Anyone else find it humorous that gas prices are once again falling just before the election??? Do the republicans REALLY think we're that stupid? Do they REALLY think we'll forget the last 8 years all because the prices are low for ONE MONTH?! (Here in Ohio it's down to 2.92/gallon)

I hate this pathetic toying with prices (which only proves they don't need to be so high in the first place) even more than all the smear campaigning going on right now.

 

To be fair, prices are falling over the pond here in the UK too, so it's a genuine market-driven price fall rather than politically motivated if you ask me.

 

I know that it may seem like the election is the cause, but this time it is not. The crash of the rich on Wall Street, the fall of the commodities market, and the hedge fund, is the driving force this time.. A lot of greedy people got caught on this, Not just the oil companys.. Oh sure the oil companys kept buying the comoddities, to keep the price up. but when there was a mass exudus from the commodities market the oil went down below the 100 dollar a barrel very quickly.. The poor economy will bring it down even further..

 

YEA!!!!! Gas prices have fallen! Related to the 'per barrel' price, gas SHOULD be at about $2.48 a gallon! (oops! HERE it is still $3.39 a gallon!) Discrepancy???? Of course!

People see relief in falling gas prices, but the oil COMPANIES are holding on to their .75 to .80 in EXTRA PROFITS per gallon that THEY tacked on, taking advantage of the rise in the per barrel prices in the Middle East.

 

Gas closed yesterday around $80 per barrel, I never thought I'd see that again...
Here, we still haven't seen gas under $3 a gallon...I'm waiting!!!

 

im waiting too...but alas im sure we will have to keep waiting the gas companies will do everything in their power to see that the prices do not drop that low.

 

I was thinking gas prices, but I meant oil closed around $80...
I'm hopeful that I'll see under three dollars a gallon!!!

 

Gas prices and a barrel of oil.

Right now in my opinion gas should be about $2.05 a gallon because the price of the barrel has fallen to $86.00.

 

Not quite THAT low, and it also depends on where you are located geographically and what the particular state taxes on gasoline are. In the U.S., prices can normally vary as much as 25 to 30 cents. Even at that, the price of gas right now should be between about $2.40 and $2.60 a gallon.

 

It fell below $80 yesterday, I hope it stays that way for awhile...I feel sorry for people who have to heat their homes this winter...

Light Crude (NYM)
November 08 ($US per bbl.)77.70-8.8981.3580.9077.70

 

I really don't believe this is politically driven at all. It's a pleasant surprise, to be sure, but as RP has said, prices aren't nearly as low around my area as some of you have cited.

I won't hold my breath, but I can hope and I can dream.

 

It's 2.69/gallon right now here.

Heh.

 

Bastard.

 

This is great news to me. I fill my service truck up every other day. It`s still around $3.00 Here in austin.

 

https://www.cincygasprices.com/index.aspx?&area=Hamilton&area=Indian Springs

I fully agree. I think it's mostly due to the economy bottoming out. But (if you recall) the prices did drop significantly a month before the 2004 elections. I think it's a combination of both.

And those who are quoting $2 to $2.50 are right. When gas was on it's way UP those are the prices we saw at $80/barrel. Now, on the down swing the prices are VERY slow to adjust. HMMMMMMM.

 

Bush did it !

Blame him.

$4 per gallon or $3 per gallon.

It's still his fault.

Baaaaad President.

It's always his fault. Not Wall Street's....

 

That is for a very good reason, it is much easier to raise the price than to lower it, it takes much more effort that is why it is so SLOW going down.

 

Now we should all take a minute here to have a bitter little laugh over the irony of the falling price of oil. This may be the first time in 30 or 40 years that the world oil monopoly has gotten caught with their pants down around their ankles and its damn funny.

Allow me to tell you what happened. You all probably know most of it already but let's recap shall we because there is/was a brand new player in the oil game and when it was all said and done they all got their asses burned off.

Actually I can only speak about the US oil companies, but most of what I'm saying can be applied world wide. First there never was an oil shortage or an energy shortage. Some of you may be old enough to remember hearing about one back in the 1970's but I can personally assure you that was the greatest con job ever played on the American Public. There was supposed to be an OPEC/Arab oil embargo. That didn't last two weeks but was a real handy excuse for blaming everything on the Arabs. What really happened was the US congress said NO to the Alaskan Pipeline the first time around and the major oil companies created an artificial shortage to get their way with congress and to avoid the windfall profits taxes.

I know this because I was breaking out in the oilfield right then and I would watch the news with lines of cars stretching for miles waiting for gas, there was even rationing. Then my driller would pick me up to go to the drilling rig and there would literally be crude oil flowing over the tops of storage tanks. Meanwhile another buddy of mine working for Amaco was working 10 hours a day, seven days a week, cleaning, patching and repairing storage tanks that had not been used in 25 years just to hide and horde oil.

I bring that up because that is when the major oil companies moved into the power position and monopoly they have enjoyed for close to 40 years. And they have not only managed to be able to manipulate both the supply and price of oil and fuels they did something much more important. They also controlled our government and the debate which is why when even back then it was clear the oil would be in shorter and shorter supplies and eventually run out, we never advanced to alternative fuels even though almost everything we have now such as biofuels, solar and wind power were available for development back then.

But this year a new player joined the game and threw a wrench into the cozy monopoly enjoyed by the oil monopoly and OPEC. Enter the stock market futures market speculator. What was so unique about the speculator is they took control of the price of oil out of the hands of OPEC and the monopoly and ran with it. I saw the OP mention all the phony excuses that were given for the rise in the prices of oil, but as we can see now, the same things are happening and worse and there is no corresponding price increases. Hurricane Ike actually did do some production damage. Venezuela is in turmoil and there are threats to bomb Iran. Nigeria is on the brink of all out civil war and oil facilities are being targeted there as well as other places yet oil is going down, down down.

There are three reasons for that. First oil has never followed supply and demand. It is an essential monopolized commodity and they can usually set any price they want for it. Second, Wall Street is crashing and people are pulling their money out of stocks and futures markets which was what drove the price of oil to record highs this year. But third and most enjoyable of all the oil companies are caught with their pants down with an over supply of both crude oil and refined fuels especially gasoline which has a short life span before it begins to degrade.

If you listened closely this last summer and especially if you listened to OPEC they said over and over again that supply was adequate to high. But the price just kept going up. So they reacted by increasing production even more which at this point has flooded the market. At the same time American consumers could not afford or were not willing to pay more than $4 per gallon for gasoline so they cut back and reduced consumption far more than anyone had ever anticipated. That backed up the refineries with over stocked, degradable product, so they quit taking new orders for crude oil and now the crude oil is backing up into the global system with no where to go.

This is rather unprecedented and we should enjoy it and get a good laugh while we can. Once the oversupply of gasoline and crude oil is corrected you can expect to see oil begin to climb again and reach new record high prices. Its got to. Oil is not dead yet but its dying. Anyone can see it is a finite resource and production actually peaked back in the 1970's. Now we are beginning to scrape the bottom of the oil barrel at a time when consumption especially by countires line China and India are going up.

Let me give you a good example of what I am talking about. We here in the US have heard a lot, especially from presidential candidate John McCain and his running mate Sara Palin about the need to drill off shore and in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge to make the US energy independent. Here's what they are not telling anybody. If we started drilling in all the estimated reserves in ANWR and Off Shore today there would not be a significant increase in oil production for eight to ten years. And if we relied solely on those ESTIMATED reserves at our current rate of consumption they would not last more than three years.

Is it any wonder the oil companies are now "Energy" Companies branching out into solar and wind energy as well as biofuels. You didn't think the oil companies would give up their monopoly just because they ran out of oil did you?

 

Gas in Cleveland Ohio is $2.79!!!!

 

$3.09 for gas in my area. im so happy i can actually start getting ready to drive all over the place for no reason again. :excited: