OT: East Coast Gas Shortages as States Switch from MTBE to Ethanol

[Thomas Rogers]

...that's right, many distributors in the Northeast are being caught with their pants down as the deadlines for compliance to switch from MTBE oxygenated gasoline to that with Ethanol instead have come and gone. A few gas stations in my local area had NO GAS the past couple of days.



Read more:

 

[Todd Z]

Yup, happened to 2 here...

My heart bleeds for them.......



Todd Z

 

[Tom Schindler]

Price goes up and it won't come back down.



Is it all supply and demand or is some of the supply and demand intentional?





Tom

 

[A K]

Tom,



I agree. I won't get into it, because it is so frustrating. However, much like when the former Exxon CEO scoffed at the idea of ethanol in high production, the oil industry knows how to manipulate folks. It is not an everlasting industry, and there are a lot of folks and nations that need to make money now, because it won't continue.

 

[Travis Munday]

Maybe the gov't will give me the money to convert my truck to be able to burn ethanol....

 

[Casey Everhart]

Exxon was the #1 company in the world with 35 billion in pure profit last year. Why again am I paying now over $3/gallon here in Southern California?

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Aaron, latest rationale for the high prices is fear...fear of what will happen with the Iran situation, and the Nigerian refinery situation. Supply hasn't really been impacted yet, and it may never be, but fear is all the big companies need.



I wish there was no (or at least a lessened) real-time aspect to the price....I can't understand why the price of all those gallons in the ground in the tanks at the local filling station fluctuates on a daily basis. I can't think of any other consumer commodity that AFTER it is delivered to the retail location continues to fluctuate in price until it is sold, at least not to the same degree as gasoline.



TJR

 

[Austin Tatious]

The oil companies have known about the MTBE to ethanol transistion for years - it was banned in CA as of 1/1/2004. They have waited to the last minute because they knew it would not affect their bottom line, just disrupt consumers and jack the price of gasoline up.



The Dept of Energy estimated that banning MTBE would raise gas prices by 1.8 cents a gallon. Is that what we're seeing at the pump?