Two bucks a gallon? What gives? What used to be prices attributed to premium gasolines are quickly becoming the standard for regular. A survey of gas stations throughout Queens revealed prices for regular as high as $2.09 and the citywide average is hovering somewhere around $1.93. The good news is that with the combination of improvements in automobile and fuel technology, todays gas emits far fewer air pollutants than in the 1970s. The bad news is your wallet cant tell the difference.
In August, New Yorkers saw a 9.5% increase in gas prices, constituting the biggest jump in 12 years. Just a few days ago, prices went up two cents overnight, and the three-day weekend didnt help. Gas prices traditionally rise over Labor Day weekend, when millions of people hit the road. The blackout, which caused temporary refinery shutdowns, didnt help the situation.
Fortunately, if the prices follow the previous years trends, there could be up to a 30-cent decline in price in the next 60 days. Until then, resourceful drivers all over New York will be logging on to websites like www.newyorkgasprices.com, where drivers can report or check up on the lowest and highest gas prices in New York.
"Demand goes up and price goes up, that essentially is it," said Robert Sinclair Jr., manager of public information at the Automobile Club of New York. "A lot of people usually take trips especially during Labor Day weekend because its the last hurrah for the summer. We had a cool spring and early summer so when you combine that demand with the fact that we dont have enough refinery capacity and we have big thirsty SUVs, those factors leave us on the edge as far as oil companies being able to keep up with demand. So when you get any kind of a thing that might affect distribution, refining or demand you see a spike in prices as a result."
As long as people still need to gas up their vehicles, this will remain topical. Gasoline is a refined component of crude oil, a natural resource that is unequally distributed around the globe (the United States is the second largest producer of oil in the world). The refining process makes up about 20% of the cost of your tank of gas and the rest goes to marketing, distribution, taxes and station markup. Surprisingly, there are no set standards for station markup.
Price increases generally occur when those oil-producing nations limit production. In fact, crude oil inventories have the biggest effect on gas prices, but they arent the only thing driving up the cost of gas. Greater demand in the summer means higher prices because the refineries are working at 90 to 100% capacity trying to keep up and in the winter, the amount of crude oil doesnt get any larger but some of the existing store has to be made into heating oil. That means less gas. While crude oil prices tend to fluctuate rapidly, the changes trickle down to the gas stations themselves but changes in the refinery process can rapidly affect pricing.
"As of January 1 in New York State you’ll no longer be able to use MTBE as an additive. Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether is an anti pollution additive based on a petroleum product that will be outlawed in New York State. This is a further complication to the refining process and will lead to higher prices," Sinclair said.
While it may seem like there is no alternative to shelling out cash at the local Shell, drivers who arent in the know may be blowing big bucks out of their tailpipes every time they hit the gas. The key to saving money at the pump is fuel economy, and smart drivers can save thousands of dollars every year just by doing a few little things that can add up to a lot of unspent dollars. Saving money at the pump can begin with your choice of vehicle. A 2003 Ferrari 575 M Maranello will get 12 miles to the gallon as opposed to a Chevy Cavalier of the same year which will get 28. Choose wisely because options count. Four-wheel drive uses more gas while cruise control uses less.
Once youve chosen a vehicle, how you drive can be just as important as what you drive. Combining errands and commuting or consolidating errands can add up to big savings. If you cant carpool to work, leaving earlier or later when traffic is light can help avoid frequent braking and let you travel at more constant speeds, bolstering fuel efficiency. Avoid extended idling, racing the engine, hard driving, and carrying a trunk full of non-essentials. Warm ups are worthless on most newer cars and needlessly burn gas. Its better just to drive gently for the first five minutes of a trip.
Hitting the open road? Keeping your car in shape can mean the difference between a great road trip and an expensive one. Improper vehicle maintenance can mean hundreds of dollars of overspending on gas per year. Some common gas-guzzling culprits are dirty air filters, under inflated tires, overweight oils (look for oils with the "energy conserving" stamp on the label), and an out-of-tune engine. The dichotomy between gas and maintenance costs is astounding. A new air filter costs about $10 while driving with a clogged one can waste an extra $90 worth of fuel per year.
Especially pertinent in the summer is the relation between fuel consumption and the air conditioner. While it may seem indispensible, using the air conditioning greatly reduces fuel economy. If you have to use it, keep it on the lowest comfortable setting. But some summer gas price hikes are unavoidable.
"During the summer we have to use whats called RFG, reformulated gasoline, a special cleaner burning blend of gasoline that has to be used in most of the major cities around the country, like Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Denver and Detroit. The problem with RFG is that its more complicated to refine and the blends are specialized according to geography of the market they are going to. So Chicagos gas is different from Californias gas. They are more complicated and more expensive to refine," said Sinclair.
We, for the most part, need to drive to get to work and school. Sometimes car pooling is not an option. There are other possible solutions to the gas crisis, but it seems that Americans are ignoring the obvious.
"We are on shaky ground and will remain so unless and until we get either more refineries or improved networks of distribution or people start to conserve. Gas prices would go down in a minute if we conserved. We could conserve our way out of this so-called crisis were in, but Americans love their SUVs," said Sinclair. "Its surmised that if the worst 10% of mileage vehicles, the bottom 10% that get 9 to 10 miles per gallon, switched over to the gas-electric hybrids, we could eliminate our dependency on foreign oil."
With both environmental and financial concerns behind our fuel purchases, its no wonder that the price of gasoline is a volatile subject. We cant live without it so, until someone one-ups the combustion engine, drive smarter and keep more of your money where it belongsin your wallet and out of your gas tank.
