www.thetruthaboutcars.com/content/11292058241518084276/index.php

13 October 2005
By William Sargant





Fellow enthusiasts and SUV salesmen fear not: gasoline will be cheap again within a year or two. The price will return to the $1.00 - $1.50 range, just like it was back in December of ‘02. How could this be? Start with this: if high gas prices were solely and inexorably linked to the price of oil, why are there still enough cheap plastic toys to keep your local Dollar Store in business? Why have disposable diapers, polyester pillows, Tupperware, hula hoops, toy dump trucks and other petroleum-based products not jumped to three times the price, too? Because they’re not subject to the same political and economic pressures affecting gasoline.

When voters elect the latest gladhander to their municipal and state governments, the chemical makeup of the gas down at their local pump is not usually high on their list of priorities. BUT if you’re an agricultural activist who wants to sell corn to the government to produce Ethanol, or an environmentalist who believes you possess the magic formula for reducing baby-killing smog in western cities, well, that’s a different story.

............. More at the website..good reading..

www.thetruthaboutcars.com/content/11292058241518084276/index.php

tag

My V8's ears perked up when I read the excerpt you pulled.

Perhaps Mssr.Sargent needs to get a damned clue regarding the various grades of crude oil.

If we could harness the hot air on this site our probs would be over.

Gas prices are high for one reason. CEO's of Oil companies have finally found the right excuse to jack up the prices and increase their profits.

Do not be fooled. The oil companies have been talking about $3/gallon gas for a long time now. But they have been hampered by the fact that consumers would have to have a reason to pay that much and keep their mouths shut about it. Well, the "oil crisis" with oil at $67/barrel and the two hurricanes have provided them with their smoke screen.

Quoted: Gas prices are high for one reason. CEO's of Oil companies have finally found the right excuse to jack up the prices and increase their profits. Do not be fooled. The oil companies have been talking about $3/gallon gas for a long time now. But they have been hampered by the fact that consumers would have to have a reason to pay that much and keep their mouths shut about it. Well, the "oil crisis" with oil at $67/barrel and the two hurricanes have provided them with their smoke screen.

The current price reflects the limited supply of futures contracts, not the commodity.
When (someone ??? ) adds a few million oil futures contracts to the mix in Chicago we will once again have oil at $15 to $30 per barrel.

besides, the cost of oil is only about 40% of a cost of gasoline. the rest is refining costs, transportation, markup, etc.   If you simplify that end of the environment and take advantage of economies of scale prices will definetly drop

I read the whole thing and I don't see how anything is changing to bring gas back to $1.00-$1.50/gal

Gas isn't expensive. The Americam Petrolium Institute had a half page ad in todays paper telling me so.
www.api.org

Quoted: Quoted: Gas prices are high for one reason. CEO's of Oil companies have finally found the right excuse to jack up the prices and increase their profits. Do not be fooled. The oil companies have been talking about $3/gallon gas for a long time now. But they have been hampered by the fact that consumers would have to have a reason to pay that much and keep their mouths shut about it. Well, the "oil crisis" with oil at $67/barrel and the two hurricanes have provided them with their smoke screen. hr

Rolling eyes dont negate the fact that the Department of Energy noticed price gouging (for no reason) and flat-out asked the US Gas Companies why they were raising the prices, when oil prices remained the same......

the answer? ....    "In anticipation of a shortage caused by the Iraqi war."


There you have it.    The DOE asked a straight question, and got a straight answer.   The gas prices have been going up steadily for a couple of years FOR NO REASON AT ALL


Now hurricane Katrina hits.... of course the gas prices would climb a little bit, and then recede....   But they climbed a little bit from the unjustifiable high prices, and then went back down to those unjustifiably high prices.

Gas should be around $1.50 a gallon, instead it's $3.35

OPEC isnt to blame.    US Gas companies are to blame, and more importantly, the US Government for it's complicit allowance of blatant price-gouging.   It is not supply and demand.  It is not capitalism.   It is extortion.

The British used to do that to us, too....

Quoted: Quoted: Gas prices are high for one reason. CEO's of Oil companies have finally found the right excuse to jack up the prices and increase their profits. Do not be fooled. The oil companies have been talking about $3/gallon gas for a long time now. But they have been hampered by the fact that consumers would have to have a reason to pay that much and keep their mouths shut about it. Well, the "oil crisis" with oil at $67/barrel and the two hurricanes have provided them with their smoke screen.

I wouldn't roll your eyes too much.  While I am not a tin foil hat type, there is an element of truth to that.  Any company looks for profit opportunity and will jack up the price of anything they make until people quit buying!

Quoted: Gas prices are high for one reason. CEO's of Oil companies have finally found the right excuse to jack up the prices and increase their profits. Do not be fooled. The oil companies have been talking about $3/gallon gas for a long time now. But they have been hampered by the fact that consumers would have to have a reason to pay that much and keep their mouths shut about it. Well, the "oil crisis" with oil at $67/barrel and the two hurricanes have provided them with their smoke screen.

Reapply tin-foil before posting again please.

Man how would you guys drive if gas was ever a dollor again?  My truck would only take 25 bucks a week tops!  I think i might be tempted to floor it every where i go.

Matt

So what happens when the prices don't go down in a year?

Quoted: So what happens when the prices don't go down in a year?

Then prices stay the same, or go up.

$3 a gallon is nothing, England pays more than that, and has for a long time.

I wish they'd raise it to $5 a gallon and force some of these Hummerheads and Expeditioners into more efficient vehicles.  Watching a single person commuting in a land yacht drives me nuts.  

Quoted: Gas prices are high for one reason. CEO's of Oil companies have finally found the right excuse to jack up the prices and increase their profits. Do not be fooled. The oil companies have been talking about $3/gallon gas for a long time now. But they have been hampered by the fact that consumers would have to have a reason to pay that much and keep their mouths shut about it. Well, the "oil crisis" with oil at $67/barrel and the two hurricanes have provided them with their smoke screen.

P-L-E-A-S-E!!  Today's gas prices are a function of the fact that an oligarchy of about six players control 60% of the crude oil market.  Another 30% of crude is domestically produced; however, we no longer can just pump it out of the ground.  We have to go get it in 6000+ ft. of water.  Do you know how much it cost to deploy an oil field deepsea?  Hundreds of millions of dollars just for the subsea equipment.  That cost does not include the price of a production platform or a connection to an undersea pipeline.

Added to this is the three major hurricanes of the last two years that have raveged the offshore oil business in the gulf.  For example, Shell's Mars platform, their largest oil producer at over 200,000 barrels a day plus natural gas production, was completed trashed by Katrina.  Shell's main workover rig, the platfrom from which they can fix their currently damaged subsea systems, is also out of commission for about three months.

I believe energy prices will come back down as the situation in the gulf stabilizes and media finds other stories to harp on.  Saudi Arabia claims to be increasing their infrastructure, which could techinically increase their output.  The oil CEOs do NOT sit around and discuss how to screw the "little guy" all day long.  Trust me.  They have bigger fish to fry trying to please their ever demanding stock holders.  

Quoted: [ OPEC isnt to blame.    US Gas companies are to blame, and more importantly, the US Government for it's complicit allowance of blatant price-gouging.   It is not supply and demand.  It is not capitalism.   It is extortion. The British used to do that to us, too....

Don't kid yourself.  The oil companies don't set the price.  It's traded on the damn stock market.  Are you claiming they are fixing the market?  Laughable at best.  They have to cash in now because they know that when the speculation is over we'll see $40 oil again.

Nah, I dont believe it'll ever go down.  When's the last time you saw ANYTHING like gasoline go back down in price?  Whenever something goes up it stays up.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Gas prices are high for one reason. CEO's of Oil companies have finally found the right excuse to jack up the prices and increase their profits. Do not be fooled. The oil companies have been talking about $3/gallon gas for a long time now. But they have been hampered by the fact that consumers would have to have a reason to pay that much and keep their mouths shut about it. Well, the "oil crisis" with oil at $67/barrel and the two hurricanes have provided them with their smoke screen. Rolling eyes dont negate the fact that the Department of Energy noticed price gouging (for no reason) and flat-out asked the US Gas Companies why they were raising the prices, when oil prices remained the same...... the answer? ....    "In anticipation of a shortage caused by the Iraqi war." There you have it.    The DOE asked a straight question, and got a straight answer.   The gas prices have been going up steadily for a couple of years FOR NO REASON AT ALL

No, there's been reasons.  The increasing demand from China and India.  The price of energy has risen in tandem with the price of commodities used in construction like lumber, steel, cement, copper. Add that in with already high demand from the US, a refining bottleneck, and then the storms that directly hit the biggest US production area and the biggest intake for crude from Mexico, Nigeria and Venezuela........of COURSE there will be higher energy prices. That whole supply and demand thing.

I know gas retailers play games and exploit any hike of crude prices enthusiastically while reluctantly rolling prices back when crude prices fall, but they are not colluding on a grand scale to make gas prices 100% higher than what they "should" be.

what's touching is that they're "donating" 5 million dollars (at least here in CO) to help offset the increased cost of fuel(s) used for heating homes.....



Hell yeah, I"ll give up 5 million dollars if it'll make people feel good about my jacking up prices so I can rake in about an EXTRA 20+ million (ABOVE the 5 million I "generously" dontated)!!!!

Quoted: Rolling eyes dont negate the fact that the Department of Energy noticed price gouging (for no reason) and flat-out asked the US Gas Companies why they were raising the prices, when oil prices remained the same...... the answer? ....    "In anticipation of a shortage caused by the Iraqi war." There you have it.    The DOE asked a straight question, and got a straight answer.   The gas prices have been going up steadily for a couple of years FOR NO REASON AT ALL

You need to take a macroeconomics class - anticipation of a shortage or surplus directly affects the price that people are willing to pay/demand for a good.  That is capitalism in its purest form, and that is nothing new.  

Quoted: $3 a gallon is nothing, England pays more than that, and has for a long time. I wish they'd raise it to $5 a gallon and force some of these Hummerheads and Expeditioners into more efficient vehicles.  Watching a single person commuting in a land yacht drives me nuts.

Why do you care what kind of vehicles other people drive?  Those bigger cars/truck cost more then honda civics.  When people buy them they help the economy more then if everyone drove small pos.

Matt

Quoted: $3 a gallon is nothing, England pays more than that, and has for a long time. I wish they'd raise it to $5 a gallon and force some of these Hummerheads and Expeditioners into more efficient vehicles.  Watching a single person commuting in a land yacht drives me nuts.

Yeah and I wish they would tax ammo at $100/round so you gol' durned kids with your AK's and AR's would shoot more efficient guns, like mah trusty ol' 30-ought six.  

Quoted: Quoted: So what happens when the prices don't go down in a year? Then prices stay the same, or go up.

I'd point to the going up part.  My comment was more joking.  I doubt we'll see buck fifty gas in a year, three-fifty maybe, but not buck fifty.