I dreamt gas was $9 per gallon, at which point I finally started complaining.

I can't get too much up on my high horse since I get 45 mpg, but I'm so tired of gas price complaining! People will complain now matter what the cost is. People complained when it was $2, and now we'd love to have that back. I wish it would go up to $9 and then come back to $4 (or $5 or $6 or whatever), maybe that would stop it.

Wow, Torg - what do you drive? I think it will be my next car!

In NJ I get 3.85 a gallon... I'm glad when I got my car way back in 2002 when gas was only 1.50 a gal I choose wisely and got my compact sedan with awesome milage

Is there a legitimate explanation for the difference in gas prices? Why is L.A., a port city, paying a dollar more a gallon than the Midwest? Why, since there is drilling for oil in Alaska, do they have the highest prices in the nation? Why is the station across the street from my house charging more than Alaska?
Makes me wonder how offshore drilling would do anyone any good.

Ooh stephley, the link I used for the top 5 lists is actually all about the reasoning behind the differences! Ask and ye shall receive!

I think a lot of it has to do with state taxes hence high prices in places ike Cali and NY.

I live in NJ and I paid $3.85 the other day, but I paid cash. I think it was $3.87 for credit... yeah, I'm cheap

It costs extra to 'clean' California's gas, but it's still cheaper in the Midwest, where three types of gas are used in one state. And somehow a criss-cross of pipelines helps make it cheaper in the Midwest. But no relief for Alaska. The California blend comes from California, Oregon and Washington but sometimes from Asia, which is expensive.
This is the kind of explaining I'd get whenever I took my car in for repairs - what an old boyfriend used to call 'getting f-ed but not kissed.'

its 3.78 in the middle of nowhere NJ, they do it so its cheaper in rural areas. PLUS we don't have to fill up our gas ourselves

I drive a hybrid. I remember people saying it wasn't a good investment!

I don't have a hybrid, but I do have a very fuel efficient car. It used to cost $19 to fill up my tank. Now it is $45. I can't believe how quickly it doubled! It just happened so fast.

I have to be honest and admit that I love my 4runner (I'm ducking now) and I use the extra space almost every day. Some of us can't get by with a small car, as much as I would love to. The price to fill it up lately is giving me major heartburn though. We're at $4.15 for regular right now and last week it cost me $67.00 to fill up

I love Vespa's and have been considering getting one for a long time, it would at least help with the short errands I run around town when I don't need to have the space.

$4.61 for regular. Gotta love San Diego.

Oh Jude, that's sad.

But then again, you do live in San Diego

The gas here where I live in KY can be at its cheapest 3.89, but 10 miles down the road it's 3.98, then another 15 miles down the road it's 4.09. That just doesn't make sense to me o.0

Well LadyAngel, AAA would probably have an explanation that includes the type of gas blend they use on the north end of town, versus the taxes in the southeast corner or the proximity to a pipeline you enjoy in the extreme west side of town.

gas= evil. And the fact that I live in a place without public transportation? Even worse.

Instead of paying for the war, why don't they spare us all by setting a price ceiling and paying the difference per gas barrel? They do it with produce, not to mention, they'd be saving the economy.

It's not cheap in all rural areas, brielleblonde! I'm in rural Colorado, and we're at $4.19. And that's with self-fill-up! That graph posted a few weeks ago which indicated that it was $3.97 in the southwest was way off. It hadn't been that low in about a month and a half in any of the Four Corners states.

When I lived in Alaska in the '80s they didn't have state taxes. They had so much oil revenue coming in they were giving money away to every resident of the state (man, woman and each child) through the permanent fund dividend, which for us came to $4,000 one year just before Christmas. (The 2007 Dividend Amount was $1654.00 per person.) I can't imagine why their gas prices are so high. BP's northwest pipeline was shut down June 2006, due to the poor quality of the lines and poor maintenance practices, but were supposed to have resumed production the following year to 20,000 barrels a day. Perhaps they shut down again or are trying to fund new oil exploration projects.

I thought I might need a bigger car, but I always manage to fit everything in the back seat. Sometimes I think about trading my sedan for a wagon. Plus I read a long philosophical thesis about why SUVs are immoral and it scarred me. (Not because of gas prices. The main gist is that if you hit someone with an SUV and they are in a small car, you are much more likely to injure or kill them. Not saying SUV drivers are killers, just that thesis stuck in my head and I always think about it.)

yay for cheaper gas here in OK!

The last time I owned a car gas was $1-something. ha ha. It cost me $10 to fill up my VW Cabriolet. I don't even know what gas prices are here.

chatondeneige- thats how it works in new jersey. in maine where my dad lives its A LOT MORE! and u have to fill up yourself, even in the dead of winter! ugh. I love NJ for its low gas tax and high cigarette tax ($60 a carton = less people smoking)

plus nj has good public transportation (alteast where I live, down the shore)

WHOAH, 60 bucks a carton! I have never smoked so I don't even know what that translates to with the price per carton, but eh it sounds like enough to make people stop smoking!!!

One of the MAJOR gas stations in WI has been artificially keeping the price of gas below $4.00 for 3 months, because they were afraid that they would lose money in the convenience store if it went above $4.00/gallon. There are some places in the midwest that are cheaper because of artificial reasons...

I always try to buy something from the convenience store. They really take a hit as prices rise, because they're not the ones making more money from higher prices, their margins remain at about 5 cents. A large portion of profits come from food and drink sales. Plus it's a good excuse to buy a cookie.

3.92 here in GA but some places are up to 4.09.

It went down this weekend. Just $.08, but a decrease none-the-less.

my mom got 3.60 gas in mid-south Oklahoma this morning!

I really feel for people in the US as they get hit by gas price increases. I got used to the price of gas when I moved to Britain being much higher, and it was a shock even 6 years ago, realising my car was around 80 dollars to fill up. It was an Audi diesel so it got great MPG, but I kind of knew when I sold it before moving here that I would not bother owning a car again.

It makes me sad though, that other options were not easy for people to have in some places. Where I live in Finland, there are clean safe buses, (though they do not run as often as they did in Edinburgh, they are VERY pleasant to use), and wide sidewalks made for not only walkers, but bicycles and mopeds..people of all ages and sizes can be seen on their bikes, sometimes even in winter.

I just hope alternatives and solutions can be found, and that companies and communities will work together and find ways to get over oil, and into something better for the planet AND people's wallets.

My source in Iowa states otherwise, but he's in Des Moines, so maybe in the country it is lower. Sad to say, but I'm happy that here in DFW, it's about $3.89 and dropping everyday. Which ofcourse it's going to drop now, 4th of July is over, and that's when they like to peak the prices. My next vehicle purchase will be a Prius, or better. GM calling a Tahoe a hybrid that gets 50% more per gallon is absolutely laughable. 20 mpg? And they're proud of that?! In my eyes, if you drive an SUV you have no right to complain about gas prices!

I was in Oklahoma last week, and gas there was NOT cheaper than it is in Texas...It was even cheaper in Arkansas than it was in Oklahoma.

...I should say where I live in Texas (near Houston, which is has the cheapest gas in Texas). However, it was still cheaper in Dallas than in Oklahoma; I can't say for other parts of Texas, though. Maybe that's what kept us off the list.

I live in CT and it is $4.49 per gallon as of today (probably be more tomorrow). Where I live in CT we do not have reliable public transportation. We really need to start looking at other ways to get around and provide public transportation for those living outside of metropolitan areas.

I went to fill up a couple weeks ago and it was $4.45 and the next time I went it was $4.36. It was a small decrease, but a decrease nonetheless.

jenintx,
What part of Oklahoma did you go through? I know of several places (just a few blocks from me) that are in the low 3.60s or at 3.59... yes they might have been a little more expensive a few days ago, but I'd be willing to bet that we are some of the most inexpensive right now.
Like tx, it just depends on what part of the state you are in. And if you go up I-35 then it is going to be more expensive b/c of travelers.
My brother lives in Dallas and told me this morning it is at 3.78 - 4.00

Kiki, We went along 69-75. It may have been higher along the interstate. But since oil had that big drop last week, it's dropped almost 10 cents here. It was about 3.89-3.99 last week, and it's about 3.82 here now.

stephley,

Here are some answers to your questions. First, I need to explain that the price of gas at the pump has a lot of factors. The biggest being the world price of oil, currently being driven up by the expanding demand along the Pacific rim countries, mostly China. The other major factor is refining (the process that makes crude oil into gasoline and many other products) capabilities, which, thanks to the EPA, have been severly hampered in this country and forced into the hands of huge companies. Some of the smaller/older refineries found it cheeper and more cost effective to shut down and take the plant apart, than it was to upgrade to current statues. Only the really large companies that process millions of barrels of oil a day could afford to upgrade.

As far as California, LOTS and LOTS of cars, HUGE demand for gas, lots of oil production, same limited refining, same world price of oil.

The midwest has lots of oil production, fewer people, more refineries that are closer to the markets, thus it is less expensive.

Alaska, lots of oil production, I'm not aware of a refinery in the state, but I'm REALLY not sure on this one. If not, the oil gets shipped here, refined,then shipped back, LOTS of shipping cost.

As far as the station across the street, sounds like a greedy business owner to me.

Offshore drilling here has more to do with our energy independance than reducing the price of gas, but if major discoveries are found, and you never know until you drill, it could increase the world supply of oil, thus driving down the price.