Gas prices?

Question

The idiots of big oil trying to put the American people out to dry by increasing the gas prices to $3.18 up from 3.05 last week. how ever the oil prices is less than $70 a barrel. So, should gas prices be one of the issues in the 2008 election? Should we boycott Big oil?

There is a reason why gas prices is high in europe and a good solution: adding more mass transit system and their currency is higher than the dollar itself.

If you see the fuel economy in Europe is much better than in the US because I told the reason why they are paying a higher price is becuase they have a higher octane rate than in the US: regular 95 octane, super 100 octane.

Answer 1

Sure big oil are idiots, but the even bigger idiots are the ones who are suckered into buying these urban assault vehicles that get 14 miles a gallon. I always laugh when these people say they need the space with these things, but theres never more than one person riding inside. Maybe if we all drove sensible vehicles demand wouldn't be such an issue.

This doesn't bother me in the least. My car gets around 32-36 mpg, so I only need to fill up maybe twice a month, so instead of 60 dollars a month they are now getting 62.50 or so from me. No big deal to me, but I know people are paying at least that and more to fill up every week. The only people whining are the people driving those gas guzzlers, and quite honestly they deserve it for having such reckless disregard for the safety of others on the road, and for the environment.

OBTW...the reason for high prices right now is because there is a reduction in refining capacity. Several of the major refineries are currently undergoing "maintenence" and have been shut down, ironically around the busiest travel time of the year. Come on, how short of a memory span do some of you have? This sort of thing happens every single year, why are you all acting so suprised?

The solution? Walk more, ride a bike, use mass transit and carpool. Stop buying wasteful vehicles and you wont be under control of big oil.

Answer 2

Gas prices are higher in Europe than the U.S. because of taxes on gas - not because their cars require higher octane fuel. The U.S. would be much better off if taxes were increased on gas by about 25 cents per gallon each year until Americans paid Europe type prices for gasoline. - The benefits could include the following:

- Oil companies would make less money, because they would sell less gas.

- People would have time to buy high mileage cars before the price of gas hit $6 or $7. -

- Production of gas efficient cars like hybrids would be encouraged.

- The government would have tax money to help pay for the war in Iraq (which many people think had something to do with American politicians desire to keep a ready source of cheap oil) - - This would be much more fair than what the government is doing now (borrowing the cost of the war and passing the entire bill onto the next generation.)

- The government would have money to help pay for mass transit and more people would be interested in using it.

- Less CO2 would be poured into the air - reducing the risk of dangerous global warming.

Answer 3

Look at the diagram I posted below - it's from the Energy Department (it's slightly outdated, but the percentages haven't changed much).

Taxes account for about 20% of the gas prices, yet they are rarely talked about. Did you know that gasoline is taxed with an excise tax, which is the same type of tax that is applied to products like cigarrettes (different amount of tax, same legal type).

Also, it's a common misconception that the taxes actually go towards improving our highways. It actually just blends into the federal budget just like the other tax dollars. It's just another way to make more money for the government.

Don't get me wrong - Big Oil companies make quite a bit of money (especially during refinement, which is all screwed up itself), but the government has a really simple solution to drop gas prices by around 20%. THAT'S something that no one is talking about, including politicians.

It would be nice if that was brought up in the 2008 elections.

Answer 4

People in Europe are less depending on the automobile than Americans so if they pay $8-9 a gallon there is obviously less outrage. And Bush is in the oil business and went to war with Iraq and now that the war had gone bad , he is making Americans pay for it with the high gas prices. Imagine that, Americans paying for Bush's mistake!

Answer 5

The real reason (according to my brother) that gas prices are pushing higher is because we expect it to go higher. Because gas prices are a commodity, investors are holding their stock of gasoline instead of selling it, causing an artificial "shortage" if you will. They probably can be blamed rightfully that they are using over-exaggerated claims of "maintenance costs" (as in factory maintenance shutdowns) causing the shortage. This is not true, of course, that maintenance would be so dramatically different on a year when there wasnt even a hurricane Katrina. But they know we will fall for it. Dont tell me that these costs warrant a doubling in price. BS.

So, according to his market theory, if we all start telling everyone that prices are going down...and get that story all around the internet...they will. I think it might be worth a try.

Answer 6

you may as well begin preparing yourself and your children for stepping back to a previous age of human history. the oil age will be over soon and there is no sign of a new age to replace it as happened in the past, i.e. stone age, iron age.

as you should know by now , as do the oil companies, we are on the down hill side of the world's oil supply. prices will only increase so the oil companies can make as much money as they can until the oil is gone.

forget about the inconvenience of not driving your car when we run out of oil, you should be more concerned with what we will do to replace all of the other more important petrochemical based neccessaties that support our lives, like plastics, medicines, clothing, paints, glues, etc. look around you right now and see if you can identify all of the petrochemical based products in just the room you are in, including the computer you are reading this on and the clothing you are wearing, don't forget the insulation on the wires powering your computer and room and house. You see high gas prices for our cars should be the least of our worries.

Answer 7

Here's a novel idea, how about we approve building more refineries and drilling domestically. Would that not lower our gas prices? Just a thought. We could also get the federal gov't to cut taxes on each gallon we buy, after all the government takes in more per gallon than Exxon.

Answer 8

Is the real issue the cost of gas or the SUV's that guzzle too much of it. I tend to think both.
I don't know where you live...but here in Los Angeles the average price per gallon is $3.45. $3.18 a gallon as you mentioned sounds like a good deal to me from where I sit!

Answer 9

Yes it should. I think the government should put a can on how much they can charge. We saw it for $3.19 today. That is outrageous!! It takes a person making minimum wage about one hour to pay for the gas it took them to get to work. Where is the incentive for them working. A person can attain more money drawing unemployment or welfare than working and commuting. This entire picture is just plain wrong.

Answer 10

The only way we can boycott big oil is to stop driving. Not an easy task for those of us who don't have access to mass transit or car pooling.