But this is doubtful to happen. I know that's not what people want to hear but it's the truth. Anyone with knowledge of economics can tell you why. Gasoline, like any other product, operates under the law of supply and demand. When supply exceeds demand, we have surplus goods and the price of said goods falls in order to achieve balance. When our demand for a product exceeds the supply available, the cost of the product increases until the balance is again restored.
With gas, the latter is occurring as we speak. There is a very limited supply of oil in the world, and the demand is increasing without bound. Every day, new drivers take to the streets in America and around the world. With China, India, and even the European Union now growing exponentially, their demand for oil is skyrocketing as well. The Middle Eastern nations who control immense amounts of oil are pumping it at record levels, but it's still not enough to keep up with the demand the industrialized world is requiring to function. So, as demand increases without bound, so too will the price of oil. Eventually, of course, it will reach some equilibrium level, once gas is too expensive for many people to afford and the demand begins to recede.
There is, of course, a way to help bring the price of oil down sooner. We must begin to drill for more oil. We need to find new oil fields, wherever they may be, and sink wells. We need to open up new refineries to covert the oil to gas more quickly and efficiently.
Unfortunately, there are many reasons why this will not happen any time soon. With the scam of global warming sending frenzied people crying about environmental destruction and the incredible demand for a replacement for oil and gas, there is little that can be done to raise the level of supply of oil in the world. Places like ANWR, the coasts of California, and the Gulf of Mexico are forbidden locations for drilling, and no new refineries have been built in decades for fear of environmental damage. This trend is, unfortunately for the consumer, not likely to change in the coming years with the current slate of presidential candidates.
There are a few other ways to help bring down the price of gasoline, but these are also unlikely. The first would be to use an alternative form of energy that already exists and has proved itself to be very effective: Nuclear energy. The use of nuclear energy could help reduce or even eliminate the use of gas and oil power plants across the nation and drop the dependence on oil. This reduce in demand would help in a small way to combat the soaring demand worldwide and would help to bring down the price of oil and thus gasoline. Nuclear energy has also proven to be quite efficient and clean, thus providing a viable future of power production. But alas, governments of the world seem to be opposed to the use of this power generation system.
Another way of reducing the price of gas is to lower the price at the pump. This cannot be accomplished by taxing the oil companies - this will only raise the prices as the companies require more revenue to pay the increased taxes. You also can't just demand that gas companies drop their prices simply because they record enormous profits; the simple volume of their sales dictates that they will have record profits, not due to price gouging but simply due to the millions of gallons of gas they sell on a daily basis.
The way to reduce prices at the pump is to eliminate the cut the government gets. Right now, government taxes are about 18 cents a gallon. Eliminating this and other state level taxes, or at least dramatically reducing them, would be a direct savings to the consumer. Reducing federal taxes on the big oil companies would also lower gas prices, as the big companies reduce their prices as their costs go down.
Gas prices are outrageously high. It's an obvious problem, but one that won't be fixed by more taxes, federal regulations, or ethanol. The methods of reducing gas prices are simple and obvious, at least to me. And if a kid in college can come up with this, surely the elected officials of the federal government can, right?
Don't hold your breath. And if you're waiting for gas prices to come down, get set for a long wait.
