Low gas prices until now? Why?

[uppityperson]

I am aghast at how much a tank of gas costs now and was wondering why we have had such cheap gas until now.

The cost of gas has impacted my driving habits severely and brought home for me the fact that oil is limited and we need to really get going planning for the future. Visiting Europe recently also made me realize how much the USA culture has evolved around cheap gas and available land. Houses, towns, support services (stores, work, etc) are built quite a distance apart. People move around the country regularily and it is common to drive more than 1000 miles a month.

Gas elsewhere in the world has been much more expensive than here. Even Canada, even allowing for the exchange rate, has had more expensive gas, though still cheaper than many other countries. Europe pays 4 times what we pay here. Why?

Politics may be one easy answer. Those in power have been more intent on making their fortune quickly and retaining power than lookig at the reality of the situation and adapting for the long term haul. Who has been subsidizing cheap gas here in the USA? Conspiracy theory: we have been making low wages while the rich get richer by using the money they don't pay us to subsidize cheap gas?

My question is why have we had such cheap gas until now? I would like to avoid discussing why gas costs so much now as there are already topics on this such as:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3590547
and I am sure there are others. Why has gas been so cheap? Thank you for reading and thinking and responding.

[librechik]

1. war in the middle east=great excuse for high gas prices

low gas prices=not again in Bush's lifetime

[uppityperson]

3. That I understand. But why so low in the first place?

Gas has cost more everywhere except the USA. Why?

[SlackJawedYokel]

6. Lower taxes.

Automobiles are treated more like a luxury item everywhere else and taxed accordingly.
Less need, ie., better public transportation everyewhere else, espcially after Big Oil/Big Auto, et al, dismantled the public transportations systems in the US between world wars.
Simple supply and demand.
And, of course, government subsidies for Big Oil.

Cletus

[spooked911]

2. We're trying to put the crimp on China

A controversial oil industry expert speaking earlier this month at the Lancaster Rotary Club said the U.S. government is responsible for record-high gasoline prices.

James R. Norman, a former editor of Forbes magazine and a senior writer with a prominent oil industry newsletter, said high oil prices are part of a National Security Administration policy to prevent the superpower Chinese from achieving global dominance.

Norman, who also spoke at two other venues in Lancaster this month, said there is a long-term economic strategy in place to restrain Chinese growth through artificially high oil prices.

By creating "paper demand" for oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange, large U.S. oil companies, the Saudis and the Bush administration have conspired to nearly triple world oil prices from about $20 a barrel in New York at the start of 2002, according to Norman.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

http://www.lancasteronline.com/pages/news/local/6/13108

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. And yesterday I was wondering about why on NPR the discussion

was about war with China.

Shrub wants a Berlin Wall of his own -- engineer the collapse of the communist regime in China.

Problem is, he'll have to declare war on WalMart to do it.

[raccoon]

8. Wish I'd heard that on NPR

War with China? No way--China is a big country with a large population and is developing. Not a shooting war, anyway.

I even doubt any kind of a trade war, because of--as you mentioned--WalMart.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. I heard it while driving -- tuned in late and got where I was going

before it ended.

They were discussing how hardline positions on Taiwan could make it almost impossible to avoid. I wish I had caught the whole thing. Scary stuff.

[uppityperson]

5. OK, but why were prices so low before?

Thanks for another reason why gas prices have been raised. The China thing really scares me, geo-politically, economically, and just world citizenly. Why were prices so low up until now? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Why have they been higher everywhere else but the USA?

[Moderator]

14. spooked911

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

[spooked911]

15. Sorry-- will do this next time.

[Peter1x9]

7. "Europe pays 4 times what we pay here. Why?"

Before any taxes are added on, some european countries actually pay slightly less per gallon than we do.
But when you add on the 200% or whatever their current tax rate is on gas, you see why europeans pay so much more. If our leaders tried to do that, not only would we kick them out of office, but we would probably have them taken out and shot. :P
But then again, our public transportation system stinks compared to theirs...so who am I to say if they mind 200% gas taxes or not.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. There is that, and besides, in Europe the governments control

the oil companies. Here, it's the other way around.

[uppityperson]

13. I wouldn't mind paying more for gas IF:

if it were taxes that actually paid for transportation things, mass transportation, bicyle roads, etc and didn't get funnelled off to pay for other political bs (bombs, parties, etc). And it pisses me off that the higher prices I am paying are not being used for transportation services but into CEO's pockets. Do these guys not understand that their children and grandchildren are going to suffer, along with we, their peons, and our children grandchildren? (rhetorical question)

[denverbill]

9. It's the weak dollar, caused by the Republicans and their tax cuts.

Oil is sold in dollars. In the first year of this administration, one dollar would buy 1.17 euros. Now, it will only buy .77. That's a 40% decline in the value of the dollar since 2001.

Now multiply the price of gasoline in 2001 by 1.4. If gas was $1.50/gallon then, it comes out to $2.10.

It shouldn't be any great secret why the price has increased 40%.

[spanone]

10. Bush* is making good on his promise to the oil cartel

for getting him elected. When cheney put up his so called 'energy bill' they knew congress would freak out about who they met with. That is why bush* has waited another 4 years to bring it up again.
Now it's congress' fault, not his.

[mmonk]

16. Falling dollar

[ThomWV]

17. Other Countrie's Gas Was Not More Expensive

Get this right. Oil cost the same in Europe as it does in the US, it is the price of gas that was higher elsewhere. That is because other countries taxed their gasoline higher than we did, but the basic gas cost the same.

So it is idiotic to say that our gas was cheap compared to the rest of the world, it was not. They were paying the same amount for the gas as we were, the difference is they elected to add additonal cost by heavy tax.