The independent gas station owners have to buy their gas from brokers. These brokers set the price of fuel the independents have to pay. If the refineries are shut down/less gas being refined, then the brokers raise prices on the independents. Lower supply, steady demand, prices go up. That's Economics 101.
OPEC announced they will reduce output by 500,000 barrels a day. A spit in the ocean. This had no effect on the price of oil. All you people complaining about the price of oil who do not live in Texas or Louisiana need to raise hell with your Congressmen. There hasn't been a new refinery built in the U.S. in over thirty years. The existing refineries are using old equipment and have expanded their existing plants over the years. For many years these existing refineries all across the U.S. have refined gas at or above 95% of their capacity. Plus we still buy millions of gallons of refined product from outside of the U.S.
Gas jumped $0.20 cents here in South Louisiana from before Hurricane Gustav ($3.54 to $3.75 today). South Louisiana and Texas refine 26% of the U.S. gasoline. Louisiana's coastline is disappering and the barrier islands and marshlands that once protected inland cities like New Orleans are gone or almost completely destroyed. All the canals and waterways in the marsh were dredged by the oil companies in the early 1900s. Saltwater intrusion destroys the brackish marsh grasses and further erodes the marsh causing more intense damage here than by 1965 Hurricane Betsy or 1969 Hurricane Camille (category 5 by the way). Louisiana's seafood (shrimp, fish, oysters) spawn and grow in those marshes. There is much talk to restore our marshlands. If it isn't done soon, New Orleans will be Gulf of Mexico-front property (experts predict 10 years).
Call your Senators and Representatives and demand new refineries in your state. All you California voters need to get that idiot Nancy Pelosi out of office and start drilling off the California coast. Technology has improved dramatically since the 1969 spill off Malibu Beach. Do an internet search and see how much oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico after 135 mile per hour winds hit the offshore oil rigs. More refineries, more production, very little effect on refined product after a hurricane, then very little effect on price of gas after a hurricane. Economics 101.
If you care more for seals, or birds, or caribou than you care about human life and the ability to provide a living to your family, then allow the environmental wackos to continue blocking/imposing unreasonable restriction on new refineries. And you can just pay ridiculous prices for gasoline.
