NationStates Jolt Archive

Are we getting Gouged or is the supply and demand that bad?

Comments?

Are we getting Gouged or is the supply and demand that bad?

Comments?

It bit of both I think. Supply of crude oil isn't the problem, it's the supply of the refined petroleum. The US failed to build more refining capacity for a while because petrol companies are tight fisted scum as we all know.

Rubbish, the environazis stopped refinery projects.

Rubbish, the environazis stopped refinery projects.

That's what they want you to believe, hook line and sinker.

I live in NJ, a state who's turnpike is just chock full of oil refineries. Something doesn't add up here....

You have unbeliviably cheap gas, quit moaning.

You have unbeliviably cheap gas, quit moaning.

I live in Australia. We had a summit about petrol prices where everyone attended except the petrol companies. Shows how contemptuous the petrol companies are.

You have unbeliviably cheap gas, quit moaning.
Cheap is a relative term in terms of gas nowadays....

Cheap is a relative term in terms of gas nowadays....

Relative to everyone else then

More input please.

If you mean price gouging in the specific definition of the term then no, there are multiple refining companies and retail distributors, if they all advertise the same high price then technically price gouging is not occuring.

However, if you mean it in a more general sense, that the retailers and refineries are incorrectly pricing gas due to overestimation of the retraction of the supply of refined gas due, for example, to this destructive hurricane season... Yes it is possible that individual firms are mistakenly over-pricing. Eventually, they will get the price right but a few weeks of panic don't equate to a concentrated effort to screw over the consumer.

doesn't everyone else have more expensive gas than us (US) anyway? :confused:

doesn't everyone else have more expensive gas than us (US) anyway? :confused:

Current US gasprices are 1/3rd of those in many other western countries, including Germany and Britain. Most European countries do have a hefty tax on it, which accounts for part of this huge difference - but even when taking that into account the prices are still insanely low.

Who cares?

Walking, taking the bus, or hitchhiking are all very inexpensive and don't take all that much longer than driving a car...

That's what I do.

You have unbeliviably cheap gas, quit moaning.
As compared to outside countries, but that is entirely irrelevant if you want to have discussion about price gouging in the United States. This is not a what country has the highest gas prices discussion, it is a discussion about what gas prices are doing inside the United States.

As compared to outside countries, but that is entirely irrelevant if you want to have discussion about price gouging in the United States. This is not a what country has the highest gas prices discussion, it is a discussion about what gas prices are doing inside the United States.
Americans have it coming… they have all this luxury and yet they bitch and moan at the slightest inconvenience...

The bottleneck is definately in refining. One must remember that the bulk of domestic oil consumption is in power generation not fuel. Simple answer? Deregulate the power industry. Make stable nuke plants economically viable and they will get built. Without the demand in power genration for oil the oil industry will have to increace their refining operations to survive.

And ah pencil? We have it because we earned it. If you look around the wirld at the nations that are realizing the same prosperity they earned it by selling to the American market. If we had'nt prospered neither would any of the NICs that are now modern liberal democracies....

As compared to outside countries, but that is entirely irrelevant if you want to have discussion about price gouging in the United States. This is not a what country has the highest gas prices discussion, it is a discussion about what gas prices are doing inside the United States.

Of course the prices in other countries are relevant - one can for instance wonder why the prices are so much lower in the US. If it turns out that gassellers have been selling gas at a loss or barely above cost for the past decade or so, the question becomes who has been gouging who: the seller or the buyer.