I want to smack the oil/gas people!

[Grakthis]

Gas prices go up when supply < demand...

Stop driving you fuckers! :-P

yea, but everyone needs gas (unless you don't drive)...So they could probably put what price they want and it not have to depend on supply and demand...

Though it could, but I doubt it.

There are laws against that happening.

No... actually, there aren't laws against that.  If there were, we wouldn't be a market economy.  Reagan completely removed all regulations on the gasoline industry in the late 80's.

There are laws against price fixing, but not price leadership.  The gasoline retailers in the US all operate on price leadership.  Which means they can pretty much alter prices as they see fit when they see fit and they don't have to say "boo" to us or the government.

While OPEC can greatly influence the prices of Gas in the US, they don't actually supply as high a percenteage of the gasoline Americans use as most Americans think.  Only about half of the oil used in the US is from foreign sources and only about half of that is from OPEC countries.

The reason for these increases right now are simply supply and demand.  Gasoline usage is seasonal, and as the weather starts to warm up supply tends to lag behind demand a little.  The last number I was given, which was while I was still in college and studying environmental economics in 2000, was that oil consumption went up about 10% starting in mid to late february.

Throw on there that MANY cities (including LA and I know Louisville as well) use reformulated Gasoline during the summer months to ease pollution.  This adds an extra cost to the gasoline during the summer months which can be as high as 10 cents per gallon.

Also, according to a news week article I read last week, this year some of the refineries are actually having trouble getting online and back up and strong from what is called  "maintenance season".  Basically, they slow down to do maintenance on the refineries during mid winter then have to get things up and running again for summer.  Apparently 3 or 4 major refineries are having restart issues.

Mix all that together and p00f!  High gasoline prices.

My suggestion to everyone on here and your parents: SELL YOUR FUCKING SUV'S AND BUY SOMETHING THAT MAKES SENSE, YOU FAT GREEDY CAPITALIST PIG DOGS!11!11!!1!

[tricia]

Dear God please sell your SUVs.  Assholes.

So are you saying all the gas companies could band together and decide to charge 10 bucks a gallon for gas tomorrow?  I don't think that'd go over too well with the government...

[Grakthis]

Dear God please sell your SUVs.  Assholes.

So are you saying all the gas companies could band together and decide to charge 10 bucks a gallon for gas tomorrow?  I don't think that'd go over too well with the government...

No.  That would be collusion.  Collusion = Price Fixing = Illegal = Why I got a 13 dollar check from the RIAA last month.

BUT, one Gas company that is considered the price leader in the industry could release a statement to the press saying "We are thinking about raising prices to 10 dollars due to X being a major factor".

Then the other companies look at that and go say "Yeah, we are thinking about doing the same"

Then company A raises the prices to 10 dollars and all the other companies follow suite.

This is called price leadership and is perfectly legal and actually occurs in many industries, the gas industry being the leading example.

[tricia]

Ok, that's what I thought.  When I said they had laws against it, I meant that in reference to LimeyJoe's point of "the could probably put what price they want".  The can't just randomly all pick a number and be like "MWAHAHAHAHA".  There have to be actual reasons for prices going up.

[Ghisy]

Guys, you know that 1 gallon here is like $4.50??
I know that's freaking crazy but cars here are smaller and don't use as much gas as the ones in the States.
But like 75% of the price are taxes!!!
Who wants to live in France now?!

[CheapandEvilgrl]

My suggestion to everyone on here and your parents: SELL YOUR FUCKING SUV'S AND BUY SOMETHING THAT MAKES SENSE, YOU FAT GREEDY CAPITALIST PIG DOGS!11!11!!1!

AMEN! I HATE suv's and people insist on driving them on the tiny roads of Long Island and even NYC. Hellooooooooo...YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GO OFFROADING IN NYC!!!

[Grakthis]

Ok, that's what I thought.  When I said they had laws against it, I meant that in reference to LimeyJoe's point of "the could probably put what price they want".  The can't just randomly all pick a number and be like "MWAHAHAHAHA".  There have to be actual reasons for prices going up.

Well... they don't HAVE to give a reason.  They could just say "we are going to raise prices because we want to, and we are greedy pricks".  They only reason they give a "because" is so people don't lynch them.

All that has to happen is for one company to decide to raise prices and for the others to follow suite.  That's it.

[rosieposy87]

My suggestion to everyone on here and your parents: SELL YOUR FUCKING SUV'S AND BUY SOMETHING THAT MAKES SENSE, YOU FAT GREEDY CAPITALIST PIG DOGS!11!11!!1!

AMEN! I HATE suv's and people insist on driving them on the tiny roads of Long Island and even NYC. Hellooooooooo...YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GO OFFROADING IN NYC!!!

Yup, in Nantucket i swear i only saw about 10 normal cars the whole time i was there. Bloody 'soccer moms' as you call them- it pisses me off! Fair play if you live on a farm and actually need one of those, but don't buy one just for nice air conditioning and to satisfy your insecurity complex.

[loveplasticlove]

try $2.25  its not helpful when the HR lady at work has you going on errands all over Hollywood & Los Angeles area!

[blueglove]

the gas here is about
$1.79 - $1.86 depending if u ger a car wash if u get a car wash then get gas you save a lot like 7 cents lol

i don't think gas prices will go up a lot this is an election year and bush wants to win so i doubt he will let them go up a lot here their expected to be almost 3.00 a gallon  that was the highest that is rasing it about 1 dollar that is nutz if i could vote i would vote 4 the one with the best pease and a big factor is gas prices this is outrageous

[blueglove]

Dear God please sell your SUVs.  Assholes.

So are you saying all the gas companies could band together and decide to charge 10 bucks a gallon for gas tomorrow?  I don't think that'd go over too well with the government...

yea if that happened then that wold be illegal it is a monopoly and they would be forced to break up like what happenes to at&t a couple of years ago and now microsoft is consitered a monopoly

[Grakthis]

Dear God please sell your SUVs.  Assholes.

So are you saying all the gas companies could band together and decide to charge 10 bucks a gallon for gas tomorrow?  I don't think that'd go over too well with the government...

yea if that happened then that wold be illegal it is a monopoly and they would be forced to break up like what happenes to at&t a couple of years ago and now microsoft is consitered a monopoly

... do you speak English?!?

[eclv]

I saw today that gas at the 76 station is $2.19, $2.09 at the Shell but I paid $1.92 at Costco, yay!!

[freshlettuce]

Guys, you know that 1 gallon here is like $4.50??
Who wants to live in France now?!

I do!  And I'm gonna ride on the train like Ghisy does.  Around town I'll use a bicycle.  I will tuck French bread under both my arms and wear a Phrygian bonnet whenever in public.

[tricia]

LOL  That's awesome!

Side note: I just paid 2.03 a gallon for gas yesterday...prices are going down...a little...