gas prices?

Question

why does the oil companies act as if hurricane katrina was our first and know they are ripping all of us off

Answer 1

They don't. It is not up to the oil companies to set gas prices. It would be a lot cheaper if we had more refineries. Hurricane Katrina was different that the other hurricanes. Louisiana has a lot of refineries. They were damaged and shut down by the hurricane. It caused prices to go up. It took a long time to get them back to capacity. Even with all our refineries at full capacity, it does not meet demand. Hence our high gas prices.

The reason we can't get more refineries is because the approval process of our Government is ungodly. They cannot get approved to build them or they would. That and everybody wants cheaper gas, but no one wants to live by a refinery even though there is no negative effects.

Answer 2

Low SUPPLY of refineries + High DEMAND for refined gas = Higher Prices.

In 1989 Exxon went to Arizona and applied for a license to open a refinery in Arizona. Well, 18 years later ... a court battle is still going on to open a refinery in Arizona. There are other states that say "Not in my back yard" too, but I'm most familiar with the West. Should a State say, "Yes, please build a refinery here" ... it takes on average 5-8 years to build.

In short, the state politicians play a major role in this crisis.
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Okay, I saw something like 20/20 the other night.... and the politicians may be behind this even more than I originally claimed (above).

So it seems that this new fuel (ethanol) is favored by ALL politicians running 4 president (Hilary, Obama, and the republicans) ... but professionals are SCREAMING that this isn't going to solve a thing. Ethanol would be made from corn. So the "Iowa caucus" is a producer of corn. Winning Iowa is a major political move. Anyways, to produce this corn more "Pesticides" will have to be used (environment killer pesticides). Then after it's produced, “Diesel Trucks” can only transfer it around the country. Pipelines can't be used cause it doesn't flow right and spoils. Guess what??? The damage against the environment and oil consumed would remain the same to haul this ethanol to every niche of the USA. There was one more thing ... but ah, overall it sounds like ethanol is a looser.

I imagine these politicians are being played by the ppl who want the business ... and the high prices we've got now are to influence us to accept anything they throw at us.
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BTW ... my calculation of what gas prices should be is $2.65 per gallon (based off inflation ONLY)

Answer 3

huh?

Taken from wikipedia:
"Katrina damaged or destroyed 30 oil platforms and caused the closure of nine refineries;[23] the total shut-in oil production from the Gulf of Mexico in the six-month period following Katrina was approximately 24% of the annual production and the shut-in gas production for the same period was about 18%."

It was a disaster for the oil industry. The storm went right up the Mississippi damaging close to (if not more than) a full half of U.S. oil refineries.

Read BEFORE you spout.

Answer 4

I don't know but gas prices are just plain outrageous.

Answer 5

Excuses to get more money. And as long as their buddy George is in control, they will keep getting their way.