Rash

The oil companies have billions in record profits, yet you still keep hearing how their is a shortage of refineries and the ones that do exist are in bad shape. Poor ability to refine oil into gasilone equals reduced supply, which equals increased prices.

When an industry is raking in the dough but not investing in infrastructure to stay prepared for continued growth and demand, that's called greed. The money is going somewhere, and if it aint going in to the business (new refineries, upgrading current ones) then it's going into someone's pocket.

Remember a year or two ago when just the THREAT of possible damage to refineries in the gulf coast area made prices go up? That's because one refinery is responsible for a very large geographic portion of supply. Unacceptable. The industrty should be forced to build more refineries with the billions of profit earned by gouging the U.S. public the last few years. Give them a deadline, and if they don't reach the pre-detremined refinery goal, fine them heavily.

st06vert

When you take these into consideration and the increase in US demand for gasoline - it is just amazing that we are not paying more.


---------------
You will get your wish

05GT-O.C.D.

It's not the increased demand in the US as much as it is in China and India driving up prices of oil.

Fryguy

This is a political statement.... having members of an Oil family in the White House probably does not help either.

denlem

+1 That is something i've always said.

denlem

Don't forget the talk about eliminating the federal gas tax for a while. It's really not a large tax, so it would be very easy for the oil companies to minipulate the price and keep that extra money as well.

05GT-O.C.D.

In the whitehouse or out, I don't see it making that big of a difference. Al Gore has just as many conflicts of interest as Bush or Cheney, most of D.C. has ties to lobbyists and that's just a start of the problems.

Eliminating the gas tax is a bad idea IMO. We need to focus on either increasing supply or reducing demand for gas, not lowering the price and increasing the demand.

Fryguy

If they where to eliminate the gas tax that would be so much worse for the economy. Remember that tax subsidizes the states Dept of Transportation funding - you take away that money you will put State employees out of work, the road projects scheduled will be delayed, and the economy may be ever more worse off then we where before we started.

I do not like taxes, but that one is a little dangerous to tinker with. Too many reciprocating affects.

Sendero

That is one of the most ignorant statements I hear regurgitated repeatedly. So explain to me why an "oil family" President would sign a CAFE energy bill into law requiring increased MPG requirements, which by your assumption would decrease his profits? But a "non-oil family" President (Clinton) urged the Department of Energy to start drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? Where is Clinton's motivation to drill for more oil?

The price keeps going up because "Average Joe/Jane American" would rather blame anyone but who's in the mirror as the reason. Want gas to go down, hurt their margins. How do you hurt their margins? Decrease your usage.

Sendero

...is an idiot. Global Warming isn't happening, but the he and the media didn't get the memo.

karman

The price goes up because worldwide demand goes up.
If it was just the guy in the mirror, Canadians would be paying less than US consumers. They have more oil, they should pay less. It is a worldwide market now. The Chinese aren't just driving rickshaws anymore and the Indians like cars better than cows.
Bottom line...
WE can no longer do anything to affect their bottom line or hurt their margins.
Suck it up folks, we need to build our economy to outdo India and China.
We will then have enough money to pay for our share of the gas.
Right now, we are losing ground every year.
Gas prices will increase. If we want gas we will have to pay for it.
We need to rebuild America to be the richest country in the world.
Until then, the price of everything will hurt.

05GT-O.C.D.

+1 And the best place to start is with an overhaul of our tax system that will give the US economy a significant edge in the global marketplace.
www.fairtax.org

Sendero

Yes you can. Supply and demand economics my dear Watson. There is no way gas will stay $4 a gallon if we cut our consumption in half. We are OPEC's cash cow and they can't afford to lose our cash flow even if China and India are ramping up their growth. Do you realize how much the global economy depends on our financial health? Oil and the Dollar are two very strategic chess pieces that could break a lot of these little podunk two-bit terrorist countries (ie Iran) in the event we decided to kick everyone off of our island.

We'd do a lot better if we overhauled the welfare system to stop draining so much of our taxes. Not to mention a personal overhaul of family values and repeated butt whippings for future voting Americans such as this one. We have much bigger problems to face in the years to come. Some times I think the movie Idiocracy was a look into the future.

karman

I am no Watson. Do not patronize me in a condescending manner.
The world is bigger than the USA. Everyone has to cut consumption.
The USA may use @20million barrels of oil a day
The rest of the world uses more than 3 times that amount.
Simple math:
If last year oil was $60 a barrel and gas was $2.60 a gallon,
then this year with oil at $120 a barrel shouldn't gas go higher than $4 a gallon?
Simpler math:
$120 per barrel divided by 42 gallons per barrel = $2.86/gal. for unprocessed oil.
The tar at the bottom of the barrel is now worth $2.86 per gallon.
Gasoline has to cost more than that with processing and additives.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...30F12F2C764%7D
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aht7tOuNn1G4

Sendero

Whatever. Take the chip off of your shoulder if your going to talk at the big kids table.

So you're telling me that if 10 million barrels of oil, per day, were to suddenly reappear on the market the price would not fall? You'll probably say that China would consume that excess. But China has only posted a 7% growth in oil consumption per year which means it would take them 10 more years to even begin to touch that number. We could ramp our production of oil by double within 5 years which would make us the number one single country producer, but still surpassed by OPEC as a whole. At 21.76 billion proved Oil reserves under our control that means we could pretty much meet our own demand. Since, on average, 60% of OPEC countries economy depends on the oil dollar how are they going to allow one of the biggest consumers to cut their revenues? Jack up prices everywhere else? Do you thing China can afford it? They are so overextended its just a matter of time before that deck of cards falls.

We're not even addressing the other reason oil prices have been climbing. When the Dollar and Euro is weak, investors hedge their money by investing in oil futures. When the Dollar is strong oil falls.

Yeah, you're math works in a vacuum. But you're ignoring the reasons why it's climbing. If you take away those reasons it falls.

Boltzman

My answer to big oil.... VTX 1300 Just picked it up yesterday 07 brand new. 50~55 mpg

Mackitraz

Nice bike, like the headlight!

05GT-O.C.D.

Right there w/ ya Chuck. That's a nice bike, your first? I've been making sure to ride to work at every opportunity, at least once a week rain-or-shine.

Boltzman

Thanks John.This is actually my 3rd bike. had a katana750 back in the late 80's and just traded in honda shadow 600

05GT-O.C.D.

Nice. My choices were narrowed down between the VTX 1300 and the Sporty that I ended up getting. Now you've got something that'll make you want to start modding.