Fuel cost and hurricane Harvey.

[IKE]

I just topped off the pickup and the price for 89 octane pure gas has gone up $.07 per gallon to $2.29......not the big increase that I was expecting or that's predicted, YET.

 

[Don M.]

There has been some conjecture about soaring gasoline prices, but so far that is not the case. I just looked at the NYMEX future prices, and the spot price of gas has only risen between 1.1 and 1.7%...depending upon region. It appears that the refineries were paying close attention to the weather forecasts and made an orderly shutdown about 2 days before the storm hit. At the same time, refineries in the unaffected regions have boosted their outputs, so any shortages should be short lived. Besides, with as many as 500,000 vehicles disabled in the flooded areas, demand in the Texas area should be substantially reduced for quite some time. Now, as soon as the flood waters recede, and the refineries can begin to ramp up again...probably within the next week, or two...there may even be a brief excess of gasoline in the market, in many locales. The pipelines should be ok, and the only area seeing any prolonged impact will be the Houston area, where gas stations may not be fully functional again for a time.

 

[Ken N Tx]

The increase is supposed to only for about 2 weeks until the Baytown and Crosby Refineries reopen.

Price went up .11¢ per gallon here in North Texas!! Some stations out of gas!!!!

 

[chic]

It's only 2 cents a gallon more where I live, but it's early days still.

 

[jujube]

It's gone up a good 8-10 cents some places here in the Blue Ridge. Oh, yeah, just in time for us to drag the elephant back to Florida on Friday.

 

[Warrigal]

This is just a small foretaste of the costs of climate change. Increased frequency and scale of natural disasters - floods, storms, fires etc - all come with rising prices as well as the repair bills.

Think about the expenses that will have to be met to repair schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and rail lines. When people complain about the costs of mitigating CO2 emissions they fail to take into consideration the costs of not doing it.

 

[Sunny]

Fortunately, I got gas yesterday morning, having no idea that the price was about to rise, I just needed gas. I heard that the price abruptly jumped up about 20 cents by late afternoon!

 

[Don M.]

I gassed up yesterday, and the prices have only risen a few cents...$2.10/gal. Hopefully, the refineries will get back online quickly, and there won't be any major spikes.

 

[Aunt Bea]

Today I paid $2.599 for regular unleaded in Central New York.