Why hasn't the government taken action to lower gas prices?

Question

Gas prices areover $3/gallon and people are haveing to spend $20 more to fill up! Why can't we stop this?

Answer 1

Mainly because this is a free market society. The basic laws of supply and demand usually determines the price of anything. There are industries in this country which have price props (subsidies) by the government to help keep prices higher. Argriculature is case in point. Government actually pays farmers NOT to plant or NOT to produce milk to help keep prices higher. Without higher prices, a lot of small suppliers would go out of business.
Gasoline and petroleum products are a complex situation. Although the left complains about gas prices, they do not want to allow additional drilling in places WE control because of their (overblown usually ) environmental concerns. Political winds in the world affect oil prices because of just the threat of reduced oil production, or oil being cut off by countries such as IRAN or Venezuela. Oil companies have made huge profits because of high oil prices in the last couple years but no-one feels sorry for them when they drill dry holes costing millions of dollars, or their fields are nationalized by rouges like Castro or Chavez. Drilling is not a cheap endeavor, we are generally lucky it's as low as it has been. A lot of talk has been made about alternate fuel sources but, that'll happen when the oil companies feel that they can make more money doing that than messing with fossil fuel.

Answer 2

Not to dispute that in a free market the government doesn't set the price of a commodity like oil, there is much that the government could do to reduce the price of gasoline. First off the government could reduce the taxation on gasoline, which on average is about $0.22 per gallon. This money is, however, needed to pay for the road infrastructure in the country. A better solution would be for the government to get out of the way of the oil companies pursuits of new sources of oil, vis-a-vis stop preventing oil exploration in places like ANWAR, or off the coast, or in practically anywhere else. Currently the government heavily restricts the amount of oil exploration done in America, why else do you think we would be searching out reserves in such unstable places as the Middle East, Africa, and Venezuela! There is plenty of oil here, however the eco-leftists have successfully made it far to expensive to pursue domestic oil production. Furthermore, we require many more refineries, none of which have been since the 1970's! If the government would simply get out of the way oil would naturally be much cheaper than it is currently. As for controlling the cost directly, however, THE GOVERNMENT MUST NOT EVEN CONSIDER TAKING DIRECT ACTION! The government tried price controls of gasoline once before, during the 70's and that lead to supply shortages, and gas lines that stretched for miles at the few gas stations that actually had gasoline!

Answer 3

It is effectively a monopoly. There are, despite a lot of different gas station names, only about 4 or 5 actually companies. As they work together, they can fix the price.

So, Exxon Mobil posts record profits, has no increase in costs but increases prices to improve their profit.

In another monopoly situation, airlines, a similar thing occurred.

The government can take action against monopolies but in this case they won't. One of the largest contributors to their election campaigns was, yes, the oil industry. Both Bush and Cheney have family links to the oil industry. The result is no one will act to control the rampant price increases or break the monopoly.

Answer 4

The only way the government can affect the price of anything is to lower the taxes placed on that item. Other than that, controlling the price of commodities in a free market, falls well outside the authority of the government.

Answer 5

ok. i might want to be satisfied to bypass eco-friendly. the position oh the position is this cheap eco-friendly option gasoline? I'lll bypass get some immediately. the position did you're saying it develop into????? what's it? Ethanol? Did you observe all the riots in third international international places over the cost of nutrition immediately? $25.00 for a loaf of bread and we use nutrition for gasoline. Its criminal. lets use commercial hemp yet for some reason the U. S. is the only us of a contained in the completed wide international the position it really is prohibited. Algae? Hahahahaha. i will enhance my personal contained in the back backyard cesspool. Its hostile to zoning codes to have a horse the following and feeding a horse immediately's prohibitively expensive to boot. warm air balloons????? do not attempt to make human beings sense to blame for not desiring their high quality of existence to bypass into the bathroom on your stupid mind-set about option capacity it really is so expensive that few human beings can discover the money for it both. If the authorities is so fascinated in option capacity, shall we see some.

Answer 6

Because the government is controlled by the OIL companies who have 'elected' two of their own to the top positions in our government. Yes, you can say it's all about a free market, and it's subject to market conditions, supply and demand, or all kinds of other b.s.
But oil companies have made BILLIONS of dollars in pure profits over the past few years without the government doing anything about it. Had this been any other industry, the government would have 'regulated' it and accused the corporations of "price gouging".
The Iraq 'war' was started solely because Bush & Cheney want all that OIL swimming underneath Iraq's sands and don't want to share it with the rest of the world. We'll be in Iraq until every drop of OIL is sucked out of its sands, and by that time "big OIL" will have earned enough profits to pursue 'alternative fuels' and put the 'little guys' out of business so they can hog all those profits for themselves.
-RKO- 05/04/07

Answer 7

We have the technology to get rid of gas in the U.S. and the oil companies know it. The fact of the matter is is that we can stop it, but people can not see around the government blockades that they don't want you to see. Almost a good half if not more of the politicians in Washington have some kind of tie to oil. Bush has a very very close tie to oil and is too stuck up to see that the market is crashing. We are in debt, the economy world wide is starting to go on a recess and all he worries about is his image and his $$$$$$. Money makes the world go round, and money shuts people up too. Unfortunatly in todays world money is the only thing that matters, so greedy investors, or investors in general want the money and thats the way it will always be, even if its not over gas

Answer 8

They don't have the authority. We do. There is a campaign to lower gas prices by not buying any on May 15. If we continue to do this there will be a larger supply and they will have to lower the price. We should do this every three months if you ask me.

Answer 9

Because our government feel we, the people, are nothing more than a behemoth group of mindless cattle.....prone to be apathetic and acceptant of governmental corruptive policies that favor THEM and NOT the people.

In short: don't rely on Bush.....or even your local Governor to step in and help; they're getting pocketfuls of BIG OIL CASH!!

It's up to us to make the point clear we're tired of being price gouged:

In April 1997, Big Oil got b*tch slapped cold, when enough American motorists skipped outright one full 24 hour day, avoiding the gas pump. The movement was promoted on the Internet via e-mail--and the message got out real fast!!!

Another e-mail is out calling for ANOTHER 24 hour nation-wide (some speculate this could go GLOBAL, too!) boycott of the gas pump, starting May 15th.

You do the simple math estimations of the now average $47 a gas tank fill up and multiply THAT with the estimated BILLIONS of Internet users PLANET WIDE......imagine the punch in the balls BIG OIL gets, having lost 24 hours profit.....
.....try the math: it'll make you smile and make efforts both ONLINE and OFFLINE TO GET THE WORD OUT.

Let's mark May 14th as the 24 hour day we ALL skip the gas pump, exceptions given to police, fire and emergency medical vehicle usages. Let's send BIG OIL the message we're TIRED OF BEING TREATED LIKE THIS.

Answer 10

It's still a free country ..but look out if a liberal like Hillary gets in the White House . Taxes will sky-rocket ..and you'll be told what kind of car to drive ; when to drive it & what kind of gas to buy ( probably from Venezuela ).. what toothpaste to use ; and not only WHAT we can listen to on the radio..but WHO .
Do you really want government running our lives ? Contrary to what Hillary Clinton thinks..we ARE capable of running our own lives .