What is going on with Gas prices?

[rktect3j]

Holy freakin crap. I just paid $55 to fill up at $3.65/gallon. I was floored. So I had to do some research. I remember about a year ago gas cost close to $2/gallon and I remember that a barrel of crude was at about $57/ barrel. So I looked up some info on this. A barrel is 42 gallons. Refined it gives us 44 gallons of products. A barrel of crude gives us 19.5 gallons of gas, 7 gallons of deisel and the remaining 17.5 gallons in other products with actually very little waste.

So lets look at the numbers here.

A year ago I paid $2.00 per gallon when a barrel of crude was $57.00. The cost per barrel of crude as of today is selling for $65.77. That is a difference of $8.77 per barrel of crude. I paid $3.65 for a gallon of gas today. A difference of $1.65 per gallon. Lets only assume we get gas and deisel from crude. That is 26.5 gallons of fuel. $8.77 (increase per barrel) divided by 26.5 (amount of fuel) should be an increase of .33 cents per gallon. That is assuming no other products are gained from the same amount of crude.

Do you guys get that? Gas has gone up $1.65 per gallon at the pump today at a max increase to oil companies of .33 cents per gallon based on current crude prices. Now, they had to do the same thing to that barrel of crude, shipping and handling, etc. and yet there is a difference of $1.32 between the two.

WTF

[davblay]

Imagine going back in time to 1960 and buying $10,000.00 worth of stock in Exxon/Mobil. Now look at the Billions (with a B) profits per QUARTER!

[Kegler300]

Don't forget the state and federal excise taxes imposed on gas, otherwise known as "price gouging" by our government.

[maverickmarine]

Yeah, it's all bull****. I have a V-8 Chevy truck that doesn't know how to pass by a gas station and it makes me sick everytime I fill up. I paid $65.00 dollars last time.

[OLE SARG]

THE PROBLEM AND CAUSE OF THE HIGH GAS PRICES IS: NUTLESS PRESIDENT AND SPINELESS CONGRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND the biggest price gougers in the price of a gallon of gas is: FEDERAL and STATE (taxes)!!!!!!

SEMPER FI,

[thedrifter]

Make it stop!

I can't have fun with our Charger, or Mustang:devious:

Too much greed in America I believe;)

Ellie

[redneck13]

Those in the know, "PRESS?", they say that oil companies say, it's the high demand and they can't make enough. Well I think it's a bunch of bull****, and I see people with these big ol' gas guzzler's, but they're rich. Another thing that might make the "demand" higher? All the "War" practice that's goin' on here in the States, before the unit deploys. Plus the amount of those coming/going, to "War." One of the tree huggin' outfits say....the U.S. refineries will be out of oil to process by a month or so, and we have to depend on foreign oil..If Congress would get off their aces and pass some legislation to allow more "ethanol" plants, especially here in the South, I think we would have a better chance of gettin' fuel that is better, and maybe cheaper? I can remember when people used LP for fuel. I seen one the other day in a 93 Ford. It had a carb...he had an LP tank below his large tool box in the bed. It doesn't have the gitty up that gas has, but it burns cleaner, keeps engine's in better shape.
One other thing....The Gas/oil/lobbyist keep our vehicle manufacturer's where they continue to not get good gas mileage. There is a way to make all American Made (of which, the only car/truck that is actually fully made in America is Toyota, Ford, Canada, Chevy, Mexico, Chrysler???) cars/trucks get better mileage. I had a friend who had an older Caddy. It drank the gas. He was a mechanic...he invented some sort of system/device that made it get 40-50mpg. He patent it. Then the oil companies came a barking. He sold to the highest bidder, and now he lives comfortably, but, he's got a gas guzzler, and he put the device/system on it, he improved it, where he get's 45-60 mpg. He let me see the engine, didn't/wouldn't explain how it worked. It was to me very simply designed, and didn't look like it would add that much cost to any vehicle. And also remember, the CEO'S of these crook's have said over and over, that they are in their position to make the stock holder's/board happy, and they don't care about the cost. So what can we do? Tell people not to drive or buy gas for a couple of days all across America? Don't think it would work. So, we're at the mercy of the "All Mighty Dollar" no matter how you look at it...."GREED." That's my 3.09cents worth.

[crate78]

What I don't understand is this: In my job as an Insurance Inspector inspecting real estate properties, I drive a 1992 Olds 88, considered a full size car, with a 3.8L V6 engine. With a sport suspension package and 16 inch 60 series tires it's a heck of a road car. It has all the toys, and if you push the right buttons it will read out both average and instantaneous gas mileage on the driver info display.

If I'm rolling along a fairly level highway with the cruise set on 63 the average mileage will read out between 30 and 32 mpg. Overall average mileage over a week or so of normal driving will be at about 23 to 25 mpg.

If you read road tests of current compact, 4 cylinder econobox Kia's, and other compact cars of the same size, they won't do any better on gas mileage.

What I don't understand is, if GM could build a fairly large, comfortable car with all the options in 1992 and have it get that kind of mileage, why don't the current crop of compacts do any better? Granted, the GM 3.8 corporate engine, which actually started out as a Buick engine, is an extremely efficient and durable engine, but why hasn't the same design technology that makes the 3.8 so efficient been applied to other engine designs over the last 20, or so, years?

It doesn't make sense.

crate

[ggyoung]

Hay 13 It's good to see you post again.

[thedrifter]

Pains at the Pump
Raise gas prices, commit a felony.

Monday, May 28, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

It's Memorial Day weekend and the start of the summer driving season, so naturally it's time for Congress to grandstand against $3-a-gallon gasoline. And right on cue, the House passed legislation last week to criminalize gasoline "price gouging," whatever that is. Perhaps this is all designed to distract the public from Congress's own role in raising gas prices.

Under the anti-gouging law, service station owners could face up to 10 years in prison if they dare to raise their prices too much when supplies are low. Representative Bart Stupak, the Michigan Democrat who sponsored this scheme, said the vote would determine whether Members "side with Big Oil" or "side with consumers who are being ripped off at the gas pump." Who elects these guys?

The inconvenient fact is that there's no evidence of price rigging by Big Oil or the tens of thousands of independent service station owners across America. The causes of higher gas prices include $65-a-barrel oil caused by rising global demand and geopolitical tensions, a record high U.S. gasoline consumption of 380 million gallons a day, and refined gasoline shortages caused by Congressional rules and mandates. Far from withholding production to raise prices, U.S. gasoline production of 8.8 million barrels a day is higher than any time in history and refineries are getting more gas per barrel of oil than ever before.

This isn't the first time a spike in gas prices has prompted Congress to allege price fixing. It's not even the second, third or 10th time. Since the OPEC oil embargo some 34 years ago, Congress has requested more than 30 investigations into whether energy companies have conspired to inflate profits. In nearly every instance, the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Energy has found no evidence of price fixing. Only last year, Congress ordered the FTC to investigate whether Big Oil had manipulated prices after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The agency found "no instances of illegal market manipulation that led to higher prices."

What does "gouging" mean anyway? No one on Capitol Hill can answer that question. The House bill prohibits energy companies from charging a price that is "unconscionably excessive." There's a precise legal term. It further explains that it shall be a crime whenever "the seller is taking unfair advantage of unusual market conditions" or "the circumstances of an emergency to increase prices unreasonably."

Still confused? Perhaps this will help. Gouging occurs, says the bill, whenever "the amount charged represents a gross disparity between the price" sold at the pump "and the average price at which it was offered for sale by the seller during the preceding 30 days." That could cover any price spike for any reason. Or gouging may occur when "the amount charged grossly exceeds the price at which the same or similar crude oil, gasoline, or natural gas was readily obtainable by other purchasers in the same geographic area." So if your oil supplier charges more than a competitor's does and you then raise prices, you could be a felon.

In other words, we are all criminals now. No one seriously believes this law will lower prices for consumers, but you can bet that brigades of lawyers will earn fat fees sorting out what exactly is meant by "unreasonably," "gross disparity" and "excessive."

If Congress wants to locate genuine gas price villains, it should look in the mirror. Domestic refining capacity is stretched in part because environmental laws discourage the building of new refineries. Meanwhile, new mandates for ethanol and other "boutique" gasoline blends make it harder for the industry to meet refining shortfalls. The Lundberg Survey estimates that the ethanol mandate alone adds 10 cents to each gallon, and that 36 refinery snafus this year have cut U.S. gas supplies by about 8%. Refiners are also currently switching to mandated summer gasoline blends--another contributor to the current price spike.

Congress's ethanol craze is a special problem because it further reduces the incentive to invest in new refining capacity. Gasoline refining is a low-margin business in any event, and only a very brave, or very foolish, CEO would invest heavily to refine more gasoline when Congress is bent on replacing it with ethanol in the future.

If Congress wants really high prices, it should keep this up. After Hurricane Katrina, several states including Virginia strictly enforced price gouging laws, and many service stations simply ran out of gas altogether. Gas wasn't available at any price. Last year's FTC report pointedly advised Congress that "federal gasoline price gouging laws that have the effect of controlling prices likely will do consumers more harm than good." It added that, "Competitive market forces should be allowed to determine the price of gasoline drivers pay at the pump." Such a lesson in supply and demand seems beyond Congressional understanding.

Ellie