Gas Prices being manipulated

[evanrick]

Believe it or not, The President, George Bush does control the price of gas.

I know this could go in the current events forum but gas prices are a pretty hot topic these days.

Oil Cartels know that Republicans will do their bidding in congress, so its natural that they will work together to manipulate the price of gas for political gain and profit.

In 2004 the lowest gas price the entire year was in November, when George Bush was re-elected. Imagine if gas was $4 a gallon then, would we have President Kerry instead?

Wall street knows that with a Democrat in the white house, they will face more regulation, this includes oil companies and especially mortgage companies.

I am willing to bet that by November of this year, gas prices will be at least 10% lower than they are now and people will be lulled into a false sense of security again. Economic fears will subside and terrorism will become an issue again.

George Bush is hoping his offshore drilling scam will trick voters into voting against "The democrats that stopped it" and "The democrats that raised the price of your gas".

Its a very clever but transparent political trick he is playing on Americans, and I hope they don't buy what hes selling.

 

[naturist]

You're just figuring this out? I am still reeling from the incredible fact that the American people would fuck themselves twice voting for this very evil and very greedy puppet for the rich.

 

[NineOfClubs]

Some of the real reasons for lower prices in November:

The summer driving season is over. Lower demand for gasoline.

Hurricane season has ended. No fear of damage to refineries and drilling platforms.

The coldest winter weather hasn't arrived. No heavy demand for heating oil.

Or if it makes you feel better, forget all about economics or supply and demand, you can just believe it's all a conspiracy....

 

[evanrick]

Yeah real reasons, like how they announced they were gonna execute saddam the DAY BEFORE the 2006 mid-term elections.

or how President bush blames democrats for rising gas prices when he invades an unstable part of the world that just happens to be where all the oil is.

or how Exxon has record profits, but no, we shouldnt think they are all in to screw the american consumer that would be a "conspiracy".

 

[MadeUpName27]

I'm not a fan of [strike]Dumbass[/strike], I mean Dubya, but I have to rise to his defence on this one issue.

Oil prices ARE being manipulated, it's true, but Bush is NOT the master manipulator.

He only thinks that he is...

In reality, he is the puppet - not the puppeteer.

 

[Apollo]

Haha, your just now figuring out Oil Prices are manipulated? hahaha

As for Bush doing it, it isn't him. It is more, you know, the people with all the oil.

 

[swerve]

VERY GOOD thread!!!

AND -- I'm GLAD to see it in HOT TOPICS instead of CE&P...

I SUSPECT that BOTH Nineofclubs AND the OP are correct!!!

 

[Sangshao]

The lowest gas prices of the year are typically in November and February. It's not an evil international conspiracy. Oil consumption spikes in the middle of the winter and the middle of the summer because we use more energy for Heating and Air Conditioning respectively. The graph looks pretty much the same year after year.

The department of energy does it's best to walk people through the why's and hows, but anecdote, conspiracy, and supposition usually win out regardless:
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/gdu/gasdiesel.asp

 

[cityboy-stl]

It's not Bush that's manipulating oil prices, it's Dick Cheney. This was planned at his "secret" energy conferences years ago. That's the game; raise it up real high, then drop a bit so that we'll think $3.50 a gallon is cheap. Just watch. Next year we'll think $4.50 is cheap. We're all being had by our own government.

 

[Puzuzzu]

Americans are so fucked up hahahah

 

[jjc_7]

First of all, I too put some of the blame on the president for not doing more to curtail this fiasco. However, the bulk of our oil is being bought from other countries. So...I'm not seeing how rich American oil companies are manipulating the price here. As for an "offshore drilling scam" it's really very simple. Countries that use their own oil have lower gas prices. We use less, so we pay more. I could care less if Bush or Obama came up with it. Drilling is the best thing we can do.

If that's a blanket statement, I'd have to disagree. Americans probably still have some of the cheapest gas of any western nation (I think pretty much every place in Canada is paying over $5/gallon right now, some close to $6/gallon, and thinking of European gas prices makes me thankful for what we pay at the pump). I'd be more inclined to say that the refining capacity of the country probably has more to do with gas prices than how much oil you produce, what good is the oil if you can't refine it on your backdoor? Pipelines are a wee bit expensive to build, and ironically, since gas prices are rising, it's getting more expensive for those tankers to drive from the refinery to fill up your local gas station.

I think we all need to stop bitching about how much gas costs and start thinking of ways to ween ourselves off the dependency of oil. If we all put as much energy into thinking of viable alternative forms of energy as we did bitching about the extra 10 cents we pay at the pump, we'd have probably thought of a new technology by now.

 

[RationalLunacy]

"You must obey me."

 

[maxpowr9]

Theres a multitude of reasons why gas prices are so high. As fo a conspiracy... go join the crazies in Roswell. Sure there is some manipulation of the gas prices which is done by the government, but thats not the sole reason why its so high.

Many people already stated the obvious. Supply/Demand, Production vs. consumption.

As to the person why the US pays less than any other western country is actually quite simple. A little phrase called economies of scale. We have over 300 million people in the US. Since we have more people, we generally need more 'stuff' (in this case oil). Since we buy alot more, producers (or OPEC) are willing to sell a larger amount of oil to US for less than a smaller firm (say the UK). Thats the main reason why we have 'cheap' gas.

Some people shouldn't spew crap out of their ass if they don't know what theyre talking about.

I will say, I agree with onionfyre. A lot of the blame rests on the American people. You choose to go out and buy that inefficient SUV when buying a wagon, which is just as practical, would have sufficed. You don't deserve the right to bitch about gas prices if you own an inefficent vehicle.

 

[voyager6]

Americans are so fucked up hahahah

actually, it's the American politicians & the voters who voted them in without doing any research on them.

 

[sunoftheskye]

Riding a bicycle or even taking public transportation, isn't practical or even possible for many people.

But I do agree, many have been irresponsible in terms of buying fuel efficient cars--my parents included.

 

[drhladnjak]

First of all, I too put some of the blame on the president for not doing more to curtail this fiasco. However, the bulk of our oil is being bought from other countries. So...I'm not seeing how rich American oil companies are manipulating the price here. As for an "offshore drilling scam" it's really very simple. Countries that use their own oil have lower gas prices. We use less, so we pay more. I could care less if Bush or Obama came up with it. Drilling is the best thing we can do.

Increasing oil production in the US by doing more drilling is very unlikely to have any impact on the price of oil. Oil is fungible, which is a fancy economics term meaning that a barrel of oil pumped out of the ground in one place is interchangeable with one pumped out elsewhere. It's not like a car where there are differences in models/manufacturers or milk which will spoil if transported across the world by ship. The cost of a barrel is the cost of production plus the cost of transporting it to where the buyer is at.

If oil companies pump more oil in the US, there's no reason to believe it would be sold in the US. It will be sold to the highest bidder at the market price which can be anywhere in the world because oil is sold on a world market. So when we talk about producing more oil in this country, we have to look at how much more oil this would put on the world market. It's really a drop in the bucket. Moreover, after all the time needed for exploration, permitting, construction, etc. we're looking at about 10 years before any new oil even comes out of the ground and can be brought to market. I wish I could find the reference right now, but we're talking fractions of one percent of the world oil supply and the price of a gallon of gasoline coming down a couple cents worldwide 10-15 years from now, even if you add in all of ANWR and known offshore reserves.

Many countries that produce large amounts of oil do not have cheaper prices than the US--Norway, the UK and Canada come to mind. The US has some of the lowest fuel taxes in the world, which is why our gas is still relatively cheap compared to all other developed countries. Venezuela, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Russia only have lower gas prices, because the governments in those countries subsidize the cost of gas by forcing domestic oil to be sold at sub-market prices to domestic refiners. In many of these cases, the oil industry is nationalized so the producers and refiners ARE the government. Those countries would make a lot more money as a whole if they sold all their oil at market prices, but there's political reasons for keeping gas prices so low domestically instead. The US government is never going to force ExxonMobil to sell oil pumped out of ANWR or the Gulf of Mexico at below market prices.

Moreover, pumping more oil out of the ground is not a long term solution. Eventually those reserves will run low too and we'll be back in the same situation. The best thing we can do is come up with a long range, reasonable national energy policy that includes diversifying our sources of energy and investing in new, cleaner ways of producing energy.

 

[drhladnjak]

As to the person why the US pays less than any other western country is actually quite simple. A little phrase called economies of scale. We have over 300 million people in the US. Since we have more people, we generally need more 'stuff' (in this case oil). Since we buy alot more, producers (or OPEC) are willing to sell a larger amount of oil to US for less than a smaller firm (say the UK). Thats the main reason why we have 'cheap' gas.

No, the main reason we have cheaper gas is because the fuel taxes are just lower. The federal gas tax is only 18.4 cents per gallon with individual states adding up to about 30 cents per gallon (and in some cases sales taxes) onto that. Compare to Norway (a major oil producing and exporting country) where the gas tax is about $1.42 per liter or $5.37 per gallon.

 

[Puzuzzu]

When will Quebec be a free country? Canada kinda fucked up too. hehehehhe

I'm not Canadian by blood

 

[drhladnjak]

I agree that the government could mandate that it be sold domestically, but that's unlikely to happen. Moreover, I'm not convinced that would even lower prices without some sort of pricing controls. Any portion that's required to be sold domestically means that same amount of oil that will not be sold abroad. It's essentially a zero sum game.

Also, I'm still not convinced by your claim that oil exporting countries have lower prices at the pump, although the actual cost of a barrel of oil is a little bit cheaper (lower transport costs). All the major exporters of oil with western-style developed economies like ours have higher or much higher gas prices--Canada, Norway and the UK. Venezuela, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, China, Russia and all Persian Gulf oil producing states substantially subsidize the price of gasoline in their countries one way or another.

 

[rareboy]

Sorry mes enfants.

The age of cheap petroleum in the US and Canada is over. For good. The easy oil is going or gone, the rest of the world now wants the same standard of living as north americans have enjoyed on the back of cheap oil.

One part of the stragey of cranking up the price is to reduce use and thereby reduce carbon emissions. This only works if it starts to hurt in the pocketbook.

We are converting to geothemal heating and cooling this year in order to be free of oil heat. At the current price of fuel oil, our payback will be 5 years. That has dropped by 5 years in the last twelve months.

When north american consumers stop buying cheap plastic shit made in China by the shipload and stop thinking that using oil indiscriminately is a birthright, there's just some chance that other energy sources will start to look practical.

Isn't it about time that we all should shake off the tyranny of the geopolitics of oil?