Does anyone thing that the gas company's are price gouging?

It really is about supply and demand. We are continuing to drain down available, making each remaining gallon worth more. Variations in pricing have to do with what people in a given area are willing to pay, state taxes on gasoline, costs associated with running the station, etc.

When there is enough gasoline to go around, you can't have price gouging. Price gouging can only occur when there isn't enough to go around and the retailer takes advantage of that situation.

If you were at a gas station, the only one in your area that was selling gas, you didn't have enough in your tank to drive to the next station and the owner came out and announced there was only 20 gallons of gasoline left, how much would that gas be worth to you? I bet you'd be willing to pay 5 or even 10 bucks a gallon. Especially if the guy next to you was willing to pay 4 or 9 bucks a gallon. That is price gouging.

I was in Houston right after Katrina hit and the weather forecasters were saying Rita was going to hit Houston. People were going nuts buying gas. I went to about 8 or 9 stations before I found one that had gas to sell. The guy didn't raise his price a nickel. He could have sold his gas for 10 bucks a gallon at that point. There were easily 50 cars waiting behind me as I filled on on premium, the only grade he had left at that point.

Price gouging rarely occurs in gasoline anymore, because nobody wants the bad press. I know, because I work for a major oil company and we've terminated agreements with owners who were gouging during Katrina and Rita. We take down all our signs, wipe our logos off of everything and leave the owner to try and find a new brand to sell.

Variations on this question have been asked and answered an infinite number of times. Here is link to last time I answered that type of question.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqUvo...

The problem is that you are ASSUMING that gas gouging is going on. You and thousands of people like you put this question all over the place, which means every Congress has to do an investigation, and they find out that there is either no such thing as gas gouuging, or that is true maybe once out of millions of gas stations.

But because people like you have got Congress chasing their own tail doing the same investigation every few years, they never get to a more important question like

What are the primary causes of gas price fluctuation, and as a nation what should we be doing about it?

There are many logical reasons for what you saw.

The places that sell gas have a microscopically small profit margin, so the prices are dictated by what the guy down the street is selling for ... a place that is convenient to interstate exit might sell for a few pennies more, because most people 2 lazy to drive 2 blocks to save 5 ceents a gallon.

Then there is replacement cost.

If a place is selling gas for 2.50 a gallon, then gets some more gas and has to pay 2.75 per gallon for the refill ... you can be sure they price will jump to at least 2.80 a gallon, so the convenience store does not operate at a loss.

If a tanker truck drives across the nation & is paying $ 3.00 a gallon for the gas to run the truck, you can be sure that price will get added to whatever the gas is sold for, so the truck does not operate at a loss.

So, do you live in Iowa or Wisconsin? Wisconsin gas prices along the Iowa & SW Illinois border are almost uniformly higher than their neighbors'. Red Wing is in Minnesota which I believe also has a lower state fuel tax (their gov. vetoed an increase in the tax which, ironically would have been used to maintain roads - and bridges!!! Look for the gas price to rise in Minn. following the bridge collapse).

Anyhow, back to your original Q: To determine the reasons for cost differences, look first to the state gasoline tax rates. Also look for states who tax ethanol differently than gasoline. For example, Iowa taxes ethanol at a lower rate than gasoline; therefore you will find the higher octane gasohol fuel costing a bit less than the lower octane pure gasoline.

No one here has any idea what "price gouging' means. Legally, unless there is a civil emergency or widespread panic, there can be no price gouging.

There are a number of factors that lead to different prices in different cities, including taxes, cost to transport, local competition, affluence of local residents, etc. So quit blaming the oil companies for not being able to satisfy America's addiction to gas-guzzling cars.

They are definitely price gouging. If they were just increasing the price of gas to meet the increase in oil prices, their profits would stay pretty even. Unfortunately, for us, their profits are through the roof, they are way past a simple increase to keep profits in line with oil prices increases.

The government won't do anything about it because they get so much money from the energy lobbies. This country is no longer for the people, but for the corporations. Almost every major decision that is made by our government is made for the benefit of corporations and monied interests all to the detriment of the citizen. It's pretty freaking sad!

The Gas Supply is closes doen here. It is confusing. I could get excited by $2.72 but then you realize a time when gas was less than $1.52 was just a couple years ago. I remember when Quick Trip in Gwinnett had gas fro .99 cents a gallon.

Yeah I think theres some gouging going on. In Utah its up to $2.90 and its so stupid cuz we have our own refinary so we shouldnt have to pay out of state shipping but we do any way... AAA I hate gas prices..I could wright a good 10 page paper on why gas prices should go down and everything like that. Maybe I should.. ha ha like that would do anything.

yes the gas companies are gouging. not just the gas though, a gallon of milk now costs more then a gallon of gas.

the gas in Oklahoma is now $2.69 and milk is now $4.14, they say its because of the prices of gas for the truckers, but diesel is cheaper than regular

I don't know, but someone needs to do something about this!

You think that’s bad…try NY or NJ!!!