Fuel Prices...eat your heart out!

mikea said:
At what happened to trigger that goofy government action?

Anyone?

Bueller?

OPEC (You know. Our friends the Saudis) called for an embargo of oil going to the U.S. to force the U.S. to stop supporting Israel.

I worked in gas station in those days watching people pull out tire irons to defend their position in the gas line. I do remember that gas went from 0.44 a gallon to 1.44 a gallon and held there for quite a long time.
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Mike, the embargo was in 1973, and it was real; there was no real oil shortage of any kind in the late 70s. Oil prices were spiking significantly because of instability in the markets caused by the Iranian revolution and the resultant decrease in Iranian production, but other producers increased production to offset.

The shortages of gasoline, the gas lines, all that, were strictly the result of federal interference in the marketplace, the imposition of caps on the amount of gasoline retailers were allowed to sell. Recall, if you will, that there were almost no shortages outside major metro areas. Example: Dallas and Houston had huge shortages, long lines to buy gas, all that. 100 miles south, in Waco, you could buy gas anytime you wanted, no problems.

I had a family friend, owned a Texaco Service Station (he got mad if you called it a "gas station"), was mad because of the artificial restrictions on how much gas he was allowed to buy and to sell.
 
SCCutler said:
Mike, the embargo was in 1973, and it was real; there was no real oil shortage of any kind in the late 70s. Oil prices were spiking significantly because of instability in the markets caused by the Iranian revolution and the resultant decrease in Iranian production, but other producers increased production to offset.

The shortages of gasoline, the gas lines, all that, were strictly the result of federal interference in the marketplace, the imposition of caps on the amount of gasoline retailers were allowed to sell. Recall, if you will, that there were almost no shortages outside major metro areas. Example: Dallas and Houston had huge shortages, long lines to buy gas, all that. 100 miles south, in Waco, you could buy gas anytime you wanted, no problems.

I had a family friend, owned a Texaco Service Station (he got mad if you called it a "gas station"), was mad because of the artificial restrictions on how much gas he was allowed to buy and to sell.
Click to expand...

As I said I also worked in a Texaco station in Chicago - the one that pumped the most gas in Illinois - during the embargo. The lines were due to the government and the distributors putting the stations on allocation, limiting their supplies. Most stations ran dry between the limited deliveries.

The one I worked at was owned by the distributor. :D We never ran out of gas. Got two full deliveries a day. :rolleyes:

Had lines up to 1/4 miles long feeding the 4 fully manned pumps.
 
The cheapest I've filled up for recently was $3.36/gal this past Friday morning. It was at Kroger and normally $3.39, but use your Plus card and get $0.03 off. Ray and Ric, I'd love to know where you're finding $3.16 and $3.19...
 
By early 1973 the producers in Texas had plotted for almost a year, conjuring up an agreement that they would limit production sufficiently to drive up price. Their goal was to get a 10% bump, from $2/bbl to $2.20 so they could "really make some money in the oil bidness." The embargo drove the price to $10, and they never had to implement their carefully concocted scheme.


SCCutler said:
Mike, the embargo was in 1973, and it was real; there was no real oil shortage of any kind in the late 70s. Oil prices were spiking significantly because of instability in the markets caused by the Iranian revolution and the resultant decrease in Iranian production, but other producers increased production to offset.

The shortages of gasoline, the gas lines, all that, were strictly the result of federal interference in the marketplace, the imposition of caps on the amount of gasoline retailers were allowed to sell. Recall, if you will, that there were almost no shortages outside major metro areas. Example: Dallas and Houston had huge shortages, long lines to buy gas, all that. 100 miles south, in Waco, you could buy gas anytime you wanted, no problems.

I had a family friend, owned a Texaco Service Station (he got mad if you called it a "gas station"), was mad because of the artificial restrictions on how much gas he was allowed to buy and to sell.
Click to expand...
 
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