Prices rise above $5 for a gallon of premium gas at a Shell station at Olympic Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, California February 21, 2012. Wholesale gasoline traded 13 cents higher in ...
and....
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/wham-bam-sky-high-gas-prices-bad-sign-prez-brooklyn-service-station-owner-article-1.1028571
Wham Bam! Sky-high gas prices bad sign for Prez, Brooklyn service station owner says
Says numbers on pump are better voting predictors than a Gallup poll
Comments (1)NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, February 26, 2012, 4:00 AM
Jack Nacmias says the next President is getting elected right here in his Brooklyn gas station and at tens of thousands like it across the oil-drunk nation
"Watch this," he says. "Daily customer."
Nacmias nods to a middle-aged woman in a Jeep Cherokee driving up to one of the four Sunoco pumps at his full service gas station on Coney Island Ave. and Ave. V.
"Ten dollars, regular," the woman tells the attendant.
Less than a minute later the pump shuts off. The woman delivers her daily rant like a cable news gasbag host that she only got two-and-a-half gallons for $10, enough to drive her kids to school and herself to her waitress job and back.
“That's not a gas pump," Nacmias says. “That's a voting machine. Those numbers on the gas price window are better than the Gallup poll. The higher it gets the lower Obama's numbers will fall by Election Day. I got four voting booths that people vote at with their wallets at every single day here on what I call the corner of Coney Island Ave. and the Strait of Hormuz."
An Egyptian Jew, Nacmias's family was forced to move from Egypt to France and then settle in Brooklyn in the late ’50s. “I fell in love with the combustible turbine engine," he says. “I went into the gas station, auto repair and used car business. I'm an immigrant, a proud American, but the Middle East follows me like a dark cloud. That's why after years of owning a Mobile station I bought a Sunoco franchise because Sunoco only sells gas from North America."
From listening to the daily rants at his pumps, Nacmias says the general consensus is that first President Obama “needs to grow a pair" with Iran.“Nobody in Brooklyn likes paying $10 for two gallons of gas because some little dictator bully in Iran threatens us," says Nacmias. “Obama's gotta sound like Ronald Reagan talking to Gorbachev about the Berlin Wall. He’s gotta say, 'Mr. Ahmadinejad, keep open that Strait.' Or we'll send in the fleet. At the same time Congress can't let the same greedy thieves on Wall Street that almost killed us manipulate the gas prices in the futures markets. They have to be regulated. People also think oil executives who price gouge should do heavy jail time. They're stealing food from people's tables, robbing family vacations."
Meanwhile, Nacmias says he's watching his competitor’s prices like a rival bookie's odds. “Trying to hold your price lower to attract customers," he says. “Even selling at a loss in a competitive waiting game, adding an oil and tire pressure check. You can take a $200 hit on the day by not going up the two cents your competitor goes."“Plus we hear more complaints, and as prices soar people will start car pooling, leasing four cylinder cars, pumping regular gas into Mercedes that require premium. If people are paying $50 more in gas a week, that's $200 a month. That hurts! Hurts real bad. Makes people want that change that Obama talked about."
From the real world of his corner gas station, far from the Washington Beltway, Nacmias hears people saying the President should open the national oil reserves to keep the economy on track. “We have to put America first," Nacmias says. “Screw Iran and OPEC, Wall Street bandits and oil company gougers. Most people don't realize that we're producing more domestic oil today than ever but we're selling it to China! That's wrong, man. If we let oil companies drill, baby, drill here they should be made to sell, baby, sell here. In America. How can we complain about foreign oil when we're exporting so much of it?"
But it's even creepier when the oil companies play games right at the corner gas station.
“I sell anywhere's from 100-120,000 gallons a week," he says. "I make 10-12 cents a gallon. From that I pay eight salaries, workman's comp, insurance, electric, phones, supplies and other overhead. Yes, Iran, politics and the futures markets are killing us. But a lot of gas station owners are telling me they're getting what's called 'short loaded.' That means delivered only half their usual supply by the oil companies. When the price goes up another dime overnight the oil company delivers the rest. A supply and demand game right to the nozzle of that poor waitress who can only afford $10 a day."
That's criminal.
and.....
Gas Prices Rising And It’s Not Over Yet
February 26, 2012
Gas prices continue to increase across the Gulf Coast, up 20 cents in the past month.
The average price Saturday for a gallon of regular unleaded was $3.63, up from $3.43 just a month ago. One year ago, that gallon of gas was $3.25. Industry analysts are expecting prices to rise about a dime during the coming week thanks to tensions in the Middle East.The area record was $4.03 in July 2008, leading many motorists to change their driving to save money.
With gas prices hitting an all time February high and the current national retail average price for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline hanging at $3.65, many drivers are anxious about what to expect in the coming months.
“Every driver is impacted by the increased cost of fuel,” said Marshall L. Doney, AAA National vice president. “There are several easy things drivers can do to stretch each tank of gas and find the lowest fuel prices when it is time to fill up.”
The cheapest gas price in the Pensacola area Saturday was $3.53 at a handful of stations on Mobile Highway. Across the state line in Alabama, a Flomaton Shell station was at $3.51.
and...
Rising gas prices just another chance to milk the masses | Ron Judd
The Wrap by Ron Judd
 |
Seattle Times staff columnist
It rained last week, and everybody knows what that means.
Higher prices at the pump.
We kid the regional and global gasoline pirates, but really, they're just responding to supply and demand — or at least the (highly speculative) ideaof it.
Skeptics increasingly convinced that much of the global fuel supply / demand / price equation is pure fiction might take note of our corner of the world, where a pair of major fires struck production facilities not 10 miles apart.
One was the BP refinery at Cherry Point; the other, the Darigold milk depot in Lynden. Both are expected to limp along at about half capacity during several months of repairs, causing disruptions in local supplies.
Result: Local gas prices soar. Local milk prices? Steady as a grazing Holstein in Sumas.
No comments:
Post a Comment