Crude oil prices have been comming down somewhat lately. Due to all sorts of factors that you can believe or not. What about something a bit closer to home though? What about the price of gas at the pump? Will it come down too?
Well we all know that the major oil companies are fast to pass the supposed increase in production cost on to the consumer when he purchases gas and diesel at his local gas station. They are real sloths though when it come to passing a reduction in the cost of the raw material on to the customer. The reason for this is supposedly that they already had to buy the raw material at high prices and won’t be profiting from the cheaper prices at the commodity market until later.
You should think that the same reasoning should apply when the price of a barrol of oil goes up. It does not though. Ignoring the argument they use when the price goes down, they say they have to ensure they will have the funds to buy the now more expensive gasoline and that they won’t be running at a loss.
So it’s a lose lose situation for us consumers. The only thing we know for sure is that gasoline is expensive and likely to remain so. We also know that the only ones that are profiting are the oil companies and the government. The government is of course profiting too, because higher prices for the end product mean higher taxes – thus more money for the treasury.
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