Wallstreet and our regulators. No surprise it is happening again, perfect timing. Oil companies will post 10's of trillions in profits and gas will be sky high for the next 10 or so months. Then, when the presidential election starts heating up next year, prices will suddenly be lower so austerity remains in check and business resumes as usual. We're getting squeezed because the plutocracy mega-profits from it. They reap huge profits with every bubble and the working class gets shyt on in the process.
We have higher crude oil inventories now than we did last year or in 2008, but prices are higher. This is coming from the The American Petroleum Institute weekly report. http://www.foxbusiness.com/industri...ies-crude-stocks-rise-gasoline-stocks-tumble/
I'll bring up my conspiracy theory again. If you own all the oil, you have no risks involved in bidding on Futures prices; it's just money from your left pocket to your right pocket. The Saudis can make Futures prices whatever they want. They try to surf the sweet spot of price and demand to insure maximum profits. It's what I would do.
not to go off to much of a tangent, and that link posted by broken shadow was great. very informative, easy read too imo, even for a dummy who doesnt know jack about economics such as myself. appreciated that article but my question is, will we ever get off of oil/gas powered cars? i really believe i wont see solar/electric cars that are the primary transportation in my lifetime. obviously its in oil companies best interest to soak up all the oil it can to make as much profit as it can, but are we realistically looking at getting any form of alternative transportation in the next 10-15 yrs? if i'm not mistaken, dont oil companies have leases on a bunch of land in the US just waiting to be explored for drilling? i mean isnt that just going to keep us on oil for hundreds more years? because lets say the oil runs out in the mideast, thats what they turn to next right? i'm not saying electric or solar powered cars dont have cons as well, obviously electric powered cars have to be plugged in which is going to run you money for electric bills, but man, filling up at the gas station for 4+ dollars makes people cringe.
I hate the way this country approaches alternative fuels. It's either the current gas car or something like electric cars (when battery technology still isn't good enough) or something even more unlikely like hydrogen or solar technology. Pakistan and India have the largest fleet of natural gas vehicles in the world. When I was in India, many gas stations in major cities offered regular gasoline, diesel, LPG (a kerosene based fuel) and CNG (compressed natural gas). Cars there have two tanks. (a petrol tank and a CNG or LPG tank) And you can switch back and forth between the two. Keep a backup storage of petrol in case you run out of CNG but for most commutes you'll use CNG exclusively. These are both third world countries and yet they've been able to develop a natural gas infrastructure for cars. Meanwhile we're the freaking United States and our excuse for not having CNG cars is that "we dont have the infrastructure." The US has tons of unexplored natural gas that could both reduce our emissions and help curb energy independence.
Not really. Their gas stations were converted in most cases. The difference is that most gas stations are state run in both countries so its easy to upgrade them. Also they tax petrol and then use that revenue to subsidize CNG and LPG to encourage people to switch fuels. In the case of the US, you just have to create financial incentives. We waste billions subsidizing worthless corn ethanol that is useless in terms of energy efficiency and ****s up 3rd world countries by artificially driving up the price of corn. That money could easily be channeled into incentives for CNG cars as well as infrastructure upgrades for gas stations. I'm not saying tax gas to fund CNG because that isnt realistic right now. But once we have the infrastructure and the availability of CNG vehicles then that becomes an option. Also CNG tanks can be retrofitted on any car. It's relatively cheap to do as well (I have relatives with retrofitted CNG tanks on their cars) Also I'm not suggesting that this happens overnight. Even in India and Pakistan CNG is relegated only to big cities at the moment. But they at least have the vision to pursue a realistic alternative fuel program. The technology for Natural gas vehicles is already here and its one of the most realistic ways to combat dependence on the Middle East for energy. California for example has spent millions on creating a "hydrogen highway" that is worthless. That money can easily be spent on something like CNG that will have an immediate impact. Lastly come on we cant make excuses for 3rd world countries being more progressive on energy than us. Investment in Natural gas technology is a long run money saver and would create jobs as well as wean us off the Middle East. It is way more realistic than the crap we do now.
Saw 2 local gas stations changing the prices on the board while grabbin lunch. So I remembered there was a thread about gas prices that I never got to read. It's funny that we didn't notice that we all bent over with lube drippin between our cracks while we were busy busting each others @$$ on **** (like which bathroom transexuals should use) that doesn't really improve our well being. Black or white, gay or straight, liberal or conservative.....we're all getting hosed. I highly recommend reading that OP, even if it is from somethingawful.com.
There alot of reasons, one of them has to be the uprising in the middle east, it has definitely effected the oil business around the world.
Link? I doubt it. The US and world are recovering from the economic slump. At roughly the same time, oil prices recovered.
i say more so of speculation than demand.... by the way, couple of years ago when gas reached 4 bucks a gallon, oil was about $150. Now the oil is "only" $113 but gas price is right under 4 bucks.... so obviously gas price is not aligned to the oil price this year. When the oil price drops, gas price hold steady, talk bout some freakin rip off.
