- Joined
- Jun 10, 2009
- Messages
- 27,254
- Reaction score
- 9,350
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Liberal
And since the thread is about gas prices in the US......
But anyway, the reason gas prices are high is because we are closing refineries since the supply is outstripping demand, speculation on the oil market, supply disruptions in Africa, and Iranian sanctions on oil contracts.
The biggest factor in gasoline prices worldwide is the cost of oil. As we have seen since the 90's, oil prices keep going up as the world demand approaches the world supply levels of cheap oil.
World demand is increasing faster than its cheap supplies of oil. The US military warned in 2010 there could be serious shortages as soon as 2015. As we get closer and closer to that peak in demand/supply, anything that threatens disruption in the middle east, where most of the cheap oil is located, causes speculator spikes in the already high prices we pay at the pump.