Hey Tom could you look this up for me since the increase in fuel prices have trippled can you show were the price of crude oil has done the same? Could you show me were the cost of refinig this product has done the same as well. If any one else can show me were these number exist I have no complant ,but right now I can not find any of these numbers. If in the past profits were sufficant for these companys why do they all choose to raise prices so high now. As for demand it has a constant since the early 1990's. Our problem falls on polictical powers in office at this time that give these companies the abilty to get away with price guaging. Remember every penny increase is 1.2 billon dollars out of our economy and into the goverment pocket in revenew collection to help pay for there, "our", expenses. I think we can all say who or why the prices of gas is so high after a little reasearch is done.
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instigator,
You seem to want to assign the blame for rising gas prices solely to the gas companies, and to a lesser degree the federal government. On the second part I will somewhat agree, but probably not for the reasons you would expect.
As with any company designed to make a profit, especially a publicly traded one, when costs of raw materials go up, the price of the final product must go up accordingly, if the company is going to continue to make a profit for its owner/shareholders. Two things have already been shown: a) that the percentage of profit for "Big Oil" is well within and likely below that of most major corporations; and
government makes far more per gallon of gas than than Big Oil.
As I mentioned earlier, there are market forces at work that you either don't want to acknowledge, or don't believe they are factors. First, OPEC is a cartel, plain and simple. They would be illegal if they operated in this country, as they price fix between member states, and raise and lower production levels on a whim to achieve their goals. If American companies colluded together in the same fashion they would be in violation of anti-trust laws, something that OPEC nations only laugh at.
Second, plain old capitalism operates by the law of supply and demand. Ten years ago we did not have to deal with increased demand from exploding development in China and India. As these countries gear up their economies and consume more oil, that leaves the rest of us fighting just to keep our access to the supply we need for ours. Demand goes up, supply gets tighter, and prices go up accordingly. Throw in a couple of psycho heads of state, like Hugo Socialist Chavez, Mahmoud Amadinejad Hitler, and Kim Jong Il Tempered, and there is far more instability world-wide than there used to be. One wacko world leader is all those who speculate in oil futures needs to bid up the price of crude. We are dealing with three.
Thirdly, you commented that oil demand has been a constant since the 1990s. As I just showed you that is false. Even in this country, you have to agree that the sheer number of cars on the road is always increasing, thus domestic demand for gasoline cannot remain the same. Now we haven't built a new oil refinery in over 30 years. If demand is up, yet our capacity to refine oil is constant, that means that our existing refineries are always running at max capacity. Now throw in a couple of ill-timed, badly located hurricanes, which damaged refineries all along the Gulf Coast, now there is a disruption in supply. Remember, supply goes down, price goes up. We are still not back to pre-Katrina refining capacity.
Thirdly and-a-half, all of the "boutique" fuels that government says we must have at various times during the year, in varying locations cause disruption in supply, since the refineries have to dump what's left of the current inventory, and retool for the season's next fuel. I ask, "Do we really need 50+ types of fuel to supply America's motoring public?". I seriously doubt it. Thank your local environmentalist loonie for that one.
Fourth, we are buying way more oil for our economy than we should be. As a world superpower, we should be a clear leader in research, location, and retrieval of oil. We as a country are as oil rich as any country on earth, I believe. ANWAR in Alaska, the Gulf Coast, and exploration in the Northwest are all potentially huge quantities of oil just waiting to be cultivated. Instead, the "greenies" have our politicians so scared to vote to allow new drilling, for fear that they will be labeled an "enemy of the environment". And don't even bother to mention nuclear power. That sends the envirowackos off the charts!
The final fallacy is that it's the job of the United States government to regulate gas prices. I'm sorry to say this, but the government's only job is to protect you, me and the Constitution. American's have become far too reliant on our government to regulate everything, from gas prices, to healthcare, college tuition and more. If there was a better understanding in this country of the basics of capitalism, and the realities of what our government is really supposed to do for us, we would be far better off than we are now.
Lastly, I would like to ask a question. Do you know any other industry that is forced to reinvest millions in profits to research alternative technologies that, once perfected, could put that industry out of business?
:huh: 
Oh, did I miss the race????
