE, Wash. (AP) - The AAA auto club reports the average price of a gallon of gasoline in Washington is $3.52.
That's down 6 cents in a week, 50 since in a month, and it's 20 cents lower than a year ago. It's 10 cents higher than the national average.
Some metro prices from the AAA's Monday survey:
Bellingham $3.57, Bremerton $3.45, Seattle-Bellevue-Everett $3.54, Tacoma $3.42, Olympia $3.44, Vancouver $3.48, Yakima $3.55, Tri-Cities $3.65, and Spokane $3.59.
That's down 6 cents in a week, 50 since in a month, and it's 20 cents lower than a year ago. It's 10 cents higher than the national average.
Some metro prices from the AAA's Monday survey:
Bellingham $3.57, Bremerton $3.45, Seattle-Bellevue-Everett $3.54, Tacoma $3.42, Olympia $3.44, Vancouver $3.48, Yakima $3.55, Tri-Cities $3.65, and Spokane $3.59.
It should have never gone up in the first place. The laws of supply and demand have nothing to do with price goudging by the Oil and gas distributors. Prtice of oil up over $2.00 a barrel today by speculators. !! Last I looked we don't get our oil from Gaza or IsrealÂ
 @Closer64 So what you are saying is, the profits in oil and gas distribution is huge, and you should own some of them in your retirement portfolio, rather than GM or Solyndra? Or, maybe you are thinking that you should get into the business yourself and get rich?
And then in a month, it'll go back up a dollar! Stay tuned...
Call me when it gets to $1.00 a gallon, then we'll party. I guess that means the oil companies got enough for their big bonuses this year.
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This is why oil should not be traded as a commodity on the stock market. It's not as if the cost to drill, refine and distribute it changes daily, so why should the price? What I think was going on was price manipulation related to the election. The oil companies were trying to jack up prices to feed Romney's attack about the cost of gas and push out Obama. It didn't work and now they have to drop prices because they bet on the wrong horse and now the government will investigate.
 @NorthwestEconomist I'm no economist, but I don't think your argument holds water.
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It's not because the cost of oil refinery and distribution changes that the price changes. It's the demand that changes which precipitates price changes.
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More people/countries want it more badly than others or the perceived availability goes down, price goes up. Wait until (if) Israel invades Gaza... price will go up significantly.
People/countries are not so keen so getting oil (read: auto and airplane fuel) or the perceived availability goes up, price goes down.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what the whole demand/supply thing is about?
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Although, I do agree with you on the manipulation. I would not be surprised at all if one day evidence is uncovered that shows how Big Oil fixed prices.
@DrugFighter @NorthwestEconomist actually the facts support his argument. Oil companies have long term contracts, and the prices they pay are already determined. The speculators however can increase prices by 30% pretty easily.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/wall-street-speculation-oil-price_n_1367896.html
 @Bob42263 Thanks for that link, Bob.
I'm not surprised that the Feds found that the oil companies are at least partially responsible for the prices fluctuations.
 @DrugFighter  @NorthwestEconomist Do you understand that what oil is trading at, minute by minute, affects the price that stations charge? Apart from how absurd that is (given that the oil being traded has nothing to do with the oil that was drilled, refined and transported weeks/months prior)Iran gets into the news, oil trades higher, prices go up. Tell me what part of that deals with demand? Learn some basic economics, allowing a commonly used resource necessary to every-day society to become a traded commodity cripples our economy. Imagine if the price of gas stayed the same for months or even years and only changed when there were real, actual changes in supply and demand. That's how it works with non-commoditzed products. Imagine how stable our economy would be without the massive fluctuations in the energy markets. Please educate yourself. You should have stopped with "I'm no economist..."
@NorthwestEconomist@DrugFighter If it's not traded on the open market, that means it is a government set price. I have not seen any other alternative. As to breaking up of vertical monopolies, that guarantees a) fewer efficiencies, because you need to profit at every level rather than just overall, b) more layers and rules to be gamed, leading to more corruption and funny accounting, and c) means that because a refiner cannot guarantee either supply or buyer, the risk premiums of every level of transaction go up.
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As for prices going up here because of middle east idiots, I hope you really are not that stupid. Oil is fungible; a gallon of light sweet crude from here is about the same as a gallon of LSC from there, but production, transportation, and risk costs are not all equal. If India normally ship it in Saudi, and Iran makes threats, their price goes up, so they might decide to shift some import to slightly more expensive but reliable Indonesia, which in turn shifts someone else's sourceing, which shifts something else, which suddenly makes the stuff we are importing more (or possibly less) expensive as risk premiums and shipping costs change. And, if that means that suddenly you have a lower grade of crude to work with, refining costs go up, too. Because the stuff being pumped into your tank NOW must be replaced with current production and future refining, the company wants to lock in prices along the supply chain at what they *expect* the future price be. They are FORWARD-looking, not just backward.
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Without a market trade to force adjustments in behavior via price changes, you'll inevitably get either shortages or excessively high prices (which will hurt other businesses). Of course, Chu has said his goal is to get US gasoline prices up to European levels, so if you goal is social engineering through pain and bankruptcy the way socialists usually do, that's a feature, not a bug; but for the rest of us w/o political connections, not so much.
 @RN1  @NorthwestEconomist  @DrugFighter You are crazy, no one ever said anything about central control or setting a price. Only 2 small reforms would help stabilize the price: removing it as a commodity to be traded on the stock market and not allowing the same corporations to own drilling, refining and distribution of it (monopolies). YOU tell ME why Iran threatening it's neighbors in the news should change what we pay for gas that was drilled, refined and distributed months ago? Does that make any sense to you? Â
 @NorthwestEconomist  @DrugFighter Prices are demand signals. Take those away, and then if we appoint you, personally, with your VAST knowledge to be gasoline czar, we can let you apply your detailed knowledge of just exactly who needs how much of a particular type of fuel where, and you will, I'm sure, find that it is just as well distributed as it is is all communist countries. I.e., shortages, cronyism in delivery, kickbacks, black markets, racketeering, and generally suckage will follow. Yes, your understanding of markets is just overwhelming. Your way of central control of supply and price has been shown to fail EVERY TIME. The free market, while not "nice", is pretty darn efficient. But then, you likely don't know that gouging saves lives, either, because you seem to look at how you'd like things to work, not how they actually DO work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWTsq7F25kg
 @DrugFighter  @NorthwestEconomist Sorry, very bad day.Â
 @NorthwestEconomist Nothing to do with thick skin, everything with civility. Hope the rest of your day goes better.
 @DrugFighter  @NorthwestEconomist Grow some thick skin, you got off light. There were no attacks in there, just a few blunt suggestions. If you find them harsh, well, we live in harsh times. Go look up "Venusification" and also check how saturated the oceans are with CO2 and then you'll realize why oil is so utterly screwed from every perspective. The oil companies know this, and they want to wring out every last cent they can before we are forced to switch to alternative fuels to avoid death.Â
 @NorthwestEconomist Wow. Seems you have bigger issues going on. No reason to slam me the way you did, buddy.
Get some help.
Or at least learn how to have a civil conversation.
Won't be replying to your posts anymore, that's for sure. Pointless, if you can't state your case without resorting to slams...
 @DrugFighter I also hope you checked out what kind of profit margins the oil companies are reaping. There's a reason every exec in the industry has large groups of bodyguards around them at all times.Â
Gas prices down?
Must be Bush's fault....right Dems??
 @SydthepiperÂ
funny when gas prices were going up, all we heard from republicans was that it was Obama's fault... now you are saying that democrats have been blaming Bush?? I have not seen this anywhere, perhaps you are making this up? We can blame the Koch brothers for the higher prices, it has been reported that they caused prices to go up to make Obama look bad:http://truth-2-power.com/2012/03/05/the-koch-brothers-contango-strategy-oil-prices-as-political-wmd-against-obama/ @Sydthepiper It's almost like gas price has absolutely nothing to do with which ever president is sitting. They got up to the 4.00 range during Bushes years as well. *mic drop* Liberal out.
 @Sydthepiper they got up during Bush's watch so YES actually =) ////  Prices are down because supply is up due to lower demand... must be all those people that are out of work because Bush pushed this country on the trail to financial ruin...
 @Freespeech ...he inherited the coming mess from Clinton....all Bill's fault.
Bush took bad advices from his buddy Cheney,NOTHING to do with
Bill Clinton ot Dem Party.See how DUMB he is/was !Â
 @Woodswalker Is this the mystical pulled the money out of social security argument?
@Freespeech @Sydthepiper Actually, yes it was...sleight of hand, because future obligations were not being budgeted, sort of like not saving towards the balloon payment on a short term mortgage.
 @Sydthepiper ...and let me guess that whole budget surplus was just a silly rumor?
 @Sydthepiper there must have been another massive war or two I missed when Clinton was in the shack... only shanking of gas prices he did was with a certain intern...
Good that the price is dropping, but it is still higher than National and we overpaid for the past year or so.
 @STK But our gas taxes are also 7 cents higher than the national average, so a 10 cent above average price is to be expected. http://www.gaspricewatch.com/web_gas_taxes.php
Price manipulation -Â http://www.dailynews.com/ci_22018292/refineries-manipulating-gas-prices-producing-fuel-when-they?source=most_emailed
Seems to always drop when the government starts 'investigating' price gouging. Â Then about a month later, about the same time we reach the end of our attention span, the price is right back up there.
OK. Drop another buck where it should be, and we can stop talking about it...
 @Throbbinhood I wouldn't hold my breath but I will stop responding to these threads when it gets back down to at least $2.75 ...
 @Throbbinhood It's never going to be "where it should be" as long as the government keeps subsidizing the prices.