A Sign of the Times

austingasprices.com server too busyThere was a time (which I actually remember), when the current situation—war in the Middle East, much of the capacity of the Gulf of Mexico offline due to Hurricane Katrina—would have resulted in instant gas lines and huge price spikes. Now we just have to wait our turn for the austingasprices server. When the page comes up, you’ll see that prices here in Austin have actually gone down since the weekend. It’s tempting to say that opening the strategic petroleum reserve lowered the price, but since that doesn’t do anything to replace the refining capacity lost to the hurricane, it’s hard to see a direct connection. And looking at the futures market, I don’t expect these prices to last. As soon as local retailers and distributors sell the “cheap” gas out of their tanks, be prepared for a spike. But then no one was expecting that after Labor Day gas price drop this year, were they?

2 thoughts on “A Sign of the Times”

  1. Gas prices in Fredericksburg jumped 20 cents yesterday afternoon — all at once. We filled up one car and went back 2 hours later to fill up the other, and the price had risen 20 cents in that amount of time.

  2. yeah, i have to agree, gas prices on 620 jumped from 2.44 to 2.81 with a few places holding out at 2.59 with lines of cars. by 7am today, it was 2.81 everywhere and my drive tonight was 2.99 with 2.81 at those same few places again with lines of cars.

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