(06-16-2026 11:12 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(06-16-2026 11:01 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(06-16-2026 01:09 AM)banker Wrote:  The average gas price is being artificial inflated by blue states. For example, today gas in CA was $2.21 a gallon more that Texas. WA, OR, NY, and IL were also well over a dollar more than Texas and almost a dollar more than FL.

They should report average price excluding state and local tax and the number would be under $3.50 today.

The pre-war average was also pulled up by those same states. If you report the average price excluding state and local tax for that to mean anything you'd need to pull that out of the pre-war average price for the numbers to mean anything. Assuming this deal actually happens if we check back in a few months and the overall national average gas price is still above pre war levels but in red states it's actually dropped below pre-war levels then sure you'd have a point.

If you want a fair comparison look up what your states average gas price was before the war started and what it is today. In North Carolina the average price was 2.76 before the war started, today it's 3.65. That's a roughly 32% increase in price. In California the average before the war started was 4.64 before the war, it's 5.71 currently, a roughly 23% increase in price. I'm actually a little surprised the % increase is higher in North Carolina than it has been in California. Checked Mississippi for comparison, pre-war average was 2.53, current average is 3.65 for a 44% increase in price.

He's also completely oblivious to other costs such as delivery and refinery proximity. Those play a huge role.

Ok let's see............ you have a random commodity that is distributed in 51 different geographies.....

That random commodity costs each geographic X Dollars, but then each Geographic applies an extra charge to that original cost - for the sake of argument, lets call that a .... oh I dunno .... a Tax.

Now the new cost of that commodity changes in each of those Geographies but not in the same way as each geography adds a different tax.

The average gas tax per state average is $0.33 per gallon
California leads the way with an average of $0.71 per gallon

The calculates to a pre tax national average of $3.76 - per gallon. Sorry Banker - higher than the $3.50 you estimated.... but I digress.

So.... what can we determine from this ???? The more taxes you add, the higher your cost and THUS the higher the national average calculation. You don't like the word "artificial".... Ok fine.... we can use "arbitrary" instead?




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For the record the Whole Sale price per gallon of gas is approximately $2.91 per gallon. That is the same base for everyone in the country.