DMA,
I think that there may be some gouging going on in my area. As the article states, St. Louis was given a temporary waiver, and the price did fall, but now it is just about back up to where it was when all they had was the re-formulated gas. They blamed the higher prices on the scarcity of reformulated gas, but right now that isn't what is being sold at the pump. Of course, crude prices have inching back up, too, so it's hard to say.
The good news in all this(short term as far as the market is concerned) is that I believe the higher fuel costs are slowing down the consumer much more than the rate hikes. I've noticed when I buy gas I'm seeing more and more "even" sales at the pump, $10, $20, even $5 which tells me that people can't afford to "fill up". Higher fuel costs work basically like a tax and as we both know, higher taxes damage overall economic growth. |
