What do you think is the reason that the price of oil and gasoline has gone up so much in the US?

The debasement of the US dollar. coupled with increased demand and lack of refining capacity.What do you think is the reason that the price of oil and gasoline has gone up so much in the US?
Because the price has gone up everywhere, including for the oil companies themselves. The present problem is a shortage of 'light sweet crude,' a variety of petroleum from which you can easily get a lot of gasoline. You can extract gasoline from other sorts of crude oil, but it's more expensive to do so.





But there are shortages of everything, including rice, copper, corn, and fresh water. We may be experiencing the first symptoms of overpopulation.What do you think is the reason that the price of oil and gasoline has gone up so much in the US?
For over 30 years we've been blocked by Congress ( bought and paid for by the Enviromentalists ) from building new refineries or modernizing old ones.


Our refineries can't keep up with demand so we have to import refined oil products at much higher costs,that includes gasoline.


Add in that drilling new wells is also a NO-NO and we're screwed.


Add in world wide demand and we're even more screwed.





Congress's answer,'; Conserve,until we find a miracle fuel to replace gasoline.';


To help you conserve they'll raise taxes.
Demand exceeds supply, it has nothing to do with the President. We the consumers are partially to blame (big cars, wasteful driving practices such as driving too fast and taking unnecessary trips). The Liberals are also partially to blame, they won't allow new drilling in a lot of oil rich areas (including areas where Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela are drilling, off our shores) they will also not permit nuclear reactors (but the Navy has been using them for years without any accidents). Also, the value of the dollar has an effect, the dollar has been dropping due to poor decisions by lots of people, such as buying homes and cars they can't afford and not paying their debts. So to answer your question, we are all to blame (but most people want to blame someone else).
Three main reasons:


1) Steadily increasing demand both here in the US and with the emerging markets of China and India.


2) Oil speculators heavy investment in oil futures have driven up the price


3) The weak US dollar abroad. The US dollar use to be the international currency. It is slowly being replaced by the Euro.
The combination of the devalued US dollar and the futures market. Also, there are only 5 major oil companies in the U.S. The government should break them up to cause more competition between them. Right now, they just all charge about the same based on OPEC rather than finding ways of generating energy in cheaper ways.
because the Middle East oil giants can do whatever they want. In addition, I really believe - despite US presence at various places throughout the Middle East - that the entire Middle East has said ';enough'; regarding Iraq and Afghanistan. I believe they have no intention of producing more oil no matter what we want. It's all a matter of supply and demand at this point. Bigger stronger countries need petro also. the Middle Easts does not have to depend on us anymore. Thus, they do as they please.





added:


we all know by now that bush went about the Iraq invasion all WRONG. under different leadership we could well have negotiated with Hussein rather than going in and causing the continual deaths of tens of thousands of innocents. Those people hate us. - They did not greet us with roses, and they never will.
I definitely blame Bush for this one. Anti-war groups have said from day one that this war is all about how much oil Bush can obtain from the Middle East. Not saying that I believe it, but I highly suspect that the high monetary amounts people are paying are going to fund this war, which by the way, we're never going to win.
Because a former Texas oilman is currently in the White House, so they can get away with jacking gas prices up as much as they want.





http://www.usatoday.com/money/energy/200鈥?/a>





http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=18419鈥?/a>
Because it's getting harder and harder to find oil so it's getting more expensive by the barrel. Hense, the reason we're paying 4 dollars a gallon.
Oil speculators on Wall Street. OPEC's current strategy. Value of the dollar on the currency market. Collusion among oil companies. Lack of honesty in Congress.
Anti U.S. Interests (Arab %26amp; OPEC) are creating a false shortage to drive the price of crude up in order to crush the U.S. economy. Here's yer sign...(shhhh)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil
1) Rise in demand while supply stagnant





2) Commodity speculators.
Liberal Democratic environmentalists and the Global environmentalist movement.
g. w. b.
It's pretty obvious that OPEC is intent on bringing everyone to their knees!