Price of Gas

[Innkeeper]

A handful of outlets in this area are now selling gas for $1.99 and most others are less than a dime more. This means the price has come down by $1.10 in the last ninety days. Yet I can't read, listen to, or see any news or commentary that still doesn't rant on about high gas prices. What gives?

[winoweenie]

Still a very modest(?) 2.50 per here in the desert. WW

[hotwine]

The liberal media can't give up on the story. Like a lot of other politicaly-charged issues, it keeps paying the bills for the commentators.

At $2/gal, the ROI for producers must be back in the range of 5%.... not much better than you can get with a jumbo CD. Gotta wonder why anybody stays in the "o'l bidness" these days.

[Thomas]

It's $2.45 a gallon here; I never knew the media set the prices; learn something everyday... [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

[hotwine]

There's obviously a gaping hole in your education, Foodster. Gaping, I say.

No, fortunately, the price of fuel in this country is set by supply and demand, like everything else. The loony left keeps looking for a conspiracy, but there simply isn't one..... just a bunch of little old blue-haired ladies clipping bond coupons, providing the juice for the rest of us to do business. (At least, those who haven't given the bird to the left and moved their enterprises off-shore).

[Al Barino]

Hilarious! That made my day. 'liberal media' and 'loony left', and then THEY have the conspiracy! Seems like you're trying too hard to lure lurkers out of the woodwork.

Bob

[winoweenie]

Hi Al and welcome to the board. We'all does what it takes to git the job done. Welcome abroad.WW [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img]

[wondersofwine]

One of the oil companies (Exxon-Mobil) made a 9.92 BILLION dollar profit for the quarter! Isn't that a bit excessive? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/27/AR2005102700449_pf.html

[Thomas]

Can't be true WOW--the W. Post is a liberal, lefty newspaper and surely must have added some zeroes to the profit figure.

I think the real number was $992.00 for the quarter, and it all came from my car. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

[Innkeeper]

If you think they cut the price by a third out of pure altuism, think again. The market rules. We're driving less now than in the summer.

[Thomas]

IK, if we had a public transportation system of any worth, I'd have driven a lot less in the past 25 years.

Do you think a discussion about that will ever take place in the halls of congress, other than arguing over funding a badly flawed Amtrak system?

[Innkeeper]

Dunno. The trains run fine in Europe and Japan, but I guess the governments subsidise them. Maybe we should too.

[PinotEnvy]

If you think the price has fallen that much simply because we here in the sates have changed our consumption that much in the last 90 days, please share some of that with me!

The price spike was based more on supply fears than demand. When the hurricanes came through, there was fear we would lose supply. Short term supply was indeed affected since the area was evacuated. The factor on demand is it is rising accross the world especially in developing nations. As they industrialize, their demands will only increase. All we can do to keep our personal costs down is buy less.

So says the liberal Minnesotan.

[hotwine]

Well said, PE.

We can also lean on our politicians to open up additional areas for exploration and drlling, such as 2/3 of the continental shelf that's currently off-limits, plus gov't lands (national parks, national forests, military reservations, etc.). And quiet this yammering about a wind-fall profits tax; if there's anything that will drive the oil companies out of this country, that's it.