Or at least close to Memorial Day.
Perhaps you’ve noticed the same phenomena every year — as Memorial Day approaches and gasoline prices start rising for the so-called holiday travel season, which could also mean the “let’s rip off consumers” season.
I know after paying in excess of $4 a gallon last year, I shouldn’t be complaining. And the economists who study such things are telling us that while $4 might not be the price of gasoline this summer, they’re not really sure how high it will go. Just a couple of weeks ago many of them were predicting prices at the pump would probably peak this year in the $2.30 per gallon range. Now, some are suggesting we might be at that level within a week or two. Yet, none of them can explain why prices are going up — crude oil reserves are ample and growing, and there is plenty of refining capacity still available.
The reason prices are rising is simple — summer driving season, and I can’t help feeling a little resentment over what I consider profiteering by gasoline and oil companies. Let’s face it, the old supply-and-demand framework really isn’t what’s at work here, because supply doesn’t magically dwindle at this time of year.
No, oil companies know folks will be putting vacation and weekend trip miles on the car, and for the most part those cars have to have gasoline, so they have us. We pay whatever they want. The prices — I saw some area gasoline stations raise prices twice on Thursday — will continue climbing until Memorial Day weekend, then will probably drop a little before climbing again as Independence Day approaches, only to go back down, then up with the Labor Day weekend.
We go through this every year (though, thankfully, not to the degree we experienced in 2008), and when gasoline prices get high, everyone starts talking about cutting back, or exploring alternative fuels, then gasoline prices fall and we forget all about the high prices.
Please don’t misunderstand my frustration. Most of the local gasoline station and convenience market owners aren’t the ones raking in extra profit — I believe in many cases most of them get about the same level of profit on gasoline that’s $1.60 cents a gallon as they do at $3.60 a gallon. Oftentimes it’s the distributor who essentially tells the local markets at what price the gasoline must sell. And the distributors are at the mercy of the large oil companies, who you might recall were raking in record profits or near-record profits last year while the rest of us were putting a week’s pay into the tank every time we filled up.
But, until we, as a society, get serious about alternative forms of travel — hydrogen fuel cells, hybrid automobiles, natural gas-powered vehicles, biofuel-powered cars, to name just a few — this is a scenario that will be repeated year after year after year.
And in the end, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
John Peters is the editor of The Mount Airy News. He can be reached at jpeters@mtairynews.com or 719-1931.
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