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Could someone please expain to me why the price at the pump is down right now? Is it because of speculation and futures? If this is the case, should this kind of speculation be regulated?
People are driving less, causing less demand, causing the price of oil to drop. It's that, and speculators having driven up the price to overinflated levels (kinda like housing was).
Maybe the Saudis and big oil are realizing the "push" for alternative energy is going into the fast track.
Brazil went 70% flex fuel cars in three years. Why can't we? We can. I hope that people are smart enough to realize that we should not turn away from going full speed ahead with alternative sources. GM was sucking up to big oil and got screwed and now they are screwing us with this current welfare Bailout. They need to go...we need to replace them with an entire new group of people and totally retool the facilities. The best thing about going alternative is that it will be ours. We don't need to import wind or solar or bio fuels from nations that hold us hostage as if we are junkies for their black oily heroin. It will create jobs and get us on the right track. We will not be funding Al Queida anymore either. The Saudis squander money and spend like crazy. It will freak them out when we are independent. Clean air and water is the icing on the cake.
Brazil went 70% flex fuel cars in three years. Why can't we? We can.
They have sugar cane. We don't. Corn isn't even close.
I'm all for any and all alternatives, but one must understand that there is no silver bullet solution. There will be no easy, fast or cheap transition to alternative fuels in this country.
They have sugar cane. We don't. Corn isn't even close.
I'm all for any and all alternatives, but one must understand that there is no silver bullet solution. There will be no easy, fast or cheap transition to alternative fuels in this country.
There are developing nations that we can get the sugar or corn from. Stop thinking negatively. It obviously is not working out for us or the planet to continue the way we have been. In answer to the OP's question...yes, of course it needs regulation, just as banking and most other industry does.
Could someone please expain to me why the price at the pump is down right now? Is it because of speculation and futures? If this is the case, should this kind of speculation be regulated?
Yes... Based on past performance, they absolutely should be regulated. Clearly, when energy companies can so easily get away with raising prices, they will - and have! I remember home heating gas prices soaring several years ago and my monthly bills going from $250 to $600! It was a shock and took a while for our budget to recover..
In a very short period of time gas prices here in TN have dropped dramatically from over $4 a gallon to under $2! I do understand the supply and demand explanation but believe it *has* to be more than that... Regulation - YES..
One thing to keep in mind is that oil companies in the middle east control how much they want to raise-and drop the price of oil. Some speculate that the price has been dropping because Bush is leaving office and that makes the fat cats in the middle east happy because they assume that Obama will withdraw troops immediately or in a speedy fashion, letting them (the fat cats that is) do as they please. As swagger mentioned, gas prices dropping is also due to less people driving. That's simple economics though. When the price of a commodity increases, the demand for said commodity drops. When price decreases, demand for the commodity increases. Therefore in the long run, oil companies have lost more money raising the price of gas, rather if they had kept it at a low affordable price.
In response to SarahSal, the U.S. has no say in regulating the price of oil. It's at the discretion of the oil companies. It's a "my way or the highway," type deal where if you don't like how much we sell it to you, go to a different company and see if you can get it any cheaper. The only way to really break out of this gas crisis is to become energy independant and start finding different ways to get around. Like making cars that can run on compressed air. =]
There are developing nations that we can get the sugar or corn from. Stop thinking negatively. It obviously is not working out for us or the planet to continue the way we have been. In answer to the OP's question...yes, of course it needs regulation, just as banking and most other industry does.
Not enough to power all our cars. In Brazil, they are destroying rainforests to grow sugarcane. If we started depending on them for sugarcane as well, it would be disastrous.
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