Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Why Are Gas Prices Going Up So Fast?

AP File
Gasoline rationing and $5 pump prices are predicted by 2012 for consumers if U.S. politicians don't get their act together, a former Shell executive said. I don't know about you but gas prices are well over $3 a gallon where I live. And I know that the world demand is very low right now. Welcome back Carter.

14 comments:

  1. Print Billions of Dollars of Monopoly MONEY devalues OUR dollar!

    Our suppliers of OIL(Middle East) simply raise price to compensate for DEVALUATED dollar Presto GAS cost more. Beleive Bush at one point THREATENED to start drilling for OUR own OIL and prices dropped.

    Devaluing OUR dollar by PRINTING funny money will as has begun Raise price on Consumer Products. Its almost like Regime is Creating INFLATION which is the Last thing Nation needs! Wonder Why?

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  2. Al, Yes oil is going up but the price is based on commodity futures not OPEC. Yes OPEC member nations can control output which in turn affects the futures market but they do not independently set the price per barrel.

    Also, and this cannot be said enough, the MAJOR supplier of CRUDE oil to the U.S. (YTD) is in fact Canada. 2nd to them is Mexico and 3rd is Saudi Arabia.

    http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html

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  3. What will happen when the recession turns and demand goes up? Output is low for OPEC, way low. This is doing more harm to our recovery then you know. Is this Bush's fault too?

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  4. PARIS -- Key milestones in the dollar price of crude oil from below $2 in 1970 to Monday's record $139.89.

    - 1970: The official price of Saudi crude oil is fixed at $1.80 per barrel.

    - 1974: The price passes $10 after the first oil shock, sparked by the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

    - 1979: Oil passes $20 as the Islamic revolution in Iran causes a second oil shock.

    - 1980: The price tops $30 for the first time and $39 in early 1981 at the height of the war between Iran and Iraq.

    - Sept-Oct 1990: Oil prices sneak above $40 after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

    - March 2003: On the eve of the US-led invasion of Iraq, the price stands at just over $37.

    - Sept 2004: Oil tops $50 on concerns about the war in Iraq.

    - June 2005: The barrel shoots above $60.

    - Aug 2005: Prices rise above $70 when Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf of Mexico, damaging major offshore oil installations.

    - Sept 12, 2007: Oil passes $80 as the market worries about the level of US stocks and increasing tension over Iran.

    - Oct 18, 2007: The price breaches $90.

    - Nov 21, 2007: A fresh record of $99.29 is reached as traders react to tight global energy supplies amid tensions between Turkey and Iraq. Prices fall back below $90 by the end of the month.

    - Dec 28, 2007: Oil hits $97.79 after the murder of Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and following a sixth successive weekly drop in US crude reserves.

    - Jan 2, 2008: Oil briefly hits $100 levels on concerns at violence in key exporter Nigeria.

    - March 13, 2008: Oil hits $111.

    - April 22, 2008: Prices spike to $119 as OPEC sits tight despite calls for increased output and the dollar tumbles.

    - May 5, 2008: Crude breaches $120, then $130 on May 21 and $135 on May 22 before falling back sharply on heavy profit-taking.

    - June 16, 2008: Oil hits a record $139.89, threatening to breach the $140 level and promising more gains. If this trend continues we will see $5/gal. by the end of 2011. Are you ready for what IS coming over the next few years? How does this effect the automotive industries and food prices? Can your family keep paying higher prices at the pump?

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  5. Chris, what are you blaming Carter for?

    While gas prices shot up during his term the Carter admin did a decidedly Republican thing. He de-regulated prices controls.

    The same prices controls that had put in place by a Republican president.

    Should he have kept price controls which ultimately lead to increased Us output? Aren't prices controls socialist in nature and thus against the free markets you guys propose?

    I'm confused. You blame Carter for the effects of De-regulation while standing on a party platform that espouses de-regulation.

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  6. Gas prices have risen quickly since the reality of a Republican house appeared....

    Its the election of republicans...lol...

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  7. Joe I agree those prices have increased dramaticly since mid terms. My guess is Oil suppliers saw WEAK demoncratic Congress being replaced and MOVED with high price before 112th Congress opens. That would indeed make you RIGHT "its the election of Republicans"!

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  8. Joe once again you leave out most of the veriables to this problem. Maybe you need to read a little more on the subject. Nice try though. If you can spin things to make Carter look good then you are a master liberal.

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  9. Frank did a great job summing it all up. Thanks to the Democrats we can't use our own oil so we need to export more and more. And because of the Democratic Parties weakness with other nations those nations control us. The price controls werte lifted on imports but our own oil had those price controls still on them.

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  10. Chris, i'm not spinning things to make Carter look good. I feel what Carter did at the time he did it was completely wrong. But what he did is a very free market thing, the same free market that you, Mark, AL and others want.

    But if your going to blame Carter for the price surge you have to blame him for using free market economics.

    Now your left with a conundrum: Was the Liberal President wrong? But if he is then its because of a economic theory you believe in. Interesting. Whats will eventually win out?

    Your views on policy or your dislike of Liberals?

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  11. But what he did was very free market thing???
    LMAO!
    It's not. Price controls are very dictatorial.

    What this country needs to do is to extract every drop of oil we sit on, which is 3 times that of what was discovered in Saudi Arabia. And then take us right out of the world oil consumer market, which the US is the 3rd largest consumer. This would drive the world oil commodity market down dramatically.

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  12. Well said Mark. What Joe forgets is that there were controls put on our oil while it was taken off of other countries. It sounds like "spread the wealth" to me. But on a global scale. Kind of like what Obama did in the Gulf of Mexico. Are you starting to see the reality of "welcome back Carter"? Your only looking at the Democrats one hand. You need to see what they are doing with the other to get the full picture of why things never turn out the way they tell us they will.

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  13. Mark, you didn't read the posts did ya? here's how i know you didn't.

    JoeC said...
    While gas prices shot up during his term the Carter admin did a decidedly Republican thing. He de-regulated prices controls.
    29 December, 2010 19:57

    JoeC said...
    I feel what Carter did at the time he did it was completely wrong. But what he did is a very free market thing
    30 December, 2010 12:12

    Mark Adams said...
    But what he did was very free market thing???
    LMAO! It's not. Price controls are very dictatorial.
    30 December, 2010 13:57

    So somewhere in there you missed the part about Carter removing those regulations put on during the Nixon years.

    LMAO...

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  14. And Joe you missed the part where Carter regulated American drilling and oil production while taking it off of the forgein companies. That is all Democrat and is what Obama is doing with the oil drilling bans. For some reason Obama and Carter don't want America producing oil in our own country. And when gas does get to $5 a gal. you'll blame it all on the Republicans in Congress.

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Please keep it clean and nice. Thank you for taking the time to post you thought. It means a lot to me that you do this.