Maybe they aren't grouging us...

Wouldn't that be a kick in the rubber parts, if the gas companies really aren't raising prices unrealistically and they aren't grouging us at the gas pumps?

Here's some more research -- Please note, the Barrel Prices comes from the Energy Information Administration and the prices for the gallons come from my own record (yes, I'm anal and I keep track of gas prices all the way back to 2002. I'm sure if I looked hard enough, I could find my notebook for before 2002).

Here's what I found:


I tried to use data from around the sametime -- I picked June because that's when gas prices start their rise. Also, this is for gas purchased at stations located between Milwaukee and Racine, WI. Also, I did not adjust any of these numbers for inflation. I don't figure that factors too much in since we're only talking about a four year span.

The PricePerGallon is what I paid on the dates listed. The Barrel amounts are what the price of a barrel was during the same week. Now, the bad part of this is that the gas I'm pumping on 6/3/2002 wasn't created from the barrel purchased at the same time, so the oil companies do make a little more off of the gas then they probably should, but I think it actually works out, as the prices at the pump drop when the price of a barrel drops -- admittedly not as much.

Now, the % raise gas and the % raise Barrel is how much the gallon or barrel went up in price between the dates. You'll notice that the Barrel raised at a higher % than the price of gas in each situation, if the oil companies "kept us even", we would be paying a lot more for gas than we are. That's the PriceRaised column. I took the price of gas and raised it using the % amount that the barrel was raised. According to my figures, on 6/1/2006, when I paid $2.99 a gallon -- I was paying the correct amount. I don't like it, but I think it was correct. (Of course, we could always argue that the price is off to begin with, but I still don't know how much refining costs on a barrel of oil.)

I mean, I would hate to think that their profits really do come from the fact that more gas is sold, but I think what the oil companies are telling us just might be true.

And, isn't that a kick in the rubber parts?

God Bless