WE all get sticker shock when we fill our cars with gas…..the prices just keep rising and we keep feeding the problem that is causing this situation…..with out some relief this will be a major issue in the elections…..

The average gas price in the US hit an eye-watering $5 a gallon Saturday, and analysts say the record-breaking price is a massive problem for President Biden and his admnistration ahead of the midterm elections—especially since relief could be a long time away. Recent polls show that an overwhelming majority of voters consider inflation a very serious problem and almost half of them say Biden has “a lot” of responsibilty for it, the Hill reports. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm recently said that with “such a demand and supply mismatch on the global market for oil,” it could be fall or winter before prices return to $4 a gallon or less.

Analysts say inflation has played a major role in lowering Biden’s approval rating, which now stands at just 38%, according to a Marist poll released Thursday. Matt Bennett at the Third Way think tank tells the Hill that part of the problem is that many Americans don’t realize how little control the president has over day-to-day gas prices. “I think he needs to get caught trying to do everything possible,” Bennett says. “Haul the CEOs of the oil companies in to the White House and demand that they tell him exactly what they need to get production up in the short term.”

Biden toured the port of Los Angeles Friday and promised that his admnistration will continue to do “everything we can to lower the prices for the American people,” the AP reports. He blamed corporate profits for surging inflation and said ExxonMobil in particular should focus on boosting production instead of maximizing profits. “Exxon made more money than God this year,” he said.

Now the question remains to be asked….just who sets the gas prices?

If you haven’t been paying attention, gas prices are up. This has happened before, to the great detriment of every corner of the economy but gas prices, and it will happen again. Why, exactly, does this keep happening?

As YouTube analyst Climate Town explains, the answer is complicated. So complicated, in fact, that there is no single person you can point to, throwing a lever and setting prices absolutely. Quite the contrary. There is a cartel that throws a big lever to set gas prices, but even they face factors out of their control. Gas prices correlate most directly to the price of crude oil, so the biggest factor in that price is instead fluctuations in the geopolitical landscape and world economy that have an effect on both supply and demand.

That does not mean nobody has any direct hand in the price of oil, though. While the world’s general reliance on oil for just about everything mean that demand is almost entirely hard wired to the state of the world, supply is certainly open to manipulation. That leaves room for the people actually getting that oil out of the ground, both multi-national oil companies and the OPEC+ cartel that directly manipulates supply out of nations with nationalized oil reserves, to keep prices artificially high in order to maximize profit along that curve. OPEC should be familiar to any car audience. It was OPEC cutting off America from its supply of oil that triggered the gas crisis of 1973. OPEC+ now includes Russia as well, but it’s not like Russia has been doing anything big in the world of politics, war, or the control of oil lately!

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a40243822/so-who-actually-sets-gas-prices/

We are the culprits.  Our gas guzzlers are the problem.  If you will not change your habits then I say suck it up.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”