What's with the high gas prices?

[Saucycarpdog]

I don't get it. People keep saying that its because of the situation in Libya yet when I research a little, we don't get that much oil from Libya. Most of ours come from places like Saudi Arabia and South America.

And now I'm hearing that gas prices might rise to $5 in the summer. I guess I should start fixing up my old bike.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I'm assuming you're American, in which case, you should see what the British have to pay for petrol. Most of us would kill a nun to pay the prices they do in America (cookie for reference).

 

[Verlander]

The situation in Libya makes it more dangerous to transport, and there is conflict all over that area, making it unsafe to work oil.

It is also, on average, a third of the price that it is in the UK, so suck it up, and expect it to go faaaaar higher in the future.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

They've been royally screwing over Canadians with the gas prices for about four years now. America's only just starting to close the gap. In anycase, they don't give excuses here. They know they have us by the balls and they just change the prices whenever they feel like it.

 

[loc978]

The situation in Libya is an excuse. Anything that makes shipping companies and oil companies nervous enough to hold a meeting and discuss security is generally used as an excuse to raise prices. Then, once we're used to the price hike (and the situation is no longer big news), they'll lower the prices a fraction of what they raised 'em, claiming to be doing us all a favor.
This is how the Saudi sheiks got so rich. It's too bad they were smart enough to pull so many strings with western industry... otherwise we'd probably be almost weaned completely off of oil by now...

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

BECAUSE!
All of those jerks in the middle east want freedom! (Joke, I don't think their jerks)

But seriously, with all of the people revolting, It makes getting that oil and refining it a lot trickier, so we have to relly on our stock of it, wich is only about 60% (In the U.S.) The other 40% comes from countries in termoil. That is the only reason we are in the middle east.

 

[FalloutJack]

I dunno, man. I don't drive.

 

[Irridium]

Because the oil companies know they can use current world issues as an excuse to jack up prices when they don't really need to that much. Then when it all passes they lower the price by about a cent or two, and say its all back to normal.

The fucks.

 

[Dags90]

The situation in Libya makes it more dangerous to transport, and there is conflict all over that area, making it unsafe to work oil.

It is also, on average, a third of the price that it is in the UK, so suck it up, and expect it to go faaaaar higher in the future.

Britain also has reasonable public transportation, many parts of the U.S. do not.

As others have said, there's increased risk and demand because of the situation in Libya, so everyone is raising the prices.

 

[manythings]

Yeah seriously, if you live in the USA you have absolutely no reason to complain about how expensive things are, you pay nothing over there. Come to Ireland then you will understand what it means to really pay out.

 

[blankedboy]

There's only so much gas left on the planet, so until we can just suck it straight out of the ozone layer you're just going to have to deal with it.

Although, there are a great deal of electrically and magnetically-powered car designs that the oil companies own and will release once they've run out of oil so that they can keep making money until then. My Chemistry teacher's grandfather came up with one.

 

[EvanJO]

Because it's a wholly speculatory market run by idiots who take any chance they can get to artificially inflate the cost of oil.

The "protests in Libya" have no effect on the United State's access to oil. We actually get ZERO oil from that country, and very little from it's neighbors.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I'm assuming you're American, in which case, you should see what the British have to pay for petrol. Most of us would kill a nun to pay the prices they do in America (cookie for reference).

Yeah, but in Britain in most cities walking or public transportation are actually valid options. Not so much in the US in most cities.

 

[imperialus]

The problems in Libya affect the US because while the US may not get a ton of oil from them other countries like China and India do. If the supply there dries up then China and India start shopping around in other countries that the US does get oil from. This makes the other countries raise their prices ect.

I'll also second the "stop bitching" sentiment. I paid 1.13 per liter the other day here. After a bit of quick conversion math we're sitting at around 4.30 USD per gallon here in Canada.

And in case it isn't painfully obvious, most Canadian cities are just as car dependent as American ones.

 

[Calcium]

1 US. Gallon in the UK would cost $7.80 at the local petrol station. I can't pretend to have much sympathy when someone complains they might have to pay a third less than us.

 

[Raven's Nest]

I'm assuming you're American, in which case, you should see what the British have to pay for petrol. Most of us would kill a nun to pay the prices they do in America (cookie for reference).

Yeah, but in Britain in most cities walking or public transportation are actually valid options. Not so much in the US in most cities.

Except it's not a valid option for some individuals. I drive to college every day which is an hours drive away. There are no buses or trains that could take me there, yet at today's petrol prices, this journey costs me £15 a day... £15 X 4 = £60 a week, totalling £240 a month...

As a student I can only really work 20 hours a week netting me £400 a month. Since I pay rent, a loan and my phone bill. I have literally no money left. And that's forgetting the cost of maintaining and running a car.

So seriously, these petrol prices are fucking ridiculous. Petrol has doubled in price since I started driving 6 years ago... doubled!!

 

[MoNKeyYy]

It's economics. The situation in tunasia started it, and therre was a slight if noticable rise. When egypt was the next to fall that pattern repeated. When the turmoil in Lybia started though, people really started to fear the effects of a chain reaction in an already unstable region. If anyone didn't already know, Syria is supposed to be the next domino to fall. The Saudi King recently put up 32 billion dollars in an effort to appease the poor of his country. These things make investors very scared, and the combined effect of the fear of losing supply and people buying high amounts of the commodity while it's still relatively stable has driven prices way up.

Some people I've noticed have mentioned that the US doesn't get a lot of oil from that region anyways, but other countries do and the inability to get oil from the region leaves them looking for other sources. This creates an imbalance in supply and demand, thus driving the price up.

 

[thylasos]

It's the middle eastern countries being in that tricky stage between "nasty terrorists" and "valuable trade partners", in the public perception. I'm not sure which way military intervention would push it, though. Up, if the first Gulf war's anything to go by.

 

[Verlander]

The situation in Libya makes it more dangerous to transport, and there is conflict all over that area, making it unsafe to work oil.

It is also, on average, a third of the price that it is in the UK, so suck it up, and expect it to go faaaaar higher in the future.

Britain also has reasonable public transportation, many parts of the U.S. do not.

As others have said, there's increased risk and demand because of the situation in Libya, so everyone is raising the prices.

Doesn't change the quantity of fuel left, nor the political situation in that area of the world. The US government should have been planning for this for a long time. Well, in fact they have been, by increasing their presence in the middle east. Hasn't changed anything though.

Fuel will sky rocket, no reasonable alternative will be found, and the smaller countries will begin to thrive more than the bigger ones, purely because of ease of access. The countries that can become fully self dependant fuel wise, will take the global market, which is why China have been hiring all of the Masters in environmental physics graduates, like a lot of my friends America will got he way of Britain, and be no longer relevant on the world scene in a couple of hundred years.