Saturday, September 03, 2005
Happy talk about gas prices...
Curious as to why gas prices could spike so suddenly, within hours of a storm? So are we, as we filled up our car last Tuesday morning -- less than 12 hours after Hurricane Katrina struck -- for $2.89 a gallon. The price was 15 cents higher than the day before, even though it was theoretically impossible that the gas we pumped that morning had been impacted by the storm. That's because there's a bit of a lag between the time gas is refined in the Gulf of Mexico and comes out of gas pumps in the Hudson Valley.
Of course, now that gas is well over $3 a gallon, that $2.89 gas seems cheap. Still, it's no easier coughing up $50 to fill up a Camry, roughly twice as much as it cost last Labor Day. This sudden spike is prompting at least some people, like neighboring Congressman Maurice Hinchey to ask some probing questions. In this story in the Mid-Hudson News, Hinchey accused oil companies of exploiting the situation. But not Sue. Sue claimed -- it's almost hard to write this with a straight face -- that gas prices were stabilizing. Uh-huh.
Perhaps if she says it enough times -- like Dorothy clicking her heels to go back to Kansas -- it just might happen. But those of us who live in the real world are forced to dig a little deeper into our pockets.
Of course, now that gas is well over $3 a gallon, that $2.89 gas seems cheap. Still, it's no easier coughing up $50 to fill up a Camry, roughly twice as much as it cost last Labor Day. This sudden spike is prompting at least some people, like neighboring Congressman Maurice Hinchey to ask some probing questions. In this story in the Mid-Hudson News, Hinchey accused oil companies of exploiting the situation. But not Sue. Sue claimed -- it's almost hard to write this with a straight face -- that gas prices were stabilizing. Uh-huh.
Perhaps if she says it enough times -- like Dorothy clicking her heels to go back to Kansas -- it just might happen. But those of us who live in the real world are forced to dig a little deeper into our pockets.
