What about the out of control gas prices?

Some of us can't afford these price and most of congress not all were looking into the oil companies. We were told about shut downs, now it is demand. Someone is stroking the consumerWhat about the out of control gas prices?
We are being conditioned to take it. Gas prices shot up, went down some, then eased back up. Bit by bit they will get people to accept any price they put on it, knowing that we need it. Anyone have a horse and carriage sitting around? ( Well, I have the horse, no carriage and he isn't road sound either).


It is like the old frog in the pot story. You put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it jumps out. Put it in cool water and warm it to boiling slowly and the frog doesn't leave the pot. As long as oil companies have the politicians in their pockets, there will be no change.What about the out of control gas prices?
At the moment gas prices are high because we can't refine oil ( i.e turn oil into gasoline) fast enough to satisfy demand.





The supply side of the problem is as follows:





We can't refine the oil because we do not have enough refineries.





We do not have enough refineries because there is a high level of political opposition to building new locations.





The political opposition is generally due to environmental concerns.








The demand side of the problem has both global and domestic contributing factors.





GLOBALLY


Oil is the primary ingredient for making gas.





The entire world needs oil to make gas.





Countries (primarily in Asia) are just starting to use cars in large quantities





Those cars need gas (which requires oil)





The demand of these countries drives oil prices up world wide (including the USA)





DOMESTICALLY


Here in the US demand is increasing for gasoline because:


1. More people drive in Spring and Summer.


2. More people use A/C at home as the temp. outside rises.


3. Americans continue to purchase ever larger vehicles.


4. The population of the U.S. is increasing which puts more


cars on the road





SUPPLY decreases while DEMAND increases = High Prices
The gas industry has around 8% profit margin. Compare that to the soda industry with around a 31% profit margin, or Microsoft with a 47% profit margin.





Gas companies are making record profits because of record sales. Shutdowns are related to demand. Because of stupidity and federal regulations, there haven't been any refineries built in the U.S. in over 20 years. The ones we have are in horrible condition and the gas companies haven't maintained them. Rather than a vast conspiracy and horrible price gouging now, it's been a generic greed over the last 20 years that has kept them from spending on proper maintenance, or the cost to build environmentally safe refineries.





Are the gas companies at fault? Yes. Are they purposefully boning you today more than usual? No. It's actually in their best interest to not let the prices get this high because it significantly alters our habits and drives demand down which causes the market to fall hard.
Gas prices are directly related to the price of crude oil. Our prices for gas right now are higher than they were when Crude was at $70 barrel. Make since not really. However, the week before Memorial Day is historically a price gouging week for gas prices. The prices usually are at there peak. ';USUALLY';!! That's no guarantee that they aren't going to hit $4 a gallon for gas it's just what past trends have always been.
I'm not sure what you mean by ';out of control';. You might mean ';subject to market forces of supply and demand';. If that's really what you mean, then I'm all in favor of ';out of control gas prices';, even if it means some pain for you and me this summer.





I'm old enough to remember the last time we had gas prices ';under control';, during the Nixon administration. I also remember waiting hours at a gas station for my turn at the pump.





Gas prices are still pretty low, measured in inflation adjusted dollars.