Today’s fuel price musings - After record oil, now record gas

Add comment June 9th, 2008

Today’s fun fact.

There are 42 gallons in a barrel of oil. So, using some crude math (get it? crude?), for every 42 cents the price oil goes up, the main component of gas prices goes up a cent a gallon. Even with as much as a 10-cent spike in gas in parts of Rockford over the weekend, that doesn’t make up for the $10 a barrel hike in oil prices Friday.

Which means that, even with oil retreating some today, gas prices haven’t necessarily “caught up.” Retailers are still seeing very tight margins and can’t pass along the full increase in their costs. It would take a while of sustained decreases in oil prices to get any kind of relief at the pump.

On to today’s prices (data courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):Gasoline: Rockford increased a cent today and four cents over the weekend to a record $4.09 a gallon. We remain second in the state. Most metro areas increased over the weekend. The state average rose a cent today and two cents over the weekend to $4.12, a penny short of the record set a week ago. The national average rose almost two cents today and three cents over the weekend, topping $4 for the first time and settling at a record $4.02. Illinois has the ninth-highest gas prices in the nation.

Diesel: Rockford dropped a fraction of a cent today, but still gained more than half a cent since Friday, and now stands at $4.79 a gallon. That’s seven cents behind the record set May 30. We’re back up to the second-highest diesel prices in the state, ahead of Quad Cities ($4.78). The state average increased almost a cent today, but remains about where it was Friday at $4.79 a gallon. That’s two cents behind the record set May 31. The national average gained a cent today to reach $4.77 a gallon, two cents behind the record set May 30. Illinois has the 19th-highest prices in the country.

Rural areas being hit harder by high gas prices

1 comment June 9th, 2008

Even though Illinois was one of the first states to see $4 a gallon gasoline, and now ranks eighth in the nation, we don’t have it as bad as a lot of places, according to a survey by the Oil Price Information Network and a related story in the New York Times.

The average American is spending 4 percent of his or her take home pay on gasoline. According to this map, we here in northern Illinois are paying between 3 and 5 percent. Some parts of the Chicago suburbs are paying only 2 to 3 percent. Meanwhile, rural parts of the South and upper Midwest are paying a double-digit percentage of their paychecks. Obviously, the rise in gas prices has hurt everyone to some extent - and  the poorer folks anywhere are getting particularly squeezed - but it puts things in perspective.

I’m trying to get regional data from OPIS for our own story this week. What are readers experiencing?

Transportation-related joke of the day

Add comment June 9th, 2008

Courtesy of the venerable and hilarious Consumerist.com:

“UPS’ horse, Big Brown, failed this afternoon to deliver a much-anticipated Triple Crown victory. Maybe he’ll try again tomorrow from 2pm-5pm.”