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I drove by a sign on I-95 south of Richmond yesterday and swore it was a mistake...large LCD billboard advertising gas at $4.999 and diesel at $4.059, I thought that they had swapped prices and that they were a bit high for the region (higher than I would have considered paying). I even noted some "East Coast" brand stations yesterday that appeared to have run out or quit selling gasoline as their pumps were off and no fuel price was advertised.
Then I go to GasBuddy and check out their Richmond gas prices web site. HOLY CRAP the market schizophrenia is unbelievable.
Regular gasoline ranges from $3.49 to $4.49 (not sure what happened to $4.99?) and diesel ranges from $3.88 to $4.69.
It seems that most of the pricing is toward the lower end of the range (don't have full data available to analyze) as there's more large jumps within the highest-priced 15 stations than there is within the lowest-priced 15 stations.
There must be some hurricane-related fallout as that's the only thing that can explain refined product price volatility like this. It isn't as pronounced as after Katrina (I had to drive from GA to SW-VA within a week after Katrina and almost had to stay the night in Charlotte because an open gas station was a RARE find) so it probably won't last as long or affect as many consumers. I do believe that some (not all) supply chains are affected temporarily and that might be why some places have either shut down or jacked prices but not others.
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