I think all of the above answers are straight answers. China is driving up demand, and our government is holding down supply by adding burden to refinery construction, limiting drilling, and imposing logistal burden on refining by mandating special custom blends of fuels to meet a wide varity of local laws.
The reason these don’t seem like straight answers is that the TV media is promoting the premise that these answers are false excuses. According to the TV media, the ONLY STRAIGHT ANSWER is that the oil companies are gouging consumers. That is the message from every single “pain at the pump” story, and it could not be more obvious.
Price gouging and collusion to artificially raise prices is illegal. Do you think the government would permit this law breaking?
…The demand from China has not increased 40 plus % in the last 4 or so months to cause the price increases we’re seeing put to us, the consumers.
I don’t think I want to get into the tired old ________ of what the “media” is or not doing…Each side of the spectrum has their own thoughts about that.
Sure, the person at the pump can think for her or himself…Not everyone is brain washed. They see the profits and all the info around them and they can put it all together and make their own thoughts known.
We all can understand prices of what we purchase rises over time…But…Gasoline prices rising in extremes over these few months time period is not natural…and way beyond inflation…and other natural causes…Of course it’s suspicious.
…Sounds like we’re being put on a witness stand…ha…Believe my thoughts are evident from our conversation in these brief exchanges so, that being said I’ll just let it rest at that.
Has anyone else noticed that the price of diesel fuel has remained unchanged for about the last six weeks or so while gas has risen about 75 cents to a dollar? Around here (south central and southeast WI and NE IL), diesel has held steady at between 2.90 and 3.05. Gas is between 3.35 and 3.55 right now.
I’ve always heard that the market for diesel is fairly stable, and not prone to big swings like gas…
They refine the oil and get diesel before they get Gasoline.
Gas Prices will keep going up. It’s just a matter of time before the people are forced to either give up thier commutes, go into debt to maintain thier driving or stop buying basic needs to pay for the gas bill.
In 2000, Oil companies had a profit margin of 25 to 32 cents per gallon. It
is now 70 to 80 cents per gallon. Why spend money building new refineries
when this plan works so well for the bottom line?
I see where Jimmy Carter was quoted as saying Bush is the worst president ever.
Please know, though, with the price of railfanning gasoline [see, this is on-topic] reaching the stratosphere, today’s price hikes trace back to legislation originally crafted under Carter. His administration began the move where, since 1981, refinery subsidies have been eliminated, resulting greatly in the number of oil refineries decreasing from 315 to 144 at the end of 2004. Expensive environmental regulations pushed by greenies in the early 1990s also contributed greatly.
So at least I’m breathing slightly cleaner air while the pumping gas into my truck while the pump sucks dollars out of my wallet.
Out of frustration with our seemingly impotent ability as consumers to do anything about the prices we pay for fuels; here in S.E. Kansas we are historically [Or hysterically] paying more for our fuel than in our close border states,Missouri is always cheaper by 6-10 cents than Kansas and Oklahome is usually cheaper than everybody else! We get involved in this seemingly circular argument about the rising gas prices, our friends out West fist started complaining when the price rose by a copul;e of cents about how it was going to effect their ability to railfan on their current budgets, and now we are in the stratosphere of pricing headed ‘who knows how high,’ So its fasten your seatbelts and try to hold on to your wallets time.
Here is an interesting take(cut and pasted) from Neal Boortz, a webiste I like to monitor: http://boortz.com/nuze/200705/05172007.html {NealzNuze section, and his take on gas prices- edited in places to conform to the Forum standard-}
"JUST STOP WHINING ABOUT GASOLINE PRICES
My goodness, people! Don’t you realize that there are things in your life that you really need to be worrying about? What’s all this weeping and moaning over gas prices?
With every single paycheck the Imperial Federal Government seizes about 14% of the money you have earned. This money is put into an income redistribution fund from which you may or may not draw a check when and if you reach a certain age. Die too soon and that money goes to someone else … not to your heirs. Live long enough and you may … just may … get most of your money back, though there is no legal guarantee that you’ll get a cent.
Yet here you sit png and mng about gas prices.
We did the math here last week, but let’s pull out the calculator again for those of you who don’t come here every day.
That take is right on target. There is a total disconnect between all the wailing about gas prices and the actual size of the problem. And this disconnect is especially striking when you contrast it with the fact that Americans send about a third of their income off to the government without even missing it, let alone worrying about what they get in return. Moreover, I would submit that the Fed’s 4.5% hike in interest rates has imposed a financial burden on the many holders of variable rate loans that makes the gas price increase seem like chump change by comparison. Yet we hear nothing from the news media about that pain.
The reason, of course, for this selective hysteria is the fact that we are being indoctrinated by a biased news media to believe that we are being gouged by big oil. And the point of this indoctrination is to cause us to resent big oil and the political party that presumably befriends them. Every pain-at-the-pump piece contains the implicit conclusion that government should do something about the problem. This is big government and their willing accomplices laying the foundation for what might be called the Department of Affordable Fuel. Today the price is some nickels higher than last year. Two years from today, the price might be based on your ability to pay.
For what it is worth, here is a sampling of headlines assembled by the Chicago Tribune’s Eric Zorn related to the recent [May 15] called-for, one-day, Internet-fueled email “gas out” to protest high gasoline prices:
Gas boycott has no impact –Detroit Free Press
Gas boycott ineffective locally – (Galesburg) Register-Mail
One-day gas boycott was futile –Evening Sun (NY)
No sign of gas boycott here – Joliet Herald News
Gas-out boycott a bust -- Free Lance-Star (Va.)
Call for gas boycott gets low mileage in S. Florida – Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Gas boycott largely ignored by local motorists –Arizona Daily Star
Gas boycott appears to fizzle –Munster Times
E-mails urging gas boycott have little effect –Charlotte Sun-Herald (Florida)
Gas boycott apparently is all fumes –Bellevue Leader
Gas Boycott Falls Flat in Atlanta – WXIA-TV
What gas boycott? – Joplin Globe (Missouri)
Gas boycott not apparent in Utah –Salt Lake Tribune
So maybe Neal Boortz is onto something. I try to listen to his radio show whenever I’m in the Hotlanta area.
[xx(] Our corner Shell and Mobil stations are at $3.539 today fo regular and I saw $3.599 yesterday closer to Chicago (but not in the city itself, which is always higher). [censored]
It seems certain that gas prices will continue to rise on average. If they don’t top $4 nationwide this year, they will next year. Worse, any of many possible international incidents could send prices through the roof. There is no reason to expect that prices might not get to $6-8 at some point within the next few years.
Everybody is cursing BIG OIL and demanding relief as they pump gas. Well there is an easy solution to this problem. Congress can easily fix this by capping the gas price. All that is needed is for Congress to hear the demand of the people. If all the people want it, Congress will surly give it to them.
Of course, when you limit the price, you limit the supply. So price caps imply the chaos of people lining up at gas stations to wait their turn as short supplies of gasoline become sporadically available. But the government could also smooth out the process and eliminate the chaos. They could simply limit the amount of gas that you could purchase. They could also limit the days on which you could purchase it. That way there would be no chaos of people competing for scarce gasoline.
Another evil of these high prices is that they impact disproportionately on the poor who can’t afford them as easily as the rich. So the government could fix that problem at the same time they cap the price and control the chaos. They could price gas based on the income of the purchaser. That way, the rich and the poor would feel an equal impact of the price.
…Throughout many years gasoline prices compared between Pa. and In. have been very close in the areas I’m visiting several times a year…So, that is not the massive difference we’re seeing now.