why are gas prices so high?

Question

why is gas prices so high all of a sudden?

not even 2 months ago the gas prices for regular was only $2.12.......and now it's up to $3.17

why are gas prices low in some states and high in others?

Answer 1

Federal, State, and local taxes are a large component of the retail price of gasoline. Taxes (not including county and local taxes) account for approximately 19 percent of the cost of a gallon of gasoline. Within this national average, Federal excise taxes are 18.4 cents per gallon and State excise taxes average about 21 cents per gallon.2 Also, eleven States levy additional State sales and other taxes, some of which are applied to the Federal and State excise taxes. Additional local county and city taxes can have a significant impact on the price of gasoline. Refining costs and profits comprise about 19 percent of the retail price of gasoline. This component varies from region to region due to the different formulations required in different parts of the country.

Distribution, marketing and retail dealer costs and profits combined make up 9 percent of the cost of a gallon of gasoline

Answer 2

Price spikes have been investigated up the whazoo. If it was due to corporate gouging, the media would be reporting it.

It's all supply and demand and gov't regulations. Out here in CA, the price is currently about $3.25 at the cheapest places. Its because the refineries shut down to retool for a different blend of gas. California always has to be different so we have our own gas. Because of that, when gas gets in short supply, we can't just ship it in from other places.

Lastly, the gasoline infrastructure in this country is vastly overtaxed. Hardly any new refineries have been built since the 70's, but we're burning a lot more gas. Even the tiniest hiccup that shuts down a refinery causes dips in supply and greater prices.

Again, in California we are hit even harder because when one of our refineries go down, it screws us even more because the rest of the nation can't make up the difference.

Due to increased demand for oil worldwide, and neverousness about supply coming from volatile regions of the world, the price of oil has gone up too.

The USA is way too dependent on foreign oil. and it's only getting worse. We need to start producing a lot more ethanol, and moving towards plug-in hybrids.

Answer 3

Gas price is based on the price of Oil.

Its not Greed or anything like that.

American drive A TON and don't care how high the price is. The more people drive the more expensive gas is.

The price of gas varied by state because the amount of tax each state charges. Some states have lots of tax, some have little. Also the transport costs.

If you want cheaper gas prices use less. Drive 55mph and buy a smaller car.

Answer 4

oil companies like to conveniently close down their refineries for maintenance purposes when gas prices get to low so they will shoot up again. You can also look at it this way...when gas prices first began to become very expensive, hybrid vehicles wouldn't stay at the dealership for very long and people were very conscious about how much gas they used. When it went back down, hybrid sales were lagging and people began to be less conscious about how much gas they used. Part of it is due to the oil industry but individual consumers can have a great impact on the fluctuation of gas prices

Answer 5

I think this is a temporary peak and it'll come down somewhat this summer or fall... but you must realize the long-term trend is up, up, up, up and up!

- Increasing difficulty of finding oil (the easy oil has been taken)
- Middle east instability
- China and India have an emerging middle class who wants to drive
- and the environmental stuff.

Europeans are paying $7/gallon already and they've paid $5+ a gallon for over 20 years. The USA gets cheap oil only by low taxes, brilliant economic manipulation and the threat of our military... and that strategy is starting to fail.

Fossil fuel is a non-renewable resource. We've used it in the past because it's cheap. That's changing.

Answer 6

Big Oil needs to grab as much as they can,
as quick as they can.
Mrs Clinton awaits in the wings.

Bill was a president who would often threaten
to unleash federal oil reserves to force competition
in the marketplace. George on the other hand,
wanted oil companies to prosper so they could
finance alternative energy solutions.

Yo ho and a bottle of rum. Thus far, this consumer
has seen little more than record breaking profits for
oil companies.

Answer 7

We just fought a war and now we are occupying a country over Oil. I would think that gas prices would go down...Unless...we were fighting that war for another reason.....Like maybe AIPAC wanted us to fight that war and the war itself caused prices to go up.

Answer 8

well incase u havent noticed theres this war goin on in Iraq and Afgainistan and the middle east is where we get or oil from and those countries are in the middle east and everyone over there hates the USA so they want us to pay a ton for it and all of our Allies

Answer 9

so the oil rich countries can continue to have more mony than they could possibly spend you wouldn't want them to live like the rest of us would you?

Answer 10

Greed.