Monday, August 28, 2006

A Bad Case of Gas


When I was coming back from Denver the other day,
I stopped in Vail. I was curious as to how much gas
cost there since it's typically one of the most expensive
places in the state to buy gas.

$3.35 per gallon - Regular Unleaded

The other two gas stations at that exit didn't even
show what their prices were. I guess if you have to
ask, you can't afford. If you're from California, you're
saying..."So What?" But this is Colorado, and I would
like to think that most people in Colorado wouldn't
want to rip each other off. Ok...I'm naive. I also
understand that it does cost a bit more to get gas
into the mountains. However, this was the price today
for gas in Grand Junction:

$2.76 per gallon - Regular Unleaded

How can you justify a 59 cent extra charge for a few
thousand feet of elevation? Somebody in Vail is getting
rich and a whole lot of people are getting ripped off.

On this blog, I've been pretty tough on places like
Vail. But you know what? Somebody in this state has
to be tough on places like Vail, Aspen, Telluride...even
Estes Park. The state media giants in places like Denver
sold their souls to the ski industry a long time ago.
The ski and tourism industries in these places
do nothing but worship the almighty dollar and for
years and years have ripped the little guy off. It's not
going to stop today, and probably not tomorrow. But
even though these are beautiful places are in Colorado,
people need to take their dollars elsewhere...especially
to lesser known places in Colorado. Sterling, Springfield,
Cortez, Pueblo, Trinidad, Craig, Rangely...even Grand
Junction. I know most of these aren't the most glamorous
places around, but they have nice people living there, and
have attractions in their own right...and you know what?
When you leave these towns, you probably won't feel
like you've been ripped off.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sterling? Craig? Springfield? Those are unusual tourist destinations. Grand Junction, on the other hand, has Colorado National Monument, among other attractions.

What I don't understand, as a resident of Rifle, is why our gasoline is higher here than it is in Parachute, Meeker, and Glenwood Springs. It's still $3.24 a gallon. That's the real ripoff.

I lived in Summit County one summer, and the main thing I gained from that experience was a feeling that it was wrong for so many people to live at that altitude year-round. Every ski town is a drain on the environment.

Anonymous said...

I could be wrong (it happened once before) but I believe the prices are dependent on the distance from the nearest fuel farm (I believe that is the term for several fuel tanks together) and the size of that fuel farm. The shipping doesn't actually cost that much, but if you are a long ways from the fuel or your town has to be refueled more often, the gas costs more. Then again, maybe it's some greedy bastard that needs a kick in the balls.

Tom said...

You are a wise man, Ben!