The why are gas prices not going down?

Question

I keep hearing on the news how oil prices keep "tumbling" or keep going down. You would think that it's a good thing but they way they are saying it makes me think that we should be worried. Shouldn't gas prices be going down as well? I'm confused i keep hearing all this junk about inflation and supply and demand and i really don't understand it that much. Thanks!

Answer 1

When oil acquisition costs go down, our prices will go down. But it takes a minute.

Right now, we (consumers) are still buying oil that was acquired at the higher prices.

Answer 2

A gallon of gas will never go below $4 get used to it.

Answer 3

It definitely makes very little sense. It takes minutes it seems for prices to go up when there is a major jump in prices. However, now that we have seen some major decreases in oil prices it will take forever to see it at the pumps. Its never made sense to me and it never will. Unfortunately, I drive an 80 mile round trip to work every day...

Answer 4

Because Congress is scared of all the environmentalists who think that offshore drilling is going to harm everything.  President Bush lifted the ban a couple of days ago, however this still has to run through Congress so that we can drill offshore.  Until then we have to continue to import our oil.

Answer 5

I don't think the gas prices are going down they are going to keep on going up until they run out of fossil fuels.

They might go down until they make a new alternative fuel.

Answer 6

Because corruptible idiots have been in charge since Reagan.

Answer 7

I know some of the facts about it, I study current events and read a lot about it. The reason why gas prices aren't going down is because investors had invested money into oil companies stocks, which means oil companies must pay off to them with interest which means oil companies do not want to lose any money and they want to make extra money for them self. War is a part of the blame.

Answer 8

It's only been the last few days that it's been going down. It seems like right after Bush announced he was going to lift the ban on offshore drilling. But it has ALWAYS taken a couple of weeks before we see a difference at the pump. So gas should start to go down in a couple of weeks. But it's not going to be anything dramatic. Oil would probably have to get down to around $100 a barrel to make a big difference.

Answer 9

Study up on economics. You must have a liberal public school education.

Answer 10

cuz of bush!

Answer 11

As in times pasted, the pump price goes down very slowly after a few weeks or months of reduced oil costs.

But if you will remember most of the gas 'stations' kept a guy posted at the sign to change to the higher price at the pump as the speculators bid, hour by hour.

Thats the way they have always operated.

Answer 12

the oil prices that are going down are on the futures market.  oil companies buy oil on contracts and they need to sell all the oil they bought at 130$/gal. before they mark down gas prices for the oil they are currently buying at 120$/gal.  if they dropped their gas prices immediately they would lose money

Answer 13

Well, I mean the simplist way of explaining this is that oil takes about 2 weeks to get into refineries after it leaves the feilds and is priced in the markets...so the oil they are talking about now will take about 2 weeks to get into a gas pump...so I guess that's why they call them oil futures...I find the sliding oil prices freaking suspicious though. I mean it was supply and demand now it's falling 5 dollars a day? It really dosen't make much sence to me either! And I watch that c**p everyday...It's all just kind of hard to understand, and I think they make it hard to understand for a reason...

Answer 14

exxon and shell don't know yet if it is for real.