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Posted by LifeRiot Promoted 105 days 4 hours ago 3967 views
editorial
Informative / Informative General
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Remember back in the day when you could get 4 gallons of gas for 5 bucks? It wasn’t that far back, and now the national average is $3.83 a gallon. If you’re anything like me, you are probably a tad bit angry that your wallet is being harassed by high prices.
There are many reasons why gas prices are so high nowadays. Our economy is bad enough as it is, and now we have to worry about paying for gas to get to a job that is probably not secure either. While gas prices are so high, more money is put away for gas instead of other things.
High gas prices affect our economy because we are spending more money on gas, and less money on other business. Businesses lose out on profit because we simply can’t afford to go and buy their products. Jobs are lost and people suffer due to the price of gas being too expensive.
Now what makes gasoline prices vary is the current political state of the world and most importantly supply and demand. The idea of a rich and corrupt Oil president charging high prices because he hates you isn’t true, although they do make a lot of money out of it. A retiring OPEC CEO, Lee Raymond, received a $400 million dollar retirement package. I am still hoping for a gold watch when that day comes.
You may wonder where your money goes when you are at the pump. Some of you may even be mad at the gas station and blame them for the prices. A dollar in gas is divided in to four different areas. The first area is taxes the government takes out. They take 15% of your dollar alone. This may seem very high, but be glad you don’t drive in England. The government there charges 78% tax on gas. I’d tell you how much a gallon is there, but I’m expressing my anger of gas here, not there.
You can’t pour crude oil in to your tank and expect to drive, although that would be pretty cool. Crude oil must be refined in to gasoline through many processes which gives us that golden or clear liquid that powers our cars. The refining cost is about 24% of what you have to pay for when you are at the pump.
Distribution and marketing account for about 9% of the cost of gas. Unlike in science fiction, we can’t teleport gas from tank to tank. Oil is moved from refineries and then the gas is transported and made available for sale at your local gas station. This isn’t a cheap thing to do, which is why you have to pay.
The crude oil takes up the majority of the cost. 52% of what you pay for is the crude oil. There isn’t just one type of oil either. If you ever watch any of those 24 hour news channels, they update trading prices on different kinds of oils. Light or heavy crude and sour or sweet crude are the kinds of crude oils. So when you see that heavy, sour crude oil traded for $135 per barrel, you can smile because you know what it means. Then you can be shocked that it’s that much money.
The service station only gets a small percentage of the money you spend at the pump. A small percent is added on by the service station you get the gas from. Usually a few cents on the gallon is what they take off of your dollar. You can’t expect them to just give out all that gas and just bank off cigarettes can you? I didn’t think so.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) controls about 40% of the world’s oil. Two of the member countries, Iran and Venezuela, are enemies of the current leader of the United States, President George W. Bush. If they wanted to they could stop selling us any oil at all.
Hurricane Katrina was a disaster for America in the south, but it was also a disaster for oil. Katrina destroyed oil rigs, oil pipelines and damaged oil refineries which caused gas prices across America to sore. Some stations near the effected area charged upwards of $7 a gallon.
After 9/11 gas prices at service stations skyrocketed overnight because of the thought that supplies would be severely hit. When the gas stations realized that gas wasn’t damaged, they dropped prices back down to normal levels and were hit with fines for price gauging, but that still left many people who rushed to fill their tanks up ripped off because they had the same worry as the service stations.
If the President signed a bill to make cars minimum MPG (Miles per Gallon) ratio to be that of 45 MPG then America wouldn’t even need to depend on OPEC for oil at all. Seeing as the President loves oil and would baptize children in it if he had the chance, a 45 MPG average car looks out of sight at the moment. This is why we have to learn ways to not be so dependent on oil.
Alternative fuels that take the place of oil should be brought in to a more mainstream light. Ethanol and bio-diesel are fuels being used right now that are clean burning and better for the environment. Even better are electric cars that don’t use oil at all and in my opinion should be the only thing produced for driving, but that’s me.
Seeing as you are paying so much for gas and can’t afford one of these alternative methods of fuel yet, there are other ways you can go about not using so much gas. Many times when a person uses their car, it is to go somewhere close to home. Do you really need to take your car to the corner-store to get a bottle of water? Take a walk or ride a bike up to the corner and get it.
Driving more efficiently also uses less gas. Don’t be that guy that goes 60 mph to beat someone to a red light. Gas mileage usually reduces at speeds of over 60 mph; this is why paying attention to speed limits should be common sense.
You ever notice that little cruise control button on your steering wheel? Use it when you are on the highway. It keeps you at a constant speed and for most cars, and will help save you gas. Plus for those lazy people out there, you don’t have to keep your foot on the pedal the whole time.
Keeping that extra weight in the car will also cost your gas tank. 100 pounds of extra weight could kill 2% of your MPG efficiency. So if you think keeping that extra engine in the trunk or driving around your fat Great Aunt Rita is beneficial for your car, you’re wrong. Sorry Rita.
To be honest, paying 3 dollars a gallon for gas is still pretty cheap. I know put down the weapons, but seriously, compared to Europe we are living the life. I know I said wouldn’t tell you how much England is paying, but I lied. Our friends across the lake are paying over 6 dollars a gallon. If this happened in America, I am sure there would be a few movies made on The Discovery Channel about that terrible time in American history. A time where we had to pay so much money for a gallon of gas instead of walking or biking places. Did I also mention that America is one of the fattest countries in the world?
We do need gas, and yes, to us gas is expensive, but we need to be less dependent. Don’t drive if you’re going somewhere very close. If we all decreased our impact then I’m sure gas prices could drop because of less demand. Unfortunately, due to the amount of people who can’t get enough of driving everywhere in their 8 MPG SUV’s, this objective could be much harder to achieve.
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