Why is the U.S.Government allowing the oil companies to raise gas prices out of sight?
611020
As much as I don't like Bush, there isn't much he can do if we want to keep a free market economy.\n\nThe main reason prices are so high is the number of Americans who have bought huge gas guzzling cars.  If you or anyone you know drives an SUV or something similar, there's a big part of your answer.  The US government could levy heftier taxes on people who buy these cars.  And it can raise fuel efficiency standards, which free-marketeers, like the Wall Street Journal, deride as "telling Americans what kind of cars to buy."\n\nDemand is also higher than a decade ago because India, China and other large countries are industrializing at a very fast pace.  There are about 2 billion people in China and India alone.  The factories where they work use fossil fuels.  The cars they want to drive use fossil fuels.  The US government can't control this.\n\nSo demand is through the roof right now.\n\nAnd supply has been crimped by three main factors:\n\n* Speculators are driving up crude oil prices.  The price of crude -- which the US government cannot control -- is the biggest factor in the current price in creases.\n\n* There has been almost no investment in US refinery capacity in about 25 years.  Katrina didn't help.  This means gasoline is in relatively short supply.\n\n* The US Government, in an effort to alleviate foreign oil demand, has mandated the use of additives in fuel to "get more bang for the barrel."  Unfortunately the ethanol they've mandated is in short supply and we have a tarrif on imported ethanol, artificially raising its price.  The gov't could eliminate the tarrif.  The the tarrif is protecting farm states (where the corn is grown to produce the ethanol) as much as big oil.\n\nSo there's little the gov't can do in a short period of time to solve this problem (and I'm not a fan of this administration, so that's hard for me to admit).\n\nBut Americans can do lots more to conserve the stuff, thus driving down the price:\n* Stop buying big gas guzzling cars.\n* Consider walking, biking or public transport.\n* Push for a sensible energy strategy.  Last fall the government talked about tax incentives to big oil to do more drilling.  Now we want to tax their winfall profits.  We should have a policy that gives incentives to deliver tangible alternative, ideally renewable, sources.   Push your congressmen and senators.\n* Push your local communities to add bike lanes and other facilities for bikers (even if you can't cycle, maybe your neighbors can).\n* Push for public transportation.  I live in LA where public transport has been quashed by the rich of the Westside who refuse to allow a subway from downtown and the valley to the beaches because they're afraid of "the wrong kind of people."  But your town might be more open.
527537
Congress is hurting gas prices by protecting the oil company's. PERIOD.
348889
supposedly it's because of "weapons of mass destruction." but we all know it's because of the oil. the shitty part is now bush has had us over there 3 years, and the fuckin gas prices are still pushing $3 and probably $4 in summer.
806984
I believe the Bush administration Is the cause for the increase in gas prices. Do you remember when the Vice President had a secret meeting with the oil big wigs? This meeting was so hush-hush the president went to the supreme court to have the minutes sealed. soon after gas prices went through the roof. The Bush started the war in Iran. We had Gulf coast storms. There were a lot of factors but mainly it is greed by the oil companies. Oil companies will site market conditions as the reason for gas prices increasing. What they wont tell you is that they caused those conditions. ask them why did they close oil refineries down in Calif. and not build new ones?
525345
In part, gas prices are determined by supply and demand.  Prices are also determined by how much foreign oil is purchased and then passed on to consumers. \nPoliticians and oil companies would have us believe that these two are the primary reasons for the increase in fuel prices, but this is because most Americans do not really look very hard at facts surrounding them on a daily basis, or do not put them together. The 1950's had gas at around 22 cents a gallon.  Yet even with our greater technology, the much increased ease of production, transport, and refinement should have us keeping pace with prices still around $1.00, with the cost of exploration being one of the few legitimate reasons for increasing the prices...of course combined with the reasons previously mentioned.  But this is not the case.  \nWhen hurricane Katrina approached the coast, the price of gas rose over 10 cents a gallon - before - the hurricane had done any damage.  Afterward, when production resumed its normal levels, prices did not subside.  Instead they continued to rise.  The second hurricane did little or no damage, but prices rose again...in the same pattern.  For a dozen years or more, oil companies have followed a pattern of every six to eight months, raising prices until public outcry became strong enough, then when it was lowered ten or twelve cents the public sighed a great sigh; while not really paying attention to the fact that the price was still ten or fifteen cents higher than it was.  \nThe hurricanes, combined with the merger of giant oil companies into mega corporations have removed the checks and balances that healthy competition made in keeping oil prices down.  From 14 to 36 billion in profits, these oil companies answer to no one.  Their CEO's hide under the guise that no one can specifically point their finger at one of them and lay the blame, and our government cannot do anything to one and not the others, so nothing is done.  The oil companies state to the senators that their prices have increased slower than any other comodity.  Yet the simple reason behind this eludes our leaders...the reason...because the oil companies are the catalyst for the rise in every other price.  A farmer, with a tiny edge of profit, cannot afford to absorb the gas prices as they are, and so the prices snowball into every other thing linked to them.  So, why do prices rise?  Well, aside from the legitimate reasons mentioned in the beginning, it is because there is no one who tells them that they have to stop.
641301
The gas companies are actually only making around 10% profit on their gas.  This might be slightly above market equilibrium but not much.  Much of the cost goes into taxes and refining.  The bulk is from the increase in the price of crude oil.  The nominal profits are increasing because the oil companies are keeping a fixed profit margin.\n\n10% of 10 is smaller than 10% of 100.  Both have the same margins.\n\nThere's an article here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5365439\n\nPrice ceiling general info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_ceiling\n\nYes, it would create a shortage.  We did exactly this in the 70s.  I guess it's up to the individual as to whether it's preferable to have gas lines and slightly cheaper prices or the current situation.  There's no right answer.\n\nIf the ceiling is low, they'll just cut supply or start exporting it.
382180
Of course not. \n\nUnlike the case of the 1970's embargo, there is no shortage. Oil and gas are abundant. The oil producers and their cronies realized that a demand for the product exists at a higher price, and have proceeded to manipulate the market to jack up the price. Of course, the government is looking the other way. In the past, everytime they tried to do that, a small portion of the Strategic Oil Reserve was released and oil prices soon dropped. \n\nWhy is that not being done now?\n\nCan anyone guess the answer? \n\n(A cue: remember Farenheit 911?)
316100
From basic economics, a price ceiling would just cause massive shortages and gas lines just as you saw in the 1970s.  It's trading one problem for another problem.  Whether this is desirable is debatable.  There are price ceilings for various things out there, such as rent.  There's some info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_ceiling\n\nYour other solution about boycotting just one company is just another urban legend floating around.\n\nBoycotting Exxon isn't going to work to bring down prices.  If everyone stopped buying from Exxon and used the other providers, then the other providers would run out of gas pretty quickly due to supply and demand chain effects.  What would happen is that they would buy their gas from Exxon and overall all prices would go up, not down.\n\nFull mythbuster at Snopes.\n\nhttp://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp\n\nTo lower gas prices, you have to lower demand, which includes things like carpooling, public transportation, alternative sources of energy, and better milage vehicles.
400589
Yes.\n\nThe US Government regulates every business to some extent. Minimum wage, Social Security, Unemployment tax, are all government regulations that dampen the economy.  In addition to this, look at the way they abuse the oil companies.  You think Gas prices are high?  Don't blame the oil companies, look at the US Government.  For the process that crude oil goes through to be gasoline, gas is relatively cheap.  Now, when you start adding environmental regulations that are based on paranoia and not fact, all of a sudden, there are a thousand different additives to the fuel depending on where you are in the country.  This drives the cost up.  The US Government constantly falls victim to the environmentalist wackos, and forbids oil companies from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico or Alaska, as well as forbidding them from building more refineries.  Add all of that together, and gasoline should be a lot more expensive than it is.  Take all of that away, and gas is fifty cents per gallon. \n\nThe oil companies are the best example of Government regulation gone wrong.  Look at it this way, whenever the government steps in and tells a business that they must do something or face penalty of law, that is over-regulation.  Another recent example in Maryland, I think, the government has passed a law that says that any company with over X employees MUST provide benefits for it's employees.  The law was directed at Wal-Mart, because Wal-mart happened to be the only business around that fell into that catagory.  Under the law, if they failed to provide benefits to it's employees, they must pay the difference to the government.  More politicians sticking their faces into places they shouldn't be, just to satisfy some voters.\n\nIf you need more, feel free to ask.
781385
You expected otherwise?  The drop in prices was a ploy by the oil companies to help get Repubs elected.  Now that the election is over and the prices are going back up, look for them to hit $3 a gallon by Christmas.  Merry Christmas from the big oil companies.  And besides that, they need to make more money.
368718
Some of the prices are artificially inflated. \n\nHowever, gas prices in the US are still lower than in most countries. Go to Germany or England and pay the equivilant we pay per gallon for a liter. \n\nI do think that many of the companies are taking advantage of teh recoupment of defense oil reserves and the war against terror in order to boost their profits.\n\nOn a final note, though, the war in Iraq was not about oil. If it were, we would be getting oil from Iraq. We are not, yet at least. Much of what excess Iraq is producing is going towards paying their reparations to many countries.
372469
Lets see, the oil company's own and operate the wells, then the some people that work for them bid on the oil and it is sold to the refinery's which by the way is owned by the oil company's which in turn ship it to the gas stations guess who owns them. Sweet deal huh. I really wonder why the prices are so high.
435302
It is more political.  Some of them are good companies with good earnings.  the mineral area the stock prices have shot up because of high demands from countries like India and China.  That translates in to more $$ for the companies.  The unrest in the middle east is also a reason.  When Iran starts flexing her muscles and Iraq is looking troubling the price of oil goes up in expectation of oil becoming riskier or scarce to get.  much more politics than what companies are really doing.
122255
The gas companies practice what is known as zone pricing. They look at how much money people in a certain area make and then set the price from there. It allows them to charge people who will pay more a top dollar price while still selling to the poor at a price they can afford. That is why some independent gas stations will have prices that are much lower then the big corporations, they don't have zone pricing.
302739
Poltical instability in the middle East is a cause for higher gas prices. It's ironic that Iraq is one of the least expensive places to buy gas in the world. The oil companies can't just jack up prices whenever they want, regardless of what you may have heard.
1085223
It is in our national interest (because of the geographical size of our country) to either increase the available supply of petroleum or develop alternative fuel sources. The former may only be a temporary solution, but the latter will take time and resources and may invite retaliation in the form of extremely high petroleum prices while we attempt to retool our energy using and producing systems.
202996
I have! Oil prices go down and gas goes up. Supplies increase the price at the pump goes up. The 2nd biggest oil deposit in the world comes under U.S. control.... You get the idea. Enough is enough. His friends have all made a buck on this insanity, let's go back to $1.00 a gallon.