Duluth-area gas sellers say there’s no price conspiracy
December 17, 2011 at 6:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
Complaints about gas price differences fly when prices climb. And the suspicion lingers of price monopolies when prices fall. Continue Reading
No Price Conspiracy? HORSE HOCKEY ! ! ! ! !
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Did you actually read the article?
I worked for several years at a very infamous gas station here in town. Our manager & others would constantly drive around looking to see what other stores were doing for their gas prices.
More proof that economics is a dying art in Duluth.
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Same here, my manager on his way into work and out would drive by competing gas stations (I worked at BP on Central Entrance) and we would match what the other retailers were doing. It’s really not that hard of a concept to get, if the ICO lowers their prices, you can bet we will too, and if they raise their’s, we’re going to raise ours, the pennies these stations make off of gas are not large enough that you can afford to undercut the market 5 cents everytime, not to mention, if you kept lower gas prices, neighbors would likely lower theirs to keep business, until you both reach a non profitable model.
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Riiiight, of course there’s no conspiracy. That’s why 2 days before Thanksgiving gas prices mysteriously rocketed up by 20 cents, then on the following Monday they dropped back down. No conspiracy here, just some simple price fixing.
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The article isn’t about gas stations making profits. It questions why prices are higher here than in other areas and why all the stations here have the same price. There is not a single consumer product anywhere, other than gas, that is priced the same everywhere you look.
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They always have an excuse did you also know we pay more for Car Insurance here>Their excuse is because we have more traffic so more of a chance to get into an accident than some one living in a small town or rural area. With a darn refinery here we should be getting a price break instead of paying more. Think about this towns away from the Superior refinery has the same price or a cheaper price on gas and they have to truck the gas there.
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This exact same story has been written once a year for 50 years (that I know of).
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The DNT is giving a voice to people who are charging local businessmen with serious criminal offenses without a SHRED of evidence. It is irresponsible and just plain wrong.
It is analogous to quoting local people saying the Mayor is a politician so obviously he must be stealing money and taking bribes.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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LOL!
You should check the ‘gas price’ feature on the Grand Forks site if you want to see posters going after the manipulator by name!
By the way, this is the A/V, not just the DNT.
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Please explain to us how raising taxes on oil companies leads to cheaper gasoline prices. This ought to be good.
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Cutting subsidies to oil companies wouldn’t do anything to lower gas prices, but it shouldn’t. Gas prices in the USA are already HALF of what the rest of the world pays. Essentially, you get a 50% off discount every time you fill up, just for being an American.
“Argh! That’s great! What’s wrong with that?”
Our entire economy is now based on artificially cheap energy. We are not prepared to deal with shocks in the system, which are inevitable given that oil is a limited resource. If Saudi Arabia descends into civil war, for example, or if Iraq started selling oil in a currency other than the U.S. dollar, or if there are any unexpected supply shortages, we would be screwed. By keeping oil prices artificially low through these massive subsidies, we are incredibly vulnerable to sudden, drastic price increases which would cripple our whole economy. If we allow oil to return to it’s true cost, which is what the rest of the world pays, then we can start to develop a more diverse infrastructure that doesn’t rely solely on massive oil subsidies and nonrenewable resource depletion.
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It is a myth ( to be charitable ) that there are oil subsidies. There are special tax breaks that is true but that is not a subsidy.
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Sure, it isn’t as though providing financial support to the petroleum industry is the same as subsidizing it.
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It’s a shame that the worst elements of our society often have the loudest voice. David Anderson & his tea party friends are on here all day, every day spouting their conservative propaganda. It’s not always as obviously false as comments like this one, but most of it is. Here’s one of the first things you’ll find when you go a google search for “United states oil subsidies”
$43.5 billion in federal tax subsidies to oil and gas companies
$2.5 billion in federal tax subsidies to coal companies
$1.3 billion tax credit for refineries
$9.5 billion in royalty-free oil and gas leases
$52 billion in “last in, first out” accounting for inventories, a tax credit that disproportionately helps the oil and gas industry
$10.5 billion dual capacity tax credit, which also largely benefits oil and gas companies
Don’t believe these liars. They’ll say anything.
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If your point is that the US tax code is a national scandal I agree with you. It ought to be completely thrown out and rewritten from scratch.
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And Vune, I forgive you for calling me a liar. You are misinformed and out of your depth.
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You sarcasm is misplaced since we don’t provide financial support for the petroleum industry. Beyond buying their products.
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I’m not an expert, it’s true, but when there’s a line in a Reuter’s-provided article that reads “[The] Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Congressional Budget Office… found eliminating oil-and-gas tax subsidies would add $41 billion in federal revenue over the next 10 years,” I tend to assume that some sort of support is being provided.
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Scenario 1: I walk up to you and hand you $20.
Scenario 2: I walk up to you, grab your wallet, take out $20, change my mind and had it back to you.
Do you think I give you $20 in both cases?
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That depends: do you consider all taxation theft and/or extortion?
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Not a moral matter, it’s an amoral matter of pure logic. Giving you money is not logically the same as not taking money from you. But pro-statistist propagandists would have you believe it is.
The State could change the laws and collect $40 billion more from oil companies. Deciding not to do that is not the same as giving them $40 billion. That’s just silly talk.
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I don’t know if your “pure logic” is logical at all, David, as not collecting a given sum of taxes from a corporation that it would otherwise be required to pay certainly has the same net effect as giving a corporation money.
Rather than someone taking money from my wallet and giving it back or what have you, consider and respond to this scenario: suppose my landlord were to refund my January rent. They would not literally be “giving” me money, perhaps, but it certainly would walk like a gift and quack like a gift.
Also: when you write “pro-statistist” above, is that a mistyping of “pro-statist” or “pro-statistics “, or other?
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Why was this article published now and not last summer when we were at 4 bucks per gallon? Guess they ran out of investigative reporting topics. At any rate, let’s drill here and local. We can certainly do it cleaner than the middle east and I’m not ashamed to be a user of oil and have no guilt whatsoever at the gas pump. Huge reserves in North Dakota- YES!! Time to stoke the pellet stove- in order to save money, we installed one, since natural gas for the furnace has increased. Purely economic decision. Not an environmental one
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Gas in Detroit Lakes this weekend was $3.03/gal. I don’t think I’ll ever see that in Duluth!
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Yeah, and it got below $3 in Grand Forks too.
How many stationowners post here, anyhow?
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I’m guessing at least one.
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Try using this web site to find the station with the lowest prices:
http://www.twincitiesgasprices.com/
Works for the Twin Ports too. Enter your city in the ‘search gas prices’ field to find the station with the lowest prices in your area. FYI the prices are updated by consumers like you so it will only be as reliable as the people using it.
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How about having the independent station owners swear under oath that the McKinney’s and Murphy’s don’t “Tell” them what they will sell gas for. I’ve seen it and heard it! They’ve fixed prices and have screwed us for decades. When a holiday comes up and they price gouge us and say “it’s because of supply worries”, which is a bunch of crap since they have NEVER posted any gas shortage at or around a holiday. It’s called lobbyists, they buy off who ever they need to so they can look good. When the McKinney’s opened their Banks, they strong armed any business they delt with that they “Had” to bank with them or the McKinney’s would no longer use their services, such as Cloquet Ford, got to see that one too! Investigations, what a bunch of BS, they just investigate who will pay them the most money to shut up.
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Yup.
What was it? Four years ago? The big state fishing opener, and gas shot up over a quarter a gallon the Thursday before.
Well, the weather was crappy and cold, but the locals around Alexandria were all ‘het up’ about all the money that was going to just roll in!
Guess what? NO ONE came.
The access behind my place, that had been overcrowded the year before, had ONE vehicle parked, and it was a DNR pickup. The local resorts had a rush of cancellations.
And none of them could figure out just what happened?
Seems like everyone is just scared to death to blame the gas prices for anything!
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