Gas prices; how much is the governments fault?

[concretejungle]

look yall, if we are going to be arguing, it better be about gas prices.

[wob]

Ok - here is my understanding of oil.

Speculation has driven the price of oil up by approx. $10/barrel. China and India have come on the worldwide scene as oil users in the last 10 years from a level of almost nil to now being big users. US refinery capacity has not increased much at all over the last 20 years.

It's a supply / demand curve in it's almost purest form. You have a finite resource (roughly) - which is oil. Worldwide demand has skyrocketed, while global supplies have remained steady.

However, here is an interesting factoid that most of you do not realize - currently the US doesn't import a whole lot of oil from the Middle East.

EDIT: We import about 18% of our supply from the ME.


If crude keeps climbing, it will soon be feasible to convert coal and other materials into gasoline. I promise you OPEC does not want to see that happen. We are the Saudi Arabia of coal in the world.

Google thermal depolymerization.

[hammer1]

Originally Posted by brett76

not to mention pharmacies set most of the prescription costs. shop around and youll be shocked at the different prices. thats why i only use costco

not so. The meds were the same in 18 different stores when i last had to buy them.

[folsom50]

Originally Posted by GeoRoss

One thing the gov't could do to reduce oil prices is start strengthening the dollar, streamlining new refineries, policies that reduce demand, etc. Taxes, as has been previously stated are not the cause.

Unless you're talking about the new refineries built in 1976, ya lost me. Anyone think I can get some warranty work done from Toyota on my bran-spankin-new 1978 fj40?

[roscoFJ73]

Originally Posted by wob

Ok - here is my understanding of oil.

Speculation has driven the price of oil up by approx. $10/barrel. China and India have come on the worldwide scene as oil users in the last 10 years from a level of almost nil to now being big users. US refinery capacity has not increased much at all over the last 20 years.

It's a supply / demand curve in it's almost purest form. You have a finite resource (roughly) - which is oil. Worldwide demand has skyrocketed, while global supplies have remained steady.

However, here is an interesting factoid that most of you do not realize - currently the US doesn't import a whole lot of oil from the Middle East.

EDIT: We import about 18% of our supply from the ME.


If crude keeps climbing, it will soon be feasible to convert coal and other materials into gasoline. I promise you OPEC does not want to see that happen. We are the Saudi Arabia of coal in the world.

Google thermal depolymerization.

Sounds feasible
"If a 175-pound man fell into one end , he would come out the other end as 38 pounds of oil, 7 pounds of gas, and 7 pounds of minerals, as well as 123 pounds of sterilized water"

Looks like we will be judging our neighbours by the oil we could squeeze out of them

[GeoRoss]

Originally Posted by folsom50

Unless you're talking about the new refineries built in 1976, ya lost me. Anyone think I can get some warranty work done from Toyota on my bran-spankin-new 1978 fj40?

It is about building new refineries. I don't understand the rest of your post.


You lost me.

[Bogo]

Originally Posted by concretejungle

Isn't that what Bill Clinton did?

Reagan was the one who changed the method inflation was calculated. He removed housing costs, auto prices, health care costs, and major appliances from the calculations.

[LukeO]

As I recall most of our oil comes from Canada.



It's Canada's fault

[lordVader]

We went into Iraq to protect our oil. It was 27 $ a barrel at the time.. The oil was even going to pay for the war.
We are great at protecting our stuff. Our world reputation is also in shambles too. Its amazing how much money we owe though. Basically every household in America owes a 120k or so to the us debt owners. It really is unsustainable, I think we are going to see a massive crisis in the US over the next 20 years


YouTube - Jesse Ventura Discusses Politics Part 1

[lordVader]

Enron got the shaft, if enron was in New York the NY Fed would have bailed them out. Bail out 10,000 employees who have tens of thousands of dollars in the bank and then have 200 million average americans fit the bill for them.

[lordVader]

Originally Posted by folsom50

Unless you're talking about the new refineries built in 1976, ya lost me. Anyone think I can get some warranty work done from Toyota on my bran-spankin-new 1978 fj40?

its not smart to build a refinery. big oil and the powerful refineries lobbied government to set it up so they had a lot of government protectionism to impede competition (people say big oil is an example of capitalism ) ..

so the incentive to make refineries no longer exist and the companies that already have them had the laws set in place so they wouldn't have to worry about competition.