“Tariff-Fried Gasoline and the Great Lake Geneva Shakedown: How Trump’s 10% Tar Sands Tax Became a License to Steal”

Lake Geneva gas stations take advantage of President Trump’s 10% tariffs on crude oil from the tar sands of Canada. Leaping 10% despite crude oil futures falling over $10/bbl in the last four days. Falling from $71/bbl on April 2 to $61/bbl on April 8^th.

Lake Geneva has always had high gasoline prices relative to neighboring communities, and with Kwik Trip now setting the price in town even more so through there seem to be no shortage of customers willing to pay the higher price. As Amazon founder Jeff Besos has pointed out what he is really selling is convenience not price.

Price was $3.19/gallon in Lake Geneva and $2.79/gallon in Kenosha and ever lower at Costco in Pleasant Prairie outside Kenosha if paying with the firm’s credit card kicking back 5% to make a spread of 50 cents/ gallon.

Your correspondent is amazed how many residents he comes across at Costco, but it should not be a surprise since 100 million people are members of Costco. Not only has it always paid a living wage, now $31/hour with great benefits but it did not bend the knee to President Trump’s gangster tactics to eliminate DEI.

Canada currently accounts for 60% of U.S. total oil imports and its share has grown sharply over the past several decades to 24% of total U.S. oil consumption.

U.S. refineries have increased their use of the relatively cheaper Canadian oil, thanks to cross-border pipelines that are delivering heavy crude directly to refineries that are designed to process it.

“For these refineries, particularly those in the Midwest, moving away from Canadian heavy crude would leave them with high retooling costs or dependent on alternative sources such as Venezuela or the Middle East, exposing them to geopolitical risks,” the Royal Bank of Canada said.

Lake Geneva’s representative in Congress Brian Steil has decided not to have any more town hall meetings after republicans across the nation have gotten rather nasty feedback from their constitutes at town halls. Instead, he has decided to have “town halls” on the phone.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is encouraging Republican lawmakers to skip town halls that have been filled with protesters decrying the Trump administration’s slashing of federal government.

The Republicans are finding themselves in an unusual spot — defending the deep budget cuts they have campaigned on for years, but have rarely been able to accomplish because the reductions cut into federal programs and services Americans in their districts rely on.