WTF Is Up With The Damn Price Of Gas??

[Guitar Shark]

That in itself is so fucked up as to how the price of gas is determined. Can't have no corruption involved there, no sir....

Yep. Say what you will about Dan Rather, but he had an interesting story on this topic earlier this year.

http://www.hd.net/press_articles/dan-rather-reports-investigates-the-real-reason-behind-the-recent-rise-in-fuel-costs/

One of the key parts of the story:

Most economists agree that some speculation brings stability to commodity markets. But in an interview with Dan Rather, hedge fund manager Michael Masters claims that a recent surge in speculation has thrown the oil market out of balance making prices at the pump rise and fall at the whim of Wall Street. “Speculators today have about 70 percent of the open interest in the commodity markets,” explains Masters. “Ten years ago-they controlled roughly 30 percent of the market.”


Congress attempted to reign in speculation with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The landmark financial overhaul has a provision that requires federal regulators to restrict how much money speculators can pour into the oil market. But the financial industry has fought back, spending more than $100 million last year lobbying on Capitol Hill. And many of the new rules have been delayed, including the one that limits speculation.

[FORD]

Hardly ever use Arco - AM/PM. it's always cheapest, but the lines are ridiculous. Fuck that.

I used to avoid AM/PM because it seemed like their gas was watered down. Now I avoid them because they're owned by BP. After what they did to the Gulf of Mexico, that's a lifetime boycott. Same with Exxon after the Alaska thing.

[Mushroom]

Glad you asked. As usual, it's the KKKoch Brothers, Pig Oil & Wall $treet felons to blame......



Fucking pieces of treasonous shit.

U.S. Department of Energy announced the sale of 30 million barrels of crude as part of the International Energy Agency’s effort to release 60 million barrels into the global oil market.


It's a joke because that amount is a drop in the bucket compared to our daily consumption: 19 million barrels per day

[Nitro Express]

I used to avoid AM/PM because it seemed like their gas was watered down. Now I avoid them because they're owned by BP. After what they did to the Gulf of Mexico, that's a lifetime boycott. Same with Exxon after the Alaska thing.

Maverick stores sell tank bottom gas. You can buy the tailings and tank bottoms for less money and yes it's full of water and crap. They filter it but it's still crap gas. I had a Ford van that would literally run like shit on Maverick gas. The think is everyone pretty much buys the same gas out of the same pipeline depot or refinery. Out gas here comes from Wyoming oil but it first goes to Utah to get refined and then the gas goes up a pipeline to Idaho where the depot is and then it comes by truck back into Wyoming to our gas stations. So the oil goes through two states and comes back home. One oil company may own the well and another may own the pipeline. Another may own the refinery and another may own the other pipeline. Then another company owns the trucks that fill all the other stations.

So the only thing BP is the franchise the station owner bought or it may be a corporate owned station. It's usually not BP fuel you are really buying but it may have BP additives in it which are added at the station. Sometimes I wonder if they even put those in you just have to trust them.

[Nitro Express]

I find the peak oil debate interesting. Nobody has a straight answer but if you read between the lines I think we are at peak oil now. The US has tried to militarily control the world's oil supplies in the middle east. Saddam Hussain was taken out because he would no longer sell his oil in US Dollars. Quadaffi is now targeted for similar reasons. It's not about terrorist as much as who controls the oil and the world's reserve currency. Why is this intesifying? Also the Saudis have given the same figure out for years on their oil reserves while pumping sea water into their wells. Obviously they are fudging their numbers and sea water is pumped into wells to get the last bit of oil out. Then why does NATO surround Russia and neocons want to attack Iran? Those are oil reserves we don't control. There are some major oil wars and currency wars going on right now.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

I used to avoid AM/PM because it seemed like their gas was watered down. Now I avoid them because they're owned by BP. After what they did to the Gulf of Mexico, that's a lifetime boycott. Same with Exxon after the Alaska thing.

"am/fm" down here charge you to use a debit card there. fuck them, never use 'em.:fupunk:

[Jagermeister]

Chris Kahn, AP Energy Writer, On Monday July 11, 2011, 11:00 am
NEW YORK (AP) -- The latest readings on Chinese inflation and renewed worries about European debt are pushing oil lower.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.88 to $94.32 per barrel Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Oil declined following a weekend announcement that inflation in China hit a three-year high in June.

It fell further Prices as European officials disagreed over a second bailout package for Greece. Uncertainty about Greece's debt problems raised concerns that the economic crisis could spread to Italy and Spain.

The dollar shot up in morning trading, and that weighed on oil futures. Oil is traded in dollars and tends to fall as the dollar strengthens and makes crude more expensive for investors holding foreign money.

Meanwhile, retail gasoline prices in the U.S. increased to $3.63 per gallon.

[Little Texan]

What's up with the price of gas? One word:

GREED

[binnie]

Over the past 3-4 years, I have been walking a lot, lot more.

It's surprisingly refreshing walking 4 miles to work once you get used to it.....

[ODShowtime]

I want to poiint out something really shady I have been noticing at 3 different gas stations...all different chains. So this may be common practice everywhere.

You all know when you pump your gas there are typically 3 buttons. 87 89 91 for the octane you wish to use. Well I have noticed that they flip the buttons every few months. Now it is in opposite order 91 89 87

Yep, I thought of that too and yep they do it in Florida at many stations.

[jacksmar]

It’s pretty simple really. When Ubama released gasoline from the SPR he was too sub-moronic to know that this is a price control. You elected a shit stain that doesn’t understand when you flush a toilet that the water goes “somewhere”.

When this asshole tried his maneuver it forces the market price or a large percentage of transactions to take place at that price. This doesn’t work with simple supply and demand in a free market. It works great for a socialist nation but you can’t expect a retarded president to know this. The transaction price is either too high or too low.

Look around you for a second, the people here are REALLY smart people and will get this. Everything around you at this time; where you work; the club you go to for an evening out, or your home including what’s in the fridge all have one thing in common; everything around you has “touched” a truck. Fuel was used.

The price of fuel is too high – you stop driving. The price of fuel is too low – you use up the gas. What gets missed is that in both cases is not enough gas is sold. At the low price the gas you bought didn’t produce enough profit. It triggers exactly what you see now. At the high end, everything that “touched” a truck becomes more expensive.

I’ve tried to explain this with Ubamacare. In 1990, the feds tried to set a new drug price level for states with Medicaid. It was typical backroom lobbying bullshit and what happened was pharma raised prices on government sales. They muscled out the low drug prices because they could produce and or buyout in bulk.

What ultimately ends up happening is you have wasted resources and reduced entry and investment in the long haul. For example, oil drilling.

[Little Texan]

Bumping this, seeing as these greedy cocksuckers are at it again and we're staring at possible $5.00 a gallon gas by this summer. :fupunk:

[Jagermeister]

Yeah no shit! Had a big debate on Hannity about it last night. Of course the left blaming the right and vis versa. Bottom line is tension with Iraq I think. It doesn't help that the Keystone pipeline keeps getting the boot form Obama's administration. Oh fuck don't get me started!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/us/politics/high-gas-prices-give-gop-issue-to-attack-obama.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

WASHINGTON — Rising gasoline prices, trumpeted in foot-tall numbers on street corners across the country, are causing concern among advisers to President Obama that a budding sense of economic optimism could be undermined just as he heads into the general election.

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Rick Bowmer/Associated Press
Speaker John A. Boehner told Republicans to embrace constituents' anger at gas prices.
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White House officials are preparing for Republicans to use consumer angst about the cost of oil and gas to condemn his energy programs and buttress their argument that his economic policies are not working.

In a closed-door meeting last week, Speaker John A. Boehner instructed fellow Republicans to embrace the gas-pump anger they find among their constituents when they return to their districts for the Presidents’ Day recess.

“This debate is a debate we want to have,” Mr. Boehner told his conference on Wednesday, according to a Republican aide who was present. “It was reported this week that we’ll soon see $4-a-gallon gas prices. Maybe higher. Certainly, this summer will see the highest gas prices in years. Your constituents saw those reports, and they’ll be talking about it.”

Iran’s recent warnings of a disruption in the global oil trade have pushed the price of a barrel of domestic oil to more than $103, a six-month high and up about 34 percent since September. That has helped drive the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the United States to $3.52, a 30-cent increase in the past two months. It is already approaching $4 in some places.

Economists say the current price of oil is only a modest drag on the economy. But a big jump — combined with tensions over Iran and continuing European debt worries — could present a more significant challenge to America’s recovery, they say.

For the president’s economic team, the specter of such increases in oil prices comes on the heels of positive economic news that has lifted Mr. Obama’s approval rating, including better-than-expected job growth, a surging stock market and a payroll tax deal that will put more money in the pockets of millions of Americans.

But Mr. Boehner’s message to his members echoes the aggressive talk coming from the Republican campaign trail, where the men vying for the right to challenge Mr. Obama are increasingly blaming Mr. Obama’s administration for rising gas prices. A gallon of gas had dropped to $1.89 when Mr. Obama took office in 2009, in large part because of the fall in oil demand caused by the financial crisis, and has almost doubled since.

“They want higher energy prices. They want to push their radical agenda on the public,” Rick Santorum said at a campaign event last week, accusing Democrats of pushing alternatives to oil. “We need a president who is on the side of affordable energy.”

Newt Gingrich wrote on Twitter on Friday that “gasoline prices are unacceptable. We can do better!” He urged his supporters to sign a petition on his Web site calling for a return to $2.50-a-gallon gas. “Drill here. Drill now. Pay less,” the petition says.

And talking points from the Republican National Committee that go out to conservative commentators every Friday often include rising gas prices among the “Top Line Messaging” for the week. A recent “Pundit Prep” document cited the national debt, unemployment and the price of gas as the three best ways to define the “Obama economy.”

The president’s political advisers are bracing for battle as they envision the price of gas rising steadily through the summer, as it usually does. As the president’s motorcade whisked him through scenic Orange County on Thursday on the way to a California fund-raiser, one sign held by a protester read, “Gas prices up 91 percent under Obama.”

Aides say they know the attacks are inevitable. But they also say they are prepared to respond forcefully with a defense of the president’s energy policies and a critique of the Republican line.

“The president is keenly aware of the impact that higher gas prices have on families trying to make ends meet,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said last week.

For Mr. Obama’s economic team, the increase in oil prices is an unwelcome reminder of how global events largely outside their control can hamper a recovery. For the third year in a row, a modest recovery faces head winds as winter turns to spring.

In the spring of 2010, debt crises in Europe, slowing stimulus spending and weakness in the housing market brought an abrupt halt to a brief turnaround in the United States economy. A year later, turmoil in the Middle East, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and more debt problems in Europe did the same. Now, rising gasoline prices, concern over tensions with Iran and, once again, European debt are causing worries.

On a call with reporters on Friday, Alan B. Krueger, the chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, said rising oil prices threatened to eat into household budgets and sap confidence — as they did last year. But he said the agreement to extend last year’s payroll tax cut would help.

“The payroll tax cut provides some cushion for families in case they see their costs go up, possibly because of gasoline prices or for other reasons over the course of the year,” Mr. Krueger said.

In speeches this spring, aides said, the president will increasingly focus on his administration’s actions to raise the fuel efficiency of cars and to open new areas to oil and natural gas development. They said they hoped the moves would counter the accusation that he has stifled oil production. On Friday, the Interior Department announced an expansion of oil exploration in Arctic waters.

Mr. Obama has also begun once again to express his personal concern for the impact of gas prices on pocketbooks, as he did last week while pressing Congress to extend the tax cut, which is about $40 per paycheck for a family making $50,000 a year.

“If we start seeing significant increases in gas prices, losing that $40 could not come at a worse time,” the president said Tuesday.

A counterattack being planned by the Obama re-election team in Chicago is expected to point out, among other things, Mitt Romney’s actions to raise gas taxes when he was governor of Massachusetts. And Mr. Obama’s Democratic allies on Capitol Hill are eager to renew a nationwide discussion about tax subsidies to oil companies.

“House Republicans are very good at using every argument they can to shield oil companies from paying their fair share,” said Representative Steve Israel of New York, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “They have been relentless and fearless protectors of oil company profits.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill say they are eager to criticize the president as gas prices rise, in part with a flurry of legislation aimed at increasing domestic production.

They also plan to use Mr. Obama’s decision to block the immediate construction of Keystone XL, a 1,700-mile pipeline that would stretch from Canada to the Gulf Coast. A Republican bill was passed by the House on Thursday to expand offshore drilling and force a permit to be approved for the pipeline.

In an interview, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House whip, mocked Mr. Obama’s claim to want an “all of the above” energy policy.

“He says it in his State of the Union, and then a week later he kills Keystone,” Mr. McCarthy said. “I think energy is going to be one of the major issues in this election, and it’s going to peak in two months.”

[Nitro Express]

Rebel by building yourself an electric commuting car. I doubt most of us drive over 150 miles a day and probably burn most the fuel on short commutes.

[Nickdfresh]

Yeah no shit! Had a big debate on Hannity about it last night. Of course the left blaming the right and vis versa. Bottom line is tension with Iraq I think. It doesn't help that the Keystone pipeline keeps getting the boot form Obama's administration. Oh fuck don't get me started!
....

Um, you mean Iran. The place our "allies" in Israel we fund to the tune of billion$ a year are threatening to bomb the place, as well as sanctions and a self-imposed oil embargo by Iran (which amounts to cutting their own throat) are what is mainly driving up prices this time....