Fueling profits

Bay Shore, L.I.: When the price of oil was was $147.27 per barrel, gas stations in North Merrick

Susan Walsh/AP charged $4.299 per gallon of regular gas. If you remove the standard state tax of 31.9 cents per gallon, that would be $3.98 per gallon. The price of a barrel of oil on Dec. 10 settled at $60.94, less than half the previous price. Yet we are still paying around $2.80 per gallon of gasoline. That’s a bargain compared to what we have paying for the past few years. But based on my calculations, the price of gasoline, including tax, should be $1.969. Where is this excess profit of 83 cents per gallon going? Watch the various oil companies announce their fourth-quarter dividends for 2014. Gary Eisele