Engl 116

Gas Prices in América



Gas Prices in América
Transportation is the bloodline that is running the American economy. Without the use of gasoline products it will be nearly impossible for peopleto move from one place to another and deliver products to the desired destinations. The oil prices are on a constant rise globally; every now and then we can see oil prices going up. Few years backthe oil prices averaged between $1 - 2 a gallon and now the prices averaged around $3 and $4 higher per gallon.
Tracking gas prices are like having a roller coaster ride, at one moment they are down alittle and the other they are up again. At times they even shoot up to around 50% in a year. One other strange fact about gasoline prices is that they are different everywhere; different indifferent countries, in different states and even different in different cities.
We have an unquenchable thirst for gas. Just by looking at the traffic around you can imagine what it would be like if thereis a shortage of gas. America is definitely going to cripple if there is no gas. Department of Energy reported that Americans consume around 19 million barrels of oil products every day, half of thisamount is used by motors all over America whereas the other half is used as fuel oil, jet fuel, residual fuel and other oils (Department of Energy, 2010).
The factors that affect the prices ofgasoline are the cost of crude oil, taxes associated to it, refining of crude oil and its distribution. Out of these four factors the major factor is the cost of the crude oil from which the gasoline isextracted. In recent years the demand of gasoline and diesel has grown globally causing a steep demand for crude oil and as we all know when the demands go high prices are also increased in order tocontrol the increasing demand. The demand growth is the main cause that has taken the price of crude oil and gasoline on a record level.
As the cost of crude oil is increasing it is causing the cost of...