It is interesting that it seems that many of the members of this forum think that the price of gas should go up. In the questions above, when I say, "or something else" I mean, any other cause that the US Government can affect, other than taxes. Some would say that their reluctance to approve the building of more refineries, or their reluctance to approve drilling off the Gulf Coast, is causing, through supply and demand, the price of gas to go up. I am curious, what do you have to say?
It would be nice if you could buy lets say a 100 or a 100 gallon gas card at the current price. I think that would help stabilize the market.
Checking the pole results, I am wondering where are all the people that seem to want the price of gas to go up. After reading some of the threads about global warming, the current results are surprising to me. -Roy Poston
I have to work every day just to make ends meet. Every time gas goes up alot it hurts me financially. I can only assume those of you on this forum that want gas to skyrocket are very well off financially and drive SUV's and/or other large gas guzzlers. Why would anyone want gas to go to $5/gal. or more? Only the oil cos. & the Arabs make out. The working class gets it in rear. It's so unfair.
When you buy a gallon of gas $0.184 cents are for federal taxes and $0.15-$0.45 cents are for state taxes depending on where you live. In my opinion, lowering taxes on gasoline wouldn't change the price at the pump very much and I think the government would never do it.
Gas will NOT go to $5.00/gallon no matter how much some of the ivory tower types on here would like it to.
Establish profit limit at 30% margin over costs. Fine companies double the amount they exceed the limit. Oh, wait, rich folks love their profits, and only rich folks count. Never mind...
I have bought Exxon stock at three points in my life and would recommend everyone on here to buy it for about 5 more years. 2010-2012 I am dumping it unless they demonstrate a solid investment in the coming technologies.
All I ask is that you ask yourself if your salary should be capped by the gov't and/or any "new" gizmo you invent be priced by the gov't.
That being said, I actually voted for the gov't to raise the price. However, that would ONLY be to invest in technologies to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Gang, this is a situation of pay me some and suffer some now or pay me a LOT and suffer a LOT later. Actually, the FED gov't should not be allowed to do this. This extra money MUST be handled by the private sector. I don't trust anyone who has to buy votes for a living with any more of my money.
I actually voted for the govt to keep out of it. If i was confident the government would spend the revenue on developing alternative energies I would say slap on a .50 federal tax tomorrow. My problem with government is if they raise one million dollars about $500,000 goes to paying the overhead to implement it, $250,000 goes to fund the establishment pork barrel projects and most of the rest would go to grants to the wrong folks. In Bush's speech where he talked about Americans addiction to oil, he should have thrown down the gauntlet, said the US economy would not be dependent on foriegn oil by say 2020 and proposed a gas tax to pay for tax incentives on alternative energies. If he would have done that he could have reserved his spot on Mt rushmore.
The government has no business torquing things to make prices higher on gas or anything else. For those people who voted Yes on that... Is your vote still yes if it goes like this: Gas is going to be set to $5.00 per gallon by the government, and any car getting better than 20 mpg will be taxed based on odometer readings to bring the amount paid per mile to an even number as if it were getting 20 mpg. They base it on you getting 51mpg, figure out how much you should have saved over 20mpg, and you pay that difference in taxes. Is it only fun to have high gas prices when you're sticking it to everyone who doesn't have a car like yours? Remember that those guys working the counter at McDonalds can't afford your car, and they'll be paying this new governement inflated price you are voting for. Is it only when you're sticking it to everyone without a prius that the government should inflate the price, or are you also in favor of having it stuck to you too? I thought so, you vindictive selfish little man.
Supply and demand. Even at $3.00 /gallon the demand for gas started to fall off and the economy slowed down. The supply of gasoline is inealstic, at least in the short-term. A slow-down in demand will quickly cause a glut and thus drop the price. Also there is at least a portion of the price of gas that is just pure price gouging from my vantage point. The price-gougers(OPEC and the oil companies) do not want to kill the goose laying the golden egg. I can tell you first hand that with every spike in the price of gas we get much closer to the day when you won't care what oil is selling for per barrel.
Little secret for the "gov should stay out of it" voters. The gov is currently IN it, keeping the price artificially low. "How the hell can that be, you idiot?" I hear you scream, "There's already tax on it to make it higher!" Well, we don't pay all the costs of gas at the pump. Our federal tax dollars subsidize every little drop that we pour into our cars. If we paid the price for our protection of our oil rights, and for the increased medical costs due to oil use - if we paid all that at the pump, then the cute little price we see today would be almost comical. So I agree! The government SHOULD stay out of it. But not for the reasons it was listed in this poll, I think!
I'm not sure why drivers of gas guzzlers would want the price of gas to skyrocket???? The reason we have gas guzzlers is because gas is so damn cheap!
Hi Guys and Gals, Gas is not the only commodity going up in price. All energy related products are going up. If you invest in energy companies and drive a Prius, you essentially have the best of both. Gas prices will go up in the long run. I bought my Prius to save money and conserve energy at the same time. So on the money issue, I like to see gas prices kept low enough so that there is a balance between the user and the provider. Obnoxious proffits by the energy companies on the expenses of the comsumers should be controlled but fair guidelines should be agreed upon. I don't think the USA has such a thing at this time. Just a token fuel taxes to cover the expenses expenses. Too much power(money) is in the hands of the providers. There are countries with gas prices at one tenth of ours in the minority and there are countries with 2 to 3 times ours(in the majority). So drawing a quick conclusion about the price is hard. But because I am an average American person, my desire is for the gas prices to go down so I can save some money. I do a lot of driving for a living. Just my .02.
Gas @ $5.00/gallon? The day Iran announces it has a nuke - actually closer to $7-10/gallon - I posit a barrel would go over $100.00 per - easy. Supply jitters sent it to near $70.00. Increased demand by China and India only exacerbate it. Lack of new drilling domestically makes it that much worse. Our refining capacity is hampered by stupid politics, and even if they started to allow new refineries to be built, it will be years before that capacity comes on line. Imagine if they [Iran]threaten to close the Straits of Hormuz or even just set it off there killing almost no one but completely stopping the flow of oil to the world. Wow! We should immediately start drilling, expanding refining capacity as we plan on transitioning to new technologies to replace oil - which will take decades at the least. Its like money (or my kids view of it) if you have it, use it. It makes no sense to leave perfectly good oil in the ground On the + side... Oil conversion technology is now feasible at current prices. South Africa produces a large % of its oil demand via this technology. The US/Canada is sitting on over 300+ years worth of oil via this technology - although it will take years to ramp up production. Also flex fuel technology becomes more viable at these price points. Nuclear power is the way to go. The most friendly way to produce power and be environmentally friendly. We need to follow europes lead - they get 50-75% of all their power via the atom - we should too. With technology knocking down the transmission barriers, we can place them in far off places away from population centers. And my favorite thought - if this Iraq war was for oil - why is it so damn expensive?
I have two (very different) suggestions, which will please people of two very different political outlooks: 1. Put a tax of $25 per gallon on gas, plus a 50% tax on oil company profits, and use the money to build alternative-energy infrastructure, such as windmills, etc. or 2. (This is a restatement of something Darell beat me to Level the playing field by removing all the direct and indirect subsidies presently given to fossil fuels so that the price will have to reflect the real cost of production. Also, require fossil fuel companies to clean up or eliminate their pollution, so that the price of energy includes the third-party costs presently dumped on society and paid for by us, but not at the gas pump. Example: wind could compete with coal right now if coal did not have a license to pollute (granted by Nixon for the lifetime of then-existing coal plants, but recently extended by Bush, allowing plants to be completely refurbished at the old, dirty standards). Like Schmika says, we either pay now to fix our broken energy system, or we get totally screwed later. Sadly, the attitude of the voters is, "Maybe I'll die before it gets really bad, so why should I pay now so the next generation doesn't have to suffer." Jimmy Carter took a big hit in the popularity polls by telling us that we waste more energy than we import. I say that we are addicted to living beyond our means. People buy a house they cannot afford, a gas-guzzling SUV they cannot afford, a bunch of consumer crap they do not need, and then they complain that they cannot make ends meet because taxes are too high!. The real problem with this country is that people think they have a god-given right to live beyond their means.
