The Surprising Truth About Gas Prices

Ok, how about the trillion dollars we pay policing the Middle East? After you factor in that rediculous expense, we pay about $20.00 per gallon. Of course we borrow $16.00 a gallon from the Chinese to pay for our nonsensical war, and with interest, maybe we pay $21.00 a gallon. Keep those heads in the sand!

If Europeans can draw any solace then surely it's that they pay so much in tax that the rises have been relatively small compared to Americans. So that whereas Americans have seen their gas double, Europeans are looking at around 50%.

Once again the root of the problem is greedy oil companies charging ridiculous prices for gas. My question is why isn't everyone driving an electric or hydrogen car now? That's because the oil companies and automakers designed it that way. We shouldn't be dependent on oil AT ALL. In fact we had the technology years ago to make the switch to these and other technologies but large automakers held back. If you can't get in the front door "you go through the back door."

Automakers are good friends with the oil tycoons. Everyone should stop buying cars until automakers make an HONEST attempt to convert cars over. It has to happen eventually and the sooner the better. Reducing gas consumption is also having an effect on oil prices right now. You're welcome to take part in our gas poll on www.nbtv.ca

Because of such things as the computer and the Internet chat lines, the consumer can leverage purchasing power to a greater degree.
Consumers can change their spending habits very quickly now, and the oil compaies didn't expect this sudden turn of events. Neither did the automakers. They were caught off guard as usual. Note the price of a barrel of oil dropped yesterday. It will continue to drop.

gas prices should go down

I am dumping gas power cars asap, I have ordered an air powered car, and will get it in 2110, I hope that with it and all the other tech we now have that the greedy oil companys choke on the alternative fueled cars that are being developed!

Cost per gallon is one thing, but how about quantity? We buy gas in bulk compared to people in Europe. So factoring the 97 cents, Europe actually pays less, America is getting taken for badly... Averagely speaking, people in Europe fill up their gas tank once a month as opposed to once a week here in the US. I hate US oil companies... they are screwing us. Hope they are happy for being part of a cause for a recession.

Hey Ted McKeown, Of course the evil capitalists are to blame for all our societal ills. Never the politicians. It's the corporate world which refuses to drill in ANWR and off the coastal shelf, pursue oil from coal, and build nuclear power plants. Oh wait, that's the environmentalist wackos' fault (and the spineless politicians)!

Do you think maybe Bush let this happended with gas prices. You would think he was in oil. Oh thats right he is!

Re: "gas prices should go down."

Tanya, what a novel idea! I don't think this "idea" has been explored before; who knows, you may have just found a solution to all of our dilemmas!

Thank you, really! Thank you...

(Ok, while this is a little harsh, your comment was "inviting...")

Ted - you are mistaken in your claim that greedy oil companies are driving the high cost of gasoline. There are many factors to this situation, and I can refer you to another blog over at Babeled titled "Is Exxon Mobil Getting Hosed" which explains what is actually happening to an oil company's financials. Basically, Exxon has the same profit margin as Campbell's Soup, and no one is complaining about the high cost of soup. It is the economies of scale that produce such huge profits. If you make $0.18 cents on 1 item, but sell that 100 billion of those items, you get the profits of Exxon. That is more true to reality.

Just to get boring and technical for a moment. I don't think oil prices have peaked yet. The recent rise in oil prices was probably the start of another upwave in oil prices. I've worked out the peak could end around $150 a barrel. Think I'll buy a scooter!

There are, amongst others, two differences to take into account. One is that Europeans use about half the amount of gas to go the same distance due to the differences in vehicles sold here and there in America. We also enjoy a substantial network of public transport, which allows many people to opt for not owning a car at all, which may not always happen in the States, partly because of the big huge size of the country, partly because of lack of political will to invest in public services.

Secondly, Europeans do pay more taxes for our gas, but that is all right, see it this way: in America a high proportion of the final cost of gas goes to the source, c'est a dire, the producing countries, which doesn't result in any benefit to Americans. In Europe, the tax collected goes to improving infrastructures and social services, which reverts some sort of benefit back to the user, so in a way we are getting our tax money back, only we are sometimes too dumb or too selfish to appreciate it.

And from my point of view, it doesn't matter if the price of gas goes down, we should all go for alternatives and stop being "managed" by oil-producing countries and their chums. They are the ones that have it real good.

Re: Westernsurreal comment: Obviously there are more to blame here than just the oil companies but I believe they can assume a large part of the responsibility for the high price of gasoline. I also firmly believe there needs to be safety controls in place to prevent greed driven spikes in prices on the commodities exchange the same as there were safety controls implimented after the great crash of the Thirty's to prevent a bottoming out of stocks. It's a big game to them... but if the rules of the game are flawed then accidents happen. A huge spike could take prices through the roof and this would not be good for for anyone except PERHAPS for the speculator involved. The Canadian Government is investigating this as we speak and rightly so. If other governments follow suit then futures traders may be forced to follow new rules of trading. As for your comment on environmental whacko'e I think you are dating yourself with old rhetoric that few people believe.

The one who care about environment,

The real culprit of soaring gas prices is not demand, but speculations, if oil can spike $6 to $12 in a day or just few hours of trading, then it shows that speculator are playing. Price never fluctuates during week end or long holiday weekend, but during trading day only?

I believe it is good for our congress to investigate this critical issue of oil speculation. For one sake don’t rush to judgement to change to alternative fuel such as corn base methanol, which cost and pollute more in producing it to all of us, the current solar cell are not as effective and poisonous to produce, similarly hydrogen fuel cell to costly to produce and not as efficient to run. These alternative fuels are still needed further research and development to be viable source of energy to replace our dependency of fossil fuel.

The first step to save energy and reduce global warming, we need to build cars, and electric applicants that are energy efficient, buildings and homes with better insulation and better air circulation to use less energy for lighting and air circulation. Build better mass transportation for urban area, use train as interstates transportation. Our government and big companies need to help to shape public awareness about energy saving. These steps alone could reduce about 10 to 20% of our total fuel consumption in next few years.

Europeans are getting something back with the additional taxes they pay. A healthcare system that works, schools that are not dependent on the locat real estate taxes and all the other stuff that makes Europe a fantastic place to live versus the states.

Dear Mr Andrew Tanzer about your article in the Washington Post "Pumping up on OIL stocks" I am not so sure that's a good idea. If multi millionair Richard Rainwater is selling off almost all his oil investments then maybe he knows something we don't. There are other factors that would also seem to indicate that the OIL bubble is about to burst. Saudi arabia is increasing oil output along with the United Kingdom and there is some talk of imposing regulations on oil commodities trading to stem big hikes is prices. Even the UN is worried about global sustainability with oil binging so high. Others keep bringing up india and China as an excuse for high prices but I don't buy it. They subsidize oil and they won't be able to keep doing that much longer at these prices. If I had any investments in oil right now I would sell them as fast as I could. But that's just me. On our website we conducted a poll, asking the question "who do you think is to blame for high oil prices" over half say speculation is to blame. www.nbtv.ca