What happen to the day where you could get gas at a decent price. Who is screwing this up.?

Answer 1

The price of gasoline is dependent primarily on the price of oil, and refining capacity in the U.S.

Refining Capacity
No new oil refineries have been built in the U.S. in the past thirty years. They have been able to keep up with demand for gasoline due to technology improvements, but at some point new refineries will have to be built. Hurricane Katrina knocked out some of our refining capacity and port facilities, thus reducing supply of refined crude oil. So for this piece, blame Mother Nature and the environmental lobby.

Price of Oil
You may not be aware of it (because it is a mainstream media secret), but the U.S. economy is stronger than it ever has been, we are a juggernaut. And, we have been exporting a lot of our jobs to countries like China and India, thus helping stimulate their economies. China and India need to import more oil to support this increase in their economies, and their economies are much less efficient than ours, so they are importing a lot of oil. And that tends to drive up the price of oil, which is now around $75 a barrel. So, blame China and India and others like them.

Also, there is about a $10 "war premium" on the price of oil today due to political instability in the mideast. That is not the fault of George Bush but rather the terrorists. The American presence in the mideast is a moderating effect. You only need to remember what happend prior to Gulf War I in the early 1990's when Saddam Hussein decided to invade Kuwait to see that. For this piece blame the terrorists.

Demand for gasoline in the U.S. is primarily due to automobile use. Many U.S. autos, especially the extremely popular SUVs, are heavy gas guzzlers. Yet Americans still buy them. For this piece blame the American consumer.

So there you have it. The villains in this piece are mother nature, enviro-wackos, China, India, terrorists, and the American consumer.

Answer 2

People need to take some classes in civics.

Gas prices are up because of the tree huggers. They won't allow oil companies to build new refineries or drill for oil. When the supply goes down, the price goes up. It's just that simple.

Blaming the oil companies is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. They work at a much smaller profit margin than most other big businesses. Pharmaceutical companies and banks have a profit margin triple or even quadruple that of the oil companies. Why isn't everyone angry at them? Drug companies have your very life in their hands, and they make 30 - 50 cents on the dollar. The oil companies make an average of nine cents on each dollar.

Answer 3

I can think of four things off the top of my head. 1. Anytime anything happens in the Middle East the folks that buy and sell oil get scared that supplies of oil will go down, that fear makes the price of oil go up. 2. Demand - the more that people want something the more money you can get for it. Demand is going up as countries like China use more oil. That makes the price go up. 3. Profits, the oil companies are making unbelievably huge profits, if their profits were a little less then maybe it would trickle down to lower gas prices. 4. Supplies, there were some disruptions to oil production during Katrina and Rita. At that time gas prices shot up. I saw gas in north Texas at $3.89 a gallon. Most of the capacity in the Gulf of Mexico has been restored, but once gas prices go up, they don't tend to go down. What can we do - use less gas, if we all did it, it would eventually force the prices down or at least keep them from continuing to go up.

Answer 4

you and all the other drivers. Haven't you noticed that over the years the roads have gotten wider and yet traffic has gotten worse not to mention the giant SUVs. Demand is greater than supply.

Higher gas prices is good for the environment. Less Driving Less Pollution

Answer 5

I suspect that gasoline occurs naturally in the Earth and every gas station has a well to this gasoline.It could be an overthrow of the NCR cash register program by hackers.

Answer 6

SUV drivers.

Oil is a limited resource, and we just hemmorrage the stuff out the ears for plastic, gas, energy, blacktop, etc. etc. etc.

So while I personally blame SUV drivers for their blatant disregard for the health of this world that we are borrowing from our grandchildren, the fault lies in us all, because in the end, markets are driven by demand, and since we don't bother to look/shop/use alternatives... we're gonna vomit oil till we dry-heave... and we're just starting to choke... bring it on... 20 dollars a gallon more... money is the only political thing that truly inspires people to change....

Answer 7

I agree with jersha. Shouldn't we be asking: "what can we do about this? what are the solutions?" Rather than pointing the blame? I ride a bike, walk, and take public transportation. It's not always easy, but it fits into my budget, and I save loads of money. Not to mention I am in shape and fit without having to belong to a gym. To be absolutely trite: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Answer 8

It's not one thing. It's the law of supply and demand. Because there are so few refineries in the world, they are at maximum capacity. No more are planned because of strict laws for pollution. (No one wants to live next to one.)

Some were damaged in Katrina.

Then countries like China and India started to drive more, using up more of the capacity.

When something is scarce, the price goes up.

Answer 9

Your government is screwing it up. Bush lets companies like Exxon make 10 billion in profit each year.

Answer 10

well it is called inflation. maybe if we used less the demand would go down and so would the price... but that is kinda asking a lot out of some people