On Tue, 19 Aug 2003, William Noll wrote:

>     Gas prices in the Phoenix area (and apparently in other states, also)
> have increased due to market forces (supply and demand) we are being
> told. Fair enough. But in theory, a shortage here due to a pipeline break
> should mean a glut somewhere else... Like Tucson... If prices there are
> not down to about 50 cents / gallon, then the gas station owners'
> argument falls flat. So what are Tucson gas prices? Price gouging may not
> be illegal, but price fixing and collusion in competitive markets is.
> Unfortunately, neither our Governor, nor Attorney General, have the spine
> to make the necessary phone calls to break the bureacratic red tape (and
> foot-dragging) to get the supply running again. And when it's over, then
> what? Will she have the courage to go against her Environmentalist
> supporters and make positive changes to the fuel delivery system in this
> state? Oh yea, this was off-topic!
> 
> Bill

Well, while our gas prices down here in Tucson are not approaching $4 a
gallon like I saw on the news last night about Phoenix, they are running
close to $1.70, up from close to $1.50 before the gas pipeline break.  Most
of that jump happened within about 2 or 3 days just after the pipeline break
story broke - coincidence?  The shortage may be having a small affect here in
Tucson since apparently, our gas terminals are being saturated by tankers
from the Phoenix area - tankers distributing gas locally are competing with
those transporting it up to Phoenix and so there is some difficulty meeting
the demand.  I have not seen any stations that did not have gas, however.

I also heard a guest on one of the morning radio shows while driving in to
work talking about the Phoenix situation.  Supposedly, 70% of the gas
delivered in Phoenix comes from California, and the remainder comes through
Tucson via the pipeline, presumably.  So, that leads to the question of why
there appears to be such a shortage - there should be at least 70% of the
supply intact with considerable of the remaining 30% being supplied via
tanker instead of pipeline from Tucson.  Something smells fishy around
here....  I've heard stories on this listserve about passing 4 or 5 closed
stations before finding one with a long line - are you having the same
trouble adding this equation up as I am?

And the required geocaching part of this otherwise off-topic post: It's not
the gas situation that has kept me from going geocaching, just too many other
things going on around here!  Did anyone see the repeat of Enterprise last
week?  Some of the crew were descending into a cave on an alien planet
chasing some alien scientists that needed to be found and removed from the
planet before the bad guys of the week closed the planet to them and during
the descent, one of the crew finds a little tupperware-like container with
some rock samples in it.  My son thought I was nuts (as usual) as I exclaimed
"Hey, a geocache!"

Jim.

Jim Scotti
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA                 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/