Have you noticed all the E85 flex fuel cars popping up on the roads? We also have alot of SUVS and Pickups driven in winter here – many are diesels.

That’s particularly true here in CA… Our prices are somewhat unique compared to nearby states, since we have our own formulation.

As to your actual question, I wonder if public transit use isn’t more volatile in CA. Prices plummeted, riders realized they could drive cheap again, and they’ve been slowly bailing on their newfound love of transit. Just a guess.

Regarding the monopoly money, I would expect that to increase the price of oil as well, which hasn’t happened yet… And inflation tends to hit wages later than goods, so I would think that it has little to do with “proving it’d bear a higher price”.

Curmudgeon,

I hadn’t heard about refinery capacity going down, that could definitely be an issue. Shouldn’t a strong dollar help imports, thought? A weak dollar helps exports (which is why we’re [meaning politicians] upset at the Chinese for letting the yuan weaken alongside the dollar).

Also I heard a story that some refinery operations are down for scheduled maintainance, hence less production.

Also the strong dollar may have made imported gasoline more expensive, hence less available.

Finally with unemployment rising and hence less commuting and trucking I suspect demand destruction is continuing, but at what point a gas producer needs to and can raise prices to offset volume loss I can’t say.

Could it simply be that the last spike to $4 plus proved the market would bear a higher price in many areas? I know – for myself at least – that gasoline and travel by automobile is a fairly inflexible expense. When gasoline becomes more expensive, I tend to shift the extra burden toward limiting other expenses. I’m not saying I’m thrilled about the exchange, but I still chose to drive when gasoline was over four dollars a gallon, I simply drove less when I could.

That’s not to say that there aren’t other factors that could be moving the price in California. Any recent green legislation? None comes to mind, but I haven’t followed that much.

Also, it makes me wonder if the CPI and other measures are moving up in general yet. All the Monopoly money being printed by both parties has got to start inflating prices at some point.