Hey, is anyone else experiencing a gasoline price war? I truly expected gas prices to go up before the July 4 weekend, but here in central Texas, they are down. 90% of the stations here are at $1.69 or less, and I filled up 2 days ago for $1.60. Cool! I guess I shouldn't look a gift-horse in the mouth, huh? (Before anyone else says it, I guess this gift-horse has gas.)

Gee whiz! Here in Dallas, home of the state's highest gas prices, I am paying about $1.78 for mid-grade. Maybe I should drive down to Central Texas nad fill up on that cheaper stuff!

Just be glad you don't have to pay CA Bay area prices. $2.15 in Sunnyvale this week for the lowest grade.

At least you know that gas will be much higher when you get to WA for vacation. When we were there 2 weeks ago it was around $2.10. Headed back up tomorrow. Will fill up before we come back to OR though...its higher here

Be very happy - here it's over $2 for regular and costs me $20 to fill up my car - it used to be $13.

How much is a gallon of water in your area?

Does anyone know what gas prices are in Hawaii right now? I'm in SoCal, so have been paying over $2.30, but am wondering what I'll face in Honolulu.

John: Water? Is that a serious question? If it is, I don't buy water by the gallon, but my daughter says she's gotten it for 50 cents a gallon. It's even less if you have a empty jug and hold it under the kitchen faucet.

Well, I found it. Our new WalMart opened yesterday with regular unleaded at $1.59. Unfortunately, there was a "malfunction". About 4:30, p.m., one of the bright, shiny new pumps suddenly refused to cut off. Employees scurried for buckets, while the liquid $$$ ran onto the ground. The "gas island" manager was forced to flip the master switch in the breaker box, and cut off all 20 pumps. As luck would have it, I was using one at the time, and had to leave with only $5 worth of gas. Today, I drove by the new store and saw they were again up and running -- with regular unleaded at $1.55.

Donna

In Honolulu, I paid $2.16 for regular yesterday, and it was cheaper than others I passed.

O.K. -- I have to ask -- what factor makes gas prices so much higher on the east and west coast, and in Hawaii. Cost of living?

Donna

Hawai'i: The cost of shipping the gasoline to the islands (like everything else).

East coast: Refineries control supply. But I find prices on the east coast not that high. Individual states may add lots and lots of taxes and fees to that gas.

West coast: Refineries control supply. CA and other states have clean-burn formulations that are only made for the particular market. States add taxes and fees to the gas.

No one simple answer, as you see....

Given the weak USD, I paid over $5. a gallon in Spain and Portugal last/this week and over $6. a gallon in the UK last week. I have been paying $2.00 +/- a few cents for name brand 93 octane here in DFW and about $2.20 for 87 oct (regular) in central Mexico.
Price fixing rather than price wars seems the norm here, but someone has to support my XOM dividends.
M
M

Actually, Hawaii has it's own refineries, Chevron and Tesoro, and a main source of crude used here is from Indonesia. A story a few months ago in the Star-Bulletin told of lower refining costs and higher profits at HI facilities than at West Coast refineries. They also reported that Hawaii's refineries use profits from gasoline to make up for lower profit margins on other petroleum products.

This is a oft-discussed topic in our local media. If you ask the oil industry they will tell you the high cost and reason our gas prices never go down is because of the high cost of doing business, isolation and excise taxes. But when you hear from economists and oil-industry analysts they all say it is the lack of competition.

While gas prices have gone back down on the mainland, they are holding at a steady $2.60, give or take a few cents, here on Maui. But, hey, it's an island. It's not like I have major road trips planned.

here_today: I didn't know about the refineries in HI-- that's an interesting bit of info. Sorry to speak out of turn.

I guess we are kind of in between the US and Europe here in the West Indies. We are paying $3.15 a gallon. Thank goodness we don't ever have to drive far!

Sunday AM, the Shell station at I 75 and Plano Pkwy just N of Dallas had 87 oct for $1.759 and 93 oct for $1.939.
M