And why am I paying freaking $1.70 per gallon for gas? If the purpose of the war was to steal all of Iraq's oil then where is it? Why is the supply still so low?
Hell, I'm starting to wish it HAD been about oil. This $1.60 to $1.70/ gallon bit wreaks havoc w/ your budget when you commute from BR to NO like I do.
Of course there was no "blood for oil!" Don't tell me you bought all that L-cubed propaganda and hyperventilating? The reason gasoline prices remain high is due to several reasons: -Iraq STILL is not yet at peak production. Their petroleum infrastructure was THAT obsolete and THAT badly damaged, and it's still going to take awhile (probably another year-and-a-half) to get them there. While the country is getting better, it's still pretty hairy over there security-wise as well. -We, of course, are not stealing Iraq's oil, but paying fair market value for it. It's called doing the right thing, something L-cubed maniacs in the street waiving signs about the brave "Iraqi resistance" wouldn't know about. -Instability in other places, such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela, are all coming together to make investors and crude buyers pretty jittery. It is a tense world out there folks, and that means it's a sellers' market. OPEC knows this, of course, and their doing everything they can to exaggerate and exacerbate the problems and beef up their profit margins. -Demand is very high at this time as well. It will probably get worse before it gets better. Prices will max out this summer, and then, hopefully go down steadily as more oil makes it out of Iraq and the situations in at least a few of the troubled nations settle down and demand levels off. I can tell you this though, I'd be willing to bet that oil prices and gasoline prices are part of what's keeping the job market down and restricting economic growth at this time. A lot of businesses are spending gobs of money on fuel resources, money they would much rather be spending growing their businesses. For the economy to grow in a big way, gas prices must be reasonable, not dirt cheap, but reasonably low (as in somewhere between $1.15 and $1.55 per gallon, national average). We'll see how it goes. But this summer might be rough.
Gasoline is the life's blood of the world's economy. For those who don't believe that, look at the way fuel prices affect everything else. For example, this week a loaf of bread may cost $1.00. But that loaf of bread has to be transported to the supermarket from the bakery, doesn't it? So if the price of the fuel needed to transport that loaf of bread from bakery to supermarket goes up, the cost is going to be passed on to the consumer of the bread. So next week, you may pay $1.03 for that same loaf of bread. It's a simplistic explanation, but you get my point. Your original contention is correct...high fuel prices stifle economic growth.
Steady going up with summer coming. AND, just wait until the mandated reformulated gasoline hits the BR area. Add another 8 to 10 cents per gallon. LDEQ is trying to get EPA to give an extension, but I don't think it will happen. Get ready to fork it over. I drive to Westwego 2 days a week. Its taking its toll.
Lundberg said gas prices have risen 25 cents per gallon since late December as the price of oil has increased and a recovering U.S. economy has boosted demand. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced three weeks ago that it would cut production by 1 million barrels per day -- about 4 percent -- starting April 1. But oil ministers say that decision could be changed when OPEC meets March 31. Crude oil was selling for more than $36 per barrel on February 27, the day of the latest survey, Lundberg said. Also exerting pressure on prices is the fact that refiners have been required since January 1 to reduce the amount of sulfur in the gasoline they produce. http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/02/29/gasoline.prices/index.html
I work out of my house, my wife commutes 5 miles round trip and my son goes to school 6 miles away and I still pay 60 bucks a week for gasoline.
