Gas Prices?

Why are the gas prices so high even though the company's that make the gas get oil cheap then sell it at such high prices?

I think the gov't should put a restriction on how much money they can make in one year and then you might see the gas prices drop at least $1. Tell Me what you think of this?

would be more interested in what the Democrats had to say about high gas prices if these were not the same people who refused to let us drill for oil in Alaska, imposed massive restrictions on building new refineries, and who shut down the development of nuclear power in this country decades ago.

But it's too much having to watch Democrats wail about the awful calamity to poor working families of having to pay high gas prices.

Imposing punitive taxation on gasoline to force people to ride bicycles has been one of the left's main policy goals for years.

For decades Democrats have been trying to raise the price of gasoline so that the working class will stop their infernal car-driving and start riding on buses where they belong, while liberals ride in Gulfstream jets.

The last time the Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the presidency was in 1993. Immediately after trying to put gays in the military and socialize all health care, Clinton's next order of business was to propose an energy tax on all fuels, including a 26-cent tax on gas. I think the bill was called "putting people first in line at the bus station."

Al Gore defended the gas tax, vowing that it was "absolutely not coming out" of the energy bill regardless of "how much trouble it causes the entire package." The important thing was to force Americans to stop their infernal car-driving, no matter how much it cost.

And mind you, this was before we knew Gore was clinically insane. Back then we thought he was just a double-talking stuffed shirt who seemed kind of gay.

Democrats in Congress promptly introduced an "energy bill" that would put an additional 25-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline to stop "global warming," an atmospheric phenomenon supposedly aggravated by frivolous human activities such as commerce, travel and food production. This is the Democratic Party. That's their program.

Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley endorsed the proposal on "Charlie Rose," saying: "I'd have a five-cent increase every year for five years. ... But that's not going to happen ... because we've got people who fret and worry that one- or two-tenths of a cent of a gasoline tax is going to cause some revolution at home." So in Tom Foley's universe, two-tenths of a cent is the same as a quarter â€” another testimonial to the American public educational system.

The Democrats' proposed gas tax did cause a revolution at home, and consequently the Democrats were able to sneak through only an additional 4.3-cent federal tax on gasoline. After tut-tutting the idea that voters would object if the Democrats attempted a huge gas tax increase, Speaker Tom Foley soon became former speaker, and indeed former Congressman Tom Foley.

Gary Hart, another whimsical demonstration of what Democrats think a president should be like, said at the time, "I certainly favor consumption taxes, particularly on energy." Then there's John Kerry, who favored a 50-cent increase in the gas tax in 1994. If he were a rap artist, Kerry's stage name would be "Fifty Cent a Gallon."

Last year, a couple of green "climatologists" at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were back at it in the journal Science, wheeling out their proposal for a 25-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline as an "insurance policy" against global warming.

Just two months ago, we were being confidently told â€” on the basis of a New York Times/CBS News poll, so it must be true â€” that "Americans might OK a gasoline tax hike if it reduced global warming or lessened U.S. dependence on foreign oil." (This poll was wedged in among the 29 polls claiming Americans think we're losing the war in Iraq.) Other results from the Times' "meaningless polls" section: Americans might "OK" a Dennis Kucinich presidency if it meant free ice cream every Tuesday.

How many times do Democrats have to tell us they want to raise the price of gas for the average American before the average American believes them? Is it more or less than the number of times Democrats tell us they want to surrender in the war on terrorism?

It's as if a switch goes off in people's brains telling them: The Democrats can't be saying they want to destroy the lives of people who drive cars because my father was a Democrat, and the Democrats can't be this stupid!

The Democrats' only objection to current gas prices is that the federal government's cut is a mere 18.4 cents a gallon. States like New York get another 44 cents per gallon in taxes. The Democratic brain processes the fact that "big oil companies" get nearly 9 cents a gallon and thinks: WE SHOULD HAVE ALL THAT MONEY!

When the free market does the exact thing liberals have been itching to do through taxation, they pretend to be appalled by high gas prices, hoping the public will forget that high gas prices are part of their agenda.

We have not added refineries in years. There is more demand that the current refinery capacity driving supply down and prices up.

Environmental law make it difficult and costly to build a refinery so I do not see a resonable change in the near future.

Why don't you people out there that just keep on paying the higher prices wake up and read between the lines.
Oh dear the poor oil companies something happens and up go the the prices, whoop de do, just take a look at the quarterly profits that they make, ever since Katrina the 'profits' have been hitting record highs each and every quarter, the Government won't do anything about it, oh of course they will talk about it, just to mollify the masses, but take action no chance they would lose to much money.
If you want the prices down, car pool, walk to work, the store, use public transit, don't buy gas for a day or two if enough people "who care' do it for a week it would make a considerable dent in their revenue both the Oil Companies and Government.
Come on people wake up smell the coffee.

Government intervention would not solve the problem. There are many aspects that effect the price of oil and gas, but the bottom line is supply and demand. Even though oil companies are raking in extra cash, profit margins have remained the same for the past couple of years. It's not a company's profit you want to look at, it's the profit margin. Go to www.sec.gov and check the statements yourself.

Also, during the months of February, March, and April, the U.S. has had significant draw downs in inventory due to refinery problems. Even though we have gotten weekly inventory builds this month, we are still at multi-year lows. Just check with the Energy Information Administration which is under the U.S. Dept. of Energy.

You must also realize that supply is tight globally. Even though the United States is the largest consumer of crude oil, we are not the only. China and India (with populations of 1 billion plus) are becoming more industrialized nations and their energy demands are growing rapidly - faster than ours. Last report I read, China is expected to increase their demand this year by about 7% while our demand is expected to grow only 2.5%.

Another factor is geopolitical problems. A huge portion of our light sweet crude oil is purchased from Nigeria. Nigeria has had many problems with their production due to rebel groups bombing pipelines and creating hazardous conditions for oil platform and drilling works that has forced some companies to withdraw their workers from the region.

OPEC - the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is the worlds biggest supplier of crude oil and they have made it quite clear that they are not going to increase production supply even after being advised by the International Energy Agency that supplies globally are tight. OPEC has a huge grip on us because they can easily affect prices by increasing or constraining their own supply. With prices going higher, they will make additional profits so there is really no true incentive for them to increase production. You must also know that many of these countries offer subsidies which make prices in there country cheap. We're talking 25 to 34 cents...Don't believe me - then go to Yahoo! Search and type "what is the price for a gallon of gasoline in Venezuela?"

I don't want to write a report, but basically what needs to happen are 4 things:

1) We increase our own supply of oil. Meaning drill of the coast of Florida and Alaska. This means that environmentalist will have to cooperate and understand that this is critical.

2.) We increase our refining capacity. It doesn't matter how much we pump out the ground, if we can't refine it quickly enough to meet demand then prices will go up. It's simple economics.

3.) We put partisan aside and work towards alternatives. Corn ethanol is not realistic because the price of corn is increasing and the ethanol it produces is too corrosive to travel via pipelines. Supplying a whole entire nation with ethanol that is transported by trains is unrealistic, costly, and time consuming. It's just not happening.

4.) Conserve. By doing this we cut demand. Lower demand means lower prices.

One final thing...Oil is used for more than just fuel for cars. It's also used as a power source and for manufacturing purpose...think plastics and ceramics. Consumption their also is important in demand.

Oil is not cheap right now. Three years ago, it was trading near $40 a barrel. Right now, it's at $65.

Oil production and end gasoline retail is not where the current margins are being made in the gasoline (petroleum) industry. Currently, due to the lack of refinery capacity, reduced imports and low gasoline inventories, the price of gas is resulting in comfortable margins for refiners.

Taxing the industry isn't going to do much good but make people feel better. Prices won't drop since taxes aren't going to address the problem - increasing demand and decreased supply.

Currently, refining capacity is reduced due to problems at these sites. Once those come back online and imports from other countries (hopefully) arrive, you should see price relief.

In the long term, refiners are using this windfall period to upgrade and expand production. But this won't go online overnight and they will be apprehensive to go all out (e.g., build a new refinery) due to the current political climate calling for reducing gasoline/oil consumption.

Just years ago, these refiners were making very little money. If you build too much capacity, then the margins will plummet and you will be back to a money losing operation again.

These oil companies sound like they are making a lot of money, but if you take a simple ratio, net income divided by revenues of these oil companies vs. a bank, then you will be astonished as to how much other industries make dollar for dollar.

Let's start with the obvious - there is no free market when it comes to oil.

The
OPEC oil cartel dictates production levels and prices. The petroleum futures market is an orgy of speculation that adds substantially to the price of every barrel of oil. The big oil companies themselves are bigger, stronger - and fewer - because of mergers. Real market competition among the oil giants disappeared years ago.
OUR VIEW: Grandstanding on gas

Then there's the issue of refineries and the oil companies that own them. It's odd, isn't it, how the need to shut refineries for maintenance coincides with peak demand?

And what about the shortage of refinery capacity? The big oil companies haven't built a refinery since the 1970s. Why should they? The resulting bottlenecks push prices up and help generate billions in new profits without the bother of doing a thing.

We have to have a free market in oil before we can "let it work." Clearly, the problem isn't at the gas station. It is with the big interests fattening their bank accounts at ordinary Americans' expense.

The willingness to assume "all is well" is puzzling given recent history. Remember when West Coast electricity prices skyrocketed a few years ago? "Relax," the "let the free market work" crowd told us.

I led the Senate Commerce Committee's investigation into that price run-up. What we found was not a free market, but a criminal enterprise by Enron and others in which energy prices were manipulated at a cost to consumers of tens of billions of dollars.

Today, it's gasoline prices setting all-time records across America. We need to know what's going on. Yet the Bush administration has shown little to no curiosity about what's driving prices to record levels.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (news, bio, voting record), D-Wash., and I are working to change that. Our legislation, approved by the Senate Commerce Committee, would put teeth into the effort to investigate and prevent price gouging. It would authorize the Federal Trade Commission, an independent agency, to conduct investigations and impose fines for price gouging.

That's not too much to ask.

First of all, we do not need the government involved. That will only drive the prices higher. The only the government can do to help the price of gasoline is to allow the oil companies to build new refineries and explore for new gas reserves in Alaska.

Hello,
I live in the Turks & Caicos Islands, and our cheapest gas was $3.99 per gal and that was about four years ago. Gas is now $4.60 per gallon and higher on other smaller islands.
Gas prices :(

Current 'high' gas price is a myth. America's gas price per gallon, when dollar adjusted for inflation, remains a bargain when compared to price per gallon in previous decades. The fluctuating price per gallon and the whining about it are both relative...handy for pontificating political 'debates' though, huh? Americans don't recognize how well off they are....

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