Highest 1-week jump in gas prices in 2 years
Gas prices in Oregon have jumped more than 16 cents in the last week – the most dramatic spike over that time period in nearly two years.
Still, even with the rise, Oregon’s gas prices remain below the national average, AAA officials said Tuesday in a news release. The price for a gallon of unleaded gas is $3.51 a gallon, compared with the national average of $3.53.
Officials say the rising costs are largely because of higher crude oil prices and the rise of mid-continent retail gasoline prices.
According to AAA, the last time gas prices rose so rapidly was between Feb. 25, 2011, and March 4, 2011, amid fears of gas supply disruption in Northern Africa and the Middle East.
Whole gas prices on the West Coast have skyrocketed more than 50 cents a gallon since mid-January, according to AAA. This region is in the middle of the refinery maintenance and the turnaround season to summer gasoline, officials said.
To the "big oil" complainers, the price of college tuition brought to us by "Big Education" has increased   12 fold  in the last 30 years. Far ahead of medical expenses, consumer goods and food for the same time period. Big Education a has been allowed to increase  1,120 percent!  But oddly enough,  we hardly ever hear the liberal media or liberal politicians complain about the grotesque profit margins of Big Education.Â
 @last boyscout The only part wrong in your argument is that no one is reporting on it.  The NYTimes has been doing op ed pieces for a long time now on the cost of education, even calling out private universities with their well above average loan default rates.  The "Cordon Bleu" downtown was singled out specifically as one of the worst offenders.
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The other half of the story on public universities is WHY the costs are increasing so fast for the students. Â The primary driver? Â Loss of public funds.Â
 @Festivus Doesn't answer the question, why SO expensive? Never mind where the funds originate, why so dam n much cash for the service provided? And how about the scam where you can't use the books from the last student, where the "professor" is the author, and intentionally changes the book or the curriculum to force new students to buy THEIR new book? Sounds like a scam by any other business, doesn't it?Â
 @last boyscout Sure, that's a scam, and one that's been around as long as higher education.  We were bitching about it when I was in school.  That hasn't changed and doesn't explain the rise compared to earlier times. Â
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Here's a recent NPR discussion on the topic. Â You can draw your own conclusions. Â
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http://www.npr.org/2012/06/26/155766786/whats-driving-college-costs-higher
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Wow it's a good thing we have oil market speculators who can help with the price of ...OH Crap Wait ..
Ever look at it like this we are a heard and the oil company's are not just the butchers but the blood suckers living off the heard??
You know what they hate solar powered charging stations for cars..
How dare you use an energy source that is free and they can't charge..
 @uknow2 Funny how the power companies charge for power derived from free water flowing through the Bonneville Generators. Whether is originates from the Sun, the Rivers or below the ground, it's never "free" to turn it into a usable resource. Â
Less emphasis on electric charging stations for cars that are overpriced and more on getting gas prices down.
 @Pointblank @ Because if we give even more money to oil company's they will...
Ah still over charge the heck out of us...
Ever feel the truth is point blank..
Now look at the price of gas in a country that said hell no this is our oil out of our ground we will keep the profit and charge our citizens what is fair...
Venezuela gas is about .29 cents a gallon...
plus they send about 500,000 gallons of heating oil to the US every year for heating for the poor campaign..
Not so much from exxon or bp or chevron..
 @uknow2 Gas is .29 cents because that's all they can afford to pay, those that can afford a car. And the heating oil the donate to us, multiply that tenfold then quadruple that, and they might be in the running to match the (least) amount of foreign aid that America has given to it's smallest benefactor.
Can anyone seriously believe these transparent rationalizations? "Refinery maintenance and turnaround season." This is not the oil companies' first time around the block. Such things can be scheduled to minimize disruption (if they're even occurring at all). Instead, I blame both the oil companies and media like KATU and other brainless "news" outlets that simply feed the public these lines without one word of critical analysis or commentary. The more likely truth is that it's gouging season and the oil companies know they can do this without accountability by simply getting the media to trot out the same tired excuses to mask their greed.
 @NWGuy So true..
Yeah. Thanks Obama. Thanks a lot. Thanks for not approving the pipeline. Thanks for sucking up to OPEC. Thanks for not giving a shi* about the American people. Thanks for not allowing our own American companies to drill for our own oil supply. Thanks for nothing Obama. Thanks to you Obama, the price of gas is nearly twice what is was when you were first sworn in. And thanks to the liberals that voted for this guy.
 @last boyscout Maybe if you weren't driving a SUV, you wouldn't have to pay for so much gas, hypocrite.
 @last boyscout Plus it shows how you know nothing of the market and its manipulation. Private interests or quasi [Petrobas, COC, etc] control and set the global market. Until we detach from the global market [thank you long dead conservatives/communist haters aka Reagan], we are at their whim.
 @last boyscout dude, you could drive 55 everywhere, but you would probably complain about that too and how liberals are the enema of you. Liberals and conservatives equally love money, that's whats at stake here. The last organic fuel binge before the wave of future hits and creates new oligarchs.
 @last boyscout You're such a dumbass sometimes.
 @Festivus Come on Festivus, we need not resort to name calling. Sure, I disagree with you on many things, but I'd rather just exchange ideas rather than disparaging innuendos. You're better than that, heII, you're probably a better man than I.Â
 @last boyscout Not much I can say in my own defense.  Some days I just don' t have the energy to play nice. Â
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I'll try not to let it happen again, and finish with a reminder that the all time price record for gasoline happened under the watch of one of the most petroleum friendly presidents in history.
 @Festivus Ha ha ha ha sometimes???
you make me laugh...Â
Well, I hope you Obama voters are proud of yourselves - this is what we PREDICTED would happen if he made it back into office.
 @Whobeke Well, I hope you Obama voters are proud of yourselves - this is what we PREDICTED AND PLANNED...
Wow the truth Will set you free...
 @Whobeke Definitely Obama's fault.  I also blame Obama for global warming, rising prices of chocolate, and my cat being stuck in a tree.
Like gas prices, and all prices, weren't already sky high. Where are you living, Mars??????
'Gas prices in Oregon have jumped more than 16 cents in the last week'Â Â Funny, the prices around where I live have jumped .20 - .25 cents per gallon.
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I find it interesting that the prices started climbing right after BP got fined 4 billion dollars.
"Highest 1-week jump in gas prices in 2 years" Thankfully, due to my superior intellect and enlightenment, I made the decision, several years ago, to start commuting via unicycle.
Gas prices declined steadily for a year and no articles to be found. Â Then suddenly it rises a bit and OMG OIL CRISIS
In Oklahoma gas is still $2.65 a gal.
 @uknow2 They're saying the same thing about Oregon in California.
The oil giants has been accused of rigging gas prices before.
U.S. regulators are investigating claims that BP and exxon manipulated the gas market in 2008, according to Reuters.
The company BPÂ was also fined by the Justice Department for allegedly rigging the propane market in 2004.
So I think they are good at it..
Our politicians punished the bankers for ripping off consumers and punished Wall Street for ripping off consumers,  I guess two out of three isn't bad.  Unfortunately, the banks and Wall street were not punished.  After our politicians threatened them, they just found other ways to screw the consumer.  It looks like the oil companies must be  putting more dollars into their bought and paid for politicians than the banks and Wall Street did.  Thus, we will continue to get ripped off by the oil companies with the blessing of the White House and all other politicians.  So much for coming out of the recession as they have been telling us for several weeks.
News reports show BP execs manipulated oil prices and an worker who was fired for talking about it..
An ex-BP worker is accusing his former employer of manipulating gas prices.
Drew Sickinger, BPâs former head of gas liquids trading, is suing the gas giant, claiming that the company fired him so that it could manipulate the market and gouge prices, according to Bloomberg..
The pipe might be strait..
But the people running the show are as crooked as they come...
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 @nwipac Right, I will sell my house so I can move closer to work. I don't think I need to tell you what a idiotic statement you made.
 @nwipac Yes, and you're obviously one of Portland's limousine liberals, who have the luxury of choosing to ride a bike as a moral statement rather than simply a chosen means of transportation. Put yourself in the shoes of working class folks with kids, who must work two jobs to stay afloat, who buy groceries not at Whole Foods but at WinCo, and must take kids to schools, doctors appointments and sport activities, who don't have advanced degrees, who feel lucky they have any job at all, who can't afford a house in the fashionable Pearl or the close-in and trendy Alberta District, and who can't live your "superior" lifestyle. You are blind to your self-centred insularity.
 @nwipac If gas goes up which it will soon to 5 bucks plus a gallon so your cost to ride a bus and the food you eat gonna go up.Hope you like a 7 bucks all day pass from trimet  and  and 200  bucks a month pass........
@nwipac
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And with those higher gas prices, the oil companies will have more incentive to drill in sensitive areas like ANWR. Be careful for what you wish for.
 @nwipac Some people have to commute to work. Go to hell.
 @randomdude  @nwipacÂ
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You don't HAVE to; you CHOOSE to. It's a lifestyle choice when you really think about it.
 @Whobeke  @randomdude  @nwipac Yes, I too prefer taking 3 hours to take mass transit or riding 25 miles on I-205 on a bike.
I'm glad we don't have a windfall profits tax on the oil industry. I'm glad we subsidize oil exploration. The oil companies are always looking out for the little guy...
Oilcompanies don't make "windfall" profits their margins are usually under 10 % for windfall profits you need to go after the tech industry, Apple, Microsoft Cisco etc. We don't "subsidize" oil exploration any more than we "subsidize" busines expenses for any other business. there are special allowances to allow small independents the ability to write off expenditures the year they are expended but other than that there aren't any "special" subsudies unlike "green"Â energy producers.Â
 @Tonk Right.
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http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/30/news/companies/exxon_earnings/index.htm
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/business/04bptax.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
 @moej  @Max Quinn  @Tonk So they were able to write off $8 billion in profit because they paid NO tax....
You know kinda like when you hire some poor schmoÂ
 @Max Quinn  @Tonk read them, and I fail to see any actual subsidy. The oil companies are allowed to write of business expenses (like the cost of equipment and exploration) the same way any other business gets a "subsidy" when they hire an employee and get to write off the wages as a business expense.Â
Oil companies, keep raising the gas prices. They know your holiday schedule, winter break, spring break and summer travel season. They have high technology tools to check your local traffic in all major cities such as google earth traffic reports around the world and other things. Enjoy squeezing your wallet. The cheapest way is to ride your bike, take public transit and walk.
 @Michael R. Newton Sure wouldn't have anything to do with supply and demand right? Winter break, spring break and summer TRAVEL season, everyone hits the road and uses more fuel.
 @Michael R. NewtonÂ
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Yes, it is something akin to the Christian calendar that reflects the solar cycle except the seasons of oil revolve around holiday travel.
Yeah, yeah, yeah...it's getting to be time for the oil execs to start getting ready for their summer cruises, beach houses, yachts, race cars and such.
Aw come on. They know it's refund time and have found a way of getting it back. I agree with most. It is all about spring break. If I worked my job like Politicians I would be fired. Where do I go to get my share of the bounty?
@irsmart ----Go into politics.