This past year was one of the most volatile years for gas prices. Although prices currently seem to be settling at relative lows for the year, we can’t forget that we also saw record highs in 2012. These “lows” aren’t really low – frequent price spikes caused us to become accustomed to paying too much for gas. So what made us numb to high gas prices? Here are the highlights of the year (in no particular order):
- It may seem like a distant memory at this point, but January of 2012 saw the highest gas prices ever recorded for the start of a new year. The reason? Well that depends on who you ask. Some claimed it was caused by signs of an “economic recovery.” Others blamed escalating tensions with Iran and others accused increasing global demand. Reading this Jan. 16, 2012 CNN article, it appears to be pretty clear that nearly anything can be (and was) blamed for high prices.
- If January wasn’t bad enough for families trying to get by on a budget, February was even worse. Gas prices spiked 8 percent, but at least this time the media seemed to have a culprit to pin the increase on – Iran. Well, sort of. Analysts still blamed refinery issues, increased demand and all the usual suspects, but were putting increased emphasis on tensions with Iran.
- Were you unfortunate enough to live in or drive your car through California during March or October of this year? If so, you may have been the victim of an illegal price-fixing collusion scheme by oil companies that resulted in record-high gas prices. In some cases, prices were rising so fast that station owners stopped buying new gas from oil companies, out of the fear that they wouldn’t be able to sell the fuel to customers at an outrageous price of $5 a gallon.
- But just because you weren’t in California doesn’t mean you missed that gas-price-spike phenomenon. The country’s largest metropolitan area, New York City, and its surrounding environs, including Long Island and nearly the entire states of New Jersey and Connecticut, suffered from steep fuel price spikes as a result of Hurricane Sandy.
- If you took a summer road trip, you may not have been so happy either. July 2012 saw the largest gas price increase in at least a dozen years. Wedged between Memorial Day and Labor Day, it’s rare to see such price increases for a month when many people are on vacation, therefore not commuting to work on a daily basis. At least this time analysts seemed to be in agreement on who to blame – ourselves, for driving too much.
- Another first for high gas prices was achieved this year – the most expensive September ever. Even though drivers were told to expect lower prices after Labor Day, as is usually the case, Hurricane Isaac provided the perfect excuse to keep gas prices high.
While 2011 currently holds the title for the most expensive year ever for gas prices, there is still just over a week left in 2012. Considering all that we’ve endured at the pump this year, and the increasing amount of excuses we hear to justify making us empty our wallets in order to fill up our tanks, we may have a new winner.
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gas price
There is one and only one cause for iur gas prices to be as high as they are, and that is pure greed. The oil companies are catering to their pockets and their stock holders pockets. And no one gives a darn about the rest of us Americans that have to work sometimes 2 jobs to put food on the table or gas in the car to be able to get to work.. Sometimes this year it has come down to that choice for some of us and that is absolutely rediculous. To have to choose between putting gas in the car to get to work or food on the table to feed the famlly.. Thank God for food banks…
Oil Prices
Would the price of oil be less volatile if oil were not traded as a commodity?
Perhaps, but given the nature of the oil market and the fact that we are dependent on it for transportation we have few options to control how it is traded. The real solution is to allow for alternative fuels to compete on equal footing with oil so that through fuel choice we will no longer be dependence on just one source, oil, for our fuel needs.
So What Is?
We all know the excuses, but what is the real reason. Like Paul asked I thought it was the fact that it was a traded commodity. Or we don’t have enough refineries, one being shut down. The Gulf of Mexico being shut down. Unrest in the middle east. China buying up all oil. Or, all of the above. But really, your saying the lack of competition?
Outrageously criminally high gas prices
Serious need to investigate, accuse and arrest those responsible. Treat them as if they committed treason against the United States. This is not a gasoline issue it is a national security issue. We need to be swimming in gasoline which we do have in abundance but which politicians refuse to access. Give them a fair trial, and then march them to a wall where appropriate justice can be meted out as it used to be when acts of treason were seriously enforced in the United States