People are finally getting to see the results of consolidation in the gas refinery business. The results are high gas prices that will stay there for a long time. But there are other factors too.
One, put a leash on these oil market speculators. Every time somebody hiccups they raise the price of oil. Oil is not the problem, refinement of the oil into gasoline, is the bottle neck.
Two, every State has its own laws concerning blends for gas as per EPA standards. So many different batches of blends must be made and this is very time consuming and costly.
Three, taxes.
Blame the SUV gas hogs of the road.
Please...get off that.
Yes SUV's and other models could get better gas mileage, but the same thing happened in the early 80's. All, and I mean all car makers were making V8 horsepower, that's what the people wanted, with the exception of Honda & Toyota they were making little cars with 4 cylinders that had no horsepower, but did sip gas.
When gas prices shot up then, everybody scrambled to get rid of the gas hogs and wanted gas sippers thus leaving the car makers to scramble to install the V6, better gas mileage and more horsepower than the 4 cylinder, but everything was small cramped and crowded.
Enter the late 80's to early 90's. Gas prices had come back down and people wanted room and horsepower again. They were tired of the Pinto Wagon they wanted a real wagon. A people hauler, not a sardine can on wheels. Thus the SUV was born.
And now here we are again with big horsepower and big gas prices.
Now a days people want to bash the SUV as the real problem for high gas prices. Wrong, the government, the states, the EPA, the CEO's, the speculators, the stock market are all to blame for this mess. And yes it is a mess that is only going to get worse.
And yes cars & trucks could get better gas mileage, but where is the real blame?
Blame consolidation.
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