I think the refinery problem might be a small or bogus excuse for high gas prices. I think tax revenues, the military’s need for fuel, and stock speculators playing off Middle East fears, are causing most of the pricing problems. The price will magically come back down when it starts having a serious negative impact on the economy.
I think your concern about taxes on gasoline are real. The gov’t gets a big chunk....a lot more than the gas station gets.
And I’m not impressed that the liberals always want a “windfall profits tax.” What in the world good does that do for John Q. American in terms of gas prices?
Washington Fat Cats get extra taxes because I pay more at the pump....heck...that’d make Washington want to keep prices high all the time, so they could always get their extra taxes.
Neither oil companies,politicians,gas station owners or anyone else can do anything about what our Arab FRIENDS are charging for a barrel of oil. At present they have us over that barrel.I’m not saying that the oil cos. aren’t taking advantage of it but the largest part of the price of gas is $65.00 crude and taxes and that’s where we need to direct most of our concern.
No one seems to have noticed, in this thread, that both the Chinese and the Indians are now much larger consumers of oil than they were 10 or 20 years ago. The fact that these countries have become, and are growing, economic players, is a huge impact on the demand side of the pricing equation.
I think that was true last year. The price of a Barrel of crude was about 50% higher than it is today; yet the price of Gas is as high or higher than last year.
I think today’s problem is the reduced output of the refineries. That list, while impressive, does not tell you what percentage of capacity the refineries are actually producing. There is more suspicion of price manipulation now than there was last year.
If it looks like a duck; walks like a duck; and quacks like a duck; then ….