Since the last few days, why have the gas prices come down in America?

Question

Since the last few days, why have the gas prices come down in America?

Answer 1

haha they are trying to make you think they are going to help us but they are still gonna s***w you dont worry about it

Answer 2

Very good question and be assured it has nothing to do with sudden changes in free market supply or demand.

Underneath the "drill now for lower prices" whitewash has been another subcurrent of talk in Congress about cracking down on unregulated speculation and price manipulation, and that is exactly why the NYMEX oil price has been dropping.

The truth is that there is no free market in oil, this has been documented over and over in Senate Commerce Committee and other congressional hearings, such as this one from June 3 2008:

Energy Market Manipulation and Federal Enforcement Regimes hearing:

http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index....

In particular read the testimony of Michael Greenburger, who used to be a high-up at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Nobody knows what the actual, physical price of a barrel of oil should be under present day world conditions. Testimony in the above and other hearings estimated it at anywhere from $35 to $65. All of the shouting by the oil men, including Bush and Cheney (and of course Senator "house that oil built" Stevens), about the need for more drilling doesn't arise from any concern for U.S. citizens.  

Answer 3

I think I heard on CNN that fuel consumption was down two percent, but the biggest factors were that the value of the dollar increased slightly and the crude price went down a litttle.  

Answer 4

the only reason I can see is we threatened to drill our own oil and that made them nervous enough to lower prices. wouldn't want to lose us as a customer.

Answer 5

Well first of all, they are not WAY down.  I think it is a lull, like the calm before the storm.  I think they will go up bad as soon as summer is over. (Regular summer at the end of September, here in FL it doesn't end till November, ha).

Answer 6

Bush threatened to drill for more oil to increase the supply. Now we need to actually do it. But we will have to toss out all the democrat obstructionists first.

Answer 7

First, its not to make people feel good.  Its because of how things are in the market.  There is much less demand for oil right now.  People aren't going to the pumps and reducing their usage of oil.  That is why things have gotten better.  Prices have reduced down.  That's why prices are lower.  Also, many have been upset at prices being high.  I believe those that use oil the most- like airliners- and refineries are tired of prices being high, so that made a good impact.  That is why prices have gone down too.  Its a demand motive.

Answer 8

The issue is inextricably tied to the global economy. It's in very few developed countries interest (especially China, which buys up most of our national debt) to see the US fall into a recession lead by skyrocketing oil prices. The rest of the world has seen the damage caused by the subprime mortgage scandal here and don't want the economy getting any worse. The US is too big a customer chasing consumer goods around the world to let fail. The fallout for a full blown US recession would be huge.

Answer 9

The futures trading market has reached its peak and is now on the way down.

Answer 10

Because more natural gas was discovered. This made natural gas prices, a competitor of oil, go down. In response, the oil industry had to lower its prices in competition.

Answer 11

Because the wealthy elites doing the criminal speculation that drove the prices up are running scared. Under-reported in the media (if reported at all) were the debates about one week ago about closing the loopholes that permit that speculation. Prices started dropping immediately. I watched them on C-SPAN. There was much resistance by corrupt politicians to prevent closing the loopholes. I'm not sure how it ended up but suspect the loopholes were not closed.

Answer 12

4 dollar a gallon gas was a wake up call for America. Demand is way down, so the price will keep coming down until it hits a comfort level where Americans feel they can afford to drive again. It'll level off somewhere then begin its inevitable rise all over again. If you want the price to keep falling, you've got to drive as little as possible. It's as  simple as that.