(no subject)

[strredwolf]

Okay, from CBS and WJZ news reports, and taking the max per $3.01 gallon of gas in Maryland:

• 10 cents to the station.
• 3 cents to the gas wholesaler in profit.
• 2 cents to get the gas to the station.
• 19.4 cents to the Feds for gas taxes.
• 23.5 cents to Maryland
• The rest goes to the oil companies.

So roughly 60 cents per gallon is accounted for.  This doesn't account for marking, refining, and the actual price of crude.
Supposedly, 44% of the cost of gas is price of crude (back in 2003).

I have questions about that.  Every news report you turn on tells folks that the gas/oil companies are making record profits.  It smells of price gouging at higher-levels, or simply put, fraud.

We need an investigation, but by a independent counsel.  I have no faith in the FTC nor the Bush administration.

Comments

[bibliophage.livejournal.com]

MTBE was cheaper than Ethanol. Ethanol is expensive to make because of the cost of heat. Move alcohol refineries next to nuclear power plants and utilize waste heat. The Ethanol cost raised the cost of the fuel slightly.

Distributors have to scrub out their storage tanks to not mix MTBE and ethanol - it can't be run through the pipelines (I believe), so has to be added at the distributor level. I think storage tanks at the gas stations are also having to be cleaned. Result - raised cost for a while.

Gas company profits. Don't need gouging to make more profit. Cost of gas has doubled in the last two years. If you made 30% profit off of a gallon of gas, you're still making 30% profit - but off of double the money. In addition, the cost of fuel has doubled, but the cost of distribution and refining is roughly the same. (with some energy cost increase, I'm sure). Therefore, with NO cheating, the companies can make more money. It's the "quality" over quantity argument, in some ways.

I'm not saying that the gas companies may not have fiddled with some numbers, but they didn't have to.

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

Well, not only is MTBE cheaper due to manufacturing of Ethanol, but also lack of capacity to manufacture Ethanol. Unfortunately, here in Maryland there's been several MTBE leaks -- one that tied Exxon up. We're kinda skittish about that.

I don't mind extra cost due to saftey. Unfortunatley now, I wish they fiddled with the numbers -- fiddling them down.