Sweet!

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

And we know OPEC sets the price of cude oil. Sorry, no point, let alone set or match. Demonizing the oil companies is not a legitimate argument. I know you can do better.

C'mon, Steve.
We *know* there's been a freeze in CA. Of course prices for produce are going up!
Point-set-match.

Of course to follow the thinking used on the oil companies, the freeze is actually a fraud perpetrated by the evil citrus growers to gouge the consumers. We have to be consistent here.

I simply want to know WHY diesel and #2 heating fuel are priced 50 cents a gallon more than gasoline, when it costs the same, or even less to refine..The SAME crude oil is used to source both. The SAME crude that's been dropping to record lows in price. Any rational explanation besides the fact that trucking fuel and home heating in the east aren't exactly something that can be cut back on would be welcome. A semi gets 5-8 MPG on a run no matter what. There's no alternatives. Truckers can't car pool or take the subway.. You can cut the thermostat down to 68 and that's about it.

Why are there different prices for yogurt, cheese, cream and milk? It all comes from the same place. We are getting screwed by the evil dairy farmers.

We-are-getting-screwed by the oil companies with the complicity of government; don't try to gloss it over
This country runs on # 1 and #2 diesel fuel, be it airlines, truckers or home heating in the east. And none of the above can cut back. We are getting forked, and our so-called law enforcers are blind and stupid all of a sudden. That's why I'm POed.

The law enforcers are the ones taxing the hell out of those products. Your anger is misplaced.

All I'm asking for is a rational explanation WHY some refinery products are priced WAY more than the others.

I'd like the same for milk products, or wood based products. Why does some paper cost so much more than others. Why isn't a cardboard box not priced the same as a 2x4? And further, why isn't a 2x4 not actually 2 x4? Those evil wood/lumber companies are ruining the environment and falsely representing their products. The government should investigate this NOW!

[k4kyv]

    That is why heating oil has red dye in it. DOT officers can put a stick in the fuel tank and determine whether or not you were running fuel oil or heating oil, (no road taxes). Very nasty penalties are handed down here in PA for substituting heating oil for road diesel. The red dye leaves a residue for quite some time and easily shows up on a the stick.

I am aware of the reason.  The thing I wonder is why they thought anyone would run a truck with heating oil, since (at least at the time this was enacted) diesel fuel, tax and all, still cost less than tax-free #1  heating fuel.

Since this had been a problem with the trucking industry, they did it backwards.  The dye should go into motor fuel, and the penalty be for running with fuel without the dye, not with it.  That way it would affect only the target industry, and not hassle or penalise people who use oil for heating or other non-road uses.

In the 50's they did the same thing with gasoline sold in bulk to farmers, without road tax, to run their tractors and other farm machinery.  I recall complaints that the dye gummed up stuff in the engine.

Mere traces of the dye proves no wrong-doing.  Untaxed fuel is legal for off-road use, such as farming operations on private land.  What about a farming operation where the owner uses a diesel truck offroad on his property, then later uses the same vehicle on the road, filled with legal taxed motor fuel?

[WD8BIL]

Erik's time because of the Medieval Warm Period."

What caused the Medieval Warm Period ? Wasn't that long before my pickup truck was built ??
Musta been sheep farts !!!

Good point Pete. Much of Erik's old green homestead has been under ice now for a few centuries.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Erik's time because of the Medieval Warm Period."

What caused the Medieval Warm Period ? Wasn't that long before my pickup truck was built ??
Musta been sheep farts !!!

Good point Pete. Much of Erik's old green homestead has been under ice now for a few centuries.

The Medieval Warm Period (MWP) or Medieval Climate Optimum was a time of unusually warm climate in the North Atlantic region, lasting from about the tenth century to about the fourteenth century.

The Vikings took advantage of ice-free seas to colonize Greenland and other outlying lands of the far north. The MWP was followed by the Little Ice Age, a period of cooling that lasted until the 19th century when the current period of global warming began.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/vanishing/

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

So that's why I'm saying that something seems to be broken with the system when the retail cost of an item bears little resemblance to what it costs to produce and sell it.

And this is surprising to you because.....? You are leaving out the part about what the market will bear or demand. The soft drink you get at a restaurant for $2.00 or similar costs the restaurant a few cents. But you and many others choose to pay far more, so they charge that much. Thousands of other things we buy are priced similarly.

Nothing new here really. But since the price of soft drinks aren't on a big sign every other block and they are not reported on daily by the news media, no one cares.

[W3SLK]

Steve said:

And this is surprising to you because.....? You are leaving out the part about what the market will bear or demand. The soft drink you get at a restaurant to $2.00 or similar cost the restaurant a few cents. But you and many others choose to pay far more, so they charge that much. Thousands of other things we buy are priced similarly.

Boy do you got that right! Gasoline is a bargain. Cripes! Look at people paying over $1 for a bottle of 16 oz. water!

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Yea, or $89 for a ready made dipole which amounts to a few dollars of wire and 50 cents worth of insulators. I demand Congress investigate these evil, price gouging, corrupt, greedy antenna manufacturers. They are ruining America!

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

The incredible thing about all this was, that #1 grade kerosene, withthout the road tax, was still more expensive than regular diesel with the tax included.  So why would anyone bother to cheat the government by running a truck on untaxed kerosene when the legal, taxed motor fuel was cheaper?

That's weird, Don. I wonder if it was really "off road" diesel they were using and someone got confused? Here (and probably elsewhere) cheaper diesel is available for off road use like agriculture and so on. They frown strongly on using it in your vehicle, and dye it a different color for this reason. Bob, K1REC (ex N1DQM) was telling a story recently about tanking up at some station using the wrong pump, and how the store owner called the cops on him for fear of being blamed and having the taxman after their store.