Gas prices and subsidies

[Drew Richards]

Here we are back to 2006 prices per barrel of crude 80-88$ and yet instead of 2.15-2.90 a gallon we are seeing 3.65-3.95 a gallon...

And still not in the news...

And yet...we still have to subsidize big oil?

WTF

They are making record profits and we are still paying them for the luxury of providing us the commodity?

http://gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx

http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/images/charts/Oil/Inflation_Adj_Oil_Prices_Chart.htm

[wildbilln864]

1. k & r! nt

[Archaic]

2. No doubt.

It's unreal, but the demand is there.

I am up to 200mpg in my Volt now, with the electricity coming from wind power.

I can't wait for better batteries, better car designs so normal people can drive electric. I am not normal, short commutes, single, home owner. But when longer commutes are possible, with abundant charging stations so apartment dwellers can charge out and about, and can carry 5 people, it's going to be sweet.

[MichiganVote]

3. All we do in the USA is take it in the ass for the sake of the wealthy.

[BlueCaliDem]

4. California, unlike Texas and Alaska, still doesn't tax oil companies for the privilege of extracting

OUR oil, and we have the nation's most expensive gasoline, only second to Hawaii.

This is ABSURD. We're losing BILLIONS of dollars a year in taxes. I still don't know the reason why our Democratic government has yet to pass a bill to finally tax oil companies - or why it's never been done. That's never been made clear to me.

[ReasonableToo]

5. Gas pumps are the ATM for big oil

I think the prices are more a function of how much money they need rather than market demand. It often spikes before elections when they need to make contributions or when they need PR money after oil spills.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. Try $100

http://www.nasdaq.com/markets/crude-oil-brent.aspx

West Texas Intermediate is not the global benchmark for crude oil prices; North Sea Brent is. Other domestic crude oil grades that aren't WTI trade closer to Brent; Alaska North Slope, Light Louisiana Sweet, are trading around or above $100 a barrel. Given that the US imports half of its oil world market prices are a better benchmark than the artificially low WTI crude price.

[Drew Richards]

7. I understand you like the nasdaq number better but the correlation is still the same

on gas prices per year...unless you also have a different gas price index that you would like to share that shows different prices and that the oil companies are really being generous to us little americans?

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. It's not "the Nasdaq number"

it's the global crude oil benchmark.

And the correlation is with the cost of Brent and other grades of crude oil; using WTI (the NYMEX crude benchmark) is misleading. Brent was around $100 a barrel in August, 2011; US fuel prices? National average of around $3.60 a gallon. http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2011/08/average-gas-prices-august-15-2011.html

Which is more or less in line with the current national average of $3.54 a gallon: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/gasprices.htm

[RB TexLa]

8. The market for crude oil and the market for gasoline are two different markets, you are acting as if

they are the same market.

[Drew Richards]

10. So you didnt look at the graphs you just decided i didnt know what i was talking about?

The correlation to crude and produced gas price have alwys had a correlated value..the times that it gets skewed is during speculation surges and "refinery shutdowns".

If you bothered to look at the historical track they have been jacking up the price over the crude productin value since the 1960's and their buffer of profit has exponetially increased with that rise in price...and yet we still subsidize their entire industry.

So whats your point exactly?

[RB TexLa]

11. That the two are not the same market