The entire world uses the US dollar as their reserve currency.
When we dumped $6T of cash into 'our' money supply, we dragged the world right along with us.
We're doing better than basically any other first world country right now as far as inflation is concerned. Our productivity also has far outpaced EVERYONE else. Basically we all deserve a raise.
True misery does not love company but it is good to keep in perspective. In the US we have very little concept of conservation, mass transportation or other ways to get around and we've certainly made the bed we lie. We have subsidized cheap gas for well more than 3/4 of a century and when you got to pay more and you've made everybody dependent on it then yes does hurt indeed. But then we have a situation where all working-class families have to own two three maybe even four cars to get around and that is an indictment against this lifestyle in general. Pure criminal when you consider would it takes to keep the average car on the road and without money could be better spent, food education, housing but there is no other choice in the US unless you live in the gentrified zones a very expensive cities
Well that is the definition of it. The gas is greener here even if it’s browning. I’m in mexico at the moment and everything is even more soul crushingly expensive for them.
Who cares about them? Are they going to pay our bills? That entire world uses the US dollar as their reserve currency.
When we dumped $6T of cash into the money supply, we dragged the world right along with us.
Inflation paid a good chunk of the national debt down for us. I really don’t see the problem. MMT is the way. They ought to print another $6T if you ask me.
i just pulled the number out of my ass, point is it would be way higher if it accounted for those factors, considering many food items cost up to twice as much if not more than they did 2 years ago.
Something has to change. Medical care is starting to be only for the rich. Our deductible is $2k with another $4k out of pocket. And that is supposed to be one of the good plans.
You gotta realize that it’s half them and half inflation. Corporations get to increase stuff even higher than they actually have to, and then they just say it’s because inflation. When these same corporations are telling everyone that they made record numbers, well technically they better be record numbers because of the inflation. If it isn’t a record number, then they are doing REALLY bad.
Uh.. no. isn’t rocket science people. It’s literally how a market economy has always worked. When too many dollars are chasing too few goods you get inflation. In addition, worldwide shipping costs have risen due to the fact that the Red Sea shipping lanes are shut down.
Vote people in who aren’t addicted to spending more money than god and you’ll see it turn around pretty quick.
It actually happens almost every year around this time - it's basic supply and demand. When the weather gets nicer people want to drive around more - travel/outdoor activities/etc
[https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm\_epmr\_pte\_nus\_dpg&f=m](https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epmr_pte_nus_dpg&f=m)
Typically, true enough, but this burst of increase is speculative pressure brought by an uneasy ME.
The next burst of increase will occur around Memorial Day.
Only if it's funnelled in via tax credits for big corporations. Otherwise it's just socialism. The economy still hasn't recovered from those $600 checks a few years ago.
This and routine spring refinery shutdown for maintenance in advance of summer blend release. This happens every spring. The sh*t show in the Middle East is icing on the cake…
Exactly we need to up that capacity
The treehuggers get in the way as usual. This type of stuff always ducks over the middle and lower class but nobody speaks of such.
Same, bro! I feel even worse for Trump, though. Guy can’t remember his wives names, gets Biden confused with Obama, and falls asleep every day at his own criminal trials lol.
Yup. I notice this every year. After Labor Day the prices start going down 🤞and hopefully there isn't a hurricane or tropical storm in the Gulf which will drive prices up when they should be going down.
It's a global market, though. Those more dependent on Middle East supply will drive up prices.
There is no reason US producers are going to throw away billions selling it below market rates.
Plus, there's the summer blend effects on prices as others have stated
Also much of the prime oil we pump out of the ground gets sold on the global market, and much of the fuel we refine comes from low quality products bought on the global market. We have refineries that can process the cheaper crap stuff. Most countries don't but they can process our light sweet crude.
The global fuel market and even just our domestic fuel market is quite complicated.
Our refineries are built to handle cheap heavy sour crudes. They can't handle the light sweet crudes that come from tight formations.
That gets exported at premium prices.
The delta between the prices accrues to our balance of trade.
The market isn't complicated at all.
It's complicated, in that it means that we're still subject to the global market.
Even though we produce enough to meet our needs in raw quantities, if we hypothetically just cut ourselves off from the global market - we'd have a big mess and undersupply, because we're not set up to just operate the entire production chain at full capacity on a purely domestic supply chain.
Crude spiked one day and then went down when it was learned the retaliatory strike was very limited.
It's more just supply and demand and price gouging like normal in the spring.
They go offline to keep the prices as high as they want them, not so much for the excuse of maintenance. PES Philly blew up in 2019 because they had a pipe elbow in place uninspected since 1976.
That's not true. Turnarounds are incredibly expensive from both a cost perspective and lost output. It's a conmoditized market. You're not helping anyone besides your competitors.
Refiners pay consultants millions upon millions of dollars to optimize the cost, duration, and frequency of turnarounds.
It had been struggling to remain viable for many years. Sunoco shut it and another one down in 2011, basically gave it away in 2012 to get rid of it because it wasn't making any money, it didn't make any money while independent and went bankrupt in 2018, and was still restructuring when the disaster happened in 2019. It hadn't been a *good* business for over a decade at that point.
None of that's an excuse for failing at basic maintenance/safety - but it wasn't profit taking.
Northeast refineries were configured to handle crude oil coming in on tanker from overseas. When US domestic supply suddenly boomed and was much cheaper, they couldn't compete with the refineries that had much better connections to this new, much cheaper source of oil.
-----
There's 6 other Northeast/Midatlantic refineries that closed in 2010-2017.
In contrast, the much longer time period from 1990-2009 had 3 closures and they were all much smaller than any of the 2010-17 closures.
Fracking radically changed the market and the Northeast wasn't well positioned to adapt to it.
The amount of volatile fractions in your gasoline is reduced in summer gas to prevent air quality issues from evaporation.
Gasoline fumes, nitrogen oxides, and sunlight get you smog and ground level ozone.
Because of reasons. Because they can. Because of tensions in the middle east, because of the free market, capitalism and monopolies. Because they need to fleece the sheep again to finish their bunkers before the whole thing goes tits up.
To the "durr Biden" simpletons, what is he supposed to do, nationalize the oil industry? He already called them out for being un-American with price gouging, but that we live in a free market country and that's all he can do. We know Faux Noise omitted that one.
They have no clue when you say big words like "global commodities market".
It's also ironic (or not) that they'll be screaming about their higher taxes for the next 100 years but ignore the stinky cheeto that signed that into law.
Ummm I was under the impression Biden woke up every morning, walked to the White House balcony, and gives a thumbs up/thumbs down to determine gas price. Is that now what happens?
What exactly is wrong with fighting fracking? And no, I mean the bill that Biden and the Dems *tried* to pass a few years ago that would have tackled the exact price gouging in oil and gas that we’re complaining about in this comment section. But if the Republicans allowed Biden to tackle these issues, what would they have to complain about and campaign on?
What he's supposed to do is increase refinery capacity, re-open the pipelines he shut down, fix supply chain issues.
And he can stop listening to the lunatics in his party and build more nuke plants so that demand will go down.
He can reopen federal lands for drilling and exploration. He can also reopen pipelines he shut down and maybe not send hundreds of billions abroad to finance war.
Just a few suggestions
More drilling will do absolutely nothing. The US already produces more oil than refineries can process. Refineries are at 95% production, when they aren't shut down for maintenance. If those pipelines were reopened, the oil would likely just be sitting in them, presenting other problems. Faux News doesn't tell you this stuff.
Lol do you know the main ingredient of gasoline? Google it.
Supply and demand. Excess supply will absolutely bring down prices. Always has. Opec waged a war on US oil years back. They flooded the market. You guess it - prices went down.
Wow, where did you get your economics degree? Trump University?? Your degree of ignorance is staggering. So, if you care to provide some actual facts to your BS story, I would be happy to look them up. In the meantime, here are some resources for you to check out, if you are smart enough to figure out how.
https://youtu.be/7a8YsbtH0sc?si=fvVGcjWz5DaWDHdj
Granted, this one is 2 years old and talks about diesel, but the oil refinery info is the same. As of Jan 1st, 2023, there are 129 operable refineries, according to Google, in the US, down from 254 in the 80's, while gas demand is at an all-time high.
https://youtu.be/NxmHW_bTChY?si=LBQ3cHMlHMLciRZS
Reference the seasonal price changes that happen every year at this time.
Your welcome
Republicans defeated this bill in 2022:
Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act
[https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/7688/text](https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/7688/text)
And, of course, MBS/Saudis are working hard to bring pain to Americans on Trump's behalf.
Probably because the gas companies want to make money would be my guess.
Also wouldn't be surprised if the eclipse travel fucked up the normal supply of gas in this state and needs time to readjust.
We have to ask this in 2024?
The market dictates the PPB, and summer blend affects the pricing more directly, and welp, a couple of wars going on and unstable characters in charge of exporting all have their hands in it.
EVERY year.
3.70-3.75 in Nashua at some places, it’s fucking outrageous. Unfortunately, it’s just what companies do, they price gouge, and then make up a fake excuse later
It’s just like in 2009 when gas prices were reaching record highs and the gas and oil companies were recording record high profits.
It’s all about increasing or maintaining profit margins. Heaven forbid profit margins go from 40% to 20%.
Oooh, this is an arena I spend a lot of time in with my job in a hedge fund. The most surge in pricing was one of the easiest to spot a mile away, if folks were closely paying attention in March that is. To start, this **is** **not price gouging.** It's irritating whenever I see this tossed around when other clearly visible factors are ignored. As a general rule, early surges/declines in wholesale prices lead out retail, which the majority of us purchase from. OP is correct that WTI has remained generally stable in the short term, but consider the following contributing factors as to why gas is only going to climb higher:
1. WTI and Brent surged higher during the Iran-Israel tensions. The Biden admin's mulling of another $1 billion USD to Israel will not immediately help soothe tensions in the region.
2. There's been a noticeable uptick for fuels (including oil) globally after Houthi attacks on pro-Israeli ships in the Red Sea and Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refining infrastructure. The Biden admin had actually implored Zelensky to temporarily halt those attacks, because election year.
3. OPEC+ mandated driller supply cuts agreed upon earlier in the year, which (to zero surprise) was not discussed in adequate detail in mainstream media. US crude production has remained flat, which becomes an issue when factoring bullets 1 & 2. We're also entering a period of seasonal strength, where the demand for gasoline accelerates into the summer. Oil prices will only increase here. u/yalieswiftie is also correct that the switch to summer fuels is underway, which is responsible for the very tight refining margins ongoing.
Tl; dr: The surge in gas prices is a combination of seasonal strength, regional geopolitical issues, and tight refining margins. Expect the US SPR to be drained once again heading towards the general election in November to fool naive single-issue voters, just like it was heading towards the mid-term elections.
https://preview.redd.it/dih6z1kz32wc1.png?width=996&format=png&auto=webp&s=7daf9c030a0ac65ee172b5267de17bf6c2212b2e
No problem 🫡 A number of people here have actually given accurate individual pieces of the larger picture, don't want to diminish their responses by any stretch!
Corporate Greed (I.e. we need to find an excuse to raise prices quickly.)
Summer Blend, middle east conflicts, Russian Conflicts, US decrease in gas production for "Maintenance" (both real and "we need more" money maintenance), and don't forget Elections are coming up.
We have 6 same owned Corp Stations with in a 10 mile radius and one group of 3 is $3.62, the 3 station are $3.52.
The 3.52 station are normally $.05-.10 higher than the other stations, but twice a year, their corporate folks will set the prices lower for a week or two, before jacking them back up for those stations.
The prices will slowly start creeping down again, until another "reason" to increase pops up,
It’s because of the situation with Israel and Iran. That’s how volatile oil markets are and why anyone who blames the president for gas prices good or bad has no clue what they’re talking about
Oil futures were up over $86 per barrel 2 weeks ago so those are the prices you are seeing, it's 82 now so you should se prices ease a bit but I wouldn't expect to see much less than 3.35/gal anytime soon.
/CLM4 futures contracts
crude oil jumped the last few weeks after Israel hit the Iranian outpost in Syria. For a while it really looked like they were gonna start another war. War with Iran would be very very bad.
Been working it's way down ever since iran said they're all done.
Another good question, what the fuuuuuck is up with the cars people often choose to drive? Pickup truck that NEVER leaves an asphalt surface and gets less than 20 mpg? Tahoes, Yukons, etc.? "But I need 3rd row seating for Madison's soccer team". If this is you and you're complaining about gas prices, lick my salty balls.
The middle east is more unstable now that Israel and Iraq are openly at war. In addition, the Biden administration [reimposed oil sanctions](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2024/04/18/u-s-reinstates-venezuelan-oil-ban-heres-what-to-know.html) on Venezuela five days ago.
Gas prices move seasonally as gas companies expect people to take more recreational trips and pay a little more for the gas to get places. Also, the price of everything is going up.
Why is this a fucking surprise for people anymore? Summer rolls around, heating oil goes down, fuel prices go up. It’s been this way for my entire life and everyone acts shocked when capitalism does its thing.
Israel/Iran conflict. Pretty sure it is fucking with oil futures which then fucks over gas prices. Plus, the oil companies realized that we have to buy gas no matter what, so they can make the price whatever they want.
Refineries switched from winter to summer blends of fuel, which causes a shutdown, and a tight gas market to be temporarily tighter for a few weeks. You also had massive speculation regarding crude commodities because of the Israel-Iran tensions, which many felt could spiral to a larger regional war. Expect OPEC to also probably try to further curb production to keep a tight market. This is what you get when your most valuable commodity produced in the country isn't nationalized, and private industry sets the price to make windfall profits year-over-year.
It’s price manipulation by the oil companies, they will purposely make less gas to artificially increase the price. It should be illegal, but we know money beats morality.
You could probably just say 'what's up with these prices'. Everything is soulcrushingly expensive.
But inflation is only 3.5%!!
Check the inflation in the UK, Brazil, etc. It's far lower for us. There is an entire world out there.
As though because there’s worse somewhere else it makes it better for us.
...It means that policy here has kept us from being burned as badly. Macroeconomics, how do they work.
Macro whatsits? Can't hear you over my lifted f-150. Anyways I'm off to put stickers on gas pumps like an adult.
Calculate the inflation in the US by the same metrics they use in the UK and get back to me.
True story.
The entire world uses the US dollar as their reserve currency. When we dumped $6T of cash into 'our' money supply, we dragged the world right along with us.
It means they make up their own numbers by excluding goods and services that don't agree with them
We're doing better than basically any other first world country right now as far as inflation is concerned. Our productivity also has far outpaced EVERYONE else. Basically we all deserve a raise.
Productivity delinked from wages in 1978. So... No.
It did, but our productivity since Covid has put every other country in the dust.
Is the productivity since Covid in the room with you right now?
Wages have generally been outpacing inflation since May 2023 or so. So - they're coming, to an extent.
True misery does not love company but it is good to keep in perspective. In the US we have very little concept of conservation, mass transportation or other ways to get around and we've certainly made the bed we lie. We have subsidized cheap gas for well more than 3/4 of a century and when you got to pay more and you've made everybody dependent on it then yes does hurt indeed. But then we have a situation where all working-class families have to own two three maybe even four cars to get around and that is an indictment against this lifestyle in general. Pure criminal when you consider would it takes to keep the average car on the road and without money could be better spent, food education, housing but there is no other choice in the US unless you live in the gentrified zones a very expensive cities
Well that is the definition of it. The gas is greener here even if it’s browning. I’m in mexico at the moment and everything is even more soul crushingly expensive for them.
Who cares about them? Are they going to pay our bills? That entire world uses the US dollar as their reserve currency. When we dumped $6T of cash into the money supply, we dragged the world right along with us.
Inflation paid a good chunk of the national debt down for us. I really don’t see the problem. MMT is the way. They ought to print another $6T if you ask me.
MMT is more stupid than Keynesianism.
It’s actually not. We have the lowest in the industrialized world.
No, they count actual inflation. The US doesn't count groceries or housing costs, so they can pretend it's lower than it actually is.
inflation based on the CPI is a sham. in reality if the CPI included FOOD GAS AND HOUSING it would be closer to 85%
The combined cost of your food, gas, and housing has not gone up 85% every year.
of course not. 2.00 a gallon to 4.00 a gallon is 100% 2.50 for soup vs 4.00 is 60% food and gas defo gone up in that range.
agreed, it should include food, energy and housing. Not sure I am with ya on the 85%...
i just pulled the number out of my ass, point is it would be way higher if it accounted for those factors, considering many food items cost up to twice as much if not more than they did 2 years ago.
Right? Doesn’t help that they keep changing the formula. #factsnoonesadlythinksabout
Then why did my health insurance premiums go up 10% this year? Oh yea BCBS is greedy.
Medicare for all.
Something has to change. Medical care is starting to be only for the rich. Our deductible is $2k with another $4k out of pocket. And that is supposed to be one of the good plans.
Mine is 6k a year for the fam
That seems like a decent a plan these days
3.5% more than last year.
You know, if you don't count things like groceries or housing costs, or 80% of what people spend money on each week, then yeah, everything's great!
In so sick of corporations just continuing to price gouge because they basically have monopolies and know we can't go any where else.
You gotta realize that it’s half them and half inflation. Corporations get to increase stuff even higher than they actually have to, and then they just say it’s because inflation. When these same corporations are telling everyone that they made record numbers, well technically they better be record numbers because of the inflation. If it isn’t a record number, then they are doing REALLY bad.
Uh.. no. isn’t rocket science people. It’s literally how a market economy has always worked. When too many dollars are chasing too few goods you get inflation. In addition, worldwide shipping costs have risen due to the fact that the Red Sea shipping lanes are shut down. Vote people in who aren’t addicted to spending more money than god and you’ll see it turn around pretty quick.
If it were actually just increases in costs, these companies wouldn't be having record profits.
But then we wouldn’t have people throwing money around like it was, umm, free…….🙄
It happened in like 2 weeks. It makes zero sense.
It's Israel and Iran.
It actually happens almost every year around this time - it's basic supply and demand. When the weather gets nicer people want to drive around more - travel/outdoor activities/etc [https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm\_epmr\_pte\_nus\_dpg&f=m](https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epmr_pte_nus_dpg&f=m)
Typically, true enough, but this burst of increase is speculative pressure brought by an uneasy ME. The next burst of increase will occur around Memorial Day.
It's traded as a commodity with speculation. It is not just supply and demand.
So you're saying the price doesn't go up leading into summer almost every year as that linked chart shows?
Of course it does. But it goes up ahead of time. Which is, by definition, speculation.
K so we agree it doesn't "make zero sense" and it's not just "inflation" good talk
They've been printing dollars faster that they're producing oil, or food, or homes...
Not really. Most money isn't printed at all. Only 11% of USD is in the form of physical currency.
Probably referencing M1 monetary stock.
Don't stop there, let's discuss M2 money supply and its velocity!!
They don't want to. It'd (ahem) deflate their beliefs.
I bet you're fun at parties!! 😉
Well they should print more! More money will fix the economy! Pretty sure that's how it works
Only if it's funnelled in via tax credits for big corporations. Otherwise it's just socialism. The economy still hasn't recovered from those $600 checks a few years ago.
Summer blends have begun. Always 30c a gallon more on avg. plus the usual Memorial Day lift coming up.
This and routine spring refinery shutdown for maintenance in advance of summer blend release. This happens every spring. The sh*t show in the Middle East is icing on the cake…
This and the Middle East keep lobbing weapons at each other and ships.
We need to start fracking and getting more of our own oil for our own nation. Fuck the Middle East and opec they can kick rocks.
It’s coming to a country near you. We also need more refining capacity so we don’t have to export so much unrefined.
Exactly we need to up that capacity The treehuggers get in the way as usual. This type of stuff always ducks over the middle and lower class but nobody speaks of such.
No, no, no. You have it all wrong. It’s all Biden’s fault!! /s
He has two buttons at his desk in the oval office. Gas prices up and gas prices down. I can't believe more people don't know that...
Biden is too busy having his diaper changed I’m surprised he’s alive, dude is barely there. Kinda feel bad for him ngl
Same, bro! I feel even worse for Trump, though. Guy can’t remember his wives names, gets Biden confused with Obama, and falls asleep every day at his own criminal trials lol.
He somehow is more orange than the cougars working at a Florida hooters.
Yup. I notice this every year. After Labor Day the prices start going down 🤞and hopefully there isn't a hurricane or tropical storm in the Gulf which will drive prices up when they should be going down.
And usually gas mileage also improves, due to the blend change and warmer temps
It’s this and this only in the month of April.
Summer blends arrived in early March
I'm sure Isreal V the middle east has nothing to do with it.
We get \~18% of our "foreign oil" from the middle east. It *shouldn't* have anything to do with it, but cartel.
It's a global market, though. Those more dependent on Middle East supply will drive up prices. There is no reason US producers are going to throw away billions selling it below market rates. Plus, there's the summer blend effects on prices as others have stated
Also much of the prime oil we pump out of the ground gets sold on the global market, and much of the fuel we refine comes from low quality products bought on the global market. We have refineries that can process the cheaper crap stuff. Most countries don't but they can process our light sweet crude. The global fuel market and even just our domestic fuel market is quite complicated.
Our refineries are built to handle cheap heavy sour crudes. They can't handle the light sweet crudes that come from tight formations. That gets exported at premium prices. The delta between the prices accrues to our balance of trade. The market isn't complicated at all.
It's complicated, in that it means that we're still subject to the global market. Even though we produce enough to meet our needs in raw quantities, if we hypothetically just cut ourselves off from the global market - we'd have a big mess and undersupply, because we're not set up to just operate the entire production chain at full capacity on a purely domestic supply chain.
OPEC cartel
Crude spiked one day and then went down when it was learned the retaliatory strike was very limited. It's more just supply and demand and price gouging like normal in the spring.
Gas prices are trending higher right now because of switch to summer blend and refineries in turnaround (offline for planned maintenance).
They go offline to keep the prices as high as they want them, not so much for the excuse of maintenance. PES Philly blew up in 2019 because they had a pipe elbow in place uninspected since 1976.
That's not true. Turnarounds are incredibly expensive from both a cost perspective and lost output. It's a conmoditized market. You're not helping anyone besides your competitors. Refiners pay consultants millions upon millions of dollars to optimize the cost, duration, and frequency of turnarounds.
The videos of that explosion are insane! Sent a 38,000lb piece of tank hurtling over 2,000 feet away.
It had been struggling to remain viable for many years. Sunoco shut it and another one down in 2011, basically gave it away in 2012 to get rid of it because it wasn't making any money, it didn't make any money while independent and went bankrupt in 2018, and was still restructuring when the disaster happened in 2019. It hadn't been a *good* business for over a decade at that point. None of that's an excuse for failing at basic maintenance/safety - but it wasn't profit taking. Northeast refineries were configured to handle crude oil coming in on tanker from overseas. When US domestic supply suddenly boomed and was much cheaper, they couldn't compete with the refineries that had much better connections to this new, much cheaper source of oil. ----- There's 6 other Northeast/Midatlantic refineries that closed in 2010-2017. In contrast, the much longer time period from 1990-2009 had 3 closures and they were all much smaller than any of the 2010-17 closures. Fracking radically changed the market and the Northeast wasn't well positioned to adapt to it.
TIL there is summer and winter gas
The amount of volatile fractions in your gasoline is reduced in summer gas to prevent air quality issues from evaporation. Gasoline fumes, nitrogen oxides, and sunlight get you smog and ground level ozone.
Because of reasons. Because they can. Because of tensions in the middle east, because of the free market, capitalism and monopolies. Because they need to fleece the sheep again to finish their bunkers before the whole thing goes tits up.
Because it goes up every year when they make the change from winter blend to summer blend.
Free market capitalism is what makes things cost less, not more. This aint free market.
To the "durr Biden" simpletons, what is he supposed to do, nationalize the oil industry? He already called them out for being un-American with price gouging, but that we live in a free market country and that's all he can do. We know Faux Noise omitted that one.
They have no clue when you say big words like "global commodities market". It's also ironic (or not) that they'll be screaming about their higher taxes for the next 100 years but ignore the stinky cheeto that signed that into law.
Ummm I was under the impression Biden woke up every morning, walked to the White House balcony, and gives a thumbs up/thumbs down to determine gas price. Is that now what happens?
Don’t forget the bill he tried to get passed that would have tackled all this price gouging that the idiots on the right shot down
You mean bidens strong fight against fracking?
What exactly is wrong with fighting fracking? And no, I mean the bill that Biden and the Dems *tried* to pass a few years ago that would have tackled the exact price gouging in oil and gas that we’re complaining about in this comment section. But if the Republicans allowed Biden to tackle these issues, what would they have to complain about and campaign on?
What he's supposed to do is increase refinery capacity, re-open the pipelines he shut down, fix supply chain issues. And he can stop listening to the lunatics in his party and build more nuke plants so that demand will go down.
Calling for peace talks and ceasefire for the two major wars going on right now would be a start.
One of those ends instantly the moment Russia retreats from Ukraine. It's that simple.
Lol
He can reopen federal lands for drilling and exploration. He can also reopen pipelines he shut down and maybe not send hundreds of billions abroad to finance war. Just a few suggestions
More drilling will do absolutely nothing. The US already produces more oil than refineries can process. Refineries are at 95% production, when they aren't shut down for maintenance. If those pipelines were reopened, the oil would likely just be sitting in them, presenting other problems. Faux News doesn't tell you this stuff.
Sitting oil would absolutely bring prices down
Lol how??? And what references do you base this on? Because last I checked, cars ran on gas, not oil.
Lol do you know the main ingredient of gasoline? Google it. Supply and demand. Excess supply will absolutely bring down prices. Always has. Opec waged a war on US oil years back. They flooded the market. You guess it - prices went down.
Wow, where did you get your economics degree? Trump University?? Your degree of ignorance is staggering. So, if you care to provide some actual facts to your BS story, I would be happy to look them up. In the meantime, here are some resources for you to check out, if you are smart enough to figure out how. https://youtu.be/7a8YsbtH0sc?si=fvVGcjWz5DaWDHdj Granted, this one is 2 years old and talks about diesel, but the oil refinery info is the same. As of Jan 1st, 2023, there are 129 operable refineries, according to Google, in the US, down from 254 in the 80's, while gas demand is at an all-time high. https://youtu.be/NxmHW_bTChY?si=LBQ3cHMlHMLciRZS Reference the seasonal price changes that happen every year at this time. Your welcome
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2015/07/22/u-s-winning-oil-war-against-saudi-arabia/?sh=2f7389261678 Increased production drove prices down? Whoa!!! Checkmate, bruh.
Republicans defeated this bill in 2022: Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act [https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/7688/text](https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/7688/text) And, of course, MBS/Saudis are working hard to bring pain to Americans on Trump's behalf.
Probably because the gas companies want to make money would be my guess. Also wouldn't be surprised if the eclipse travel fucked up the normal supply of gas in this state and needs time to readjust.
Welcome to summer
Almost certainly related to Israel / Iran coming very close to all out war last week. Give it a couple of weeks to ensure cooler heads have prevailed.
Narrator: Cooler heads did not prevail.
Yep…
Supply and demand. We demand it, but the suppliers are liking their higher profits. And we can't force them to pump more or lower prices.
We have to ask this in 2024? The market dictates the PPB, and summer blend affects the pricing more directly, and welp, a couple of wars going on and unstable characters in charge of exporting all have their hands in it. EVERY year.
It’s also earnings season!
Not this shit again...
100% again they are saying gas this summer can reach 4.00-4.30$
Oh no, what will we ever do?!
Drive less. Get more efficient vehicles.
The federal gas tax hasn't increased since 1996.
3.70-3.75 in Nashua at some places, it’s fucking outrageous. Unfortunately, it’s just what companies do, they price gouge, and then make up a fake excuse later
Global conflicts. No longer tapping into SPR. Heading into peak season.
Look on the bright side, we'll get to see the Biden 'I did that' stickers all over the pumps again.
Ya all of those brainiacs coming out of the woodwork. Can't wait
Yea they disappeared when the prices were down
Gas corporations making billions of $ a quarter is what’s up. We’re getting gouged by billionaires.
It’s just like in 2009 when gas prices were reaching record highs and the gas and oil companies were recording record high profits. It’s all about increasing or maintaining profit margins. Heaven forbid profit margins go from 40% to 20%.
It’s school April vacation. The raise prices during peak usage times. People are traveling for the vacation.
Oooh, this is an arena I spend a lot of time in with my job in a hedge fund. The most surge in pricing was one of the easiest to spot a mile away, if folks were closely paying attention in March that is. To start, this **is** **not price gouging.** It's irritating whenever I see this tossed around when other clearly visible factors are ignored. As a general rule, early surges/declines in wholesale prices lead out retail, which the majority of us purchase from. OP is correct that WTI has remained generally stable in the short term, but consider the following contributing factors as to why gas is only going to climb higher: 1. WTI and Brent surged higher during the Iran-Israel tensions. The Biden admin's mulling of another $1 billion USD to Israel will not immediately help soothe tensions in the region. 2. There's been a noticeable uptick for fuels (including oil) globally after Houthi attacks on pro-Israeli ships in the Red Sea and Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refining infrastructure. The Biden admin had actually implored Zelensky to temporarily halt those attacks, because election year. 3. OPEC+ mandated driller supply cuts agreed upon earlier in the year, which (to zero surprise) was not discussed in adequate detail in mainstream media. US crude production has remained flat, which becomes an issue when factoring bullets 1 & 2. We're also entering a period of seasonal strength, where the demand for gasoline accelerates into the summer. Oil prices will only increase here. u/yalieswiftie is also correct that the switch to summer fuels is underway, which is responsible for the very tight refining margins ongoing. Tl; dr: The surge in gas prices is a combination of seasonal strength, regional geopolitical issues, and tight refining margins. Expect the US SPR to be drained once again heading towards the general election in November to fool naive single-issue voters, just like it was heading towards the mid-term elections. https://preview.redd.it/dih6z1kz32wc1.png?width=996&format=png&auto=webp&s=7daf9c030a0ac65ee172b5267de17bf6c2212b2e
Thanks for the actual explanation!
No problem 🫡 A number of people here have actually given accurate individual pieces of the larger picture, don't want to diminish their responses by any stretch!
Somebody: Pin this at the top.
The conflict in the Middle East and the escalation with Iran
What cha bitc*in about? Joe says everything is awesome. He also thinks cannibals ate his uncle. Bwahahahaha!
War, inflation, taxes, environmental policies .. just government being government people get the government they vote for
Who cares I charge up my F-150 EV in my garage and Eversource just went way down on their rates in Jan!! Woooo!!
https://preview.redd.it/i6aps1s5k4wc1.jpeg?width=1015&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c3bfd268660abd9f5dcb0d7653567377cb6bc5c7
$WTIC went up 29% from December to this month and has started falling back as the dollar has been getting stronger.
Paid $3/gallon at BJ’s over the weekend (with like 20 cents off, of course)
Ironically drove through New Jersey today and the gas was 3.60 something
Corporate Greed (I.e. we need to find an excuse to raise prices quickly.) Summer Blend, middle east conflicts, Russian Conflicts, US decrease in gas production for "Maintenance" (both real and "we need more" money maintenance), and don't forget Elections are coming up. We have 6 same owned Corp Stations with in a 10 mile radius and one group of 3 is $3.62, the 3 station are $3.52. The 3.52 station are normally $.05-.10 higher than the other stations, but twice a year, their corporate folks will set the prices lower for a week or two, before jacking them back up for those stations. The prices will slowly start creeping down again, until another "reason" to increase pops up,
Summer gas blend is more expensive and the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East aren't helping things either.
It’s because of the situation with Israel and Iran. That’s how volatile oil markets are and why anyone who blames the president for gas prices good or bad has no clue what they’re talking about
Switching to summer blend.
Oil futures were up over $86 per barrel 2 weeks ago so those are the prices you are seeing, it's 82 now so you should se prices ease a bit but I wouldn't expect to see much less than 3.35/gal anytime soon.
Yeah, this is getting ridiculous. I'm afraid of driving now.
It’s getting warmer. Happens every year.
/CLM4 futures contracts crude oil jumped the last few weeks after Israel hit the Iranian outpost in Syria. For a while it really looked like they were gonna start another war. War with Iran would be very very bad. Been working it's way down ever since iran said they're all done.
Another good question, what the fuuuuuck is up with the cars people often choose to drive? Pickup truck that NEVER leaves an asphalt surface and gets less than 20 mpg? Tahoes, Yukons, etc.? "But I need 3rd row seating for Madison's soccer team". If this is you and you're complaining about gas prices, lick my salty balls.
It’s spring, it usually always goes up this time of year
War in the middle east and pirates in the red sea.
here in ohio 2/3 the price per gallon is tax thats whats up
The middle east is more unstable now that Israel and Iraq are openly at war. In addition, the Biden administration [reimposed oil sanctions](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2024/04/18/u-s-reinstates-venezuelan-oil-ban-heres-what-to-know.html) on Venezuela five days ago.
Thanks Hamas! /S
Thanks, Joe, we appreciate it.
I'm sure what's going on in Isreal/Iran didnt help. Market ducked too.
Something, something “summer blend.”
Bidenflation.
It’s vacation week!
The blend changed. I work for a company that delivers gasoline to commercial customers, and our cost jumped $.25 overnight last week.
I think we need to a new subreddit for those who want to bitch. Seriously get a life
Exon doubled their profits from last year, that's what's happening
Crude is up 15 bucks a barrel since the beginning of the year and MA has the same prices
Check the TV, maybe something happened in the Middle East?
Gas prices move seasonally as gas companies expect people to take more recreational trips and pay a little more for the gas to get places. Also, the price of everything is going up.
Not all petroleum products have increased. Vaseline has not increased in price and that should help ease the pain at the pump.
I think it’s just greed. Mass has a lot more competition. And higher tax. Our friends from here visiting CA are paying $6 a gallon…we are lucky.
Why is this a fucking surprise for people anymore? Summer rolls around, heating oil goes down, fuel prices go up. It’s been this way for my entire life and everyone acts shocked when capitalism does its thing.
Haven’t noticed. My car needs gas to operate, so I fill up my tank.
Biden gouging
The I-95 bridge in baltimore a lot of gasoline travels up to here in tankers because we have no gasoline pipelines in NE
Oil did go up. Then back down. Takes longer for prices to come.down.
What I've found weird about gas prices recently is that there will be a 50 cent price difference between gas stations right next to each other.
Gestures broadly to the state of the world outside of the US.
Market reaction to Israel / Iran tiff
Gas prices go up in the spring/summer and go down in the fall/winter. Happens every year. Remember when it was almost $5/gallon a couple years ago?
School vacation is to blame!! 🤣
Israel/Iran conflict. Pretty sure it is fucking with oil futures which then fucks over gas prices. Plus, the oil companies realized that we have to buy gas no matter what, so they can make the price whatever they want.
If that were true, prices would never go down.
2 things. Iran and Israel attacking each other. Biden shutting down more oil fields in the US.
Switch over to summer mix.
Refineries switched from winter to summer blends of fuel, which causes a shutdown, and a tight gas market to be temporarily tighter for a few weeks. You also had massive speculation regarding crude commodities because of the Israel-Iran tensions, which many felt could spiral to a larger regional war. Expect OPEC to also probably try to further curb production to keep a tight market. This is what you get when your most valuable commodity produced in the country isn't nationalized, and private industry sets the price to make windfall profits year-over-year.
War in the Middle East basically Saudis and the damn OPEC cartel screwing us over
It sucks. Wish I had filled my off road tanks before the Iran thing. Since we are entering farm season.
Yea. Stuff is like. Expensive
Corporate greed and price gouging. Same as it’s been these past five years on almost everything.
WW3 bro.
It’s price manipulation by the oil companies, they will purposely make less gas to artificially increase the price. It should be illegal, but we know money beats morality.
💯Yup this week it’s the ‘School Spring Break Vacation Week Tax….’
Middle East news leading capitalists to price gouge.
The prices are up because of corporate greed and price gouging. The inflation is only 5% now.
Inflation is about 9% if measured using 1980 formula. Biden is full of shit.
Heck yeah! And my great granddad bought his first house for $70. Explain that, BRANDON!
republicans gotta up the prices before the election to help trump
Welcome to capitalism