View Full Version : What's Behind These High Gas Prices?
Interesting reading.
With Americans consuming 300 million gallons of gasoline every day, this really is a billion-dollar question. The answer? It's complicated. The U.S. is the world's biggest gasoline consumer, and it increasingly relies on imports of foreign crude oil to meet that need. Global crude supply and demand, which is influenced by politics, speculation and natural disasters, has a powerful effect on the cost of gas in America. Federal and state taxes, regulations and the cost of distribution top off prices at the pump.
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/06/148087543/whats-behind-these-high-gas-prices?ft=1&f=1001&sc=tw&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
And so it goes...
Richard :munchin
GratefulCitizen
03-06-2012, 22:01
Interesting reading.
With Americans consuming 300 million gallons of gasoline every day, this really is a billion-dollar question. The answer? It's complicated. The U.S. is the world's biggest gasoline consumer, and it increasingly relies on imports of foreign crude oil to meet that need. Global crude supply and demand, which is influenced by politics, speculation and natural disasters, has a powerful effect on the cost of gas in America. Federal and state taxes, regulations and the cost of distribution top off prices at the pump.
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/06/148087543/whats-behind-these-high-gas-prices?ft=1&f=1001&sc=tw&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
And so it goes...
Richard :munchin
Not sure what they meant by this.
Net imports are a the same level they were in 1995 and have decreased dramatically in the last 5 years.
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=wttntus2&f=4
Not sure what they meant by this.
You did take note of the source, right?
ddoering
03-07-2012, 05:02
Rising gas prices are a sign that the economy is improving, unless your name was George Bush........
Not sure what they meant by this.
I took it to mean that although net quantities may be less, the quantity of imported crude as a % of whatever the net may be has risen.
Richard :munchin
Stop ALL exploration,
Close down ALL oil producing wells, fricks & fracks,,
Close ALL petrol chemical plants,,
Consume ALL agriculture products (corn, sugar beets, grains) in an effort to create clean fuel AND starve the world (double points)..
This is good for the GREEN economy.
At least that's what the tree buggers say...
Remember,, dead people use less resources than the living...
It's a Win-Win
:munchin
NPR? Well, it's bound to be the solid, unbiased truth, but let me crosscheck this with the WaPo and the NYT to weed out any slant. ;)
Seriously, why don't they just put the reserve up for bid to drive the current price down like they did back in the day?
Seriously, why don't they just put the reserve up for bid to drive the current price down like they did back in the day?
Sounds legit... :D
IMO, oil futures need to be removed from the commodities trading market. It's just too volatile an industry and has too much of a negative impact on our society. $5 gas will be here soon.
Team Sergeant
03-07-2012, 09:07
Richard posts those articles to keep us on our feet. Nothing like a little NPR or CNN to jolt someone back to reality....:rolleyes:
Dozer523
03-07-2012, 09:33
I can't help noticing how it was $4.21 under GWBII in Jul of 2008 then crashed to below $2 at the election. Now we hear and see the comparisons of gas from when "BHO took office and today". A truthful lie based on clear market manipulation.
Well . . . when I started workin' and drivin', gas was $.33 and minimum wage was $1.60 and I could get 2 chesseburgers, fries, and a Coke and change back from my dollar.
Gas is about 10X more, Minimum wage is 5.2X higher and the same lunch at McD will get me change from my $5.
All I really miss is tossing a buck (for gas) to my buddy as I piled into his car with three other chums; cruisin' Riverside Ave on a Friday night and taking the girls we met to the Mc D after the slow circling. (American Graffitti was a live and well in the mid-70's.) Darn.
Herdbull
03-07-2012, 09:36
IMO, oil futures need to be removed from the commodities trading market. It's just too volatile an industry and has too much of a negative impact on our society. $5 gas will be here soon.
if we eliminated the CL futures contract, how would you propose to perform functions such as price discovery or risk management(hedging)?
To me, the telling statistic is the number of refineries opened since 1976 (0) versus the number shut down (>100)...
tom kelly
03-07-2012, 19:11
To me, the telling statistic is the number of refineries opened since 1976 (0) versus the number shut down (>100)...
3 Big Refineries just shut down in the Delaware Valley in the last month?
The new Economics: The less produced ; The Higher the price.
Basically; IT'S JUST GREED. TK
dr. mabuse
03-07-2012, 19:57
I heard that building ( ASAP, heh, heh ) 5 refineries or so ( sweet and sour ) wouldn't hurt.
Can't wait to drive my golf cart, er, clean electric car around for all of my transportation needs.
Uh, how are they going to generate all that electricity in a cleanly fashion with so many electric cars on the road? :munchin
Do a search on how the U.S. is exporting record amounts of refined fuels, especially gasoline. In fact the annointed one was recently boasting about our gasoline exports. We do not have a shortage of gasoline in this country, I am under the impression that this latest spike is caused by the unrest in Iran, at least thats what wer'e fed. According to the graph for oil imports we are down close to 3,000,000 barrels a day in the last couple of years. (Barrel = 42 gals.) More than 51% of our oil is either ours or comes from Canada, the public as a whole is under the impression that it all comes from the Middle East. I work for a petroleum pipeline and I can tell you that we are not moving near the volumes of gasoline at this time, as we were a year ago, price dictates driving habits. When the price spiked in 08 folks cut back on consumption and they never got back to their old driving habits. Throw all that in with the lousy economy that we have and you see a drop in gasoline usage. I do not think we are going to see $5.00 gasoline, less usage will create a higher inventories and the price will start to drop, it dropped .02 a gal here today, it is volatile but it will level out and drop. The annointed one was talking today how we have to start embracing alternative fuels and to wean ourselves from oil. I have news for him my car, truck and motorcycle will not run on solar, wind, electricityt etc etc etc and I am guessing neither will most of you alls vehicles. We have our own oil perhaps even more that in all the Middle East, lets start using it.
GratefulCitizen
03-10-2012, 17:28
I took it to mean that although net quantities may be less, the quantity of imported crude as a % of whatever the net may be has risen.
Richard :munchin
The percentage of net imports which are imported would be 100%. :D
Concerning the effects of higher gas prices:
http://business.financialpost.com/2012/03/09/oil-price-not-as-painful-as-1980s/?__lsa=36692088
Concerning where we're getting our imported crude:
About 20% from Canada, a little over 10% from Mexico, a little under 10% from Saudi Arabia, and the other 60% from all over.
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mttimusca1&f=a
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mttimusmx1&f=a
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mttimussa1&f=a
total:
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mttimus1&f=a
And domestic production is increasing again:
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=wcrfpus2&f=4