Tiny Fuel Margins and Daily Profits

When gas prices skyrocket, do station owners get a windfall? And where do their profits really come from? Zachary Crockett pulls up to the pump.

• SOURCES:
  • Garrett Golding, assistant vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
  • Jeetander P. Sethi, founding member of the American Petroleum and Convenience Store Association.
  • Kai Trimble-Lea, owner of a B.P. gas station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

• RESOURCES:
  • "Top Numbers Driving America's Gasoline Demand," by Lem Smith (American Petroleum Institute, 2022).
  • "Electric Cars Are Coming. How Long Until They Rule the Road?" by Brad Plumer, Nadja Popovich and Blacki Migliozzi (The New York Times, 2021).
  • "Petroleum & Other Liquids," (U.S. Energy Information Administration).

• EXTRAS:
  • "In the 1890s, the Best-Selling Car Was … Electric," by Freakonomics Radio (2022).
  • "Is it Too Late for General Motors to Go Electric?" by Freakonomics Radio (2020).

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