Hurricane Stuff - Part 6

YET ANOTHER GAS UPDATE

When I drove back from lunch with Luisa, I saw that the two stations at the corner of Huger and Blossom were operating again. In fact, the BP was getting refilled even as I went by. Of course, the price for regular unleaded was $3.20 a gallon. Thus, there wasn't a run on gas. Yet. But most people were at work at that point, so it'd be more interesting to see if everyone is actually paying attention and not make another run on this supply.

It is funny watching the talking heads on CNBC saying that this will be a net benefit. Yeah, what I would do is sell short on gasoline futures delivered in November. I'll be shocked if the wholesale price of gas is at $4.50 in November like they said it's at right now. I did tell Luisa that I'd guess that prices will stabilize at around $3.30 in the Columbia area for gasoline. At least for Labor Day weekend. If it gets above that, especially if refinery capacity does come online recently, then things are definitely not going to work out really well. We'll see if people are still stupid are not. It depends on how much supply stays the same or not.

I'm glad to see that people haven't been opposing the lifting of restrictions on fuel mixtures and foreign imports of refined fuels. I guess I could look around and see if the WWF or the Sierra Club or any of those groups are opposing these measures.

Still, I'm happy that I can buy ethanol fuels. I'm also happy that SUV sales are down. It's just that it took a hurricane to get people to realize that these things are just not worth the benefits.