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With Gustov Strengthing, You Need to Fill up NOW

dailyfueleconomytip.com — In the days following Hurricane Katrina ’s landfall, the national gas price shot up by nearly 20 percent, and climbed above $3 for the first time ever. Should oil production facilities and refineries suffer similar damage from Hurricane Gustov, the price of gasoline would easily jump back above $4 per gallon, and would likely set a new record high.

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  • thankuvrylittle, on 08/31/2008, -11/+50Articles like this will definitely cause people to go out and by more gas and buy virtue of supply and demand the price will of course go down. Duh.
    • Hawker400, on 08/31/2008, -6/+15Would you rather pay $3.50 today or $4.25 next week?
      • accn112, on 09/01/2008, -0/+7I would LOVE to pay 3.50 today, I haven't paid 3.50 in over 3/4 of a year
      • schnikies79, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1Gas is $3.44 here. Southern Indiana.

        Woo
      • Charlotte_Web, on 09/01/2008, -0/+3"Crude oil fell, reversing earlier gains, after Hurricane Gustav weakened, easing concern of widespread damage to drilling rigs and refineries. "

        http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&si ...
      • 2ktj, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2@schnikies79 -
        That's great, the downside would be living in southern Indiana...
      • schnikies79, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1@2ktj

        Naa, It's great. I love living in the country though and can't stand living in close proximity to other people.
    • thepoliticalcat, on 09/01/2008, -7/+3Dear me. It appears that someone is establishing a monopoly on Teh Stoopid.
    • Flushnasty, on 09/01/2008, -5/+31......I'm a little confused by your logic. If more people are buying gas (higher demand and lower supply) then wouldn't the price of gas rise?

      ...duh?
      • TVarmy, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2The fact is that on the individual scale, one benefits from buying gas today, rather than after the reserves and refineries are compromised. This will artificially raise the price of gas, but when we also have a very real storm bound to cause damage to our oil infrastructure, now seems to be the best time. Also, if everyone buys gas now, and doesn't buy it for a week, that reduces strain on the gas stations for the week or two they go without needing more, giving the oil companies a chance to fix their refineries, wells, pipelines, etc.

        I'm no economist, but I imagine that the most everyone buying gas earlier will do is drive up the cost a few cents, especially considering they'd just buy a tank later anyway. A hurricane hitting infrastructure will really ramp up the cost, though. I don't think $4.25 is too unrealistic a cost to imagine, although I prefer to think of gas at $4.20, if only to save a nickel and enjoy the novelty.
      • Flushnasty, on 09/02/2008, -0/+1Ya Im sure, Its just for the sake of the nickle ;).
    • thankuvrylittle, on 09/01/2008, -0/+17/sarcasm
    • Pantzaroff, on 09/01/2008, -4/+6Christ you people take everything as serious?

      I'm in Louisiana now, there's not much of a storm effect going on. It hit as a category 2. While you might see prices jump a bit in a week, WE didn't see prices being gouged despite many places running out of gas. An hour north of where I live(I live an hour from the coast), there are little to no changes in prices. Just sit tight and don't worry.
    • mV0G7, on 09/01/2008, -2/+5***** the hurricane excuse for rising gas prices. I don't care how much damage it causes, unless a refinery is completely obliterated, gas prices shouldn't rise by an entire dollar.

      Think about it, with 300,000,000 people living in the United States, even a ten cent increase on gas per gallon is a massive increase when we're talking about profits.

      If Gustav raises prices back to $4, what are they going to do when soon-to-be Hurricane Hannah hits land? Raise it to $5 a gallon?
      • awhiteflame, on 09/01/2008, -3/+6Unfortunately, gas prices aren't affected by supply and demand. They are affected by, in no particular order: greed, inflation, speculation, futures and government (as of late).

        So yes, that's exactly it. People will come on Bloomberg and CNN Money and CNBC and say, "Good heavens! With Hurricane Hannah, we're going to lose (some extravagant amount of money based on old figures for spans of time much longer than would be required to repair an oil facility damaged by a hurricane)!!". And then the investors flip out, and the futures skyrocket. Seeing the futures skyrocket, the demand artificially is raised well above any recognisable or calculable sense.

        Globalisation is fun!
      • mV0G7, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2Spot on.
        And the worst thing? We can't do anything about it.
    • badfrog, on 09/01/2008, -1/+14Oil is down today because Gustav has weakened. Article is already out of date, stop the hysteria!

      http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080901/oil_prices.html
    • ReeferChiefer42, on 09/01/2008, -1/+6Except for the price of oil is determined by speculators as it is a commodity traded on the free market, and they don't give a ***** about supply/demand, at least not as much as they should.
  • lajaw, on 09/01/2008, -18/+25It's Bush's fault. If he wasn't president, John Kerry could stop these storms with his long face.
    • thepoliticalcat, on 09/01/2008, -3/+9Such wit. Such wisdom. Or, you know, not.

      As I stated in my piece on the Republican push for offshore drilling, we're currently low on refinery capacity because the refineries destroyed by Katrina were never rebuilt: http://kalimao.blogspot.com/2008/06/environment-ch ...

      With 103% refinery capacity, any slight mishap will impact gas prices. And here we have our mishap. Oh, but I forget the Republican excuse: Nobody could have predicted ... except everyone did, yaknow.
      • lajaw, on 09/01/2008, -5/+6Sorry, it's not Bush's fault. It's Chaney's fault. Gotcha! Kerry could still stop it with his face or Obama could take his staff and arise it abov his head and it would quiet the waters.
      • unreg, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1103% capacity?

        Odd, refineries have been running in the mid 80's and we continue to build surpluses.
  • awarnick, on 09/01/2008, -2/+6Here comes the flooding.. again.
  • AmyVernon, on 09/01/2008, -4/+19the day after Katrina hit three years ago, gas went up $1 a gallon overnight.
    • yaddayaddayoda, on 09/01/2008, -3/+2Already up 6 cents the day before Gustav hits... all the way across the continent.
    • Hawker400, on 09/01/2008, -3/+2I remember one gas station in my neighborhood tried to sell gas for $6 a gallon when the day before it was in the upper $2 range.
      • boneit, on 09/01/2008, -1/+0That's gouging and illegal (not that they'll get caught by the right people). The year we had four hurricanes come through FL, places were selling 8x4' plywood boards for over $100 each. There was a big hoohar about it, lots of saber rattling from those in power, and zero prosecutions.
      • unreg, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1We went through the same drill during a devastating ice storm. $300 generators going for $1000. A gallon of kerosene was 5x. Food stuff was out of sight.

        Nobody was prosecuted despite all the talk.

        Greed is good.
  • thepoliticalcat, on 09/01/2008, -9/+2Just thought I'd draw attention to a post on oil prices and capacity and the Republican whine for more drilling: http://kalimao.blogspot.com/2008/06/environment-ch ...

    In the interest of full disclosure, it's my post.
  • jontalisman, on 09/01/2008, -2/+3Gas and basic supplies will go up everywhere if this storm hits big. Conditions were very bad here in FL the last time we had a major hurricane pass through.
  • Hawker400, on 09/01/2008, -4/+20Gustav. I'm a dumb ass.
  • geekchic, on 09/01/2008, -13/+8I don't drive - or live in America.

    Yay me!
    • Maurik, on 09/01/2008, -3/+2Gustav is just the name of some crazy Russian
    • cl2yp71c, on 09/01/2008, -2/+13F### you, terrorist.
      • arjie, on 09/01/2008, -0/+5I hate your freedom to self-censor!
      • cl2yp71c, on 09/01/2008, -6/+3AND DON'T YOU TRY TAKING THAT FREEDOM AWAY FROM ME!
        OBAM...ahemmm...OSAMA
    • booyahbitch, on 09/01/2008, -2/+1Oh...now you are REALLY hot!! :o)
  • bosssmiley, on 09/01/2008, -3/+8The Deep Ones will take their inexorable revenge upon the foolish oil-drilling land-dwellers of the Gulf Coast. Katrina and Gustav were just the beginning. Prepare for Hurricane Cthulhu!
    • ktulu19, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1that one will cover the world
    • twiztidsinz, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1[insert failed attempt at finding doppler pic from "The Day After Tomorrow"]
  • Flushnasty, on 09/01/2008, -10/+4Attention anyone in hear that drives a truck that runs on diesel.

    convert your vehicle to run on bio-diesel and never pay for gas again. For around $1000 you can pick up various different kits. Then just go to a Denny's and ask then for their used oil. Many restaurants pay to have it taken away and will gladly give it to most people for free.

    BEST INVESTMENT EVER
    • CosmicJustice, on 09/01/2008, -3/+3Wrong
      • Flushnasty, on 09/02/2008, -1/+1No sir, you're just a dumb ass. Do some research.
    • bigstinky, on 09/01/2008, -2/+3He's not wrong...In my opinion anyway. I have friends that are in a band called 'The Burning Brides' - some of you may have heard of them. At any rate, they've been on tour for over a year driving a converted van all across the country and have not paid one red cent for gas, aside from the initial fill up of diesel fuel. The job to fill up the tank isn't the cleanest gig in the world though. And they sometimes have to explain to cops what they're donig at 3 AM behind a restaurant pilfering oil from the grease vat. Usually the cops are blown away and let them go.

      It cost them 3000 bucks to have the modification done but it's paid off in spades.

      The only problem I see with it is that if everyone does this, there won't be enough used restaurant grease to go around, thus making it a viable commodity and ultimately bringing the price up from "free".

      Still, if you do a ton of driving, the muss of it all is still worth it money-wise.

      • Tcasey0478, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2Everyone eats fast food, we'll never run out of grease dude!
      • crashbang, on 09/01/2008, -1/+4But if someone tries to steal my retirement grease, I'll ***** THEM UP!!!
      • mrgeekguy, on 09/01/2008, -2/+2If your friends take it from branded bins, they are thieves.

        http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0506/p01s03-usgn.htm ...
      • bigstinky, on 09/01/2008, -1/+3OH MY GOD...I just ratted out my friends.

      • Flushnasty, on 09/02/2008, -1/+1I love how I get Dugg down for trying to give you people some solid advise. Oh well. Keep paying 5$ for gas when you can make your own then. More for me.

    • HappyScrappy, on 09/01/2008, -0/+7You're about 10 years too late. In areas like San Francisco companies that make BioDiesel already are paying restaurants for their waste grease.. So you can't just go take it, you'll be prosecuted for stealing.

      Additionally, restaurant grease is not BioDiesel (instead people call it Waste Vegetable Oil or WVO). You can turn WVO into BioDiesel with a reactor and do it fairly cheaply. But if you just put WVO into your engine you will destroy it eventually. Because WVO is too thick and doesn't have enough lubricity. So this stuff like that band is doing is actually a very bad idea.

      Read this link for invo on how WVO is not a good idea.

      http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/08/21/tdiclub-me ...
      • bigstinky, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2You bring up good points, but straight form their mouths, it seems to work. Ultimately, it may claim their van, but it's still going strong now. The only way they can promote their music is by constantly touring, and with the price of fuel, it almost decimates the whole of their profits.

        Waste fuel may not save the universe, but it works for them...They're from LA so I would imagine they'd be aware of the legality of it all, especially in their own state.
      • Flushnasty, on 09/02/2008, -0/+1Ummm, I live in the SF bay area (san jose).......I had ZERO problems finding sources.
    • BioHMMWV, on 09/01/2008, -2/+2Wrong!!!! There is no conversion needed for a diesel engine to run off of bio-diesel. And, you do not need to spend more then 200 dollars to make the reactor and buy the equipment. People who do not have the brains to make the reactor and search for the directions on how to make bio-diesel, should not be fooling around with methanol, lye, or the subsequent methoxide.
      And Bigstinky, your friends are stealing the used oil. If they did not ask for permission from the owner of the restaurant, or are taking the oil from a collection container with a label on it, it is theft.
      Beat me to it HappyScrappy
      • bigstinky, on 09/01/2008, -1/+1Again, Not wrong...They did not build a reactor in their house They do not use lye etc...You are thinking of something else entirely.. The converter is in their van. They pour oil into a compartment IN the van.

        In their own words. (with a touch of sarcasm, i'm sure):

        "Some people think we're joking when we say from the stage that our vehicle runs on waste fryer oil from the backs of restaurants. It ain't a joke and it's enabled us to continue forward as a band. Sometimes you have to search around but it pays off bigtime when you find it. Liquid gold we call it. The diesel engine was originally designed to run on peanut oil. We'll drive through mud and back alleys to get the stuff. Sometimes there are rats and dudes back there you don't really wanna run into. The cops and restaurant owners wonder what the hell we're up to. Night freaks with ski hats, flashlights, and rubber gloves scooping buckets of messy garbage into our thirsty filter tank. When we're caught in the act we simply explain our system. Everyone is blown away, almost like they're rooting for us. Rock and roll recyclers of the American highways cruising at a comfortable 70mph. Fuel price = $0 and the engine doesn't know the difference. Kerouac would've proudly dipped his balls in the stuff. Grease is the word."*


        *From their website.
      • shawnanigans, on 09/01/2008, -0/+2You need to heat biodiesel in cold weather so you need to install a heater at least.
      • bigstinky, on 09/01/2008, -1/+1That's where the diesel comes in.

        You start the van in diesel, using standard diesel fuel, then when it's hot, you switch to the waste fuel.

        Why is this concept such an irritant? I'm merely mentioning what some folks are doing.

        I use normal gas and I'm going to have to for quite some time in the future. Until viable, cost efficient alternatives become available, most of us are.
    • TVarmy, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2It's a very cool thing, but I'm worried that it won't work for everyone. I've heard it can only provide enough fuel for 1% of cars on the American roads. Of course, that is a lot of cars.

      I'm wondering what the situation would be if these fuels were to be burned in microturbines and used to power an electric car? After all, WVO is a waste fuel, so if one doesn't use it, they're ignoring a potential source of energy. Perhaps in the future the electric company will buy the oil, and use it to supplement their existing fuel sources.
  • ieee, on 09/01/2008, -0/+11Just in time for the election.
    • Hawker400, on 09/01/2008, -2/+3Hopefully we don't forget the current administration's failures during Katrina.
      • schnikies79, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2The New Orleans local government failing? Quite correct.

        Local government first, state second and federal third. The first two failed before the administration did.
      • ks136, on 09/02/2008, -0/+1I'm glad someone finally pointed this out.
  • londonmoon85, on 09/01/2008, -4/+1Its enough that food has shot up now gas is going back up. WOW!
  • pauls88, on 09/01/2008, -6/+1yeah load up your cars with gas, makes it much more spectacular when they get picked up by the wind and crash to the ground in a ball of flames.

    Sorry if that sounded direspectful in anyway but loading your car up with gas is the worst thing you can do unless you are planning to drive out of town NOW.
    • Kolbeck10, on 09/01/2008, -0/+3I don't think this is directed towards people within the storm's path, but rather everyone else in the nation....
  • webster, on 09/01/2008, -2/+5Don't worry, I'll just use dianetics.
  • kigpanama, on 09/01/2008, -5/+3Gas prices are crazy, its time to downsize the car
  • acrodev, on 09/01/2008, -0/+18Don't buy gas if you're looking for a good investment, buy an oil company.
  • nerddtvg, on 09/01/2008, -0/+23When you say "strengthening" do you mean "weakening"? Last I checked, it's weakened from a Category 3 to a Category 2 and is predicted to only weaken further.
  • TSK05, on 09/01/2008, -0/+42Yay for speculation, the #1 cause of oil prices rising!
    • Hawker400, on 09/01/2008, -9/+1I'm sure it has nothing to do with supply and demand.
      • drlha, on 09/01/2008, -1/+3It'll be supply and demand when I show up at the gas station and they have run out of gas. Guess what, that hasn't happened since the 70s, and then it was caused by panic buying, not actual supply problems in a normal market.
      • schnikies79, on 09/01/2008, -0/+2Prices jumping +/- $5 on news that somebody in the middle east farted is not supply and demand.
    • TSK05, on 09/01/2008, -1/+8Why do you think demand increases? Because you speculate that the prices are going up so people stock up.
    • afruff23, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1@TSK05

      Then why don't you get in on the action if it's so simple? The fact is that it's not. If you bought futures in anticipation that Gustav would raise gas prices, you would have lost money.
  • BladeArrowney, on 09/01/2008, -0/+9rofl, this is bs...

    http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/
    http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5isagNKh7w-IVMJ ...
  • IronDonut, on 09/01/2008, -1/+3You know if gas was something we bought once every 4 months this article would mean something. But most of us buy gas weekly. So if we fill up now it'll save a little on gas today. But next week... the week after... and so on? We're pretty much stuck.
    • senatorpjt, on 09/01/2008, -2/+1I could probably go for six weeks, at least four, on a full tank of gas if I eliminated all non-essential travel. A full tank of gas was enough to get me through the entire Katrina price spike.
  • Vibratic, on 09/01/2008, -0/+4So telling everyone to freak out and buy gas right now won't make the prices go up? The hurricane will?

    Does the author realize the gas prices went up last time because everyone filled their cars up in anticipation?
    • senatorpjt, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2Gas prices don't go up because everyone fills up their tank, it takes time for that to make prices increase. However due to speculation, the prices will go sky-high before anything even happens - the prices when Katrina hit went up overnight, before there was any actual effect on the supply.
  • Steinr, on 09/01/2008, -0/+2Panic buying is what the oil companies want you to do, it helps to justify increased prices not just because of Gustav but also by saying that the rush on the pumps stretches their supply chain... panic buying is the quickest way to 4$ a gallon.
  • jawdroppingjack, on 09/01/2008, -0/+8gustav downgraded to a cat 2....oil prices are dropping according to forbes...
  • nitrusoxyde, on 09/01/2008, -2/+4This hurricane will shut down a whopping 75% of the THREE GOD DAMNED PERCENT OF OIL PRODUCTION WORLDWIDE IN THE US.

    This is nothing people, get over it and quit playing into the spectators.
    • assasinine, on 09/01/2008, -1/+1WRONG. I'm from this part of the world. A significant portion of our oil comes from here.
  • DaviDTC, on 09/01/2008, -0/+15Inaccurate. Oil has dropped over $4 today.
  • duggynyc, on 09/01/2008, -0/+11Don't believe the drivel. Crude oil is down 4 bucks as we speak.
  • BradBrown, on 09/01/2008, -0/+9Look, I don't like to give out advice, but my advice is to panic and fill your tank now. Buy some bread as well, in case you get stuck inside your house and you want samiches.
  • hammer05, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2This article is exactly what will cause gas prices to go up...kind of like the "toilet paper shortage" of the 1970's. If everyone goes out and buys gas, causing a spike in demand, prices will rise! Oil prices have actually fallen below $112 today (9/1/08) as Gustav appears to be weakening and not causing any major to the oil infrastructure along the Gulf Coast.

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/26487906
    • badfrog, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1Although I don't think this particular gas prices blog is going to cause a huge run-up in the price of oil.
  • Mier, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2Well let me inform the general populace. There's a current that runs through the upper gulf that usually weakens hurricanes as they approach land. This was expected by most observant citizens. The weak are usually ginned up into hysteria by the media while the rest of us are thankful for the free water on our lawns.
  • Typhoon2009, on 09/01/2008, -1/+3I thought the oil prices dropped / stayed the same because the storm didn't strengthen? Oh, right, Digg lag. It's a good thing Digg users can still access sites like CNN, or else we'd be a day late on every piece of news (that doesn't involve Sarah Palin anyway).
  • magic6435, on 09/01/2008, -0/+4Gustov has been losing strength for 2 days now.......
  • schnikies79, on 09/01/2008, -0/+5It's articles like this that make the price go up!

    Panic by the MSM and others -> people rushing to fill their tank -> demand skyrockets -> price goes up.

    BTW, oil prices are down.
  • TheLoneWolf071, on 09/01/2008, -1/+1Yup. Also with labor day weekend gas is already up.
  • arseburger, on 09/01/2008, -6/+0Why bother? With a big V8 you don't go very far on a full tank anyway.

    Now my car can do 38mpg imperial (or about 31 US gallons) when I need it to but it also packs 290bhp and will out accelerate most cars on the street. I'll give you a hint, it redlines at over 8000 rpm and it's made in the UK by a Japanese marque!

    Of course, I don't drive slow enough to get 38mpg very often, but it's nice to know I can go 400 miles on a fill up when the apocalypse comes. (I actually get more like 15mpg most days)
  • Mr.Gone, on 09/01/2008, -6/+1OMG CNN is wrong! OMG They just had an article saying the prices are dropping because the storm isn't going to be that bad. But Digg! Digg has it on the front page. All I need is to see it 2 or 3 more times up here and I will freak out. (queue the dupes)
  • twiztidsinz, on 09/01/2008, -4/+1Damnit... get that guy who invented the "car that runs on water, man"....
  • TheConman, on 09/01/2008, -6/+1WHO CARES!!! this is not digg worthy, i'm getting tired of this *****. wheres the tech? wheres everything interesting???
  • gamben0, on 09/01/2008, -5/+4***** you and your fear mongering.
  • gsnedders, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2Or, um, not drive? Oh, your public transport isn't up to scratch and trains take ten hours to get anywhere? How about spending some money on getting decent infrastructure apart from roads?
    • senatorpjt, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1Nobody will do anything about public transport until gas gets to be at least $6/gallon, and even then all we'll kill every brown person on the planet to steal theirs before we lay down a single mile of light rail.
  • StevoJD, on 09/01/2008, -0/+2It's coming to Galveston?!

    I live in Houston and it's sunny with no wind outside.... BS article?
  • pylorns, on 09/01/2008, -0/+2This is dumb, refineries did not shut down - in fact Citgo, Conoco, in Lake Charles are still operating. Sure the off-shore drilling stopped temporarily, but that doesn't mean we're not still refining product that we already have...
  • cptshamrock, on 09/01/2008, -0/+4Inaccurate, Gustav now Cat 2
  • Chaulis, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1That area has nothing to do with gas production right now! The oil refineries are still being rebuilt. If this affects gas prices I'm gonna get really pissed. HULK SMASH >.
  • synapzgap, on 09/01/2008, -0/+3Seems strange to me that the last half of these comments are calling BS on this article, yet somehow it's getting Dugg.
    Bury this ***** people! It's alarmist and inaccurate.
  • DucoNihilum, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2What the *****? Is this article a self fulfilling prophesy? Um, sure prices will go up if stupid speculation like this goes on! That's what causes the prices to go up in the first place! *****, thanks for contributing to the problem, assholes.
  • Cwolf267, on 09/01/2008, -0/+4This headlines flat out false, the hurricane is becoming weaker.
  • JohnnyMarr, on 09/01/2008, -1/+1That's funny. I don't see Sarah Palin mentioned anywhere in this article...
  • jflaker, on 09/01/2008, -1/+1Um, even if one platform is destroyed, it is only a SMALL fraction of the supply.

    An article posted earlier said
    {insert bs reason here } causes oil prices to soar!
  • consciousNOT, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2Quick everyone panic, it makes things so much better.
  • SDeluxe, on 09/01/2008, -7/+2Thanks for this article, going out to buy gas right now (literally in 15 minutes, because of this article)
    • schnikies79, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1Too bad that the article is BS and you fell for it.

      The hurricane is weakening and oil prices are down to about $110 from $116 yesterday.
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