Prices of gasoline went down in time for the elections, coinsidence?

Actually, that is only partially true. There has also been extensive pipeline development refinery expansion. It doesn't do you any good to frack well sites and then not be able to transport the oil to oil refineries and refine it. Further, OPEC has been fairly complacent. We have an OPEC meeting three days from now. OPEC, with a few member countries exempted, have not tried to restrict global oil supplies. Instead, Arab states have acted to protect market share which has contributed to lower oil prices and if they maintain that posture, will likely lead to lower oil prices in the future.

 

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Boo--hiss

 

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Twenty Dollars a gallon.

 

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Don't worry. It will continue going up & continue causing other prices to go up. Tho I doubt that makes any significant difference in pollution.

 

Higher prices = less gas burned = less pollution (assuming car emissions controls remain the same.)

 

I don't assume people will use much less due to higher prices.

 

Why not? As prices go up, people place more value on cars that get better mileage. So even if they drive the same amount, over time they use less gas. In addition, history has shown that "optional" travel (i.e. road trips, vacations, faraway restaurants instead of closer ones etc) is curtailed when gas prices rise.

 

Well I was off by 4 months but was right about the gas prices going up and not down. I see that prices today are about 2.50 as compared to 1.90 just 6 months ago. A .60 cent increase in 6 months that's about 30 percent jump and I don't see any other prices that we use coming down at all.

 

Yep. That was an artificially low price; I suspect prices will recover to 2014 levels (around $3.70) within a year or so.

 

What a rigging going on. Those who run the petroleum companies really know how to manipulate prices. What a piece of work they are. Prices today could be as low as they were but like I said they manipulate them to their own means. Rip offs again we are heading for as I see the prices continue to climb now at over 30 percent in 6 months. Has any other good gone up by 30 percent this year....NO. So why only gas?

 

?? You are seeing a market in action. That's how free markets work - they tank when there is a glut of supply and reduced demand, and rise when demand increased and supply drops (or even remains the same.)

Not in a free market. In a socialist economy - maybe. (Of course, in a socialist economy, "as low as they were" would likely be $4/gallon, as they are in much of the EU.)

Because oil has its own market, lately subject to some very disruptive changes (tight oil, Saudi overproduction, rising efficiency standards.)

Of course, the biggest reason it will rise are . . . people. People will say "woohoo! cheap gas! I am buying that SUV after all!" And demand goes up, as do prices.

 

The amount of gas being sold at the lower prices was greater than it was being sold at the higher prices so if your theory of supply and demand is as you say it is then your thinking is askew because we have lower amounts being bought, the same amount being manufactured and the prices are still increasing..

When the prices were lower the oil companies were still making profits and were not going under. I never saw any company complain about selling their gas for less but perhaps you did?

There is no "tight oil" as you say and since you brought that up care to show where you got your numbers from?

 

Nope. As gas has gotten cheaper, more people have bought more of it. We hit the lowest demand in a decade in Jan 2014 (17.9 million gallons a day) due in part to high fuel prices ($3.50/gal.) Now we are on the rise as cheap gas allows people to purchase more. Consumption in Jan 2015 (last month I have data for from the EIA) is 24.1 million gallons a day.

Incorrect. MORE is being manufactured, and the price is increasing. Supply and demand.

Right. Oil was cheaper, so they made a similar profit on gasoline sales.

From EIA:
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Tight oil production pushes U.S. crude supply to over 10% of world total

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Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, March 2014, and tight oil and shale gas production estimates, and Canadian National Energy Board
Republished March 26, 2014, 10:25 a.m., clarification to graph added.

U.S. tight oil production averaged 3.22 million barrels per day (MMbbl/d) in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates. This level was enough to push overall crude oil production in the United States to an average of 7.84 MMbbl/d, more than 10% of total world production, up from 9% in the fourth quarter of 2012. The United States and Canada are the only major producers of tight oil in the world. In recent years, North American producers have developed technologically advanced drilling and completion processes to produce oil from tight formations.
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EIA. See above. Some other links for you:
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=A103600001&f=M
http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/