Okay this REALLY makes me MAD!!!!!!

[jmaddox]

Before we start going too crazy on the conspiracy theories, I thought I would add my theory.  
Let's say I build a house and it cost me $100k, and I decide to sell the house.  It is the only house on the street and 10 people want to buy it.  I start at $110k for a reasonable profit.  The next thing you know we are in a bidding war and the top bid is $200k.  I sell the house for $200k and and make $100k profit.  What did I do wrong?  I didn't build 10 houses so I could sell them each for $110k.
The same is true for fuel.  OPEC and other suppliers regulate how much oil they will pump and refineries convert it into gas.  If they don't pump enough or refine enough then we get into a bidding war with others that want fuel.  This includes some of the fastest growing populations like India and China.  We are not expanding our drilling or Shale conversion in the US and we are not building new refineries so we are helping to limit supply.  
Prices for fuel are set by the commodities markets in NY and Chicago not by some big wig in Dallas or Saudi Arabia.  
The part I am not sure about is how much control the companies like Exxon and BP have over how much they are allowed to pump and how much is determined by the contracts they have with the foreign governments where they are pumping.
OK, I will put my soap box back in the closet now.

That kind of common sense approach doesn't fly.

In this day and age, common sense and simple economic facts (supply and demand curve) don't have any place. [/sarcasm]

Gas prices

[MomboTN]

That kind of common sense approach doesn't fly.

In this day and age, common sense and simple economic facts (supply and demand curve) don't have any place. [/sarcasm]

Gas prices

You must have passed economics 101.  The part I don't understand is that they pump the oil out of the ground, send it however far to the refinery, refine it. Then it gets sent to the distribution center from there onto a truck to your local gas station.  Then the Gov't tacks on 60-75 cents a gallon and the gas station puts some profit in it.  Then I pay $3.50 a gallon.
My local farmer milks his cows, trucks it to the dairy, it is pasturized and bottled.  Sent to the grocery and I pay $5.00 a gallon.  
We can blame it on corn price due to ethanol or those greedy farmers.

[fourkids]

The previous two posts sum it up rather well.  The only thing I will add is that you don't have to sit around and act like a victim.  There are (and have been) plenty of publicly held oil/drilling/refining companies that you could have (and still can) invest your money in.  Do this for a couple of years and you won't really care what the price of gas is.

[Dray]

Think about this.  Don't drive.  Wouldn't it be nice if we weren't dependent on the automobile?  

There is a serious problem with the way city and county governments have been planning their respective jurisdictions for years.  It's called the SUBURBS!  One of the biggest problems with the suburbs is that it separates by great distances where one works and lives.  To fix this many cities are trying to redevelop downtowns, so that people can live closer to where they work and maybe even WALK to work.  I used to do this and believe me it's wonderful to not have to drive every day.  

It used to be that the urban centers were poor and inexpensive to live.  Now the trend to redevelop has made living in a downtown more expensive than the suburbs.  I still think it's worth it, just think of the money you'll save by not needing a car, or at least not driving it as much.

[flyfisherman]

Question: About those high gas mileage vehicles of 20 + years ago ...

Has not the US govenment imposed more environmental restraints since those days, affecting gas mileage? (Seems I heard that arguement somewhere before)

[fallsrider]

I think much of our problem is government regulation. The more the government stays out of our lives and lets the market determine what vehicles are offered (which is what we will buy), the better off we'll be.

I agree with Fly...government regulation has effectively reduced the gas mileage of today's cars compared to what current technology would offer without all the 'smog' stuff.

Also, regarding gas prices, I heard a statistic yesterday that since '84, our crude oil usage has gone up 30%, but our refinery production here in the U.S. has declined 40%. That's very poor government policy in my book! Government regulation, environmentalists' agendas, and activist judges have severely limited our production here.

[wavery]

I think much of our problem is government regulation. The more the government stays out of our lives and lets the market determine what vehicles are offered (which is what we will buy), the better off we'll be.

I agree with Fly...government regulation has effectively reduced the gas mileage of today's cars compared to what current technology would offer without all the 'smog' stuff.

Also, regarding gas prices, I heard a statistic yesterday that since '84, our crude oil usage has gone up 30%, but our refinery production here in the U.S. has declined 40%. That's very poor government policy in my book! Government regulation, environmentalists' agendas, and activist judges have severely limited our production here.

Yep.....and until lobbyists and special interest groups are cut off at the knees, prices will continue up. At some point JQ Public (you and I) will not be able to tolerate the high prices and government medaling in a (suposedly) free-market economy will stop. At that point, the oil companies will be free to operate in a similar fashion to the rest of the world and prices will come down. It may take that $10 a gallon price tag to do the job but whatever it takes, that's what the oil companies have to do.

I don't like it any more than anyone else but until we start electing people that won't put up with special interest groups, we will continue to be punished by our own government and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

[viking camper]

Thats what I've been wondering lately. A friend of mine purchased a 86' CRX HF ni 87'. He bragged about his top of 58mpg on a trip from SC to Wisconsin. Mind you that he was moving with all of his stuff, it was packed so tight he the only "wiggle" room he had was in his seat. The only window he could see out of was his drivers side window.
 
So.... how is that we now have these expensive hybrids that get only marginally better gas mileage than a non-hybrid, but had cars in the 80's with close to 60 mpg's?? :confused:   AND competitions like CajunCamper speaks of with better than 8,000 mpg's ? :compumad:
 
P.S. I'm just a "youngster" here, I remember pumping at $0.45 per gallon, and didn't get too excited until $1.10.

  Back in the GOOD OLD DAYS engines were not as bogged down with all the standards for tail pipe exhaust. There for they we able to preform at a higher level and were not set up to be "green".
And gasoline contained no ethanol (burns quicker and cooler, lowers mpg).
Watching gas prices go up is like watch a bad movie and you can't find the remote to change the channel.

[Old Goat]

Oil prices are mostly being driven up by oil speculators. This is a world problem and not just ours..The oil market will eventually collapse [gold too]  and probably at a faster rate than it went up.. The big question is when.....

[Old Starcraft]

Just wondering if anyone else had thought of.......

You know how larger companies like BP, Shell, and Exxon have always sold fuel at a little higher price claiming that the additives they put in help clean fuel injectors, e.t.c.. Well at one point I'm sure these "additives" were more costly than fuel, but how about now? I wonder if the cost of fuel risen past the cost of these "additives", and if so isn't that the same principal of  "watering down" gasoline?, eventhough under the premise of improvement the cost of their gas is still higher than others.

I just thought of this pumping gas at (caution this could make the west coast folks a little jealous) $3.66 with an additive called "Invigorate" (Don't forgot the name of the gas station). Considering just down the street I found it at $3.49

[garym053]

Ford posts a profit of 100 mil selling SUV's and luxury cars to China and other Asia countries. China caps the cost of Gasoline to its citizens at 3.00 per gallon, allour mfg jobs were shipped overseas thanks to NAFTA!
Add to that the commodity market, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out!

[viking camper]

Ford posts a profit of 100 mil selling SUV's and luxury cars to China and other Asia countries. China caps the cost of Gasoline to its citizens at 3.00 per gallon, allour mfg jobs were shipped overseas thanks to NAFTA!
Add to that the commodity market, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out!

Ford's profit is nothing compared to Toyota's, which is nothing compare to Exon, Bp, Shell ect ect ect

[CajunCamper]

Is it true that the oil we import from other countries is purchased by the U.S. Government and then sold to the oil companies here in the states? I'm in the dark on this one. Also I just read that Congress is in the process of passing a bill that would stop the government from taking a large portion of the imported oil and placing it in our Strategic Oil Reserves for a while in an attempt to lower the price.

By the way one of the largest Strategic Oil Reserve facilities is about 10 miles from where I live as the crow flies. If you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't even notice it and still have a hard time noticing it even when you know it's there.

CajunCamper

[garym053]

Viking Camper, my point about Ford's 100 Mil profit wasn't to compare it to other companies. It was that they made it selling gas guzzlers to China where the prices are subsidized and consumers pay $3.00 per gal tops.

I believe Ford lost money on US sales. BUT at least SOME US company got some of our Walmart money back from China!!!

[Old Goat]

Cajun,
 The goverment was alloting 70,000 barrels a day into the Strategic Oil Reserve which at present levels would give the USA about a two month supply in an emergency.....I have also heard what you say about the oil reserve not being noticed...Enviromentalists would never mention this fact...