Have you noticed the gas prices inching down since November ?

[kentuck]

Wonder why that is? Any ideas? I think the gas prices in my area were about 2.25- 2.35 per gallon when the Democrats took over the House and Senate. I noticed yesterday that gas was below 2.00 per gallon for the first time in a long time? What has changed? Is it simply "market forces"?

[Debau2005]

1. They were down here

but now they are headed back up. Early in the week, I gased up for $1.88/gallon, this morning it was back up to $1.99.

[Roland99]

2. Gas was down to $1.85 just over a week ago. Now it's $2.15 and $2.29 across the river.

[pampango]

3. The conspiracy theorists here were speculating that gas prices

would plummet before the election, insure a Republican victory, then the Bush oil cronies would jack up the prices to reap their ill-gotten profits. Hasn't worked out quite that way.

[Ian David]

8. Now they're backpedaling because the Dems are voting on repealing their subsidies...

and holding the oil companies responsible for their actions.

They're trying hard to win the hearts and minds of the people and the congress by lowering their prices.

[pampango]

11. Of course, gas prices could be moving up and down with the

price of oil, but that would be bringing the market into the discussion. It is nice to know that no matter what gas prices do, go up or go down, there is a conspiracy theory to fit what happens.

[Nickster]

17. Of course gas price moves up and down with the price of oil, no one is debating that. But if you

actually take a closer look at things, you'd easily be able to tell that oil and the price of oil is being manipulated by the market. Go ahead and check the historical prices of gas and oil and throw it into an excel workbook, pretty easy to see the coincidences.

It's just a coincidence that the market dynamics completely changed when Dubya took office right? It's a coincidence that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is being filled while prices of oil are on the way up, thus helping to keep the price of oil on the uptick when the SPR could be used to moderate the price of oil. It's a coincidence that the price of oil seems to go down right around every election cycle and major political event. I must be living in a world of terrible coincidences.

[The Gunslinger]

9. Just give it time

They will go back up soon. The Bush Family and the Saudi's ruling elite family help run the oil industry. They're good honest folk. They wont steer you wrong.

[tammywammy]

23. I thought that was called the summer

You know the summer driving season, when the gas prices always go up, since well before Bush.

[The Gunslinger]

27. Well you can trust the Bush oil cabal

I wont.

[tammywammy]

28. I don't trust them

But the fact is that gas has been going down in the fall/winter and up in the summer for a long long time, well before Bush became president. The exception being 2005 b/c of Hurricane Katrina & Rita forcing the shut down of refineries, etc.

[Telly Savalas]

30. They were just doing that before Bush so it wouldn't look

suspicious when Bush got elected.

I don't really believe this, but figured I'd type it out to save the CTers some time.

[killbotfactory]

14. Those CrAzY conspiracy theorists!!!

Oil prices jump on OPEC supply cut, cold weather

OPEC producers were set to reduce supply to world markets by 500,000 barrels per day from Feb. 1, following a 1.2 million-barrel-cut from Nov. 1 last year.

After giving a conflicting signal on Monday, Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer and leader of OPEC, said it was to tighten its spigots this week.

A senior Saudi oil official said the kingdom had advised its customers of the impending 158,000 barrel-a-day cut, which takes effect Feb. 1, according to the Wall Street Journal.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-01/31/content_5676765.htm

If you hadn't noticed yet, Bush and the Saudi's are buddy-buddy.

[pampango]

18. SA cuts production at times and raises production at other times.

They have done this since the 1970's, at least. Are they best buddies with oil people everywhere? Except for Iran, they probably are. Birds of a feather, you know. Hey, Hugo is best buddies with Fidel.

[Nabia2004]

32. The "conspiracy theorist" nailed it in my neighborhood

In the Seattle area gas and heating oil prices continued to drop right up to the election, only jump and climb following it. Since January prices are on the down slope again, regular gas is now $2.35 a gallon, heating oil $2.44.

[gasperc]

4. MI;gas dipped to $1.88 then shot to $2.29 in one day

expect prices to stay volitle, $3 gas again this summer is likely although the oil companies with get raked over the coals by a democratic senate when they report their billion dollar profit quarters

[ray of light]

6. yes, exactly--down to 1.87 before SOTU after SOTU shot up again!

[ray of light]

5. ours were down to 1.87 but are now up again at 2.20

(1.87 pre SOTU)
2.20 post SOTU

[bluerum]

7. Crude was below $60 a barrel. But based on the price of crude, gas

should be below $2.00 a gallon.

It's not.

And Exxon has posted,,, drum roll please,,,, record profits.

[joe_b]

24. There were two big jumps

Prior to the SOTU, oil declined from $60 per barrel to $50 in ten days. During that time Saudi Arabia said it was happy with falling oil prices and rejected an emergency meeting of OPEC to deal with falling prices. Since then, it has risen $9 in about 10 days. Two things that specifically drove up the price: Saudi Arabia announcing it was cutting production and the US indicating it was buying oil for its Strategic Petroleum Reserve. One drove it up $1 and the other $3, I can't remember which one did which.

[Ian David]

10. Here's one reason

Consumer Advocates Call on Congress to Subpoena Exxon's Funding Records
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2715008

It's time for the oil companies to start kissing-up to the customers and the congress.

[pampango]

12. Why have gas prices gone up by 20 to 30 cents over the past

week?

[Ian David]

15. Because it got cold. n/t

[pampango]

19. Agreed. Cold weather made the demand for oil go up.

[kentuck]

20. Obviously a couple of true believers in the market, rather than conspiracy..

:)

[killbotfactory]

13. They'll go back up

Saudi Arabia is finally going along with OPEC and cutting production.

[spanone]

16. The REAL question is why were prices so high?

It's called GOUGING.

[Rosemary2205]

26. Speculators.

Right before the last election the commodities market dropped crude from their formula so now the speculators don't care about it anymore. Before they were deliberately bidding each other up. When the formula was changed and the price dropped like a rock a few people lost their shirts.

The way the formula was changed and judging by the newest pharm prices on my meds I believe they have found a new thing to speculate and fuck up the pricing.

[Clark2008]

21. Gas went up 10 cents here this past week.

:shrug:

[joe_b]

22. There have been rumors

Saudi Arabia was driving the price down to hurt/send a message to Iran. The cost to Iran to extract a barrel of oil is a relatively high $18. So if the price drops from $79 to $50, Iran's take per barrel drops from $61 to $32. That's quite a hit. It's all part of the pressure the US is bringing on Iran. A few weeks ago, there was a high-level meeting between Iran in Saudi Arabia reportedly to get Saudi Arabia to help Iran smooth out its problems with the US (Oil was approaching $50 barrel then.) Before that, Saudi Arabia had said they were happy with dropping prices. Since then, Saudi Arabia has agreed to cut oil production by 150,000 barrels per day and prices have spiked up in 10 days to $58. Also in the past week, the US said it would be buying oil to increase its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, also putting upward pressure on prices.

Weather obviously has played some part.

[porphyrian]

25. That's the speed of record profits adjusting to the drop in the price of oil months ago. - n/t

[SoCalDem]

29. $2.99 a gallon for diesel at a station near San Diego on Thursday

and people wonder why groceries are higher now ? :grr:

[tammywammy]

31. I paid $2.39/gallon

for diesel today

[Nabia2004]

33. Our prices were in a steady climb until January

I'm in the seattle area.