Reply #20: Gas up 14 cents here since yesterday, $2.89 now but it gets far worse... [View All]

My wife filled up yesterday morning at $2.75 a gallon (for the cheap stuff). When I filled up at the same station this morning, I paid $2.86. As I was pumping, the station owner walked out to the sign and raised it again...to $2.89.

I stopped the station owner as he walked past the pumps on his way back in and struck up a conversation about gas prices. He told me that he'd already been advised that the destruction and loss of refinery capacity in New Orleans may drive his WHOLESALE prices to $3.50 -$3.75 per gallon in the next two weeks if something isn't done to fix the supply problem (retail prices will be even higher, of course).

Here's what I don't get though. I live in California, and all of our gas is refined in-state and comes from Venezuelan crude. How is the loss of Gulf capacity affecting oil availability HERE?