What the ... gouging?!?!

According to the media oil prices will rise ... including gas and diesel prices ... because of hurricane Sandy. As far as I know New York and New Jersey are not, and have never been, oil producing states. So just how the hell are prices going up because Sandy hit them? It sounds like gouging as normal by the oil companies with the tacit approval of our Government.

Gas Price Scam

Maybe someone can explain things to me so gas pricing doesn't sound like a scam.

Oil is purchased months and months in advance. Then it gets shipped to a refinery to be turned into gasoline and other petroleum products. Which of course means the gas you are using today was purchased maybe a year ago and the cost to get it, before refining, doesn't reflect the cost of oil today. That I understand. Here is where I believe the bullshit and scamming begin.

Let's say gas is $1.17 CDN a litre today. There is a crisis in some middle eastern country. The price of oil shoots up. At the same time the price of gas shoots up 1-3 cents a litre. The gas companies say it is because the cost of oil went up.

A month later the price of oil is down as much as it shot up. The price of gas either doesn't change or only drops 1 cent or less a litre. The gas companies say it is because the price of oil today doesn't reflect the price it was when they purchased it to make the gas selling today. What the hell?

It really sounds like they are pulling a scam. They always seem to raise the price when oil goes up but never drop it when oil goes down. They use the current price of oil as a reason to raise it but never to lower it.

Yeah, it definitely sounds like they are scamming us, and the government lets it happen.