Usually when I get gas I call my mom, but today I was in a hurry and it was not a convenient call time. That and I'd just talked to my mom a couple days ago.
When I got back to my abode eventually I woke up my computer and saw email with a couple Facebook messages. Why does Facebook send me these type emails telling me someone has mentioned me on Facebook? I suppose I could find a way to make it stop if I wanted to spend the time doing so.
So, I went to Facebook and eventually saw that which you see here, Miss Chris Sampson bragging about filling her tank for $44 at a measly $2.49 a gallon for regular unleaded.
Miss Sampson lives in Washington, the Seattle suburb of Kent to be specific.
The last time I was in Washington gas was nearing 5 bucks a gallon. At that point in time gas in Texas was well under $4.
So, why is gas now cheaper in Washington than it is in Texas?
I suppose it has something to do with all those new oil wells being drilled in Washington, producing oodles of oil.
No, that's wrong. Not a drop of oil has ever come out of the ground in Washington. It is Texas that is currently pumping oodles of oil, creating an oil boom in West Texas and other Texas locales.
Oil from Alaska used to arrive for refining in Washington. I know new oil is incoming from North Dakota and the refineries in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley have amped up their producing ability, which is one of the reasons why the economy of the Skagit zone is booming.
I don't see how that incoming North Dakota oil would be making Washington gas cheaper than Texas gas. That sure was not the case when Alaskan oil was incoming.
The volatile gas price is perplexing....
Actually oil HAS been produced in Washington, north of Ocean Shores. There wasn't a lot and it shut down in 1962 (a couple of years after Ocean Shores started. See http://www.dnr.wa.gov/ResearchScience/Topics/EarthResources/Pages/oil_gas_resources.aspx I suspect that bit of oil doesn't explain their low prices. More likely, all the local towns are objecting to oil train transport through their towns and so it piles up and gets sold cheap locally. Kind of like okra in Texas. Nobody wants to buy armadillos.
ReplyDeleteMore on the oil. According to the USGS, the Sunshine Medina well just north of Ocean Shores produced 12000 barrels of oil. They never went beyond the exploratory well. It is AMAZING what pops up on the Internet nowadays!
ReplyDelete$2.89 a gallon in Puyallup at the ARCO on Meridian.
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