Gasoline price increase has some drivers fuming

Tuesday, February 22, 2000

By JO COLLINS MATHIS NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Gasoline prices hit a record high in Michigan Monday, forcing motorists to dig deeper than ever to fill their tanks.

The state average price jumped 6.3 cents this week alone, to $1.502 per gallon for self-serve, regular gasoline, according to AAA Michigan's weekly Fuel Gauge survey. That's the highest amount recorded since AAA Michigan began tracking gas prices in 1973.

link to entire report:

http://aa.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/20000222agas2.frm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 22, 2000

Answers

I'm on the road alot in W Michigan, from Battle Creek, to Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, Holland. Prices I've seen range from 1.47 to 1.53...sounds about right. Many places hovering at $1.49.

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), February 22, 2000.

Here in CA, just drove past the Chevron station, and the prices were:

Self-serve:

1.549 (regular) 1.649 (mid grade) 1.749 (premium)

Full Serve:

1.749 (regular) 1.849 (mid grade) 2.049 (premium)

PRICES ARE GOING THROUGH THE ROOF HERE!!!

-- No Polly (nopolly@hotmail.com), February 22, 2000.

California--wow! Tops on Superpremium here in Vero Beach, FL is 1.63.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), February 22, 2000.

First of all let me say that I really admire you Carl for your diligence and pesistance in digging up these news articles for us. There is no better source of quick, current news than in this forum thanks to Carl and Homer.

The price here in Miami is hovering around $1.46. I noticed that gas was much cheaper in Tampa ($1.32 more or less) when I was up there last week. NBC predicted $2 per gallon by this summer.

My question is this, (I Hope I don't upset anyone 8)

Do any of you seriously believe that the price of gasoline is connected to y2k? I know the standard line; big corporations would not report it if they were having computer problems or embedded systems problems. However, has anyone found any concrete evidence that there have been embedded problems in oil wells, refineries, pipelines or tankers? I know there have been a lot of problems in all of these categories, but have any of them been shown to be y2k related?

forgive me for a little scepticism, but I have seen little evidence that y2k has affected the economy or the infrastructure. It looks like the stock market is in for a "correction" but it has been due for a downturn since Greespan made his "irrational exubrance" remark in 1996. I see no evidence that it is y2k related.

Just curious what you think.

-- JoseMiami (caris@prodigy.net), February 22, 2000.

Hi Jose. Don't have any direct proof and unlikely to obtain it. Do you really think any govt or corporate spokes person is going to admit that their remediation effort failed? Nobody is admitting to y2k problems. And nobody will. The only evidence we have are from events. I can tell you that experts predicted gas crisis if y2k struck..we've got a gas crisis--many pipeline ruptures and refinery fires--Also databases are going belly up all over the place (that was also a predicted consequence of y2k and y2k remediation efforts)...I think the information on TB2K board is the best evidence of y2k. What would you consider proof of y2k failures?

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 22, 2000.

Thanks Carl. It was hard to maintain vigilance BEFORE the roll-over in the face of all the happy face reporting; it is even harder now. Nevertheless, I am holding on to most of my preps (especially my 300+ gallons of gasoline). I guess we need to "wait and see."

-- JoseMiami (caris@prodigy.net), February 22, 2000.