$1.83 for Regular - Kinda Blows the Gas Price Control theory...

[CatBO]

I filled up my Prius today at a gas station in South Carolina for $1.83.

*****$1.freaking.83********

I remember when we used to worry that "they" (who are they anyway) would tank the price of gas just prior to the election in order to get people to continue to vote Republican.

Now that Obama is President-elect, my gas cost dropped to the lowest it's been since ... around when Clinton was in office.

Hmmm. What gives?

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Still well over $2 around here in Maine. It's lower, but certainly not "low."

[Deja Q]

2. Deflation? Economic fisticuffs against OPEC? Dick Cheney sneezed but had his nitro pills AND hanky?

:shrug:

Granted, prices haven't been this low since 9/11 -- and seem more-or-less appropriate, if not perhaps a tad low?

[ingac70]

3. .....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12400801/

[flstci]

4. Less than $1.70 here. N/T

[w4rma]

5. The oil companies are scared of being nationalized. (nt)

[aquart]

16. Nationalize them anyway.

[Ecumenist]

6. CatBO, I've never believed that the crap that suddenly appeared

about the world being in the state of peak oil as their way of explaining the ridiculous pricing of gas under b*sh. I've always believe that that was what was being manipulated. Folks overseas were saying that the entire time that we were being gouged by our own government and I've always believed it.

[kid a]

7. $1.99 Billings MT - High of 4.19 in July

[enlightenment]

8. OPEC hasn't had their meeting yet.

http://www.domain-b.com/industry/oil_gas/20081115_opec.html

OPEC meet to discuss production cut as oil prices tumble news
15 November 2008


The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which is schedule to meet on 29 November at Cairo, is proposing to cut production by a further 1 million barrels a day, as prices have tumbled in spite of the 1.5 million barrels a day cut announced earlier.

OPEC, feeling the pinch of the downward spiral in crude prices, which has fallen to $57 from a high of $147 a barrel in July down $90 a barrel, as of yesterday, has now called for a full member meet although the scheduled meet was only for select Arab member states.

As prices have fallen to a 21-month low, OPEC is grappling with the problem of crude slipping below the $50 mark as global demand slows down amidst an ongoing economic slowdown.

<snip>

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

Decrease in demand

[Blue_In_AK]

9. It just FINALLY got below $3 here.

[Greyhound]

10. $2.39 here n/t

[Liberal Veteran]

11. My theory is that we were gouged and the oil companies know that it won't be tolerated anymore.

[CatBO]

13. That's kind of where I was heading in my mind...

But many other interesting theories and causes have been brought up in this thread too. Good answers & food for thought all around.

[TexasObserver]

12. Don't worry. Your Thanksgiving "goose" is on the way from Big Oil.

Gasoline prices now reflect both the huge decline in the price of oil, and the decline in demand.

[flstci]

18. Sure hope it doesn't go back up. I have a driving vacation planned

for the first of December. When I first planned this trip for the fam gas was almost $4.00/gallon. We'll be able to boost the economy with the gas savings if it stays down! LOL

[TexasObserver]

20. Oh, I think it will stay down in the near term, in the two dollar range.

But it will increase over the holidays, as holiday travel increases.

[readmoreoften]

14. The economists seem to think its low demand from a sinking global economy.

[aquart]

19. Because they've been right about so much so far.

[LisaLynne]

15. Personally, I think they might have gotten scared by ...

people talking about alternatives and the amount that people were suddenly cutting back on gas. They don't want us finding out that we can actuall conserve something ... :eyes:

[dkofos]

17. $1.83 in Plano Tx.

The economy needs this boost. Look at what you spent 2 months ago
and divide by 2. That is money in your pocket.
Spend it wisely.

Buy American if you can.

[yella_dawg]

21. Waiting for a "catastrophe" to boost the price.

One pundit who watches these things suggests that present economic uncertainty may delay the "crisis" until after the first of the year. Enjoy it while you can.

[DJ13]

22. The commodity traders got out of the NYMEX when oil collapsed below $100

What were seeing now is the true price of oil minus those quick buck traders who were touting the peak oil bullcrap.

[Hawkowl]

27. Anti-speculation regulation passed

Oil started to come down immediately once anti-speculation rules were passed with the 2008 farm bill. Speculators were using arbitrage, different markets across the world, to bid against themselves and actually keep the price increasing across the world on a 24/7 basis. The farm bill put new regulations in place so that these speculators had to identify themselves so that this artificial price inflation couldn't continue. There were other anti-speculation measures in the new law, but that is the gist in a nutshell.

And if you are thinking, "hey! Could that be what has happened to mortgage backed securities and their derivatives?" You may be right.

[INdemo]

23. What happen?......oil speculators stopped buying oil contracts

because they know that President Obama will enforce the regulations tied to the oil commodities..
I cannot understand why propane gas is still so high..
In our area its $2.29 gal.....

[goforit]

24. Yes Supply and Demand trumps Price control. No jobs= less demand. And

Less demand = less profit = lower price

[marlakay]

25. Oil companies are just freaked with may get rid

of our big cars and sucking us in again for another year or so...just long enough to try and stop all the green car stuff...

[Kahuna]

26. A new sherriff's in town! That's what's up with that. nt

[AlCzervik]

28. Don't get used it, i still plan trips like it is $4.25 a gallon.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

29. My guess is that many oil speculators were wiped up with the crashing Dow

and took their money out of the oil market.

[baldguy]

30. The oil cartel doesn't want a full=blown Congressional investigation of their business practices.

[heidler1]

31. The willingness for big oil to drill for oil becomes a bigger gamble, as the price drops,

[DU GrovelBot]

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[tjwash]

33. And yet we haven't "drilled here, and drilled now" or fucked up ANWR either.

Interesting eh?

I started a thread a few months ago on how oil and gold were the new investment bubbles and got soundly poo-pooed off the board.

[johnaries]

34. Remember the Carter energy initiatives.

As long as gas prices were high, there was widespread public support for conservation and alternative energy. Then oil and gas prices dropped, and the initiatives were forgotten.

Obviously, they are hoping for history to repeat itself.

edit to add: Obviously, since the prices have dropped so dramatically there was no supportable "natural" reason for the prices to have gone so high in the first place. This only reinforces the "price control theory" instead of refuting it.