In today's Crude Reality Bob van der Valk writes that while everybody wants clean air, California's  callow enforcement of CARB's EVR mandate for "dripless" gas nozzles during an economic downturn is driving small gas stations into serious financial trouble. Read all about it.

Bob van der Valk to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger – Capitol Building – Sacramento, CA

April 1, 2009

Today anywhere from 1000 to 4500 gas station owners will have to make a decision to close down or pay hefty fines to their local air quality management districts. They did not meet the deadline imposed by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) mandate, which requires all service station owners in California to install new enhanced vapor recovery (EVR) nozzles and scrubbers to capture 98% instead of the current 95% gasoline vapor emissions.

Oil prices have jumped by $14 a barrel in the last 30 days while gas prices have declined by a dime.

Today, UCAN's Gas Project at www.fueltracker.com reported a slight rise in the price of gasoline this morning of one-tenth of a penny to an average of $2.168 a penny.

"It isn't much," says Charles Langley, Manager of UCAN's Gas Project, "but it is statistically significant and represents the reversal of a steady price decline that started on February 19, 2009." At that time, says Langley, gasoline in San Diego averaged $2.285 a gallon.

When Hoyt Axton's mother wrote the lyrics to Heartbreak Hotel, she was inspired by a real-life suicide note that began "I walk a lonely street." In the last 34 days, oil prices have increased by 50%. Meanwhile gas prices have actually dropped. This deflation can't last long. In Today's CRUDE REALITY, Bob van der Valk says its "Heartbreak Hotel Time" for gasoline ... meaning, we suppose, that with demand down lower than ever, WE could be walking (not driving) lonely streets with very high gas prices. Get the Crude Reality at http://www.fueltracker.com/crude-reality

Gasoline speculators were caught with their pants down this morning, and now they've lost their shirts.

In today's Crude Reality report, Bob van der Valk notes that the closely watched national inventories for gasoline from the Dept. of Energy (DOE) are higher than expected by a jaw-dropping 3.2 million barrels, suggesting that consumers continue to buy less gas while the oil industry continues to over-produce.

Oregon's Governor Theodore Kulongoski is studying a horrifically bad tax concept that is little more than a love-letter to Big Oil.  He wants the state to study the idea of taxing drivers for using less fuel.

Can you smell it?   It's something rotten in the State of California ...  and the smell is coming from the bloated carcass of a dying Bakersfield refinery which has been driven into bankruptcy by Shell.

On Friday, UCAN's gas project, which is more sensitive than other gas monitoring services, showed a slight uptick in gas prices of one-tenth of a cent, reversing six months of steady price declines from San Diego's all-time high of $4.64 a gallon in mid-June.

For three weeks now, UCAN has been saying that gas prices were near a bottom, and that the bottom was about to get spanked.