It's not the price of gas that is the problem.

[itsallmine]

Maybe alot of you know this, but for those who don't; the price of gas is low, it's the marketing and TAXES that are killing us. Question; If the cause of high gas prices as Herr Bush states is supply and demand, then why was OPEC profit up 44% in the fourth quarter? Yes, I said 44 PERCENT up!! Anyone with an iota of common sense knows that correlation does not lead to causation. Thus, in fine Jimmy Carter style of the 1970's, we are getting the perverbial screwing again. All we need now is vaseline and a kiss. If you are interested in learning more about this for yourself, don't just listen to me- look for yourself at the impact of taxes on the price of gas in YOUR state by clicking the first link. Then look at the sad state of affairs nationally and globally by doing a clicky clicky on the second link. Read it and weep.
http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/gdu/gasdiesel.asp

 

[greasefingers]

What really bothers me is when people try to compare the cost of gasoline against another product. They say,

 

[yabedude]

Maybe alot of you know this, but for those who don't; the price of gas is low, it's the marketing and TAXES that are killing us. Question; If the cause of high gas prices as Herr Bush states is supply and demand, then why was OPEC profit up 44% in the fourth quarter? Yes, I said 44 PERCENT up!! Anyone with an iota of common sense knows that correlation does not lead to causation. Thus, in fine Jimmy Carter style of the 1970's, we are getting the perverbial screwing again. All we need now is vaseline and a kiss. If you are interested in learning more about this for yourself, don't just listen to me- look for yourself at the impact of taxes on the price of gas in YOUR state by clicking the first link. Then look at the sad state of affairs nationally and globally by doing a clicky clicky on the second link. Read it and weep.
http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/gdu/gasdiesel.asp

And your point is?!?

 

[gonzo]

just be glad that opec is the one setting the price of fuel, could you imagine if the price was controlled by u.s. corporations??? then we would really be getting the screw job.

as far as comparisons go, it is a little ironic that the price of a gallon of gas is roughly equivalent to that of a gallon of drinking water available at the local grocery store. imo, people should be complaning about the cost of water!

 

[yabedude]

I beg to differ. OPEC may set the price for refineries to buy, but don't kid yourself on who's setting the price at the pump. It's also not taxes that are driving it up (and down) so radically.

Here in the Vancouver area the price changes frequently each day. I've seen it jump 20 cents in minutes and it's nothing to do with OPEC. No my friend, it's the corporations that are gouging us big time especially these last few months. A couple of days before a long weekend, the price goes up. OPEC? Sunday evening, prices drop. OPEC? Monday morning, the price roars to close to 1.08/litre. OPEC? Our government, which is suppose to be keeping tabs on these bastards, turns a blind eye because their piece of the pie grows as the price goes up.

If it were OPEC then perhaps we would see some uniformity in the price given there were no taxes involved, no?

 

[boston_kevin]

Supply is not the problem... The problem is the refineries. Most have a backlog of weeks for refining gas from the petroleum that is shipped to them. Imagine trying to squeeze a watermelon through a hole the size of a lemon (most of you with kids already know this from your wives). The only difference between this and childbirth is that the hole the size of the lemon cannot change, so we will forever have a backlog at the refineries. OPEC sees no reason to send us more at a cheaper price when we can't keep up with what we have already. Now they can offer partial refinement of the petrol and charge more to help offset the backlog here in the US. The guys running the refineries are the ones with the power, hence the reason to add additional refineries in the US, especially since one blew up last month...

 

[robman]

Taxes are not what sent the price of my gas up 50 cents a gallon for me (25%). Your spreading lies as facts, your own link shows that taxes and marketing make up 27% of the cost and that is down from 45% in Jan 2000.

 

[Hank]

I saw a report on the news stating that the gas companies (corporations) make a net profit of over $2 MILLION AN HOUR!

 

[gonzo]

I beg to differ. OPEC may set the price for refineries to buy, but don't kid yourself on who's setting the price at the pump. It's also not taxes that are driving it up (and down) so radically.

Here in the Vancouver area the price changes frequently each day. I've seen it jump 20 cents in minutes and it's nothing to do with OPEC. No my friend, it's the corporations that are gouging us big time especially these last few months. A couple of days before a long weekend, the price goes up. OPEC? Sunday evening, prices drop. OPEC? Monday morning, the price roars to close to 1.08/litre. OPEC? Our government, which is suppose to be keeping tabs on these bastards, turns a blind eye because their piece of the pie grows as the price goes up.

If it were OPEC then perhaps we would see some uniformity in the price given there were no taxes involved, no?

OPEC sets the price-per-barrel (ppb) through collusion. This is done in such a way as to encourage the highest ppb while attaining the highest rate of compliance.

The varying price you see at the pump is based on open market speculation and can change very rapidly, whether at the NYSE or at TSX. These markets are very efficeint.

Of course things are different from state to state and province to province.

One thing that most people may not know is that pumping stations make very little revenue from the sale of gasoline. most of their revenue comes from other purchases.

as for vancouver - try the gas station on fraser and 41st (i think!), they always seem to be running deals every time i am in town.

 

[runnina]

Two things I know of are,

1. Gas station would not profit from high gas price.

2. Politicians would not benefit from high gas price.

Forget about federal/state fuel tax, I pay it to get good road and bridge.

 

[DaveS]

What is always astounding to me is the way that every gas station moves its prices in lock synch with all the others around it. The gas stations are a cartel, fed by another cartel, OPEC. Unless somebody finds a way of us all switching fuels between gas and an alternative resource and back again when we want to we are at their mercy.

In Ontario we had a similar situation with hydro in which the government intervened to cap prices (so now we effectively pay part of our hydro bill via our taxes instead). Bringing down taxes on gas would have the same effect - price of gas would drop then oil companies would profiteer and push it back up, meanwhile we get a tax bill somewhere else and end up paying twice over...

 

[yabedude]

... as for vancouver - try the gas station on fraser and 41st (i think!), they always seem to be running deals every time i am in town.

Thanks for the suggestion. I think you'll find gas pricing has changed recently and not in our favour. The best deals typically were in the Fraser Valley, but even now they seemed to have dried up.

 

[yabedude]

Forget about federal/state fuel tax, I pay it to get good road and bridge.

In Canada, the federal tax was suppose to be collected and returned to the Provinces for roads and bridges. However, the feds put the funds collected in a general fund and thus provided little, if any, to the Provinces. This left the Provinces to tack their own taxes on at the pump and of course, the Cities also don't get anything from the feds or Province, so they tack their own percentage. Then, our beloved transit authorities want to impress the world in 2010 (Olympics) so we pay still more on top of all that. Bottom line, the transportation system sucks; cars burn expensive gas sitting in lineups at bottle necked bridges; and a new highway may never get completed as it probably crosses native lands and a road block will be coming soon.

 

[00328]

Just think how much a gallon of gas would cost if Senator Kerry had his way. He voted several different times to increase the Fed gas tax by 50 cents a gallon! All politicians suck!

 

[mike1305]

Herr Bush? :twak:

if you don't like him that's cool, but he is our president so you have to at least respect him as such. Shouldn't compare anyone to Hitler IMO.

Here in California half the friggin price is taxes. Emissions, hippies wanting clean air, yada yada yada. Also the immense costs of refining the oil, especially in california where special chemicals are added/removed to conform to the law, jacks the prices up considerably. And the lame thing is that we could drive to the refineries ourselves to get the gas if we wanted. People in kansas are getting gas for under $2/gallon which is basically selling it for cost becuase of the price to ship it out there.

I'm almost sad to have a car again after being without one for 6 weeks. took me $10 to get 3.939 gallons (every hundredth counts)! :zoom:

 

[le34ah56]

today i went and filled up the runner. i put 15.9 gallons in and paid $32.50. and i live on an indian reservation where the gas is supposed to be super cheap!!!!
it was great a couple of years ago when the indians had the "gas wars" as we called it. gas dropped down to $0.82 a gallon. (too bad i wasn't old enough to dirve yet)