Okay, here comes the truth about petrol (gas) prices
By MichaelJay
@MichaelJay (1100)
July 22, 2008 3:19am CST
What a surprise! As the cost of fuel has rocketed, people are buying less of it!
And does that suit the greedy oil barons?
No, it does not.
And now, a price war!
Read more here
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20080722/tuk-supermarkets-launch-fuel-price-war-6323e80.html
Do they think we are all morons? The price is still monstrous but they expect us to fall at their feet with gratitude.
Suppliers should be boycotted, one by one, in turn, till they cut the costs. People power - still I suppose it's just too inconvenient for most people and they'll be grateful for these few scraps of comfort.
3 people like this
13 responses
@Celanith (2327)
• United States
22 Jul 08
There is no gas wars here where I live or not yet anyway. As to crude oil and extracting it. The USA has lots and lots and lots of capped oil wells in several states, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Alaska and others. Bush has finally ordered more done about it. It does take time but we have so much oil if US had been refining it 20 years ago as they should have been doing we would not at all be needing Middle East Oil barrels. We are not about to run out. Don't know why US sat on it and have not utilized it or refined other than hoping to have the middle east run out and then say oh we have lots and now it is our turn to gouge everyone. Greed is what it about not running out. We are not running out at all. Far from it. It is just plain pure greed and we don't have public transportation in Rural America or small town America even.
@wherethegoodgo (16)
• Canada
22 Jul 08
Many of you who believe we have more fossil fuel then we can use are not realistic. We live in a finite world with finite resources so how can you say we have enough oil. If we have so much oil then why are we recovering oil from the tar-sands of Canada. That is some of the most expensive oil in the world so why would any company go after the hard to get and expensive oil if there was easier oil they could get? They must be pretty stupid companies to go after expensive oil when there is (like you say)we have lots.
It is a scary prospect to realise we are running out of oil, but sticking our heads in the tar-sands and saying we have lots of oil is not going to change the fact that we only have a certain amount of oil on our planet and it is will run out. Don't be scared to face reality, because before you can deal with a problem you have to acknowledge it.
@Celanith (2327)
• United States
24 Jul 08
wherethegoodgo
We have a infinite God I know that, Maybe your someone who does not believe it but I do. He is able to do ANYTHING he wants to do including create more tar-pools if he chooses. He is a creator and able to preserve or even re-create things and this world is not going to continue as we know it. All the signs he and his son spoke of in the bible are showing we are in the end times. I have faith and we are not going to need that oil at all. Did you know God plans to burn up the old earth and heavens and create new ones? He can do that and not touch or harm a human soul or even animals if he wants. We have plenty of oil to last until we won't need it. So stop hugging the earth and trees. God is in control and he is able to take care of things in his way and in his time. I trust him way above the leaders of this world.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
22 Jul 08
You can't boycott them all Michael of you'll not have fuel yourself! However, this is not the answer either. This has nothing to do with helping the consumer but is a cynical attempt to bribe us into the stores. Naturally it will work. Fact is that the people making the most from this is you and I from the tax that we pay. However, I would prefer to have a direct say in what I do with my money so would prefer to have the tax cut. Even that is not the long term answer. Oil is increasingly hard to find and extract. We need to start thinking harder about improved public transport and renewable energy sources. Forget petrol, gas could be costing us £200 a month by this time next year!
3 people like this
@MichaelJay (1100)
•
22 Jul 08
I'm not saying we should boycott them all. Start with Shell, say, and everybody stay away from them for a month. That would hit them in the pocket. When Shell bring their prices down out of desparation to keep their bosses rich, start on BP and do the same thing.
And so on!
Last of all, start on the supermarkets one by one. Leave them till last because they do make SOME effort to get us in....
2 people like this
@desertdarlene (8910)
• United States
22 Jul 08
I don't know how it is in the UK, exactly, but where I live, it's impossible to get around without a car. I used to take public transportation and it's so expensive and takes so long compared to driving my own car that it's not worth it. That's not to mention the safety factor. I've calculated costs and it's more expensive taking public transit in my city than driving and paying for my own car.
That said, it would be difficult for most people here to boycott the oil companies and not drive or drive that much less. People in my state have cut down quite a bit on their driving, but they can't cut it out totally. And, the oil companies know that, so that's why they aren't budging, much, on their prices. I saw on television that, after we adjust for inflation, we are paying twice as much for gas as we did during the oil embargo in the 1970s.
@gemini_rose (16264)
•
22 Jul 08
The supermarkets are all entering into the price wars again at the minute, thanks to Aldi seeing a profit increase all the other supermarkets are panicking because their coffers may be slightly threatened!
I think that it is a cheek, spend £50 and get so much off petrol, I guess that it is fine for those that shop there, but I dont so it would cost me more! And yes they do make it seem like they are doing us a favour and that we should be grateful but as I see it, the only ones that benefit out of it are the supermarkets and not us.
3 people like this
@buzzmaker (630)
• India
22 Jul 08
The petrol or any other fuel prices depend on the price of crude oil. Most of these fuels are extracted from crude oil. The crude oil prices have shot up recently but it has absolutely nothing to do with the demand - supply ratio. This is my personal opinion.
The demand supply ratio doesn't change over night. The crude is traded on almost every major stock exchange and the speculators are very much responsible for the crude price hike. Of course there are many other issues to support them like wars, inter national politics etc.
But I think that the prices are majorly speculated.
3 people like this
@carolscash (9492)
• United States
25 Jul 08
I agree with you. Something needs to be done about the gas prices, the suppliers are making billions of dollars in profits and yet the average person is suffering and stretching their budgets to the place that they are ready to snap.
I believe that it would do a lot of good if the consumers would just stop buying gas for awhile. I know that it would be hard to do things without driving every day but we would not have to boycott them long until it would effect their pockets like they have ours and then the prices would go down.
@elmiko (6630)
• United States
23 Jul 08
The oil companies intrest is not just oil. I'm pretty sure they got investments in all kinds of markets and they can make money everywhere just by raising the price of oil. There very greedy and they don't want alternatives until theirs an absolute must for it.
1 person likes this
@twallace (2675)
• United States
22 Jul 08
This is really something that the price of gas is this way right now. It would be nice if they did reduce the price some. Yet this has changed the way that some people are driving too. Carpooling and if you don't have to drive don't; there is nothing wrong with that. Right now I think that all of the world is feeling the crunch of the gas issue and hopefully it will get better sooner or later. It can't say they way that it is right now. Something has to give one way or another.
2 people like this
@newzealtralian (3930)
• Australia
25 Jul 08
Apparently in Australia, petrol prices are set to fall by at least 13cents per litre!!!!!!!! Wow! That will bring our prices down to about $1.25 per litre, depending on where you get it from.
I guess prices can only go up so far before consumers do start to boycott, and that would mean then there is an oversupply of fuel and no one wanting it, so they would have to drop the prices in order to keep making money themselves.
In Saudi Arabia, they pay the equivalent of 9cents per litre for their petrol. That is US cents by the way. Talk about having cheap petrol,but they are the world's biggest oil producers after all.
@stagewhisper (901)
• United States
22 Jul 08
I'm slowly working on weaning myself off of having to buy gas by practicing biking every day. Eventually I hope to have enough endurance to ride my bike/walk/take the bus to work and school consistently. 
I love my car, but the poor baby's not going to go out for any long drives until the gas prices are checked. And if that never happens, well... then I guess it never happens.
I love my car, but the poor baby's not going to go out for any long drives until the gas prices are checked. And if that never happens, well... then I guess it never happens.2 people like this
@inia_54 (175)
• Malaysia
23 Jul 08
I think there is a blessing indisguise over the high coat of fuel. Rather than blaming and condemning the oil suppliers, we should come out with new the inventions and technologies that can reduce the usage of fuel or maybe do not require fuel at all. We should have the think tank amongst scientists, inventors, engineers and manufactures. Recently, a local company in my country has come out with a new technology called hydrofuel that can reduce 40% consumption of petrol in cars. I think this is a good start. We should have more of such inventions to fight the greedy oil barons!
@abetole (221)
• India
23 Jul 08
We should anticipate further rise in the fuel prices. Many of us feel that the oil companies - by creating artificial scarcity - are the primary cause of the current price hikes.
Notably, self-identified democrats and republicans throughout the world have indicated a strong readiness to go "hybrid" , with many of them think that they would consider buying a hybrid car in the next purchase.
I also think that we are running out of fossils and there can be an "actual" scarcity of fuel. Biofuel is one of the ways to overcome this problem.
