What happened to the low gas prices?

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: SeaJay
Gasoline prices roughly follow the price of crude. Of course there are anomalies from time to time, but earlier this year the price of a barrel of the stuff was below $30. It is now near $50. Hence the increase in gasoline prices over the last few months.


True, but $50 per barrel oil does not equate to $2.69 gas...me thinks there's some profit padding going on here...

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: grampi
Really? How many of those train/bus routes are available to those who live in rural areas?

My maternal grandfather farmed his entire life, safe a stint in WWI, and never owned an internal combustion engine in his life. His kids still got to school each day and he went to church every Sunday. And, he avoided the internal combustion engine "craze" long after it became mainstream.

I guess that's an example of you can't miss something you never had in the first place. You or I might have a tough time without a vehicle. He did just fine. If he can farm with horses, we can park our vehicles once in a while if we think gas is too expensive.


True, but for most of our daily needs, not being able to use our internal combustion engined vehicles would simply not be practical...

 

[cashmoney]

The change in gas prices is driven 99% by supply and demand. These days oil supply is very stable and actually significantly increasing. For many reasons OPEC isn't able to lower oil supply like it used to do to jack up prices. So currently global demand is primary driver of gas prices. Personally I wish the US govmt would implement immediate $3.00 additional tax on gas and diesel to rebuild our roads and bridges. That would make gas about $5.00 per gallon minimum. That price would significantly reduce traffic, motivate more folks to buy gas efficient cars/trucks, and hopefully reduce the number of bozos who feel the need to drive giant jacked up (personal use only) pickup trucks.

 

[Prune_Juice]

Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: Al
Let it go back up to $4+


Yeah right, and out the window goes any forward progress by our economy...low gas prices = better economy...high gas prices = a drain on the economy...


Nonsense. For every loser when gas prices go up, there is also a winner. Higher gas prices mean that we focus more on alternative resources such as the area around the Bakken region of North Dakota, along with exploring alternatives. And of course, there are all those folks who were smart enough to put diversify of their investments into energy stocks-we're doing quite well when the prices and profits rise.


Any benefits higher gas prices bring to the economy are far outweighed by the drag they put on the rest of the economy....


grampi is correct. And let's not even talk about what has been thrown out as to what gas is supposed to cost.

Still though. Beats 2011 prices, quite handily. With gas holding steady pretty much right at the $2 a gallon mark in the markets with historically cheaper prices which rise and fall above the same baseline, I still call that cheap gas.

Is it $1.39 or $1.49 a gallon anymore? No.
Could it be again? .. Maybe, or yes.
Did it rise rather quickly in only a few month's time? Yup.
Was it low for quite awhile? Sure was.
Will it remain low? Most projections say it will, for quite some time.
Would you rather be paying $4.39 a gallon for regular at the low end, pain at the pump? I would not, and I'd love to find a serious person with the same amount of money as the common working man that would. As I would imagine wealthy folks wouldn't be as upset about it.

 

[CT8]

Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Originally Posted By: double vanos
Gasoline is a supply / demand product. The Saidis have increased the supply more than demand increased and the result is low gas prices. The Saudis and OPEC have a goal in mind and we all know what that is.

If you are price swing averse, get a high mileage car as a hedge. At this point in American transportation history petroleum is king. But the times they are a' changin'..

Elon Musk is just the first shot across the bow of the petroleum juggernaut, and eventually one will find oneself in the dealership deciding which vehicle to buy - gas or electric. And I ponder how nice an electric car might be to maintain; no oil or coolant changes, regenerative brakes etc.

The land mass we call America offers plenty of opportunity to make the electricity we need, we just have to decide that we need to make that jump. To a degree it's already happening - anyone who has driven I-10 from Fort Stockton towards Houston surely has noticed the wind farm that goes on for miles as far as the eye can see on both sides of the highway.

When the scale finally tips, that'll be an interesting Middle East soap box opera.....


Reasons why I'm excited to see the new Volt and Bolt....
Where is the electricity going to come from?

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: qwerty1234
If rising gas prices enrages you why not try a bike? Or public transportation. The majority of people can commute by train/bus but choose to drive. It's the American way.


Really? How many of those train/bus routes are available to those who live in rural areas?
+1

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: grampi
Really? How many of those train/bus routes are available to those who live in rural areas?

My maternal grandfather farmed his entire life, safe a stint in WWI, and never owned an internal combustion engine in his life. His kids still got to school each day and he went to church every Sunday. And, he avoided the internal combustion engine "craze" long after it became mainstream.

I guess that's an example of you can't miss something you never had in the first place. You or I might have a tough time without a vehicle. He did just fine. If he can farm with horses, we can park our vehicles once in a while if we think gas is too expensive.
Farming with horses isn't going to feed the United States.

 

[Prune_Juice]

Originally Posted By: CT8
Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Originally Posted By: double vanos
Gasoline is a supply / demand product. The Saidis have increased the supply more than demand increased and the result is low gas prices. The Saudis and OPEC have a goal in mind and we all know what that is.

If you are price swing averse, get a high mileage car as a hedge. At this point in American transportation history petroleum is king. But the times they are a' changin'..

Elon Musk is just the first shot across the bow of the petroleum juggernaut, and eventually one will find oneself in the dealership deciding which vehicle to buy - gas or electric. And I ponder how nice an electric car might be to maintain; no oil or coolant changes, regenerative brakes etc.

The land mass we call America offers plenty of opportunity to make the electricity we need, we just have to decide that we need to make that jump. To a degree it's already happening - anyone who has driven I-10 from Fort Stockton towards Houston surely has noticed the wind farm that goes on for miles as far as the eye can see on both sides of the highway.

When the scale finally tips, that'll be an interesting Middle East soap box opera.....


Reasons why I'm excited to see the new Volt and Bolt....
Where is the electricity going to come from?


+1

It's the most overlooked thing by the Greenies.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: grampi
Really? How many of those train/bus routes are available to those who live in rural areas?

My maternal grandfather farmed his entire life, safe a stint in WWI, and never owned an internal combustion engine in his life. His kids still got to school each day and he went to church every Sunday. And, he avoided the internal combustion engine "craze" long after it became mainstream.

I guess that's an example of you can't miss something you never had in the first place. You or I might have a tough time without a vehicle. He did just fine. If he can farm with horses, we can park our vehicles once in a while if we think gas is too expensive.
Farming with horses isn't going to feed the United States.

It could, meat would be expensive and maybe 10% of us would become farmers again.
It would be interesting to see how the world would change if fossil fuel supply dwindled to 1-2% of current production. No more plastic khrap from China atleast!

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: cashmoney
The change in gas prices is driven 99% by supply and demand. These days oil supply is very stable and actually significantly increasing. For many reasons OPEC isn't able to lower oil supply like it used to do to jack up prices. So currently global demand is primary driver of gas prices. Personally I wish the US govmt would implement immediate $3.00 additional tax on gas and diesel to rebuild our roads and bridges. That would make gas about $5.00 per gallon minimum. That price would significantly reduce traffic, motivate more folks to buy gas efficient cars/trucks, and hopefully reduce the number of bozos who feel the need to drive giant jacked up (personal use only) pickup trucks.


Prices that high would put a lot of people in dire straights...I think a better idea is to remove the fraud, waste, and abuse in the revenue system we already have in place for maintaining our roads...there's no shortage of revenues being collected, there's a spending problem....

 

[mjoekingz28]

Ready when you are Captain.



rsPolitics

 

[Tempest]

Originally Posted By: Kuato
Originally Posted By: grampi
The experts said prices would stay low for a couple of years, (beginning when the prices bottomed out), but I've noticed they keep creeping up. They're up $1 a gallon since they're lowest price...we were seeing $1.69, now they're $2.69...they just can't keep prices reasonable, can they? Soon they'll be back up to $3.50 or more...they just gotta keep pushing for those record profits, don't they?


Agreed -- Oil company greed.

73% of the world's oil is controlled by government owned oil "companies". And that fact is the primary reason for oil price volatility.

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/february/state-owned-oil-021512.html

 

[Tempest]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan

It could, meat would be expensive and maybe 10% of us would become farmers again.
It would be interesting to see how the world would change if fossil fuel supply dwindled to 1-2% of current production.


Lots of bodies in the streets.....

 

[Prune_Juice]

Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
Ready when you are Captain.



rsPolitics

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: Tempest
Originally Posted By: IndyIan

It could, meat would be expensive and maybe 10% of us would become farmers again.
It would be interesting to see how the world would change if fossil fuel supply dwindled to 1-2% of current production.


Lots of bodies in the streets.....

Not in my area, but sure some places like LV wouldn't be sustainable without cheap oil. But the UK still had 25-30 million people before oil became a fuel, and 10 million before coal powered steam engines were common.
Stuff still got done before fossil fuels were common.

 

[Tempest]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan

Not in my area, but sure some places like LV wouldn't be sustainable without cheap oil. But the UK still had 25-30 million people before oil became a fuel, and 10 million before coal powered steam engines were common.
Stuff still got done before fossil fuels were common.

I'm thinking heating oil and natural gas are very welcome up north. Not to mention the energy it takes to transport raw materials, medicines, food, pipelines, power plant materials and all of the other millions of things that provide us modern life.

Things got done back in the day, at much lower standards of living. Human energy is the most expensive form. It's no coincidence that global standards of living have increased dramatically as cheap forms of energy have been made more available.

This is why increasing gas prices always bring up such ire. It is the indispensable product.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: Tempest
Originally Posted By: IndyIan

Not in my area, but sure some places like LV wouldn't be sustainable without cheap oil. But the UK still had 25-30 million people before oil became a fuel, and 10 million before coal powered steam engines were common.
Stuff still got done before fossil fuels were common.

I'm thinking heating oil and natural gas are very welcome up north. Not to mention the energy it takes to transport raw materials, medicines, food, pipelines, power plant materials and all of the other millions of things that provide us modern life.

Things got done back in the day, at much lower standards of living. Human energy is the most expensive form. It's no coincidence that global standards of living have increased dramatically as cheap forms of energy have been made more available.

This is why increasing gas prices always bring up such ire. It is the indispensable product.

I think though with our technology and knowledge gained in the last 200 years, we are getting to the point where we could live as well, or perhaps better by using much less fossil fuels. Cheap fossil energy allows wastefulness and disposable products while most likely changing our global climate for the worse.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: Kuato
Originally Posted By: grampi
The experts said prices would stay low for a couple of years, (beginning when the prices bottomed out), but I've noticed they keep creeping up. They're up $1 a gallon since they're lowest price...we were seeing $1.69, now they're $2.69...they just can't keep prices reasonable, can they? Soon they'll be back up to $3.50 or more...they just gotta keep pushing for those record profits, don't they?
Agreed -- Oil company greed.

Data is 2 years old, but it was very much valid for many years before that.

If you break down the price you pay at the pump(Oil + Transportation + Refining + Tax(Federal and state and local) + Transportation to retail outlets + middleman profit + retail profit + marketing) the remaining is few pennies a gallon profit for oil companies.

Originally Posted By: bbc.com/news
Imagine an industry that generates higher profit margins than any other and is no stranger to multi-billion dollar fines for malpractice.

Throw in widespread accusations of collusion and over-charging, and banking no doubt springs to mind.

In fact, the industry described above is responsible for the development of medicines to save lives and alleviate suffering, not the generation of profit for its own sake.

Pharmaceutical companies have developed the vast majority of medicines known to humankind, but they have profited handsomely from doing so, and not always by legitimate means.


Originally Posted By: bbc.com/news
Last year, US giant Pfizer, the world's largest drug company by pharmaceutical revenue, made an eye-watering 42% profit margin. As one industry veteran understandably says: "I wouldn't be able to justify [those kinds of margins]."

Stripping out the one-off $10bn (£6.2bn) the company made from spinning off its animal health business leaves a margin of 24%, still pretty spectacular by any standard.

In the UK, for example, there was widespread anger when the industry regulator predicted energy companies' profit margins would grow from 4% to 8% this year.

Last year, five pharmaceutical companies made a profit margin of 20% or more - Pfizer, Hoffmann-La Roche, AbbVie, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Eli Lilly.


Originally Posted By: bbc.com/news
Pharmaceuticals industry profit margin 19%, Banks 19%, Car makers 6%, Oil and Gas 8%, Media 12%



http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28212223

 

[qwerty1234]

When gas prices get over $4 I greatly reduce the amount of miles I drive. It's not rocket science. They know that Americans are addicted to their automobiles. If it get up to $6 a gallon people will whine and cry but most will continue to drive the same.

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Originally Posted By: Tempest
Originally Posted By: IndyIan

It could, meat would be expensive and maybe 10% of us would become farmers again.
It would be interesting to see how the world would change if fossil fuel supply dwindled to 1-2% of current production.


Lots of bodies in the streets.....

Not in my area, but sure some places like LV wouldn't be sustainable without cheap oil. But the UK still had 25-30 million people before oil became a fuel, and 10 million before coal powered steam engines were common.
Stuff still got done before fossil fuels were common.


Yes, but all of that was BEFORE society was built around cheap commerce...going back to that way of living would be extremely difficult, if not impossible...