Gas Prices Rising About A Dime A Week

Gasoline prices have gone up an average of 20 cents per gallon nationwide in the past two weeks.

The retail price of self-serve regular gas rose to $2.55 cents per gallon, according to the latest Lundberg Survey released Sunday.

As of Friday, a gallon of midgrade gasoline averaged about $2.66, and premium cost nearly $2.76, according to the survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country.

"San Francisco has the highest average price, $3.10 per gallon, and the lowest is in Anchorage, at $2.22," publisher Trilby Lundberg told CBS News.

"This is not from crude oil. We have many refining projects, both planned and unplanned, that are reducing gasoline supply right now. We also have much stronger gasoline demand then usual," Lundberg said.

Fewer imports also have boosted oil and gasoline prices lately. On Wednesday, the government reported that total U.S. motor gasoline inventories fell by 3.8 million barrels to 216.4 million barrels, a sharper decline than the 1.4 million barrel drop that analysts had expected.

The rising prices are catching motorists between dueling demands, reports Carl Stevens of CBS radio station WBZ-AM (audio) in Boston: The demand of getting to their jobs and the demand of paying for gas.

"In this country, we really live on the edge in terms of gasoline demand and the ability to produce sufficient quantities at times," Fimat USA energy analyst and senior vice president John Kilduff said last week on CBS News' The Early Show.

The bottleneck is in refining the oil into gasoline.

"This time of year, refiners go into a maintenance period where they rejigger their refineries to be able to emphasize gasoline production. What's happened, though, is we've been caught flat-footed. Several refineries, almost a refinery a day, has had some problem of some magnitude," Kilduff told co-anchor Harry Smith. "One refinery is completely off-line and other problems have cropped up to pinch supplies at the moment. We're only running at 58 percent of capacity at the moment."

[flolake]

I guess we'll be bending over at the gas pumps from here on out.

So much for electing two oil men from TX as presidents and one old VP oilman as well!

Good Night Irene!

[tucson23]

This is not beyond the control of oil companies...for a very long time they've been using anti-competitive practices to prevent new refinieries from being built, and they purposely manipulate their own production to prop up prices. If this were being done within one company it might be forgiveable, but the management of all the companies collude to restrict production--laymen call that price fixing, and it's illegal. The oil industry needs to be regulated in order to protect the economic well-being of all of us.

[musty2u]

States already get additional money when the price of gas rises from it own tax at the pump. Supply is not as elastic as demand on this commodity. Moreover, there are formulation changes which must be dealt with. Add a few glitches in the pipeline, refinery fires, etc., and we have prices that run amok. Memorial Day is right around the corner; we can expect another ramp up for certain

[musty2u]

Judster, it is because gas prices, although a bit higher now, just aren't really that high in the U.S. We know it, and for the most part adjust to deal with rising prices. Milk, water, and many other liquids concern some of our folks more than what is being pumped into the old internal combustion rattle-trap. Auto manufacturers give only a token nod to engineering changes for the better.

[drinuk]

This is all part of the so called Global Warming Scam. Western governments have formed a cartel to pay the high oil price to cause problems for the emerging industrial nations like China, India and Africa. It is price fixing at the highest level, it is dishonest and crooked. We the tax payer will pick up the bill so that all the corporate criminals will make a fortune. Bush's reason for being beligerant to Iran is to stop their oil going to China. Wake Up America, call your politicians, the price hike is deliberate.

[judster43]

I am so amazed that the american people are not speaking out more on gas prices. I went to the internet to find some group of people who are doing something and none. This is not about the iraq war. This is not about republican or democrat. This is about all of them keeping their mouth shut. What surprises me even more is there is no media outlet investigating this. When they do report on gas prices it's just they're going up and then some lame excuse. Oil prices are going down but gas will get up to 3$ a gallon soon. Last summer we paid so much for gas just in case of another hurricane. Now it's because of regular maintenance on refineries, then a fire last week, then a increase in usage. Give me a break Oil companies are raking in profits why? Because we are paying way too much for gas. Come on people we all need to call our representatives, media(tv news, newspapers), and let them know we are upset. If we all do it someone will listen. We are the greatest consumers in the world, we do have a voice. What if everyone used a sick day and stayed home at the same time. Sure we can't stop using gas but we could get someones attention if we really wanted to and did it together!!!

[sclaires]

I am not surprised to see the price of gas go up but I am surprised to see it go up so fast. I have cut down on the amount of driving I do by combining trips into one instead of two or more. Then I heard that there had been fires at two refineries which took them off-line. So, how did those fires start??? Was it deliberate??? Or accidential?? I would believe deliberate so that the oil giants could jack up the price. And, who is it hurting but the little people, i.e., low-income, retired, etc. WHEN IS CONGRESS GOING TO HAVE AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PRICE OF GAS?????

[drinuk]

shanev137, At today's exchange rate the current price of petrol in the UK per imperial gallon (half pint more than the American gallon) is $7.70. Very little of the tax on that price goes on social benefits, it is supposed to fund the highways but is totally unaccountable and is most likely being wasted in Iraq or Afghanistan, so dont tell me that it goes on anything social because it does not !!

[shanev137]

We just don't know how fortunate we are. I have been in Europe where gas prices are a lot more, $5.00 and even $6.00 a gallon.

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Geeeez...another moronic post. Shocking.

Seriously do some research on what social programs thier $5 and $6 dollar gasoline pays for before you try to bring tripe like this to the table again.

[keithg4-2009]

Traditionally, this is the time of year Refiners maintenance and prepare the refineries for Mogas season. However, we should not be having these shortages. There is some manipulation going on by the large refiners and also the analyst who report on them.

They have convinced the American public of a shortage of inventory and also of more people driving. I find this hard to believe after working many years in an integrated refinery and chemical plant.

The problem is we have leaders who have not demanded accountability from the industry and a congress who gets tons of money from the NPRA(National Petroleum Refiners Association. We as the American people should be screaming and hollering about this. Unfortunately, an apathetic public is mostly asleep.

keith guillory
Houston,Texas