*Induane sees Valbrandr being called an idiot! Zounds! How dare thee! I shall spite you with my words, using them as a knife to cut you free from the narrow bonds holding your mind.
Seriously though - who doesn\'t think the oil prices are at least partially the Presidents fault. Now, he probabily didn\'t cause them to rise in the first place, his crime is doing nothing to stop it. First - don\'t give me the \"The president has no control over gas prices blah blah blah crap. Several times in US history, even fairly recently, gas prices have spiked unreasonably - the last time before now that this happened, the truck drivers of america went on strike, leaving their rigs to block major bridges, while the rest of them caravaned down to washington, blocking the roads as they went. They got there, and the government went and met with leaders, threatened oil companies, and did what it took to bring down the gas prices. Bush isn\'t causing the problem, but the high oil prices are making him extremely richer right now and that is undeniable - alot of his investments are tied up in oil and oil futures, so as long as the markup is large he makes a handsome profit. So he probabily doesn\'t want to stop this, as its good for him economically. He perpetuates the problem by ignoring it.
Secondly oil is being price gouged by everyone along the lines. They are making extreme profits on the backs of the working class. You\'ll find that only extreme right wingers are the only ones left defending the oil companies, as even most staunch conservatives agree that there is alot of dishonest price gougeing going on. Here are the unrefutable facts:
The overal total price per barrel for OPEC is $4.02 dollars a barrel. That is their expenses. That is what it costs per barrel on a verage to drill it, pay workers to drill it, research new places to drill, etc.. in order to break even each year, OPEC has to sell each barrel on the global market for that much. Next fact - currently prices per barrel are going between 65 and 70 dollars a barrel. Since opec doesn\'t have anyone to compete with they can do this. That is apprroximately a 60-65 dollar per barrel markup that is pure profit. This pays pads the pockets of the people in charge there. Next fact, Bush blocked the proposals to turn several old military bases into refineries, on the grounds that it would pollute too much. Weird considering he slashed emmissions requirements for companies around america, resulting in a 12% increase in greenhouse pollutants every year, as compared to the steady 4-5% each year it had been from his fathers presidency until his second year. Other little snippets - when the refineries in the gulf went out because of the hurricanes, the president managed to use that to type our Alaskan oil reserves despite the fact that adding more crude oil wasn\'t going to do much considering it was the refineries that were hit.
Other snippet - 4 refineries out of 12 went down - 2 were not for comsumer fuels, one was for high octane fuels, like the \"premium\" fuels we see at the pumps. Only one was for the standard gas we use, and it was closed for maintence the previous month. Hmmm - so why did regular gas prices jump so much? Good question as our supply there was hardly scratched.... (note taken from the infamous Fox News network so take that fact or leave it I havn\'t researched it out as thoroughly).
We know we\'re getting price gouged elsewhere in oil by looking at gas prices to price of oil per barrel several years ago and comparing that ratio to now - we see that despite the insane markup on oil on the global market, they would have to be selling for 120 dollars per barrel to be $3.00 per gallon. That means that the profit margin on refining the fuel has nearly doubled as well.
Next question - who sets gas prices? Really who? Its not the market - market moves slower than 20 cent jumps from day to day for an entire country. Small gas stations get the gas prices set by the oil companies daily. If they set their prices anything lower, they won\'t have fuel delivered anymore. But despite an O\'Riley Factor investigation, no one can find out exactly who sets the gas prices individually. Some things are interesting as well - in Kansas, gas is fairly expensive, while in Lousisana its even more expensive (even before the hurricane) despite the fact that they have less tax on their gas than we do in Kansas. It also costs way more to ship the fuel to kansas from the gulf than it does to get it to louisanna which is geographically in a great spot with the refineries so close. Why is this? It proves that gas doesn\'t operate on a supply and demand based system. Demand is a necessity, supply is surplus currently (may change in the near future, who knows). So the gas companies set prices that they think people will pay. Supply isn\'t the issue. Demand is - thats why its insane in California. People will pay for it.
Is this dishonest of the gas companies? its not in a competition based system - thats capitalism. The real problem is that the oil companies figured out that they could all make way more money if instead of competeing, they just all set high similar prices. That is called a cartel. Which is a monopolistic characteristic, but with several companies. This is what happened and saying that its the PEOPLES problem is downright bunk! I have an idea I\'ll just not buy gas to go to work! Or better, I\'ll uproot my family and move right next to my workplace so that I can walk! Great! Who cares what it does to my family! Serioulsy - people should be able to purchase fuel at a reasonable rate. Europe is a different story - its smaller and thus there is a good train/underground system to move people around so that they can get places without a car. In the US we simply don\'t have a choice.
