I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but something’s rotten in the state of Denmark with regard to gas prices. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, you probably noticed that gas prices are skyrocketing in California. Not only that, but I’ve also heard of stations RUNNING OUT OF GAS. That’s right, it’s the 1970s all over again.
At first, I thought it was just the usual pillaging by the oil companies. On Thursday, I got gas at what is usually a fairly inexpensive station only to realize that the price was $4.25 a gallon. That was up from $3.99 two weeks before. God only knows what it is now.
On Friday, I read this article by Bloomberg and completely lost my cool. I’m not saying Bloomberg is reporting false information. I’m saying that I don’t trust anything the oil companies say. Refineries have outages? Power went out to one? What the hell? I don’t believe either of those things are real in the sense that they just organically occurred in the universe. They sound like made up excuses to make more money and raise the price of gas. Maybe they really are just coincidences, but I am skeptical.
Don’t give me that usual rigamarole about California’s type of gas. And don’t try to use the taxes excuse. Someone on twitter said that gas was $1.00 a gallon cheaper in Texas than it is here. There is NO WAY state taxes are a dollar a gallon. In fact, they are $0.37 a gallon, which aren’t even the highest in the country.
Anyone who has lived in California for the past 10 years or so, is wary of when prices fluctuate or when there are outages of anything. Anyone remember the rolling blackouts? Well we had Enron to thank for those. Who is to say the oil companies aren’t doing the same thing? It wouldn’t surprise me if something underhanded is going on.
Seriously, where is my solar powered, self-driving car?
Makes me glad I’m not driving a whole lot these days. And I am with you: it’s all a load of BS.