Why is gasoline so high???

[tufhelp]

I just finished reading an article in the paper regarding the price of gasoline. What a bunch of double speak, and of course the paper is just printing it with none of their usual rhetoric – I guess they save all of that to trash the Republicans and Bush.

Basically it went like this:

Everyone wants to know (except the media) why with the price of oil at an all time low, ($34.00ish a barrel) why isn’t the cost of gas much lower – as a matter of fact, it is going up…

The answer, well the $34.00 a barrel is the “benchmark price” for Texas sweet crude, and little to none of that is utilized for gasoline refining…

They use more expensive “foreign oil” for gas production, which is why the price is higher for gasoline…

They included some pricing for the “more expensive oil”, stating that it runs from $6.00 to $9.00 a barrel more…

My question is, well even with the additional $6 - $9 extra, oil is still at an almost all time low – Say $40.00 to $43.00 per barrel. Why aren’t the prices of gas representative of the price of gas when the benchmark was at $40 - $43 a barrel?

I’ll tell you why, it is starting to be “driving season” again… can’t let the plebeians get by with out higher prices at the pump now can we. We’re headed for over $2.50 a gallon by spring!

What a freaking racket!!!

[Watonga_Jim]

The gas company's have made recent statements that the profits from refining oil and selling gas at a cost of less than $2 a gallon is not acceptable to them, so they are manipulating the supply to keep cost around or above that target. *Bottom line, we are all screwed.

[ryanmercer]

$2.50 a gallon is a lot better than the near $5 a gallon I was paying last fall.

[walls0stone]

Another factor is the price they must pay the people from start to finnish. If you must pay someone $7.50 an hour to ring up charges and mop floors, then it is reflected at the pump. If that value goes up, then in kind so do all the other wages. Also, only so many men and machines to go around. Who would want to keep drilling in TX with other sites and greener places for the drillers to work?

[tufhelp]

Of course I think that is another tactic... They raise the price to excruciating and then bring it down to merely unbearable and everyone goes, well at least it isn't $X.XX per gallon...

You're right, bend over and take it or shut up... those seem to be the choices.

[ryanmercer]

Of course I think that is another tactic... They raise the price to excruciating and then bring it down to merely unbearable and everyone goes, well at least it isn't $X.XX per gallon...

You're right, bend over and take it or shut up... those seem to be the choices.


1.70 is what I"m paying now, that is far from unbearable.

[kawalekm]

1.70 is what I"m paying now, that is far from unbearable.

Can't you remember when gasoline was only 0.70$ per gallon? Actually, the lowest price I can remember is 0.78$/gallon right after the start of the first Gulf war in 1990.

[tufhelp]

I guess the real trouble for me is I can remember .25 cents per gallon... When we drove a VW Beetle in school and the cost of gas wasn't even "budgeted" because a fill up every three or four weeks was $2.50... Now compare that to having a fill up drain you wallet of $40.00 to $60.00+ every time you turn around. The ratio of cost of gas to income to the average Joe is way out of kilter. Paying $1.70 a gallon may not be unbearable, but the question still rings - Why is it going up while the price of oil is going down? What happened to the old saw the oil barons were tamping up our collective tail pipes: "Supply and Demand"? If we are driving less as a population (equals less demand) and the cost of oil dropping more each day, why in the "H" "E" "Double hockey sticks" are we paying more and more and more? How can the cost of gas be right at a $1.40 per gallon, the price of the product they make it from continues to go down, the demand is lower (equals a surplus) and the cost to us creeps up at about .15 cents a week? I call that unbearable...

[randallhilton]

I guess the real trouble for me is I can remember .25 cents per gallon... .

I distinctly remember pulling into the local Gulf station, knowing I was almost on fumes, then pulling out in hopes of making it to the discount pumper a half mile down the street because there was no way I was going to pay 34 cents. :o

But there's a lot more to the price of gas than the price of oil. Environmental policy has clamped down on the number of refineries we have and that causes a major bottle neck in the supply.

But, let's say we convinced our government that the price is just too high and isn't fair. How long do you think it would be before we were in line to get gas -- remember Atlanta just a few months ago? Remember the mid 70's?

It's not too popular to hear from a conservative but personally, I think the price of fuel is a real bargain compared to, say, keeping a mule happy enough to get anything done.

[tufhelp]

Granted, there are a lot of outside influences that affect the price of gas, but none of those has changed in the recent past to affect the price of gas except the price of oil. All of the expenses that are figured in are there whether the cost of oil is high or low. Same number of refineries, same distance from the source, cost of getting it here (which if you applied logic to it, their costs to run them big ships had gone down), you name it and it al amounts to manipulation to fix the price at the pump. So again, what has changed in the grand scheme of things to make at the pump prices climb?

[MooseToo]

bush's fault ?

[walls0stone]

no..that's not even funny..

First of all, many more people than the world will admit are NOT looking for work. It hasn't sunk in. and if you cut back your live'n and don't drive to work every day..then what they heck do you need all that gas for?

Second, more and more pick up and ddrop off type trucks are being slowly replaced with natural gas counterparts. Why do this slowly? I think it's so that OPEC doesn't get wind of it. I mean if your garbage truck or delivery truck in your town dies and is replaced with a natural gas one.. who is going to know? those 2 are the highest users of fuel.
cut off OPEC, Cutt off middle east.

Have we tapped the national resurve/ Clinton did it in the summer of 1998. I remember becouse I was a freshmen in college I drove across PA for less than $5. but when the faulse state of Happy created by that low low gas was over, we had to replace it on W's time...oh then someone decided to attack us.

across the world, people are useing less. More and more business is over the internet, more and more work and play is online, the post office is dropping off like a brick... less speculation.
tons of reasons.

[randallhilton]

Granted, there are a lot of outside influences that affect the price of gas, but none of those has changed in the recent past to affect the price of gas except the price of oil. All of the expenses that are figured in are there whether the cost of oil is high or low. Same number of refineries, same distance from the source, cost of getting it here (which if you applied logic to it, their costs to run them big ships had gone down), you name it and it al amounts to manipulation to fix the price at the pump. So again, what has changed in the grand scheme of things to make at the pump prices climb?

Let's say say that it all boiled down to good ole fashioned greed. It is what it is. Who's greed is more important, the seller's or the buyer's?

The way the free market works is that the greed of the seller is met by the greed of the buyer. There's a point where the seller yells "too cheap" and there's a point where the buyer yells "too high!" If it's too high, we stop buying. Back in 1911, 1913 or whenever it was the government broke up Standard Oil who was creating a monopoly. Everybody back then thought that was a good thing. If the free market hadn't been interfered with by government meddling I would wager that today petro based fuels would be a small sliver of our energy supply. I have no doubt that we would have more solar and wind power, vastly better batteries, efficiency fuel cells, more nuclear. . . the whole energy world would be different.

[kmccune]

I remember the happy days,when you could get a 5 gal can of gas for $2 or less.This might be a moot point-didn't gas smell better in those days?-Kevin