Whether we like it or not, during the summer months the price of gasoline rises. The question is why does your local service station charge you more for a fill-up? There are several reasons, all of them easy to understand, but none designed to make you feel better about it.The first one to cite is the one everyone thinks about. Since there are more people traveling the roads of America in more cars than in the winter time, the law of supply and demand is in force and enforced. If nearly everyone has the summer off from work at least for a week or two, and students are out of school, there are places calling and we all must answer. It takes gasoline to get there. And of course, the businesses want every penny they can get for it. Reason number two is always cited by the big oil companies and repeated by the media. During the winter months a certain mixture is used for gasoline and when the hot summer months approach, the mixture must be changed to one designed to burn better in the heat. This necessitates a change over at the refineries in order to produce the summer mixture.Now it only makes sense that when a business, in this case the oil refinery, has to do things differently it will pass any additional costs on to their customers. It costs money to make the switch from summer to winter and, we, the gasoline consumers, get to pay the increased expenses. This is the reason the oil companies like best. After all, they have the control over it.When winter winds are blowing up north and the chill is creeping into the homes where heating oil is used for warmth, there is a sharing of the cost for the oil companies to make a profit. Perhaps Aunt Martha doesn’t drive any more. But she does heat her home. Since she is sharing the burden of providing the oil companies with a big profit, they can afford to charge a few pennies less for gasoline at the pump when fewer people are on the road anyway.There is also the possibility that the South will suffer a hurricane or two. When this happens, hundreds of thousands of residents will have to drive someplace to get away from the dangerous winds and rain. And of course, in places like the gulf beaches and the entire state of Florida, many thousands of tourists are already burning more fuel. If the oil companies waited until a hurricane hit to raise the price at the pump, they could be charged with price gouging. Raising the price at the beginning of summer eliminates this problem for them. They want to make as much profit as possible and to lose any pennies during an evacuation is just unthinkable. So just before June 1 when the hurricane season begins, the prices are raised and continue to climb as summer days melt.As it is, local stations take the risk and raise prices during hurricane evacuations. Some of them even go so far as to run out of’ the cheaper grades immediately and get no more until well after the danger is past. Whether or not this is on purpose is for the consumer to decide.With the increase in the number of cars on the road, the switch to a different mix at the refinery, no money coming in from heating oil, and the desire to profit from the extraordinary increase in use during hurricanes, the oil companies are covered. Of course, they only cite two of these when making their explanation as to the reasons why we pay more at the pump during the summer. Category:Home › Other • Pomegranates: A newly discovered superfood • Where did the joke why did the chicken cross the road come from and why is it funny? • Can mothers diagnosed with bipolar disorder make good parents? • Spiritual evolution of human consciousness • Tips for getting a college basketball scholarship • Living with Pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) • Caring for the caregiver • Technologys impact on society
