Gas prices

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

Gas going from $6 to $5 is being touted as being the result of Biden's amazing stewardship of the U.S. economy.  Now if Joe could replicate these prices then I would give him a tip of my hat.

 

[El Chapo]

Where did you get the idea that the president was any kind of "steward" of the economy?

[Blackwater 53393]

Fraud!!  They jack up the price of something to nearly double its former level, punish the public with the new price, then knock off a little and expect us to heap praise on them!!

 

They’re no less bastards than they were before they raised the price and now that they have you conditioned to the new level of discomfort, they think you should thank them!!

 

As my buddy, Forty Rod says, “SCROOM!!”

[Chantry]

Read an article somewhere online in the past week or so that said the reason gas prices have dropped is because demand has dropped.  They also said that the reason demand has dropped is more people are finding ways to avoid using gas, such as cancelling road trip vacations, working from home and more online shopping.

 

It'll be interesting to see if gas prices start going back up in the fall as kids go back to school and the gas companies switch back to "winter" gas.

 

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15339380/the-vapor-rub-summer-versus-winter-gasoline-explained/

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

29 minutes ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

Fraud!!  They jack up the price of something to nearly double its former level, punish the public with the new price, then knock off a little and expect us to heap praise on them!!

 

They’re no less bastards than they were before they raised the price and now that they have you conditioned to the new level of discomfort, they think you should thank them!!

 

As my buddy, Forty Rod says, “SCROOM!!”

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

Basic Marxist theology.  Two steps forward, one step back.

[Waxahachie Kid #17017 L]

The price of gasoline is down, because demand is down. Demand is down, because of the high price of fuel, which factors out to the high price of groceries, and everything else. It may seem like the price is down, and will continue to drop, but this is just a lull in the process. Around here, we have a severe drought. Diesel, and gasoline is expensive. Feed is expensive. Ranchers are selling off their herds, because of this, and meat prices are going through the roof, pretty soon, as is milk, and butter.

Fuel, drought, expensive feed, expensive or no fertilizer, and the ranchers/farmers can't produce as much, or at all. Many are selling their land, since they can't make a living on it, and guess who is buying up the land. The Chinese!!!

Costs to get goods and services, from point A to point B, are getting more expensive, not less expensive. 

As I said, this is a short lull in the process. It will get worse. When the idiots in Washington cut off the spigots of fossil fuels, it first gets expensive, and then it gets in short supply. That is coming up too. Gas shortages. 

We all dang well better do our part, in correcting this, and getting this country back on the right path. 

That means look at the problems and vote for the candidate that you believe will do his/her part in correcting this. We have but a short window of opportunity to act, to turn this mess around. We can't stand another two and half years of going in the wrong direction. Just look how bad it has gotten in just 18 months!!!! 

Get Er Done!

 

[Gateway Kid SASS# 70038 Life]

Here in Western Colorado, the day before pudding head's inauguration gas was $1.699 for regular unleaded (85 octane). It peaked on July 3rd at $5.199, an increase of $3.50. (200%+)

Today as I drove by the Maverick it was $4.199, down a dollar from the peak but still $2.50 more than he inherited, (about 140% more than he started with). According to all reading I can find that drop has everything to do with people giving up vacations and reducing personal mileage and the exorbitant price of fuel making everything so expensive it has become a choice between food or a movie, medications or clothing, school tuition or gasoline.

He gets no credit for the economy because he deserves none.

My personal driving habits have changed dramatically. I do not attend shoots more than about 50 miles away. I go grocery shopping once every 17 days getting more or less the same things and rather than picking up "fill in" groceries such as fresh veggies and milk occasionally we make do without. And those groceries cost on average about 60% more than they did before this ...... in the white house came into power. I have abandoned buying local and surf the web for just about everything because the cost of driving to the store adds 8-10 bucks to the higher cost that they have to charge.. Sorry small business (did the small business thing for 16 1/2 years myself but another leftist community organizer ran us into the ground with regulations, high fuel, shortages of product etc sound familiar) but I am stretching my limited funds as much as I can. Power and water usage down more than 45% (we now use fans on summers 100 degree + days rather than a/c. Yet our utility bills are up 25%. Our plants and garden look like a desert (tomatoes are gone to dust), have already harvested the minimal root crops, the only things left are herbs.

9% inflation my rear (a record), Colorado governor says we are running about 14.1% and that is suspect.

Sorry to rant but the goals of this ....... in the white house are not the interests of the country he swore an oath to serve and protect but rather to please his puppet masters on the liberal world front.

Regards

   

Gateway Kid

 

[Dusty Devil Dale]

3 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

Fraud!!  They jack up the price of something to nearly double its former level, punish the public with the new price, then knock off a little and expect us to heap praise on them!!

 

They’re no less bastards than they were before they raised the price and now that they have you conditioned to the new level of discomfort, they think you should thank them!!

 

As my buddy, Forty Rod says, “SCROOM!!”

Actually they think their deception will get us not just to thank them, but also vote for them in November.  Everything their party does has deception at its core, elections included.  And their complicit media will hammer their fake story home with all the confused sheep.  Sad!

[Pat Riot]

[Buckshot Bob]

4 hours ago, Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933 said:

Gas going from $6 to $5 is being touted as being the result of Biden's amazing stewardship of the U.S. economy.  Now if Joe could replicate these prices then I would give him a tip of my hat.

 

Funny how they said they had no control of it when it went from $1.80 to $5 where I live, but as soon as it comes back down a little and they want credit.

I’ll be impressed when Brandon gets gas below what it was when the evil orange man was in office 

[Cliff Hanger #3720LR]

The gas price lowering is nothing more than Bribe to get votes in the mid term election.

[Rye Miles #13621]

Oh quit complaining and just buy an electric car! Problem solved according to Petey Boy !

[Buckshot Bob]

1 hour ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

Oh quit complaining and just buy an electric car! Problem solved according to Petey Boy !

[Pat Riot]

I found it interesting that with even more burden on the power grids of CA that “rolling blackouts” weren’t as prevalent in the last 3 years I was there as they had been earlier in the 2010’s. It made me wonder if the blackouts were more political control than anything else. 

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

16 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

Fraud!!  They jack up the price of something to nearly double its former level, punish the public with the new price, then knock off a little and expect us to heap praise on them!!

 

They’re no less bastards than they were before they raised the price and now that they have you conditioned to the new level of discomfort, they think you should thank them!!

 

As my buddy, Forty Rod says, “SCROOM!!”

If you really want to get an idea of how big the rip off is, just compare the cost of crude on the free market in relation to our price at the pump over the past year. You'll get the idea real quick....the oil companies (including the retailers) are just a bunch of greedy bastards. I havn't counted, but I think there are probably 30+ retailers in and around our town and they all charge exactly the same retail price. You can't tell me that every one of the as the same overhead and profit margin.

 

Rant over!

[Blackwater 53393]

Taking a different perspective on the current price situation, I think perhaps the Biden criminal cartel hopes to cripple the American petroleum industry for its own self serving interests.  The oil companies want to cripple Lyin’ Joe and the gangsters who run and support him!

 

Walter cuts the drilling and exploration leases, so the oil companies have to buy more foreign oil and they jack up the prices in response.

 

The oil companies cause our donkey riding, (no offense intended toward any actual donkies out there) idiots to look bad and lose ground in the polls by contributing to the terrible inflation numbers. 
 

The head dumbass chastises the petroleum interests who, responding to decreases in sales and thus losing  revenue,  lower prices to stimulate buying.

 

Big oil hasn’t caved to Ol’ Sniffy!  They just moved to sell more product!!  
 

BUT!!  The spin masters at Lyin’ Joe Central try to present the price decrease as “We’re leading the way to a better economy!”

 

Just a slightly different view of things as they are!!

 

 

[El Chapo]

17 hours ago, Chantry said:

Read an article somewhere online in the past week or so that said the reason gas prices have dropped is because demand has dropped.  They also said that the reason demand has dropped is more people are finding ways to avoid using gas, such as cancelling road trip vacations, working from home and more online shopping.

 

The availability of substitutes is a major factor in determining what is called the "price elasticity of demand."  Especially in the very short run, it is hard to adjust one's life to high gas prices.  But in the medium and long term, we all have at least some choices to reduce what we spend, and why wouldn't we do it?  I love road trip vacations with my camper, but this year, we rented an Airbnb and took a smaller car for one of ours to avoid the high diesel costs.  Take that, oil companies!

 

 

38 minutes ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

Taking a different perspective on the current price situation, I think perhaps the Biden criminal cartel hopes to cripple the American petroleum industry for its own self serving interests.  The oil companies want to cripple Lyin’ Joe and the gangsters who run and support him!

 

...

Just a slightly different view of things as they are!!

 

This would be a great time for you to learn about Occam's Razor, the idea that a simpler explanation is more likely to be correct in circumstances such as these.

 

Oil is a worldwide market, bought and sold by billions of human beings.  The "price" represents an interaction between literally billions of transactions that occur 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, buying and selling a product that most of the world uses.

 

Your proposal, that one person and his cronies are engaged in a successful worldwide conspiracy to manipulate oil prices for personal gain, requires a great number of people, at their own detriment, to go along with this idea so that an American president can benefit.

 

A simpler answer is that the people of the world, many of which don't even know Biden's name, have shown through their consumption that the market value of oil is where it is today because of their preferences and the ability of oil to be supplied by companies to the market through their business operations, in other words, that the "price" reflects an interaction of buyers and sellers in a very competitive, but not perfectly competitive, market.

 

I would suggest that if what you think requires there to be some vast conspiracy, where a bunch of people do things against their best interest in order to support a President that they don't even know or stand to benefit from his decisions, that what you think is not likely to be correct. 

 

I would also suggest that if you personally know any of those people, who are hoarding oil or selling it below market value, that you buy it!  Because if someone is willing to sell you something for less than it's worth, that is a great opportunity for you to engage in some entrepreneurship!

 

The reality, which I've been implying through both of my posts in this thread, is that the President has very little influence over oil prices, and in an ideal world, he would have none.  We should all seek to create a world where the President has as much control over the price of a critical commodity like oil as he does over whether it rains or snows.  Markets may not be perfect, but they are the greatest tool for cooperation in the history of mankind.  We should be doing everything we can to support markets and not politicians when it comes to critically important things like who gets the oil mined from the ground that we all desire.

[Sixgun Sheridan]

Gas is still $4.85 locally. That's hardly cause for celebration.

 

I do expect a significant drop in October however, just in time for the election.

[Cypress Sun]

1 hour ago, El Chapo said:

 

The availability of substitutes is a major factor in determining what is called the "price elasticity of demand."  Especially in the very short run, it is hard to adjust one's life to high gas prices.  But in the medium and long term, we all have at least some choices to reduce what we spend, and why wouldn't we do it?  I love road trip vacations with my camper, but this year, we rented an Airbnb and took a smaller car for one of ours to avoid the high diesel costs.  Take that, oil companies!

 

 

 

This would be a great time for you to learn about Occam's Razor, the idea that a simpler explanation is more likely to be correct in circumstances such as these.

 

Oil is a worldwide market, bought and sold by billions of human beings.  The "price" represents an interaction between literally billions of transactions that occur 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, buying and selling a product that most of the world uses.

 

Your proposal, that one person and his cronies are engaged in a successful worldwide conspiracy to manipulate oil prices for personal gain, requires a great number of people, at their own detriment, to go along with this idea so that an American president can benefit.

 

A simpler answer is that the people of the world, many of which don't even know Biden's name, have shown through their consumption that the market value of oil is where it is today because of their preferences and the ability of oil to be supplied by companies to the market through their business operations, in other words, that the "price" reflects an interaction of buyers and sellers in a very competitive, but not perfectly competitive, market.

 

I would suggest that if what you think requires there to be some vast conspiracy, where a bunch of people do things against their best interest in order to support a President that they don't even know or stand to benefit from his decisions, that what you think is not likely to be correct. 

 

I would also suggest that if you personally know any of those people, who are hoarding oil or selling it below market value, that you buy it!  Because if someone is willing to sell you something for less than it's worth, that is a great opportunity for you to engage in some entrepreneurship!

 

The reality, which I've been implying through both of my posts in this thread, is that the President has very little influence over oil prices, and in an ideal world, he would have none.  We should all seek to create a world where the President has as much control over the price of a critical commodity like oil as he does over whether it rains or snows.  Markets may not be perfect, but they are the greatest tool for cooperation in the history of mankind.  We should be doing everything we can to support markets and not politicians when it comes to critically important things like who gets the oil mined from the ground that we all desire.

 

Seriously?

[Blackwater 53393]

2 hours ago, El Chapo said:

 

The availability of substitutes is a major factor in determining what is called the "price elasticity of demand."  Especially in the very short run, it is hard to adjust one's life to high gas prices.  But in the medium and long term, we all have at least some choices to reduce what we spend, and why wouldn't we do it?  I love road trip vacations with my camper, but this year, we rented an Airbnb and took a smaller car for one of ours to avoid the high diesel costs.  Take that, oil companies!

 

 

 

This would be a great time for you to learn about Occam's Razor, the idea that a simpler explanation is more likely to be correct in circumstances such as these.

 

Oil is a worldwide market, bought and sold by billions of human beings.  The "price" represents an interaction between literally billions of transactions that occur 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, buying and selling a product that most of the world uses.

 

Your proposal, that one person and his cronies are engaged in a successful worldwide conspiracy to manipulate oil prices for personal gain, requires a great number of people, at their own detriment, to go along with this idea so that an American president can benefit.

 

A simpler answer is that the people of the world, many of which don't even know Biden's name, have shown through their consumption that the market value of oil is where it is today because of their preferences and the ability of oil to be supplied by companies to the market through their business operations, in other words, that the "price" reflects an interaction of buyers and sellers in a very competitive, but not perfectly competitive, market.

 

I would suggest that if what you think requires there to be some vast conspiracy, where a bunch of people do things against their best interest in order to support a President that they don't even know or stand to benefit from his decisions, that what you think is not likely to be correct. 

 

I would also suggest that if you personally know any of those people, who are hoarding oil or selling it below market value, that you buy it!  Because if someone is willing to sell you something for less than it's worth, that is a great opportunity for you to engage in some entrepreneurship!

 

The reality, which I've been implying through both of my posts in this thread, is that the President has very little influence over oil prices, and in an ideal world, he would have none.  We should all seek to create a world where the President has as much control over the price of a critical commodity like oil as he does over whether it rains or snows.  Markets may not be perfect, but they are the greatest tool for cooperation in the history of mankind.  We should be doing everything we can to support markets and not politicians when it comes to critically important things like who gets the oil mined from the ground that we all desire.

When one person can arbitrarily shut down the oil leases in the Northern Alaskan region or arbitrarily shut down construction and use of a pipeline project, that person can ABSOLUTELY influence the world wide price of oil!! The president is just that person!!

 

Almost immediately after these two events took place, the price of crude oil and thus the prices of fuels rose drastically!!

 

For this to happen required almost NO conspiracy whatsoever!  That’s not to say that no conspiracy exists! It merely sets aside your supposition that some huge conspiracy has or had to.

 

We, (the US) had become relatively independent of the international oil market before the current administration took over.  Almost immediately, moves were made by that new administration, upon their assumption of power, to remove that independence! 
 

Since there are no suitable substitutes for fossil fuels (petroleum) available, we’re forced to buy product from outside sources in order to function even minimally. That causes those foreign vendors to raise their prices because of demand.

 

If you’re looking for elements to promote conspiracy, consider that an entire industry depends on the scarcity and higher price of petroleum products to enhance the possible demand of their own products!!  The “renewable energy” industry and the electric vehicle industry are directly dependent on oil prices being high! 
 

There are people in congress and in this administration who, A: want the petroleum industry to just go away, and or B: have a vested interest in the aforementioned “alternative” industries. These people could easily carry off the sort of conspiracy you so easily dismiss!

 

It doesn’t get any more simple!!

 

 

[PowderRiverCowboy]

8 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

Oh quit complaining and just buy an electric car! Problem solved according to Petey Boy !

 

Until you find out all most of the coal mines in Wyoming have shut down in the last year or are slated to 

 

 But if its Putins fault they went up then guess he deserves the credit for the current lower price

[Sixgun Sheridan]

26 minutes ago, PowerRiverCowboy said:

 But if its Putins fault they went up then guess he deserves the credit for the current lower price

 

Since he's losing his ass in Ukraine, probably.

[PowderRiverCowboy]

4 minutes ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

 

Since he's losing his ass in Ukraine, probably.

 I am not will not even going to touch that , Lets just say I dont support the current thing. 

[Sixgun Sheridan]

There was a news article recently that revealed Big Oil's profits absolutely soared this year, so they can't say they were simply passing higher production costs along to the consumer.

[Buckshot Bob]

6 minutes ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

There was a news article recently that revealed Big Oil's profits absolutely soared this year, so they can't say they were simply passing higher production costs along to the consumer.

They are a for profit company, and they are going to make hay when they can . So they are fulfilling their obligation to their shareholders. So I know what to expect of them . On the other hand the government is supposed to be putting policies in place that are in the best interest of the American citizens. Not just the permanent political class . 

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

At present, contrary to some "theories" the current prices of fossil fuels have nothing to do with actual or imagined politics.  It comes down to one simple truth.  BIG OIL is scamming us all.  Using excuses to justify Record Level profit taking.  There are no conspiracies except those of BIG OIL.

[Rip Snorter]

Deal is, we're all supposed to believe all the Green Crap (no prediction I can find has come true down the decades, Silent Spring through Gore and on to the present ).  The truth is they can't "'fuel" all those green cars they want us to buy and maintain the reliable electricity based lives we've enjoyed. BTW, the batteries in those cars are toxic to produce, will need to be replaced, and somehow recycled! I see very long coal trains filled with what I think of as green car fuel rolling through Montana and out of Montana mines.  In re: the oil Bidness look at what the regime has done on leases and regulation, the Pipeline, and most gratuitous, selling strategic oil reserves to a potential foe.  Absolutely unimaginable - in past years they got rich on less obvious graft. A week ago, $100 to fill one saddle tank on the pickup.  Today $4.999 gallon to fill the road car.  If you don't have one, get a good generator, dark days coming otherwise!  

[Dirty Dog Doug]

my friend sent to me 2 years ago

[Buckshot Bob]

2 minutes ago, Dirty Dog Doug said:

my friend sent to me 2 years ago

Post that on Fb and it’ll get fact checked , they will say somehow it’s out of context and misleading 

[Rip Snorter]

Just now, Buckshot Bob said:

Post that on Fb and it’ll get fact checked , they will say somehow it’s out of context and misleading 

I guess there might be a reason to post on Fakebook, but my memory must be finally failing. Can't think of a single one.

[Dirty Dog Doug]

that is why I never do fakeboook 10 years ago I drove pass face book for2 years 

[Buckshot Bob]

21 minutes ago, Rip Snorter said:

I guess there might be a reason to post on Fakebook, but my memory must be finally failing. Can't think of a single one.

I actually enjoy posting things they don’t like , but they have shut down a couple of my accounts. But you can just start another one .

During the the Rittenhouse trial I shared a meme with a picture of Rittenhouse scrubbing graffiti off of a building that was put there during the blm riots. It said be a Kyle don’t be a Gorge . 
Fb said I was sharing post of a known terrorist or terrorist organization and permanently locked my account. Ever  since then I take great pleasure in sharing information they are trying to suppress 

[Chuck Steak]

I went from spending 1.69 a day on cowboy shooting to spending almost 6 dollars a day on cowboy shooting...

...then I dropped down to only spending 4 dollars a day on cowboy shooting and still cant figure out why my wife still isnt happy

[El Chapo]

21 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

When one person can arbitrarily shut down the oil leases in the Northern Alaskan region or arbitrarily shut down construction and use of a pipeline project, that person can ABSOLUTELY influence the world wide price of oil!! The president is just that person!!

 

Almost immediately after these two events took place, the price of crude oil and thus the prices of fuels rose drastically!!

 

For this to happen required almost NO conspiracy whatsoever!  That’s not to say that no conspiracy exists! It merely sets aside your supposition that some huge conspiracy has or had to.

 

We, (the US) had become relatively independent of the international oil market before the current administration took over.  Almost immediately, moves were made by that new administration, upon their assumption of power, to remove that independence! 
 

Since there are no suitable substitutes for fossil fuels (petroleum) available, we’re forced to buy product from outside sources in order to function even minimally. That causes those foreign vendors to raise their prices because of demand.

 

If you’re looking for elements to promote conspiracy, consider that an entire industry depends on the scarcity and higher price of petroleum products to enhance the possible demand of their own products!!  The “renewable energy” industry and the electric vehicle industry are directly dependent on oil prices being high! 
 

There are people in congress and in this administration who, A: want the petroleum industry to just go away, and or B: have a vested interest in the aforementioned “alternative” industries. These people could easily carry off the sort of conspiracy you so easily dismiss!

 

It doesn’t get any more simple!!

 

I don't know where you got the idea that I ever said that the President couldn't "influence" the price of oil.  The President's broad powers under the commander in chief clause alone could cause drastic changes in oil prices.  But that doesn't support your claim that the "Biden criminal cartel hopes to cripple the American petroleum industry for its own self serving interests."  The point is that you give the President way too much credit.  The amount of oil bought and sold on a daily basis is such that no single person, not even the President of the United States, has the kind of control over the world oil market you're suggesting, unless that person initiates a worldwide war or something.  The oil market is just too big and too competitive for that to be the case.  Even the oil reserves we keep can only influence the world oil price so much and for so long.  It's not a perfectly competitive market, but it is a very large market, and so any deliberate manipulation eventually is just a drop in the ocean.

 

It is a myth that the US was somehow "independent" of the international oil market.  Even if we didn't import vast amounts of oil, there are billions of people buying and selling oil on a daily basis in our world.  We would still be subject to market forces even if we didn't import anything.  That said, there's an additional problem with that point of view that most people don't realize--we import oil because much of our oil is actually better than our refineries need, and it's more economical for us to import cheap crude and sell our high quality crude on the world market.  This is a good thing in that we get to extract profit by buying cheaper oil and selling the more expensive product.  But it also undermines your position that we are or even would want to become independent of the world market for oil.  We'd be leaving $$$ on the table to do that (which is pretty much true for all areas of international trade anyway).

 

It is also absolutely wrong that there are no substitutes that compete with oil.  Even putting aside the electric car debate (much of which comes from burning something to create electricity anyway, among other serious technological disadvantages that will not soon be solved), natural gas, ethanol, biodiesel, and propane alone are obvious examples that compete with gasoline and diesel.  Things need not be "perfect" substitutes to have significant effects on the market price for fuels.  Biodiesel is superior to petro diesel in a lot of ways.  I would love to have vast stockpiles of it at $2 a gallon.  There's also a market dynamics thing you must not be considering here.  If diesel was $1 a gallon, I'm not sure that anyone would seriously consider making biodiesel (other than for the lubricity benefits it provides).  But at $6 a gallon, there is a ton of incentive to produce biodiesel, and you can bet that entrepreneurs will be doing it.  The viability of substitutes fluctuates with market prices.  We should all want there to be more of these things--everything that competes with oil makes it harder for oil producing nations to manipulate markets with their stunts.

 

In your world, energy policy might be "simple."  But back in reality, international energy policy is a giant three dimensional chess game with so many players that any of us could never be more than one or two moves ahead.  If I really knew what all of them were going to do tomorrow or next week, I could use that information to become the richest man on earth inside of the next 30 days.  It's far from that simple.  It is incredibly sophisticated and difficult.  It's far more difficult than just spouting off at the mouth about how the President did this or that.  Every time one piece moves, others respond and make their moves, too.  And it is never guaranteed that other players will move in the way that might seem like the easy or obvious move, either.  It's a challenge with no solution, only arguments.  I also think it's a huge mistake to give any President the kind of credit you seem to think he deserves--for good or bad.