ah, but there is an oil shortage and paying $3/gal. is cheap. Oil will hit $100/bar. by the end of the year.

But I thought high gas prices were good for helping wean us off of oil.

Do you want lower gas prices so people will feel good about buying humongous SUVs?

Go buy gas in Europe.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Aug 12 2007, 02:56 PM) [snapback]494355[/snapback]</div>

I really think there is a real possibility that the oil companies are restricting the number of refineries, or the amount of refined gasoline and diesel they are refining, to raise the price of those products. If they produced 20% more gasoline than at present, pump prices would plummet.
It is clear why that would be in the interest of consumers, but not in the interest of the oil companies.
From the perspective of a conservative right-wind viewpoint, there could very well be a restriction of competition going on here. From the perspective of a left-wing viewpoint, there could be a lack of government intervention to ensure sufficient refined products are produced so that producers are forced to sell their products at the lowest possible price.
Whatever the viewpoint, the market is not working the way it should be working. Why isn't there more fuel competing for your car's tank?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Leo @ Aug 12 2007, 06:22 PM) [snapback]494416[/snapback]</div>

You're right, there is a shortage of refinery capacity, especially if we have a bad hurricane season. What say we put one near YOUR house?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Leo @ Aug 12 2007, 07:22 PM) [snapback]494416[/snapback]</div>

Where was the government when the oil companies were losing their butts in the late 90's. Ten bucks a barrel and knowone offered help, now look at what you've got. You can't have it both ways, the oil companies need $20 barrel (back 7yrs ago) to make it. The ecomony to going to get wacked and then you'll have your low prices. The problem is, the alternative stuff will get wacked next. We need stability for everyone or we're in for a bumpy road.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Aug 12 2007, 08:56 PM) [snapback]494355[/snapback]</div>

That is obscenely cheap.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FL_Prius_Driver @ Aug 12 2007, 05:40 PM) [snapback]494399[/snapback]</div>

Or Japan
or Hawaii
or Iran for that matter

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Leo @ Aug 12 2007, 04:22 PM) [snapback]494416[/snapback]</div>

You are on to something, Leo. Ever wonder why gas prices have recently moved inversely to petroleum prices? The answer is supply and demand. Earlier in the year a number of events occurred to reduce output. Demand met the available supply at somewhere around $3.00/gallon nationally (California got to pay something like an average of $3.40/gallon, but then again we pay higher taxes and in the S.F. Bay Area, are blessed with a monopoly; but I digress).

With production capacity returning online, more gas is being produced and guess what, the price is dropping - even as petroleum prices are rising. There was an article online recently (but unfortunately, my Internet/Google search skills are not sufficient to find it) that analyzed production and prices between winter and summer and for approximately a 10% reduction in demand (based on winter production and pricing, which was about 10% less than the preceding summer), the price dropped into something like the $2.20/gallon territory.

One other factoid - refinery companies were budgeting to invest in expanded production capacity, but with the incentives for ethanol production, the refinery companies decided that the added demand would be met by non-petroleum based production and as a result, shelved their investment plans. Don't you love oligopolies? Nothing like a national energy policy. Send a note of thanks to Dick and Dubya.

The US gives big incentives to big oil. The oil companies just made Billions in profits so congress looked and saw we have been paying big oil for years. Now thye are trying to stop it in the newest Energy Bill. Of it passes we will have the same prices as Europe and the rest of the world.
Get the facts below.
Plug-in your Prius soon and get 100+ mpg
Be the solaution not th problem

http://www.speaker.gov/legislation?id=0009

H.R. 6 - Repealing Big Oil Subsidies/Investing in Renewable Fuels

This bill invests in clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency by repealing billions in subsidies given to big oil companies that are raking in record profits. Specifically, the measure ensures oil companies that were awarded the 1998 and 1999 leases for drilling paid their fair share in royalties. It also closes loopholes and ends giveaways in the tax code for Big Oil. Finally, the bill creates a Strategic Renewable Energy Reserve to invest in clean, renewable energy resources, promoting new emerging technologies, developing greater efficiency and improving energy conservation.

Facts >>

Over the last several years, profits and subsidies for Big Oil have climbed, as has our dependence on foreign oil. In 2006, the big five oil companies made $97 billion - nearly five times their profits in 2002. Gas prices at the pump also topped $3 per gallon.

The U.S. now has a record dependence on foreign oil, which has climbed to 65 percent.

The U.S. is sending about $800 million per day to the Middle East and other oil producing countries.

If you don't like the high price of gasoline, use less of it.

And yes, our politicians are on the take. I've noticed that if they don't start off wealthy, they all seem to end up that way after a few years in Washington, DC.

Harry

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Earthling @ Aug 13 2007, 08:14 AM) [snapback]494621[/snapback]</div>

Not possible. Yes we are all trying to use less by getting a Prius and trying to save money and help the environment. But face it, the gas industry is not supply and demand, it is supply or die. If I try and use less gas, I loose my job and therefore my house, and can't feed my kids... In supply and demand and economy can regulate prices but nothing is more central to our livelihood than gas. We in America with a MAJOR lack of adequate mass transit, we have no other option. Europe may be a little better off seeing as they have options.

The oil companies know they can charge whatever they want and we HAVE to pay it. Prices rise with every IRAN scare, every threat of the possibility that maybe a big storm might hit somewhere close to some refinery yet the prices never fall again. Despite all there alleged problems with pipelines and refining facilities breaking down they are still making record profits. Yet the government does nothing, or rather Bush vetoes anything that people with more than half a brain come up with.

If by "Uncle Sam" you mean "us", then yes. Starting in the 1940s we enslaved our society to automobiles, and we've been paying the price.

But hey, driving is fun! See The USA In Your Chevrolet, and all that. Not to mention, what's good for GM is good for America.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dareniott @ Aug 13 2007, 09:12 AM) [snapback]494635[/snapback]</div>

It's supply and eventually peak. You never use all of the remaining half of fossil petro chemicals (first half took 100 years to deplete, and demand continues to increase exponentially) because it eventually takes as much energy to remove recover / refine it as you get in return. Good ol' American values ... put the problem off until we enter panic mode. Most citizens still say, "oh that's a lot of crap ... there's PLENTY of oil for years to come".

I wish petrol was so cheap in Australia. Here we pay $1.20 to $1.40 per litre and I believe the UK is about a pound a litre or about $2US/L that's around $7.50 a US gallon.

High fuel prices mean more Prius and diesels on the road and less V8s.

I fail to see what options Europe has that USA doesn't have?

High fuel consumption is keeping US soldiers in Iraq. Drive a V8 and risk the life of an American mothers child. A small price to pay for cheap fuel? I think not.

I've heard it said that Americans have two responses to a crisis: complacency and panic. When it comes to the supply of energy/gas, we're still at complacency.

There's a typo in the thread title. It should be "Thank Uncle Sam for low gas prices."

Even at three bucks a pop, it's still the cheapest gas just about anywhere in the world, thanks to subsidies via the aforementioned bought and paid for politicians.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dareniott @ Aug 13 2007, 09:12 AM) [snapback]494635[/snapback]</div>

You are driving a Prius, so you are using less gasoline.

I chose to buy a house a half mile from where I work. Not everyone can do that, granted, but people do have choices, and sometimes can buy a house near mass transit. Lots of people choose a house with no regard to gasoline usage.

Besides a commute that I can walk, and usually do, I bought a Prius to save even more gasoline, realizing that I still want to move around and travel.

Harry

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stev0 @ Aug 13 2007, 11:28 AM) [snapback]494693[/snapback]</div>

Right. Come back & say you're worried, when gas costs more than foo foo bottled drinking water.

check out this video on the topic when you have 50 minutes (and enough bandwidth) to spare:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3uvzcY2Xug