The price at the pump all boils down to the price of crude, which is rising like crazy thanks to (mostly) unchecked speculation. Stop the speculation, stop the crazy prices for crude, stop the crazy high price per gallon for fuel at the pump.

The reason that big oil is making record profits is because they work on a profit margin, which is a percentage. Anytime the price of something goes up, and a percentage of that price stays the same, the dollar value of that set percentage will go up.

After buying crude, paying for it to be refined, and then paying all the different federal and state taxes, the oil companies are seeing far less than $1.00 for each gallon of gas that is pumped. Without actually doing the math it's probably more like less than $.50 per gallon that they see.....

- Justin

But Al, Congress has the power to help change that. Short of "taking over the oil companies" as the oh so bright Maxine Waters threatened to do what do you expect government to do? Tack on even more regulations? Our government regulates the **** out of everything as it is.

I think what burns me up the most is that both sides have ideas, some good, some horrendous. However, even the ideas like solar and wind are STILL being blocked by the environmentalists. They say we can't drill, we can't build refineries, we can't go nuclear, we can't build wind farms, we can't build solar panels...THEN WHAT THE F ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO? Sure, the oil companies have lobbyists in Washington but so do these whack job environmentalists and let me tell you man, these psychos have some power. I care about this great planet and this great country but God damn...I think these people seriously want us to live in the stone ages...

Then of course Al Gore has to spew his BS. It's scary that people follow him, people with political influence too.

Another thing that is killing the price is our failing dollar. THAT I blame on Bush and the Fed. Inflation was going to happen no matter what yet they kept flooding the market with more $$$. The more money you print the less it's worth. I think a lot of people forget that price of oil is in the dollar. A lot of financial experts, including Forbes, says that a stronger dollar will make a lot of these price issues easier to swallow or go away. I don't see either candidate doing much for the dollar. McCain is a total idiot when it comes to the economy and Obama wants to raise taxes which I wouldn't have a problem with but it's going to be used to fund his social programs. STOP SPENDING MONEY! lol

Sorry for getting political mods, it's kind of tied into the subject though.

YAY political discussion involving frosty and big al

:popcorn:

Da hell are you going in Budd Lake that has gas that price for regular?!

Budd Lake is pretty low, but I'm out by Livingston and Caldwell. Average by my house is 4.13 or so.

It's really not all that political when you look at global picture. China is really driving every industry out of whack with their sudden change. Oil, steel, wheat, corn, etc. They are willing to pay whatever they need to so they have the resources to continue their insane rate of growth. I think we are waiting to tap into the available oil under north america until we absolutely need to. I think we're using as much of the world's oil as we can and when that supply dramatically slows down, then we go after our own reserves! The price of gas was way behind the inflation rate of everything else so the fact that it has caught up is just throwing everyone off. People didn't realize the overall effect of gas prices going up. The cost of everything that gets transported goes up as well.

The price of steel is going up because we dont make it here in the US anymore.

China is buying all the scrap steel they can get so the price for any company here in the US that needs it to build stuff like exhaust systems has gone up. There's a major global change going on and nobody in this country is prepared to deal with it.

Yea, it all started about 15 years ago when China began making their own steel and literally over night the entire US steel industry went out of business, because companies would rather pay half price for crappy steel , than pay full price for quality US steel and support our own economy. My mother's entire side of the family going back six generations were all steel workers in the mill along the Ohio Valley, and every town there now is a ghost town. I went back two years ago and too ka bunch of pics. I'll find em and post em up. Very depressing to see such a marvel of engineering and physical sign of progress, lay dormant.

I just checked out gasbuddy.com for a price chart and this is what I've found. Gas hasn't been this cheap($125 a drum) since the first week of June. The national average of gas was right about $3 a gallon, so wtf? Gas by me is $3.83 for regular and $4.21 for premium.

Ah *** everything. nothing is gonna change. gas is only gonna go up. they do this all the time. we get this period of gas prices shooting up week after week breaking record after record, like its been for the last few months. then we get what we're getting now. this sudden massive drop is gas prices. last week i paid 4.01 cash today i paid 3.69. so everyone gets all happy cuz gas got "cheap". then we get hit again. its a vicious cycle that we're never gonna get out of. there are so many things that can be done but because these damn politicians are idiots nothing will ever get done. drilling right now would do NOTHING in any way shape or form to our gas prices for years. however not drilling at all would do NOTHING EVER which is worse. The logical thing to do would be drill more where we already are drilling at. but again that would be the logical thing to do. there's tons of things we CAN do but nobody from the politicians to even the regular joe shmoes are gonna do anything because everyone thinks they're right. i dont even know why we even bother talking about it. all it does is start fights.


nipples..

The anti-drilling people say we won't see any benefit for 10yrs. I beg to differ. However I certainly don't want hear people say "we should have drilled" 10yrs from now. I really don't understand why people are so against it. It's there, we have the technology, why not just drill? I really think that some people believe that these alternatives are going to be mainstream in 5 or so years which is ludicrous to think.

yea, but profits increase because costs either go down or stay the same while demand increases. If the price of crude goes up, then gas prices rise equally, and profits stay the same to adjust to current market trends. The only way profit increases in a level market is if profit margin remains the same, cost stays the same, and demand increases and supply can meet that demand without increasing percentage wise supply costs. I surely dont see people driving more, in fact, I see people driving less, so demand is down. Yet profits increase. And I understand it being globally influenced, but like I said, Saudi hasnt raised their prices to us, its our own speculators driving it up. On the news a few weeks ago, they had the story of the Saudi's from OPEC coming over here demanding to know why the speculators are increasing oil costs while they're not increasing theirs. Another little fact about the oil market, is that Saudi, Iran, and Iraq all used to trade oil using the dollar, and we would print the money to be used to purchase the oil with a guarantee for it not to recirculate. In 2000, Iran decided they didnt want to use the dollar anymore and converted its commodities trading to the Euro, eight months later, Iraq does the same thing. Now, the US is forced to buy Euros using circulated dollars to purchase oil. The Euro being much higher than the dollar, oil prices start to rise overnight. We tap into our stockpile to slow down the rate of inflation. Eighteen months after Iraq decides to change its oil trading standard, we bomb the crap out of them, and the first order of business is securing the oil fields. I'm not making this political, these are facts, right or wrong.

The problem with the Alaskan drilling is that it'll exterminate thousands of species of animals.

what about drilling off the j shore?

drilling for what? Buried garbage? :rofl:

Last I heard, as soon as the pres started talking about un-banning offshore drilling, Corzine was in talks with several other Atlantic Coast governors to join together and not allow drilling off the shores of their respective states.

- Justin

I dont directly blame Bush for the current oil crisis. I think what happend was the perfect storm of economic destruction. Falling dollar = rising oil prices. I think if the dollar was equal to the Euro, we would be looking at under 100 bucks a barrel.

Regulation would not be with the oil companies, but with the trading and speculation. Everything goes from one extreme to the next, its part of our culture. We dont know when to stop, and then when something big happens, we snap up and go the other way. Doesnt matter if its gas prices or terrorisim, we are a nation of flipflopping gluttons.

Our country has really been in complete disaray since Sept 11th 2001 IMO. That day set all of us on a course of just absolute crazyness. Throw in two wars, a big hurricane, and morgage lending gone off the deep end, you get lots of people in debt, running out of gas, ready for something to happen. But we as Americans are more lazy now then ever. Im surprised that no one has tried to start taking a lead. Obama and McCain are just two of the same people we have seen for a while. I dont know who to listen to, or who to belive in. There is no strong leader in this country anymore, but even that wont do much with a goverment that has stopped working for the people.
No wonder people dont vote.

You're kidding me right? Is that sarcasm or are you serious? We've been drilling in Prudhoe Bay for decades without issues. The part of ANWAR they want to tap is a tiny part of it which is on the coast, just like Prudhoe Bay. It's already a barren wasteland during the winter and it's a swampy wetlands area similar to the Everglades during the summer. If they wanted to drill inland or the entire ANWAR then I'd have an issue with it, they want a tiny part, on the coast.

The local wildlife has adapted just fine to the equipment in Prudhoe, why would this be any different?

Well said. Very well said.

$3.75 in Middlesex yesterday and up until a few days ago, it has been steady at $3.85 for the last month of so. I like living close to Middlesex.

tony, you nailed it, as usual.

jeff, you should've stopped your sentence after the word 'problem'. there is no supply problem, as i've pointed out time and again - we have actually had to cut back the refineries because of an over-production issue. we do have the resources. they just aren't being utilized properly.

basic, fundamental economics. meet the demand with an adequate supply and you can name your price. which they have been doing in the speculation market, which is part of the reason why we're in the fix we are now. stopping the speculation will see an equalization in the cost/price, not the wild fluctuations upward that we have seen recently...

Uhm... give me about a 15 minute heads up and I'll be standing next to you