Question about gas prices...?

Question

Is this ever going to change? I don't understand how oil companies could possibly need this much money..I remember bitching when it was 2.35 a gallon...Now its closer to 4.00 a gallon. Everytime I ask why everyone blames bush, is he really to blame? if so when hes out of office will things change? Now im hearing we will never see it under 3.00 a gallon. I mean WTF? Can someone help me understand this?

Answer 1

He's largely to blame, but there's other factors. The market doesn't really dictate the price of oil, OPEC does. They're a cartel.

Keep in mind that if the EPA and environmentalists would back off, we could build more refineries in the USA and increase production, thereby driving down the cost of gasoline. But they won't budge. The EPA is in bed with lobbyists from big oil who love their record profits by keeping gas scarce and highly priced and environmentalists think that if we don't have gasoline we can't drive and therefore pollute.

And then there's the NIMBYs who don't want a refinery anywhere near them.

We haven't built a refinery in over 30 years. Yet our country has grown quite a lot since then. Does that make sense?

Yes, Bush's war drives up oil prices with speculators. It won't change when he's gone since now China and India are needing oil as well. There's tons of factors. But we could help ourselves greatly if we could increase our refining capacity. Too bad it's the only thing that big oil and environmentalists agree on - no new refineries.

Answer 2

One part of the rise in gas prices is that the invasion of Iraq by the USA reduced the supply of oil.  You can blame Mr. Bush but at the time he had the support of the Congress.  The most important reason for the rise in gas prices is the people of India and China are driving more and using more oil and gasoline.