Why is gas soo high?

Question

why is gas is soo high

Answer 1

Rapidly expanding countries like China and India driving up demand, a weak US dollar making foreign oil more expensive, truck drivers passing on the cost of fueling up diesel truck because of the move expensive ultra-low sulfur diesel, too many environmental regulations that drive up the price of oil, instability in the middle east and crazy people running countries that supply oil to world are creating fears, speculators bidding up the price of oil.....many, many things are effecting oil and gas prices, not just one.

The people that just run out and attack "big oil" and/or George Bush do not understand what the h**l they're talking about. They're not looking for the truth, they're only looking for someone to blame.

Answer 2

If you live in North-America stop crying. Come to Europe to see how high it really is.

Answer 3

while i agree with the above poster that Europe is tremendously higher- and we shouldn't complain that much- there is a reason why gas is "relatively" highly priced compared to normal for both Europeans and Americans. i should note that the average car size in Europe and Asia is significantly smaller than the average in America- the land of the SUV. In Europe, a car we Americans might call a compact or even a subcompact like a Scion (marketed in japan as Toyota- and not marketed at youth but at older folks) or a Honda fit or civic or a Chevy Aveo (made by Korean company Daewoo) is actually a midsize family car, whereas something like a Chevy Malibu or Toyota Camry is a big, big full size car.

anyway, to get to the question- why are gas prices so high? a whole number of reasons. 9/11 was what began the rise in gas prices, and this was spurred by fear around the world, and the tremendous effects of the crisis lead to a crash in the stock market, and because oil is traded on a world market much like any other consumer product, when the market tanked, oil prices rose. over the coming years more events caused prices to rise. the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (especially Iraq with its large amount of oil) led to prices rising more. also increased demand for gasoline let prices to rise as well, fueled (how ironic) by the extreme increase in popularity of SUVs which have terrible gas mileage as we know. gas prices continued to rise as he world economic crisis grew- the war in Iraq wasnt improving, OPEC or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (who control a whole lot of the worlds oil in the middle east) continued to provide the same level of oil as before, even as prices rose and demand skyrocketed. the gas price spike or recent has been caused by a huge increase in the severity of the worlds economic crisis, and a lot by the tremendous decrease in the value of the US dollar in the world. also, it doesnt help that oil prices tend to spike in the summer in general.

Answer 4

Because of big oil companies and OPEC.  They all feel that they can charge whatever they want and we'll keep paying.

Answer 5

Its an economic matter called the law of supply and demand. Basically the prices are high because after making a small rise, the consumer has shown that he is still willing to purchase this commodity, therefore it is thought that a bigger rise in price won't really make much difference. And its true!

If more people took buses and trains to work, or cycled or walked whenever they could and used less gasolene, then the price would drop. Soo if you find the price too high I suggest you start a movement of do-it-yourself commuters.

Answer 6

Because of companies and speculators,making fast money on the energy futures trades.Its like I'm Capitol One,I'll buy 25 billion shares today,and sell to my buddy Citi Bank.

this world is full of people who only care about their profitts,and s***w the working class.

Answer 7

Much to the disbelief of the public, the Big Oil Companies don't just set the price.  There are several factors involved.  The first is that no new refineries have been built in recent years to make gasoline from the oil.  The operating refineries operate at full capacity and cannot keep up with the demand. The reason that there are no new refineries is because of the astronomical cost of building them to meet all the environmental regulations.  Another reason is the price of oil is high.  If the materials to make a product go up, the price of the product will also go up.  The main reason that the price of gas and the price of oil have risen so high is because of futures traders.  These are people who bid on commodities like oil, gas, corn, etc for a delivery 3 months or so down the line, hoping that the prices will go up beforehand so that they can resell it at a huge profit.  Many times these futures are bought and sold several times before the delivery is ever made.  This drives the price up with every trade.  As we have seen, the only way to get the prices lowered is to cut back the demand on the products.  Let the futures traders lose some money and we can go back to a decent price on gas.