Obviously it's so the rich can keep getting richer...but really, who holds it all in his hand? Is it Bush...?
gas is priced high because people still have the demand for it. why would a company lower prices when the demand is still the same if they price the gas higher. that makes no sense. if i have gas and people still demand the same amount of gas they would with a low price, but they are still buying it at a high price, then why would i even think about lowering the price of gas if i can get people to buy it at the higher price.
Plus oil companies are trying to capitalize on the instability in the middle-east. But if you think it's bad in the US, you should fill up in Eurpoe
You paid attention in class, didn't you?!? This is very true -- have people REALLY reduced their usage? Many have a little, but 10,000 barrels out of a million is not that much. (this new gas is also low-carb)
hmmm that is what I was going to say... you beat me to it. everything costs what it does because you are willing to pay for it. if you don't pay for it, they will be forced to lower the prices.
True, our prices are much cheaper than in Europe. Primarily due to higher taxes they are forced to pay. This is one way European Governments try to discourage consumers from buying cars. Also, we haven't had a new oil refinery built in this country in about 30 or so years. The excisting refineries are working a full load to keep up. Should a refinery, located in one part of the country has an accident say on the West Coast, states on the East Coast will see their prices rise for a few weeks almost immeadiately and substantially. Also Congress, a couple of years ago, split the country up into 16 different regions and mandated 16 grades of gas to be manufactured - for environmental reasons. Previously there were only something like 5 grades. It takes special permission to sell one grade of gas outside its alloted region. The switching the manufacturing of grades within the refinery is an additional cost reflected in the price of gas. This also mean should region "A" run short of supplies, region "B" cannot, by law, even out the shortage and resupply region "A". But still, its better than in the mid 70's. A lot of gas stations ran out of gas completely. Sometimes it was a little difficult to get any gas reguardless of the price. Back then it was about 50 - 75 cents a gallon. Depending on the year. In the 1960s, the price was about 24 cents for regular and 26 cents for ethol.
actually, i learned that by myself. but, i should know how it works because i switched to being an economics major
ACtually most of your gas price is in taxes. I know that now it costs about 75 cents for the crude to eb processed. Then add about 50 cents tax, then add whatever the oil compaines want to make profit with.
Higher demand for oil by China. Higher demand in U.S. because of driving large vehicles and having a home thermostat comfort level of about 78F (instead of 68F like it was decades ago). A lack of effort by the fed govt to make vehicles more efficient and encourage people to conserve. (SUVs are classified as trucks, making them exempt from fuel economy standards) Limited supply due to U.S. refineries operating at max and no new refineries built since the 70s. Speculation on the oil markets due to uncertainty created by the Iraq situation, unrest in Venezuela, and the Russian govt takeover of Russia's largest oil refinery company. Federal, state, and local taxes on gasoline.
