OT: What's going on with gas prices in Houghton Lake?

Submitted by stephenrjking on
So a couple of tweets came across the bow this evening from Patrick DeHaan, courtesy of Michigan Alum meteorologist Ryan Maue. Apparently there's a gas price war in Houghton Lake. The low price, as of two hours ago?

$ 0.48 per gallon.

I'm on a tablet and can't embed, so here's the link. Who's up for a road trip?

https://twitter.com/gasbuddyguy/status/688900279144677376

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Mark VanDoren

January 17th, 2016 at 11:16 PM ^

The numbers are true.

My dad runs a resort on the west shore of Houghton Lake.  Today, he said that M-55 (the main road through town) is closed near this gas station.; it's due to customer traffic.  The store is called B&B.  It's near the intersection of M-55 and US-127.

My family has a long history in Houghton Lake.  Tip Up Town is on tap for the next two weekends in Houghton Lake.  Perhaps this is a marketing tactic to attract attenton to the region.  We've seen some good gas prices there, but nothing like this.

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Roughneck

January 17th, 2016 at 11:29 PM ^

Although I know the majority of the population love the low gas prices, it sure makes life hard on those of us who work in the Oilfield.  Laid off a year ago and still looking for fulltime work.  Its been rough on the whole family.

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aratman

January 18th, 2016 at 11:55 AM ^

I am sorry that you are having job problems, but if the oil prices were not being artificially inflated you wouldn't have had a job to begin with.  The real estate bubble is blamed for the number of jobs lost, I have always thought it had more to do with oil speculators doubling the price of gas in 2 years.   Thank you for forcing the hand of OPEC, but that was all that was going on.

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Hail-Storm

January 18th, 2016 at 1:29 PM ^

in 2008 to a deep sea oil drilling equipment company.  They were rolling in money, with all sorts of bonuses and incredible pay.  One guy I was on the interview with, took a job and then had another offer when he went to church the first week he was there.  

Just appears that no industry is safe.  Maybe consider heading to Michigan? there are tons of jobs here.  Our company is having a hard time finding good people.

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DreisbachToHayes

January 17th, 2016 at 11:56 PM ^

Holy crap, so you are telling me that the gas station is not actually taking one cent for their gas?  They are literally taking a 100% loss?

It seems to me that if the poster above (the local guy) would be correct in his theory this could be the result of an effort to get publicity for the region, it seems like someone or someones must be footing some portion of the bill.  A local gas station owner losing that much money to try to generate pub for the region just doesn't add up.

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Don

January 18th, 2016 at 12:38 AM ^

Bingo. It's a very short-lived PR gambit. Sounds like it's already paid off, at least in the short term.

A friend of mine owned a Shell station in Ypsi a bunch of years ago, and one time he dropped his gas prices to below cost as a marketing ploy, and very quickly he was contacted by the Shell corporate people telling him they'd cut him off if he didn't raise his prices back to where they'd been.

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rob f

January 18th, 2016 at 12:37 AM ^

Gas Buddy for Houghton Lake and the lowest price I saw was $1.47 at two stations, then $1.48 at two others. The others in the area are 1.59 or higher.

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BlueinLansing

January 18th, 2016 at 1:53 AM ^

Coming back on line, global slow down in demand, opec nations unwilling to cut production due to their own budget shortfalls, oil and directly gasoline should remain cheap for several weeks if not months. Expect geo political issues to arise to help spike the price a bit, along with the usual questionable maintenance shutdowns at us refineries in the next few weeks.

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Black Socks

January 18th, 2016 at 2:01 AM ^

Remember how oil was supposed to be gone by 2016? Newsflash - oil is not a fossil fuel, it's abiotic and we will never run out. It's continually being made in the earth.

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slaunius

January 18th, 2016 at 11:26 AM ^

Not sure if you're being serious here.

Anyone who said oil would run out by 2016 was an idiot - you're attacking a strawman. That said, we are certainly using it at a greater rate than the earth "creates" it, and easily tappable reserves will eventually be depleted, probably in the next 50 years.

And oil is most definitely a fossil fuel.

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MGoRob

January 18th, 2016 at 10:28 AM ^

The Russian-Ukrainian theory of deep, abiotic petroleum origins and Thomas Gold's deep gas theory have mostly been invalidated.  Sorry to burst your bubble.

But I'll give you credit, it is still plausible.  However, given the amount oil deposits on Earth, I don't believe one can account for it ALL being abiotic.  And it certainly isn't in infinite quantities as the OP was suggesting.

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blue in dc

January 18th, 2016 at 5:04 PM ^

Apparently economic geologists (who typically work for extractive industries) are among scientists most skeptical of climate change. The Geology Society of America on the other hand has a position statement consistent with humans being the largest contributor to recent climate change.

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Clarence Beeks

January 18th, 2016 at 6:32 PM ^

And more nuanced than your description, as well. Organizationally, yes, with respect to GSA, but it's a lot like how union leadership endorses candidates/policies that don't always represent the rank and file. As a sed strat / coastal processes guy, I know almost no in the field (in either academia, private research, or government) that supports that position. In other words, definitely not limited to the economics and possible ties to interests (because there are no corporate interests interested in coastal processes, I can assure you of that).



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blue in dc

January 18th, 2016 at 9:13 PM ^

1. Do you think that greenhouse gases impact climate? If so, is C)2 an important greenhouse gas? 2. Do you think that CO2 levels are increasing? 3. If so, do you think that the increase in CO2 is largely due to burning fossil fuels? 4. If you do agree with the above, is the reason that you are not concerned about the increase because you think the impact that changes in CO2 can have is negligible?

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