Price of gas

Recently I have been receiving the same old email that has been circulating the last few years about how to lower the price of gas. Though the intent of these emails may be noble in trying to help, it truly is in vain. Boycotting gas on certain days, avoiding the major gas stations all have little if any impact on lowering the price and may actually aggravate the situation rather than help it. I sent out out a list similar to this last year and thought it was time to resend it in hopes of everyone understanding what is going on with the price of gas.
In no particular order here it is.

1. EPA mandate of cleaner burning gas. Their blunder of making oil refineries use higher amounts of an additive called MTBE. Now they find it pollutes ground water so it is being phased out. All this tinkering with removing and finding a new additive causes an increase in price and disruption of gas getting to the market.

2. Due to EPA regulations and small profits the number of refineries in the US has dropped since the early 80's from over 300 to a little over 130 today. Less refineries less gas available. No new refineries have been built in about 30 years.

3. Outdated refineries and limited storage capacity. Again EPA interference.

4. Mergers and buyouts of oil companies. Less competition.

5. Shrinking value of the dollar. Not only gas has gone up but so has everything else! It wasn't to long ago when you could get a burger and fries at a restaurant for $3.50. Now even at places like Denny's its over six bucks.

6. World demand. Oil consumption is way up not only in the US but all over.

7. Depending on where you live, our government taxes a gallon of gas anywhere from 45 to 65 cents. That's outrageous. The stores on average makes only 14 to 18 cents profit per gallon.

8. The repeated disruption by natural disasters the last few years.

9. Civil strife, war and rumors of war in oil producing countries like Iraq and Nigeria (there is others) either disrupt production or drive prices higher.

10. EPA, Democrats and even some Republicans have stopped or hindered us from exploring and or drilling for new oil in key area's.

11. Bad planning by EVERYONE in America. We knew this was coming. Remember the scare in the '70's of the oil embargo that saw the first big jump in price for oil? We had all those years to perfect gasohol or come up with an alternative fuel and change our ways. Instead we were lulled into a false sense of security by OPEC releasing more oil which kept gas cheap and also shut down some of our refineries because they couldn't compete.

12. America is to spread out. Before the advent of suburbs things were centrally located in the cities. People keep building houses further out and driving miles to get to work and the stores.

Now this is ONLY MY OPINION but I keep hearing people tell me its 7 dollars in England and elsewhere, so what is the point? Is this also part of the global agenda to raise prices here to get America more in line with the rest of the world?

Something else you have to keep in mind, this is a natural resource, do we really know how much is left in the ground? I have heard estimates ranging from unlimited to 100 years and some people think we have only a 40 year supply left. If that's true oil will run out in most of our lifetimes.
So what can we do?
Petition our government to allow exploration, tell EPA to back off and encourage more research and development into alternative forms of fuel.
BUT what will give the best result is to ELIMINATE one day a week of driving. Whether you car pool to work or combine errands into one day this will save a huge amount of gas.
Other drastic measures that should be given serious consideration is to raise the driving age to 18 or only allowing 16 to 17 year olds driving privileges to and from work.
I know this other thought may not sit well with my race enthusiast friends, but remember I also belong to a Van Club and attend races. Put more restrictions on all forms of racing, limit the amount of races held in a year and also restrict any new tracks from being built. You have to put things into perspective, what is more important, gas to drive to work and run our emergency vehicles, buses, plains, military etc... or a sport?

What won't work is the windfall-profit tax on oil companies which was first schemed up by Democrat Dennis Kucinich and now heralded by Barney Franks and other Democrats. The lunacy to think an added tax on an item will decrease the price! Our whole economy is based on profits. How do you expect a company to reinvest or expand their business if the Government takes away their profit?
This Robin Hood mentality of taking from the rich and giving to the poor only works in Hollywood, in real life its called Socialism.

Lastly if you noticed I didn't include the Oil Companies of gouging. In my research I did find the billions of dollars in profits they are making. BUT I am not exactly sure how the oil is removed from the ground, sold per barrel and how it finally reaches us and the expenditures for each step. If someone is knowledgeable on this please inform me. Maybe they are more to blame than I realize but I did read one article in the Washington Post that Texas based Exxon Mobil made about 9.8 cents on every dollar of sales. Is that an unreasonable profit? Let me explain it this way, Wal-Mart hit a record profit for 2005 of $11.2 billion. Can you accuse them of overpricing? Of course not. They achieved their goal by low prices and volume. Same with the oil companies. There is fewer companies today selling far more oil. Wouldn't it stand to reason their profits would be huge?

Your Friend Always,
Carey Masci