ddoubleez

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We have treads asking what people are doing about high gas prices, but not much on why people think they are rising....

I am intrested on what people think is happening... After all you can not have a cure without knowing the cause............

There are no wrong answers...................

fmb

I think the problem (I see it as a problem) of rising gas prices is multi-faceted. To keep this short, I don't think supply and demand issues are the complete problem. Check out terraserver, you will not see tankers in the Persian Gulf lined up, waiting to fill and leave. Some can be blamed on our capitalist investment process. Just about evey 401K and mutual fund manager is buying into energy as fast as they can spend the money. With that much cash invested, can the plans take a hell of a hit if oil prices drop? In addition, I think most folks have started to slow down and limit the amount of driving he/she is doing. If so, the demand for gasoline (and price) should drop.

adrenaline

I think supply and demand doesnt have as much to do with it as we think. I remember a report on the news a month or so ago saying that a certain month, we actually consumed less oil/gas than the previous month and prices still were going north.

Juan.©amaney

Speculators mainly. I know you will come out with the peak oil link I removed from the other thread, so go ahead now.

I know that other countries are increasing their use, I know that as a country, there is very little that anyone manufactures that doesn't have a little petroleum in it one way or another and I know the dependency on oil is the number 1 contrbutor.

HOWEVER, IMHO, if speculators weren't so quick to say we're running out, and our government weren't so quick to put economy at a stand still to force us into conservationism, we'd still see gas at a lot cheaper than it is now.

I gotta admit, no one would be conserving if the price was cheap, so it might be a good thing. (Did I just say that?)

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adrenaline

I heard on the news a few weeks ago. that Truckers in socal and the states that border mexico are actually filling up in mexico cause diesel is 2 bucks cheaper than it is here.


I think OPEC is also figuring out that we will pay pretty much whatever they want to charge. I think if we could find another source of oil, i.e. Venezuela, We could see the prices drop.

joerockhead

The Dollar has weakened over the last few months, and that has input.
The Fear of Lack of Supply has input
The US being in an election year has input, with the fact that power changes are undetermined.
US Debt has input
US Economy has input
Americans being greedy and yet over react has input.

We are starting a down hill turn, and it will gain speed.

WE ALL are at fault.

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onlyalad

India and China will soon pass the US in oil consumption. We have always been the big glutton of the worlds oil. Not so any more. Oh we still use more than almost everyone, but that will soon change. Not because we have cut our use a lot, but because other places have upped their use.
Speculators do drive up the price and by doing so they and the oil companies are making profits like never before. So that causes them to do it again and again. It is strange the more they pay for the product the more money they make. Why should they drive a good deal (a lower price) when the more they spend the more money they make?

ImIn06GT

true, but also war in iraq, afghanistan, and Iran also have major input

mstad

They've got us by the balls and there's nothing we can do about it. Oil companies are reporting record profits, and we're bending over and giving it to them(or rather, letting them give it to us).


We're paying insane prices for gas because after all these years, the realized that no matter what they charge for it, we have to drive, therefore we have to pay it.


God help us if power/gas/water companies ever catch on to this.

joerockhead

I do not put the Ridiculous prices cause to this as much as I do the clowns speculators that got this shit rolling.

Over Reaction is the biggest part.
My post earlier is a part of it, of course it is multiple things, but there was no issue until the Speculators started crying.

Hell, Saudi increased the flow, and prices went up.

And then, Iran threatens to "Shut Down" the Persian Gulf. And People believed them!!!! Are you kidding me??? We have two Battle groups over there, and just ONE of them can wipe out the whole Iranian Navy!!!

Let them try!!! PLEASE!!! We will destroy the Iranian Navy, then when they try to retaliate with their Air Force, we will wipe that out too!!! And hell, we have enough USAF in the area to do that as well!!

If Iran REALLY REALLY wanted to cause trouble, they would STOP their flow of Oil.

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CD

I'm starting to wonder if Fox News is up to their old tricks again. Sure, the spectator pricing might be a small part, but I'm sure when the UAE says that they will completely run out of oil in 2014/2015 at current demand (not an increase demand which WILL happen), an outside spectator wouldn't dream of saying that the oil supply is dwindling. Nah, it's much better to say things are good... that way the oil companies win.


Exactly. So why would they "claim" other stupid actions? My money is on false information from the current administration to trick us into war with Iran (not like they are above that type of manipulation). I've been saying it for a while, and I'll say it again. Bush is getting a hard-on just thinking about war with Iran. I'll give him credit though... he's trying his best.

It's funny though. All this talk about oil prices, and I can't help but think that no matter what this country decides to do long term (short term doesn't matter to me), we have to start thinking outside the box... the box being big oil and coal. This approach will also cause prices to go up though, since you are giving big oil a heads up that you are years later going to go away from them.

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joerockhead

HAha, I like Fox News!! They have so many sexy women!!!

I just hope this does not put an end to the New Camaro!!!!

___________________________________________


Visit the worlds best website -
www.badass67.com - Black Sunshine

93crawler

If you don't think the the destabilization of the middle East by us causing the biggest clusterfuck ever in Iraq, isn't a substantial reason for why oil is so expensive then you're rather naive. I recently heard that if you were to take speculators out of the equation, or reduce their influence, oil prices would go down drastically. I'm not sure they're that much of an influence, they were saying it would go down $1.50 a gallon or more. Your other reasons are pretty much right, but a lot of the reason is simply because the unnecessary war in Iraq is destroying what little good this country had going for it.

If it's a war with Iran you really want, you just may get it by the end of Bush's term. I don't know why, for the life of me, someone would openly want war with yet another country, when we can't even handle the current conflicts. Yeah, from a purely traditional war, we would indeed win, and I'm sure we would have another "coalition of the willing," to help us. But Iran has a substantial amount of unconventional methods at their disposal, to make Iraq look like a Sunday stroll through the park.

Just out of curiosity, why did you leave the service, and what did you do, what was your rank etc? You seem to get such a hard-on from war and the current conflicts, maybe you should've never left?

Krasch

Yeah pretty much...

Supply and demand might explain some of what the gas companies do if it was a reactionary thing.

But it isn't.

The gas companies raise the price of gas every weekend IN ANTICIPATION of an increase in demand, not because there actually is one. Most people these days have caught on to the game and fill up before the weekend. And they keep the price high the rest of the time simply to increase the size of their coffers because they know they have us somewhat literally over a barrel. That's why you sometimes see some lone gas station drop their price by several cents, when you REALLY see demand because the place has lineups practically around the block. If they couldn't easily afford to lower the price like that, they wouldn't do it.

Plain and simple greed...