Someone explain this BS to me

So what's your solution? Everybody on here is bitching about gas prices and then when a solution is brought forth it's not good enough. Okay everyone, just ride a damn bike. There's Alley's solution.

 

Uh, this admin won't be around by the time they start drilling. It'll be Obama and Co. in charge by then.

And I wasn't speaking of drilling offshore in ANWR. Just offshore in general.

 

When Obama's president there won't be any need to drill. Gas will be free for all.

 

Misunderstood you on several fronts, then. I'm not necessarily against offshore drilling, but I absolutely am in this area. And this administration has been the one pushing for drilling in the ANWR, whether the drilling starts now or later. But if Obama goes ahead with it, then he's equally culpable.

 

I am in aggeement with this. It should be a last resort. For now we should continue to rape and pillage Canada and Mexico's refuges for our oil .

 

What I don't get is this - oil is a futures market. The prices being set now are for barrels sold six months in the future, from my understanding. No money is actually exchanged until that oil is drilled and delivered, again, in my limited understanding of the market. The trading now is simply to set the price at which these companies sign delivery contracts.

So I don't get how fluctuations on a futures market affect the prices at the pump today. Six months-a year down the line, when the oil is finally bought at that price, refined and then sold as gasoline, is when the price increase should be reflected.

The fact that oil futures prices seem to have a direct effect on the price at the pump makes me suspect that some of this meteoric rise is pure profit for the oil companies.

 

This might be the series you're looking for. From two-time Pulitzer winner Paul Salopek at the Chicago Tribune. In an unrelated note, two weeks after this series appeared Salopek was arrested in Sudan for writing "false news."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-oil-htmlpage,0,2680167.htmlpage

 

"There isn't enough oil to meet demand."

Where exactly is this taking place? I haven't seen pumps shut down because they can't get deliveries. I haven't heard companies complain they're forced to make fewer widgets this week because there's not enough oil to run the equipment.

Like all the speculative bubbles that came before, this one shall burst, too. Remember dotcom stocks that were selling for $200 when they were worth $2? Remember houses that were selling for $500,000 when they were worth $250,000?

 

When in doubt, just lie.

The CPI just came out this morning.

Energy costs for April: 0% change
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

 

I've brought this up before, but still haven't seen a good answer. Why should oil companies bring their prices down? Because they're supposed to be nice?

If you're still buying gas, that means you can still afford it. When people (in large quantities) stop buying gas because the price is too high, then, and only then, will the price drop.

 

Balls.

 

"Everybody ride a damn bicycle."

Given the (sigh) price of gas and state of America's obesity, what's the problem with this? If you live one mile or less from work, grocery store, bank, school or any other place you go often, there's no reason beyond laziness for driving there. And short trips are what kill gas mileage.

Oh, silly me. No one lives a mile from anywhere because we all want to live in our own little corners of tract-home, strip-mall paradise, 20 miles from the city/work and 10 miles from the nearest store. And since we like to feel "safe" in our cars we buy these gas-sucking behemoths instead of something more fuel-efficient and smarter. Sorry folks, we reap what we sow.