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I agree somewhat on OPEC, however you are wrong about the stations not making much money on gasoline. If they only make a couple pennies per gallon on gas, they wouldn't be in business. Most people don't even go inside to pay for gas anymore, so that rules out the owner making money on snacks. The bottom line is when the "boss" calls the station and tells them to raise the price three times in one hour, they are adjusting their profit. These station owners are in business for a reason. Like I said, if gasoline sales weren't profitable, they wouldn't sell it.
I work at a title company and one of our clients has a slew of gas stations. He's constantly refi'ing, buying and selling the land and businesses. Between THAT and his markets/service stations at the gas stations, thats where he makes his money.
In fact, he sometimes breaks even on gas just to get patrons into his stores and service centers.
Gas is not very profitable at the gas station level. Its the ancillary income from those stations that keep them in business.
I agree somewhat on OPEC, however you are wrong about the stations not making much money on gasoline.
When you consider the energy needed to run the pumps and the money needed to maintain them (and the fines that can result (http://www.khou.com/news/defenders/investigate/stories/khou082108_tnt_gas_pump_fuel_cheating_sunmart.1be4 d159.html - broken link) in not doing so), they really don't.
I agree that we need alternative fuel cars. But you apparently haven't considered that they currently aren't affordable for many Americans or even widely available! It will take a VERY LONG TIME to finesse the technology enough to make the cars affordable enough for average folks to buy and to increase the supply of them.
in 2004, I was third on a waiting list for six months to buy a Toyota Prius and the list never moved. My car bit the dust and I had to buy something else -- a Saab sport wagon that gets very good gas mileage. A few months after buying the Saab, I called the Toyota dealer to see how much the list had moved. They had only received ONE Prius. I would have been on that waiting list for two years at that rate!
We're NOT THERE and it will take a while to get there. In the meantime, we need to expand our domestic oil sources.
That's why car makers are tanking. Toyota had the mindset to think ahead. That's why they are #1 in the world. There's a reason why GM is in the tank. They will come out with the Volt and it will be too late. It will be expensive and unreliable. Toyota will have something better by then, more than likely. No vision by U.S. automakers.
Hell, if the entire U.S. drove hybrids, we wouldn't have a problem.
OPEC vows to jack up gas prices to ruin US economy.
OPEC Pushing to Cut Production, Drive Up Oil and Gasoline Prices
Just as Americans are finally beginning to reap the benefits of plunging gasoline prices — including more money in their pockets — OPEC is getting ready to squeeze them once again by cutting oil production and driving up prices to refineries.
The 13-nation global oil cartel — which includes Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela — will hold an emergency meeting in Vienna Friday to discuss the steep and rapid decline in oil prices.
"The era of cheap oil is finished," Iran's Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari boasted on Tuesday.
When asked what price Iran would want for its oil, Nozari declared, "The more the better."
Your post, with picture, is such classic Fox News/Right Wing fearmongering.
OPEC is considering cutting production because demand has been low, because no one could afford to buy gasoline.
Your "news" sources want you to stay afraid, not educate yourself like you think you're some kinda a elitist.
Doesnt it insult you?
Still - IMO it would be a huge mistake to be complacent and think that the now lower gas prices will stay that way long term and go back to driving gas guzzlers. Prices will be back up and even higher than it was, because it only takes a small somewhere in the world problem or "if the breeze is not blowing quite right" to jack up oil per barrel prices almost instantaneously.
That's why car makers are tanking. Toyota had the mindset to think ahead. That's why they are #1 in the world. There's a reason why GM is in the tank. They will come out with the Volt and it will be too late. It will be expensive and unreliable. Toyota will have something better by then, more than likely. No vision by U.S. automakers.
Hell, if the entire U.S. drove hybrids, we wouldn't have a problem.
A danger of relying on Toyota is that they manipulate cost by limiting production. Folks who were on waiting lists and finally got their Prius were complaining that the price of the car had jumped from about $23,000 to over $26,000. They don't have to increase production for us and probably won't.
I agree about GM. Sheesh, they're really behind the times and need to get with it!!!!!! Of course, GM is so mired in labor and union issues that the behemoth isn't as versatile as a company like Toyota.
Still - IMO it would be a huge mistake to be complacent and think that the now lower gas prices will stay that way long term and go back to driving gas guzzlers. Prices will be back up and even higher than it was, because it only takes a small somewhere in the world problem or "if the breeze is not blowing quite right" to jack up oil per barrel prices almost instantaneously.
It's only supply and demand. This is what happens when the oil doesnt get bought. I'm just saying the OP's "news" source mangles the information it provides her in order to keep her afraid.
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