What if we assume that the increase in gas prices right now is big oil telling us we should conserve?
Any merchant of a finite commodity eventually has to start limiting the availability of that commodity (in this case the choice of a limiting tool is the price available to consumers) this is done for the sake of profit, as selling that commodity out too quickly will result in no longer having a market. Oil companies aren’t using all of their available drilling opportunities and prices are rising in spite of increasing reserves. Has anyone considered the possibility that we are now at a period where the oil market is shifting and large oil companies may start to promote energy efficiency, as it’s not really dollars per gallon that’s the most important factor as miles per dollar that’s most important.
What if this is a message from big oil that they are changing their business plan and we should all start to conserve?
Dave – you are correct. Prices are going up right now in spite of increasing reserves and a decrease in demand. Oil companies have significant spare capacity at the moment but have chosen not to exercise that capacity.
Apparently conservatives think the word “finite” means “people can get more if you tell them they can”
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Filed under Gas Conservation FAQ by on May 16th, 2011. Comment. 
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Comments on What if we assume that the increase in gas prices right now is big oil telling us we should conserve?
What if it’s really the message that we have an idiot in the White House who is getting us involved in a civil war, as well as an idiot as the Federal Reserve chief who doesn’t have a clue about money supplies and inflation?
It’s not Big Oil, it’s Big Brother.
Swap “big oil” for “fundamentalist Muslims and thousands of dead american soldiers in the middle east” and you have a better argument.
It’s merely the effect of the market seeking a balance between supply and demand. The Chinese and Indians and rest of the world bid up the price of oil, not the oil companies.
It’s like saying that the price of land in NYC is a conspiracy of Donald Trump and other developers. They only sell what they can but they don’t control the market. It’s based on a limited supply (of oil or land) and many people bidding up the price.
the oil market is rigged ( no pun intended)
in the past few years consumption was down, reserves were up, and the oil companies just raised prices anyway
The increase in gas prices tell us that Obama is somewhere between an idiot and a scam artist who shuts down the drilling in the gulf, gives Brazil $2 billion of your money to do their own drilling, and refuses to issue more drilling permits.
That’s what I think – I’m going to start working from home one day a week.
The trucks have already started to drive in lines all going 60 MPH on the expressway here, like they did before, to get better fuel efficiency.
It’s not going to be much longer and the American people are going to have a message for the politicians in DC.
If you had a working knowledge of how world economics works, and more specifically, how oil prices are determined you’d know the huge price increases in oil/gas has more to do with the falling dollar than anything else…with the Dem’s and obama spending us into oblivion and the fed/treasury combining to flood the market with dollars it has made them worthless, which has the affect of making oil more expensive……in other words we need to drastically cut federal spending…and when i say drastically i mean deep trillion dollar cuts like Paul Ryan (GOP) has proposed. And that is just for starters.