Why are the Gas Prices So High!?

Question

Why are the GAS Prices too high I'm making and many of you too are making Corrupted Idiots richer by the day. I live in CA Im paying about $3.25 a gallon all my money is going to idiots who want to become powerful in the industries and more idiots who want to have more money! Someone t ell me who is to BLAME and accurate answer please!!! Not dumb question like me for buying GAS!!!!! I need GAS to go to WORK who else is going to take me to work my SISTER !!!

Answer 1

Go to my profile & check out my earlier answers, or use search engine. I have answered variations on this question before.

There's a lot of crooked stuff out there.
e.g. The California Energy Crisis a few years ago was artificially caused by ENRON to increase their profits.

But when it comes to gas prices, the "crooked stuff" is nothing that the US government can do anything about because it is going on in other nations, and there's no international laws saying they can't do the "crooked stuff."

Basically There are nations of the world that get their income from selling oil to the rest of the world. They have joined together in an organization called OPEC in which they come to an agreement what they all will charge ... it is an international Oligopoly. They get away with charging more, then more, then more, so that will continue indefinitely.

Oil is a non-renewable resource, which means the world supply will not last forever. Some places are runnng out, like the North Sea off Scotland. In time, other places will run out. As there is less and less under ground, it becomes more and more expensive to get out of the ground that which is left.

It is really essential that the voters support efforts by the government to encourage alternate sources of fuel, so that when the world does run out of oil, we will be ready.

There are any number of problems with our dependence on Middle Eastern Oil imports, so there is an effort to convert to Biofuels ... that is gasoline made from corn and other crops. This will mean US independence from Middle Eastern Oil, and other OPEC sources, but it will take a while to get it perfected. Meanwhile, Brazil is several decades ahead of the US in researching this, so in the short term, to avoid our dependence on Middle Eastern Oil, we are moving to a dependnce on Brazilian biofuel, which is more expensive.

This is controversial ... more agriculture for biofuel means less for food for people and for farm animals, so there's a trade off there.

Terrorists like to attack oil that comes from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, etc. Every time they do one of these attacks, it makes the stock market nervous, which drives up the prices of futures market.

Basically, there is not enough oil on the world market to go around to all the nations that want it, particularly India and China, so supply and demand drives up the price, which OPEC just loves ... they can control the supply.

USA is competing with India & China & other nations for this low supply. Do you remember your history where under President Jimmy Carter there was not enough gas for everyone, so people had to fill up on a rationed basis, and wait in line for hours at the gas pumps. Pres Carter made the situation not so bad by lowering the speedlimits nationwide to 55 mph ... the faster we drive, the less gas mileage we get ... later elected leaders decided to change the speed limits back, so we are no longer getting the savings that Jimmy Carter gave us. This is an issue for elections ... Do you favor going as fast as you like on the highways, or do you favor cheaper gas ... in past elections, the people who want to go fast have had more votes than the people who want cheaper gas.

You may have noticed that America's off shore oil comes mainly from the Gulf Coast and Alaska. It does not come from East or West Coast. Is that because there is no oil there? Oh there's oil there, but the state governments and their lobbyiests from New England to Florida, and the same bunch on the west coast have banned oil drilling off their shores because there's stuff more important to them than cheap energy. This is another voter issue ... the people who want cheaper gas for the country are being outvoted, by people who have other desires.

In hurricane seasons, the Gulf Coast oil drilling has to shut down ... some of it not yet repaired from Katrina, so that causes more shortages, which drives up the price.

In Alaska, there used to be several oil wells going. They had to shut down several temporarily because the oil pipeline people had been neglecting regular maintenance, to save on money, and now they got a bunch of leaks & God knows when all that will get repaired. So more shortages to drive up the price through supply & demand.

When the gas does come to US gas stations, there are all those blends ... unleaded, premium ... go to any gas station & you can see there's a bunch of options ... well in different parts of the country there are different combinations. This means they can't just send a chunk of gas on a pipeline ... they have to start & stop pipelines to get the different blends delivered. This drives up the cost.

Now as I said, I have answered variations on this question many times before ... there are many many other reasons why the gas prices are going up ... they will continue to go up.

There are things that we consumers can do to lower our gas expenses & these things have been discussed in earlier Q+A.

Example ... there are newer cars with better gas mileage.
There's combinations like car pooling and public transportation.
I turn off the engine of my car when I am in traffic jam or "fast food" pickup, if I think I am going to be there a while.
But most people are ALREADY doing pretty much this stuff.

There's also a lot of bogus Urban Legend things out there that don't work.

I think the most important thing people can do to reduce the cost of energy is self education ... stop talking about idiots and price fixers and start talking about what can be done to fix this, and get with our political parties & let them know there is a significant voter block out there that thinks this is an important issue.

I have seen many Presidential debates where people get to ask questions of the candidates. I have yet to see one with an intelligent question on this topic. This basically tells the candidates that while there is a vocal minority out there complaining about the gas prices, they are a minority that the politicians may as well ignore.

Answer 2

Oil is $95 a barrel! It's almost $2 a gallon just for the crude oil, just like it comes out of a hole in the ground. I couldn't believe it didn't go up faster.

The price is oil is all based on supply and demand. The supply is manipulated to control the price.

Answer 3

OPEC has been reducing output over the last decade, so supply has decreased while demand has increased. Basic economics says that this means gas will cost more. So get excited about Hydrogen fuel cells and other alternative fuels and support the LA Metro expansion plan (if you're in LA, that is) so that you don't have to rely on cars and in turn, gas so much.

Answer 4

It's simple demand and supply. People want more gas than the planet can supply. Therefore prices go up.

Answer 5

blame yourself for chosing to work far enough from home where your only choice is to drive. I drive to work almost 100% of the time. but round trip a day between both part time jobs and home is less than 20 miles.

Answer 6

According to the "EXPERTS", the world wide demand for gasoline is up, the producers of crude oil have limited production,hurricanes shut down refinery operations,the Congress has not developed an energy policy, no one wants to develop shale oil deposits despite over $85 per barrel charges. When there is no concerted effort to get things done ,things do not get done. Don't blame Bush. Blame the "do nothing" Democratic Congress.

Answer 7

Easy. We're running out of oil on this planet and Chinese are buying cars like there is no tomorrow.
Buy a fuel efficient car, ride your bicycle, or use public transport.

Answer 8

I AGREE...check out my nova if you want http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBO6o00l4Eg