Posted on 04/16/2006 5:20:03 AM PDT by snowsislander
I think we should build more refineries, but between the regulatory nightmare and the fact that I suspect that the current refiners very much like getting 55 cents per gallon at the current demand, there's really no economic incentive for anyone to build any more. The market will bear 55 cents with no apparent great decrease in demand, so charge 55 cents.
National Unleaded Average
Regular | Mid |
|
Premium | Diesel |
Current Avg. |
|
$2.761 | $2.932 | $3.038 | $2.782 |
Yesterday Avg. |
|
$2.741 | $2.910 | $3.016 | $2.764 |
Month Ago Avg. |
|
$2.393 | $2.541 | $2.633 | $2.629 |
Year Ago Avg. |
|
$2.251 | $2.389 | $2.477 | $2.370 |
Source: AAA
Is this true?
I thought that some locales use a percentage of the price to calculate taxes, so that while the percentage might not have gone up, the amount paid in taxes has.
They saw Americans would pay any price after Katrina.
Who cares about gas we need some warm Sunshine up here in the Artic North West.
Brrrrr...tired of being cold ping.
Bingo.
Yes, they have gone up. Some states, like the tax-you-to-death state of CT, are planning a series of increases, too.
Most of the $2.50+ price is taxes-the US charges about 80-90% tax on gasoline
NYS's is a hoot. What a racket.
If the producers are maxed out, what would another couple refineries do for us ?
Has there been an increase in American refining capacity? If not, since demand is steadily rising, why wouldn't the price of the product be higher?
If the CEO would not have gotten his huge retirement bonus how would this have increased refining capablities?
The main factor is OPEC which is a price-fixing cartel of mainly state-owned petroleum companies. Recently, Chavez upped his demand to 60% for oil leases in Venezuela. Economies that rely mainly on one biz to support their governments + banana republic. The insecurity from chances of take over increases the risk, so the profit margins go up to compensate.
Looking at this link, it appears that most locales apparently charge both a flat per gallon tax and also collect some tax at a (low) percentage rate. That flat portion would represent a smaller percentage of the price if gasoline goes up and a larger percentage if gasoline goes down.
So your observation that the absolute amount collected does indeed go up in most locales since they have some tax that does float with the price, and the relative amount also tends to go down since a portion of the tax is based on a flat tax per gallon.
As a concrete example, let's say that state A is charging a flat 25 cents per gallon, and also levies a 6% sales tax on gasoline sales. Then if the pump price before sales tax is $2.00, and the final price with sales tax is $2.12, taxes are 37 cents per gallon (12 cents for sales tax, 25 for the per gallon gas gax.) Then tax represents 17.45% of the price.
Now let's say that gas goes to a pump price of $3.00 per gallon before taxes. Now the final price is $3.18; the tax portion would 18 cents for sales tax, and still 25 for the per gallon tax. That makes for 43 cents in taxes, which is indeed more than the 37 cents when gas is selling for $2.00, but the percentage has now droppoed to 13.5%.
Someone needs to place a "newsroom logic" tag on the headline. I'm tired of seeing simple-minded reporters couch everything in guns or butter, and not questioning the idiocy of griping comments like this. Fact is, this small business will find a way to buy gas AND healthcare, but the reporter will NEVER go back in four months to see how.
Refinery Cost and Profits includes all non-crude oil costs associated with refining and terminal operation, crude oil processing, oxygenate additives, product shipment and storage, oil spill fees, depreciation, purchases of gasoline to cover refinery shortages, brand advertising and profits. The component is calculated as the difference between the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) average rack price of gasoline and crude oil cost.
Actually, the question is: If these corporations are basically doing nothing but riding the tide of high crude prices thereby generating high profits, what justification is there to reward CEO's who have basically done nothing to generate those profits?
How do they justify rewarding these people for doing nothing? In fact, they should be penalized for not getting refining capacity up higher to sell more product.
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