I see, during the vice-presidential debate, you saw this:
When, actually, what really happend was this:
Or, maybe you just need to read this:
Posted on 04/11/2005 5:58:56 PM PDT by OESY
Gas prices are at record highs again. Many think oil companies are to blame. In fact, a May 2004 poll showed that 77 percent of Californians believed this to be true. However, this just shows the media have failed to properly inform people about who's causing high gas prices.
One thing is certain: oil companies are not to blame for high gas prices. These companies are responsible for producing the gasoline we need. In California, where gas prices are among the nation's highest, the oil industry has been repeatedly investigated to find evidence of "price manipulation" and none has ever been found.
Although there are other causes of high gas prices, such as high gasoline taxes, the primary cause is environmental regulation. For example, environmental regulation has significantly restricted drilling for oil in Alaska and on the continental shelf. More drilling will increase the gasoline supply (up to 10 percent from greater Alaskan drilling alone) and thus lower prices.
Further, there are currently 18 different gasoline formulations in use across the United States, making it much more costly to produce and distribute gasoline. These blends aren't needed due to requirements of automobile engines, nor are they required by oil companies. The blends, including different ones used at different times of the year and in different geographic areas, are forced on Americans by environmental regulations. Among other things, the regulations force refiners to incur greater costs in switching from the production of one blend to another. They also force refiners to produce a more costly "summer blend," which is partially responsible for the current rise in price.
The situation is worst in California, where environmental regulations are strictest. For example, California was one of only three states to require the removal of the octane booster MTBE in January 2004. This reduced the gasoline supply by almost 10 percent.
Using corn-based ethanol as a replacement doesn't help much since California's strict emissions regulations require the removal of almost the equivalent in other gasoline components to accommodate ethanol. Ethanol alos must be shipped from the Midwest in trucks since it cannot be produced in refineries and doesn't travel well through pipelines. As a result, gasoline prices were predicted to increase 35 to 40 cents. Given that the average price in 2004 was almost 30 cents higher than in 2003, these predictions weren't too far off.
Additionally, the California government forced gasoline stations to install double-walled underground tanks, which forced many stations to rip perfectly good single-walled tanks out of the ground. It also imposes the harshest emissions requirements in the country, which makes necessary the use of a more costly, special blend of gasoline not produced anywhere but in California. It's no accident that gas in California is generally 30 to 40 cents above the national average.
From drilling to refining to distribution, environmentalists have done everything they can to raise the price of gasoline.
The above raises a question: Why do environmental regulations exist?
One might think they exist to protect consumers, but the evidence doesn't show this. For instance, MTBE was banned based on claims that it causes cancer. However, it has never been shown to be a danger to humans in the amounts to which they might be exposed. Claims that it "causes cancer" are based on experiments in which mice were fed doses almost 70,000 times larger than to what humans might be exposed. No scientist worthy of the title would make claims based on that kind of extrapolation.
Environmentalists are not actually concerned with the well-being of man. Their real motive is to sacrifice man to nature by stopping industrial activity. This is what they explicitly state. For instance, Adam Kolton of the Alaska Wilderness League states, "Drilling the wildest place in America is objectionable no matter how it's packaged." David M. Graber, a research biologist with the National Park Service, states, "We are not interested in the utility of a particular species, or free-flowing river, or ecosystem, to mankind. They have ... more value – to me – than another human body, or a billion of them."
Oil companies deserve to be praised for producing an abundance of gasoline despite the massive burden of environmental regulations foisted upon them. To increase the gasoline supply further, we need to start by eliminating these regulations. If the government makes the choice to protect people's freedom, gasoline below a dollar-per-gallon won't be just a relic of the past.
Higher Taxes combined with a large market that will pay the high prices (trucking)
The taxes are appalling, thanks for the link, but they've been in place a while. Diesel prices were still the cheapest until the last few months, when they suddenly became the highest.
Excise taxes fall into this category....but unfortunately, sales taxes don't. That's why the state does not have an incentive for lower prices!
Nope, he is on Hydrogen Kick,
You don't suppose the loss of production capacity due to the explosion in Texas has anything to do with it do you....
That impression would be wrong, price goes up, consumption goes down, tax revenue goes down. When people conserve, the politicians have to figure a way to pick up the lost revenue, don't cha know.
Brian "Bart" Simpson has apparently never given much thought to economics. Hey Bart, supply and demand may have something to do with prices. Just a thought.
I hear this tired old question too many times! How much of our unleaded gas is refined in this country? How many refineries exist in the US? What is the current capacity for refining crude in each of these existing refineries? What would the maximum output be if all refineries in the US were maxed out?
As the article stated, what would the output of each of these refineries be if 37 different blends were not required by environmental laws?
If these questions are answered, maybe then I will agree that we need another refinery......
You do understand that our refineries are at 95% capacity with very little outage time don't you. You do understand that increasing competition will lower prices don't you.
There isn't a market alive that the beauracrats in California can't screw up. And they use 20-25% of all the oil in the country so when they screw things up, they really screw things up.
Meanwhile, those thieving bas_ards rake in record profits and continue to expand, anti-trust laws notwithstanding.
And when the chumps ... er, consumers ... scream TOO loud, they turn the heat down a notch. Now, instead of $2.50 a gallon, we breathe a sigh of relief that gas is only $2 a gallon. Never mind that it's double what it was two years ago ...
I'm a free market capitalist, so I guess I don't advocate the government stepping in to regulate the oil companies. But I eagerly await the day when I can tell them to stick their crude back in a hole.
You do need more refinery capacity, primary to deal with the ridiculous requirements to produce 17 different types of gasoline during different times of the year or in different zip codes. If everybody was producing the same 4 fuels, we wouldn't be bottlenecked at the refinery level virtually ever.
I believe some new sulfur rules went into effect in January for diesel.
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/diesel.htm
ENVIRONMENTALISTS. PERIOD.
All refineries are maxed out. The blends are additives to the gasoline.
Let me make sure I have his right. YOu don't think that gasoline prices have anything to do with the price of oil?
Oil is twice the price that it was a year or two ago. Yet the supply has actually increased on a daily basis and there isn't a single request for oil going unmet. And demand, while higher each year, certainly hasn't doubled in the last 12 or 24 months. And we hear 'concern' about terrorism but somehow that concern has been here since 2001 and prices didn't double until last year. Traders are the ones who cite 'concerns' despite the existence of plenty of oil and plenty more which hasn't even been looked for yet.
Enron did the exact same thing 3 years ago with electricity. When the market supply gets tight, it is much, much, much, much easier to rape and pillage energy buyers. Every little hiccup becomes reason for a new rise in prices which would otherwise be considered ludicrous. You can either start investigating the traders and analysts, or you can start DIGGING UP SOME MORE FREAKING OIL!!!! Or do both. I'm sure there is a little criminalism mixed in with our capitalism out there.
When the feds force one of the oil companies to do it or gives them some other kind of positive incentive.
If an oil company built a new refinery now it would lower the price of the products the company is selling.
Doesn't make much sense for an oil company to do that, does it?
Please let me know where it states that the price of gas must remain constant at 1.50 a gallon.
Adjusted for inflation, gas is cheaper than it has been in years.
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