Are You Being Screwed??

No, this isn't a spoof about the PBS British "comedy" show, "Are you being served?" . This is my regularly scheduled bitch about the price of gas.

Friday, my son and I drove to Norfolk, Virginia to pick up a load of surplus that I had purchased. A few minutes after leaving home, we stopped for gas at a Valero station just inside the Virginia border. Gas there was $2.86 a gallon, the cheapest gas that I would see all day. Gas at the corner store near home in North Carolina was selling for $2.95. The gas tax in North Carolina is 12 cents higher in North Carolina than Virginia. I thought that gas would be cheaper in Virginia. Short answer, I was wrong.

Worst example was in Emporia where US 58 intersects with I-95. Travelers are getting screwed so badly here that there is KY jelly at the gas pumps. Gas in Emporia ranged from $3.03 to $3.10 a gallon. Wait! Before we all leap to conclusions and decide that travelers are being raped by oil companies in Emporia, let's look around. I drove two miles further down US 58 and found a station selling gas for $2.89. Is it a coincidence that Exxon reports record profits every quarter??

By the time we got to South Hill where 58 meets I-85, I was primed for a rant on more traveler screwing. Wrong again. At the South Hill intersection, gas ranged from $2.86 to $3.01. Not as high as Emporia, but in the same range as at home. What's going on here?? Don't bother asking anyone in the gas business!

So if anyone from Exxon, BP, Shell or any of the other multinational rapists reads this, here's a simple question. With a gas tax that is 12 cents lower, why is gas selling for 15 cents a gallon more in Emporia, Virginia than Caswell County, North Carolina???

I realize that this is only a dream, but possibly someone in government might consider taking some kind of action on this situation. Memo, don't hold your breath!