When gas jumps should you freak out?

The quick answer is NO. Yes this past week the price went up 6 cents over night and then another 2 cents the following day. Why did so many people freak out? 98% of life is how you react to when happens. I was happy that I had bought gas on the weekend and so didn't need to pay any fuel till the Friday night and at the same price as I paid on the Sunday when I bough a full tank of it.

I guess that if you had to pay that $139.6 a liter you would be mad that you hadn't fueled up sooner. But there lays the problem. I personally fill up my car to the top each time I get gas. I don't like going to the gas station every other day. I do drive about 600 kilometers a week. My car can reach about 550 kilometers per tank and a tank holds about 40 liters of fuel. So its not amazing on fuel, but much better than my larger station wagon.

But the better question is why are their unregulated speculators allowed to play with the price of gas? Why are gas companies being allowed to play a part in that speculation? Why are gas prices even traded on the stock market? We don't buy milk, water, wine, beer or even Apple juice like that. Why are we buying gas based on the price in the stock market?

My trucking company doesn't pay the going daily rate for diesel fuel. They pay a rate based upon the amount they consume as decided on. So then the price for fuel stays the same for the length of the contract. Lets say a year. So for 365 days the price stays the same. Then after the year is up, they find a new rate for the fuel. Why can't the private consumer do the same? Why can we sign a contract with a station say Esso to buy their gas for the year based on how much fuel we consume in a year for a static rate?

I would love to have a diesel powered car and then take advantage of their rate! Mmmm not a lot of options: Smart, VW, or some truck.

Better yet! Remove the unregulated speculators from playing with the price of fuel. Remove the guessing of where prices will be and allow the people buying the gas to decided what they are willing to pay. If station "x" is selling at $140.0 and station "y" wants to sell @ $100.00 then station "y" will get my business.