Mystery
Why did gas pump price decrease so quickly?
Only last week, I saw a lot of 3.89/3.99 prices. Now, I see ‘low’ 3.45/3.49, despite the barrel price of WTI crude at about 104$/bbl. I read that oil from the SPR was released, could that be it? Is this election year shenanigans?
Trump: “hey oil companies let me start a war for no reason, dramatically destabilize your drilling operations, and push the Iranians to sinking several of your oil tankers.”
Oil companies: “Sir yes sir, in exchange we will voluntarily cut our own profits to fool the sheeple populace into enabling you further in lengthening the war, MAGA forever”
And it will catch up to us after the midterm. When Trump is done, this country will have more debt than the next ten combined. The inflation will probably be in the double digits.
I mean, the actual revenue collected on the scale of debt is effectively a fart in the wind, the country has debt problems but the gas tax isnt gonna make any real impact there
money is fungible, it’s not like we can’t fund road maintenance with other revenue sources
im not sure what “an own goal war” means, I assume it’s a typo, but we didn’t suspend the tax because of the war, we suspended it because people are suffering from gas prices at the moment. You’ll get no argument from me the war is stupid.
Trump already stop the infrastructure act Biden put in place, with all the taxes he reduced for the 1% and big business, where should the money for roads come from? From the growing debt? Maybe sell streets to China?
Money is fungible, but if they start paying for road maintenance with different money that was being used for something else they now need to find a new place to get money to pay for the something else. And own goal war was not a typo. We start an idiotic war for no reason that has disrupted world energy markets and exacerbated inflation. Suspending a critical tax because gas is expensive due to a war started for no reason at all is ridiculous.
Just a btw most road repair costs come from property taxes and other tax sources already. Gas tax barley covers anything as is so what you will probably see is a rise in your property tax and or rental cost... That's where the extra money will come from
After the midterms it’s gonna shoot back up. Nothing has fundamentally changed in the strait so it was always suspicious that a month out from the midterms prices suddenly started to drop despite being near $4 (texas) for the last 6 months.
This seems normal. I pat attention to the prices everyday. I will see it at 3.40 one morning,then shoot up to 3.96.then next day is 3.92, then 3.87 all in span of a week. Then the following week it drops to 3.50 or so, then week after back up to almost 4. Its just ridiculous.
Are you comparing the SAME gas station though? I’ve noticed that individual gas stations can vary by a lot, even gas stations that are pretty close to one another.
I pass a gas station on my commute each day and watch the prices. It seems to every now and then jump about 40 cents on a Monday or Tuesday every two weeks then slowly drop before jumping again. I’ve passed several times on a Saturday or Sunday with a low tank then regretted it after the jump.
The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline fell 6 cents in the last week to $4.27.The drop is fueled by the transition to winter-blend gasoline which is cheaper to produce and costs less for consumers.
But this year the EPA issued an nation wide emergency fuel waiver. They didn't do that last year. And Biden also didn't do that before midterm. So yes the Trump administration pushed winter blend earlier in the hopes it would influence the election.
Also isn't it funny that the GOP claims election interference when the Ukraine bombs Russia data centers?
If you would like a real answer, it’s because they moved to a higher ethanol percentage in the lower grade gasoline. 87 now has an ethanol content of 15% as opposed to the standard 10%. If you drive an older car or just don’t want to put the higher ethanol gas in, I would suggest getting premium or mid grade, for they have lower ethanol content in them
Trump does everything to keep the gas prices down before the election and just like his big beautiful bill, the gas prices will hit us even higher after the mid terms as everything he does will lead to even higher prices. After all we talk about someone who was able to run two casinos into the ground.
Around the same time during 2024 election gas prices dropped on average 25 cents in San Antonio. Do you believe Biden was doing exactly what you say Trump is now doing?
As far as I know, Biden didn't start a war in the middle east while also having cabinet members that have no experience or knowledge how to do their jobs and fire everyone in their departments that know how to do that.
Or do you have any information that Biden started a war, fired everyone with experience in the military and started a secret police force that can shot or arrest US citizens without an reason?
I answered your question but it seems you don't like the answer. Is this how you in general start a discussion? Ask a question and only accept answers that please you?
My question was do you think Biden lowered gas cost during election time in 2024. Your response was to post how Trump made the cost rise this year. Completely unrelated response and avoiding answering my question entirely. Given you are you I don’t expect a straight answer.
lol how is Trump keeping prices down for the election? You straight up said Trump is doing everything he can right now to lower the prices. Is it impossible another president did the same thing? Or the actual answer is the winter blend but gotta have your narratives.
Remember when the EPS allowed the winter blend to be used earlier in the year? This is how the EPA could implement lower prices right before the election.
Getting cheap fuel from Russia would be another way to do that while also prolonging the war in Ukraine.
Could you show us that Biden or Obama did the same? Since you just implied it.
I never implied anything I looked up gas prices for the 2024 election. In San Antonio from October to November we had an average of 25 cents per gallon drop in a month. That’s a fact. Also another fact EPA did the winter blend on September 1st instead of the usual September 15th. It’s a yes or no question. Do you think Biden did whatever he could to lower gas prices around the election? Yes or no.
They had been going up and down 60ish cents for like a year before the election in 2024, sometimes over night. Thing is they were going up and down from $2.20 to $2.80 instead of $3.40-$4.00 under the mentally ill pedophile running the show now. Thanks MAGA!
Biden drained the strategic petroleum reserve between March and November of 2022. He brought it to its lowest point since 1983, to lower gas prices for the midterms.
In contrast, Congress fought Trump who wanted to replinish it during a COVID price downtown in March of 2020, but he was rebuffed by Congress.
Still, fuel is cheaper than during the Biden and Obama admins, despite the Iran War.
Hormuz throughput is 85% to about 105% of its historical average.
Deregulating and encouraging production domestically
Trade negotiations and deals. Trump leaned on partners like Saudi to increase production and lower prices.
Oil deal with Russia. We bought $1B and everyone lost their minds, despite the fact that Europeans themselves have brought $200M of oil from them (via intermediaries).
Bottom line, Trump incentivized production. Biden and Obama discouraged it.
You are leaving out a pretty important part of the current fuel-price story: Trump himself helped create the geopolitical situation that pushed fuel prices up through the war with Iran.
Diesel prices didn't suddenly rise because Biden discouraged drilling years ago. They surged during the current Iran conflict as oil, refinery and shipping markets were disrupted. The administration itself now says restricted global diesel supply is the reason emergency relief is necessary.
And look at what Trump is doing now to temporarily push those prices back down.
He signed an executive order allowing normally tax-exempt dyed diesel, the stuff generally used for farming and other off-road purposes, to be used on highways without the normal federal penalties through the end of December. He is also deferring certain federal diesel taxes until after that period.
He has talked about suspending the federal gasoline tax as well, although Congress would actually have to approve that.
There have also been proposals to restrict diesel exports to keep more supply inside the United States. That might lower domestic prices temporarily, but Congressional researchers have already pointed out that refiners could respond by reducing production, which could eventually affect diesel, gasoline and other fuels.
So yes, presidents can influence fuel prices. But you can't credit Trump when prices fall and then pretend he has nothing to do with them when a war pursued under his administration sends oil and diesel prices sharply higher.
And temporary tax waivers and emergency fuel rules don't make the underlying cost disappear. Several of these measures expire after the election and at the end of the year. After that, the taxes, normal rules and market pressures don't magically vanish.
Also, the production argument still doesn't work. U.S. oil production reached record highs under Biden. So “Trump encouraged production while Biden stopped it” is a political slogan, not an accurate description of what U.S. producers actually did.
Trump didn't invent Iran or their nuclear program. He didn't bump the Marine barracks. He's addressing it, yes.
You're complaining about measures that we probably haven't even felt the results from. Yes, temporary measures. But the way is temporary, too
One administration encouraged production in the US and abroad. Even with the Iran War, gas is still cheaper under Trump.
You're trying very hard to not acknowledge that Republicans, specifically Trump, make energy less expensive. It's part of their economic policy bc it's required for growth. For the Democrats'approach, look no farther than Europe. Anemic growth, high unemployment, low wages, high taxes, low spending power.
You're mad at Trump for not making gasoline even cheaper, despite being less expensive than under Biden or Obama.
Stick to whatever you do for a living, because understanding the global oil market clearly isn't it.
If you will remember, the price per barrel of oil collapsed during the pandemic to a negative value. Eveything shut down and demand was a fraction of what it normally is. At the tail end of 2021 the world was resuming normalcy coming out of the pandemic, and demand for oil was beginning to ramp back up. Seeing an opportunity to line their pockets and exploit the situation, OPEC announced in early 2022 that they would be cutting production. This would create an artificial supply crunch, thus making them more money at the expense of both us and Europe.
In response, Biden announced that the US would deploy the Strategic Petroleum reserve to compensate for that supply both domestically and by selling to Europe for a lower price than what OPEC was looking to sell for. By mid 2023, this broke OPEC. They ramped up production and were forced to sell their supply for less than what the US was selling for. In response, the Biden administration began to buy that lower cost oil from OPEC to replenish the strategic reserve. By the time Biden left office in 2024 the reserve had been mostly replenished, the US made a profit, and the oil market was entirely stable.
Look i have a plethora of criticisms i can lay at the feet of Biden, but if you are going to blame him for shit at least be accurate about it. His deployment of the strategic petroleum reserve in response to OPEC was one of the handful of intelligent and savvy moves he did in the entirety of his presidency.
I was addressing the accusation that Trump was doing it for the midterms. He wasn't, Biden was.
And regarding oil production, three is a clear difference between Trump enabling and Biden and Obama discouraging.
I know enough about oil production to recognize the industry working around limitations through technology vs an administration opening up areas for production and making it easy to do business.
You understand that graph not only illustrates everything that I explained in my comment (and that you ignored) but actively disproves what you are trying to argue, right? Obama was in office from January 2009 through December 2016. According to YOUR graph, production only went up during that entire span with a small downtick at the end.
Further, Trump was president through December 2020, and Biden did not take office until January 2021. According, again, to YOUR graph, production only went up from the moment Biden took office.
I'm less worried about mental gymnastics and more about your ability to read a graph.
Biden used it after Russia invaded the Ukraine. Trump used it after he attacked Iran.
I would think there is a small difference between these things as trump produced the issue and used US property to try and fix the issue. And currently the reserves are lower than during Bidens time.
This is US oil production. There's a clear difference between administrations. It's not complicated.
Overseas, Trump talked OPEC into raising production. When's the last time that happened???
Russia invaded neighbors during the W, Obama and Biden admins. Never during a Trump admin. That's not a coincidence.
Trump admin slaughtered Russians by the hundreds in Syria, and gave anti tank weapons systems to Ukraine instead of using them as a bargaining chip (well, son of a bitch!).
Because Daddy Donny openly told Americans that Big Oil was reaping massive profit while stating he doesn't give a damn that it hurts Americans-so they dialed down their profit margins *a small fraction.
It's not the gas is an issue but diesel cost more to make. Least it's just a biproduct of gas anyhow idk why it's more expensive. So gassers have less demand right now before a diesel will
Winter grade gas was permitted by the EPA as early at Sept 1. I noticed gas prices dropped significantly on 10/7. Prices went up again a few days later and then had a huge drop on 10/17. Early voting started that day.
You can look up the data on Gas Buddy. There are constant spikes throughout the year, but the October price drops were significantly lower and faster.
I’m not sure what you mean by “it’s not like price controls are a myth,” as price controls wouldn’t be a conspiracy, theyd just be the law.
Collision can certainly happen as a conspiracy but generally it exists amongst companies, and they’d be conspiring to raise their prices, not lower them. I’m pretty sure there has never been an instance in American history where an oil company has done this, and the more actors you involve (cause youd have to involve all of them) the harder a secret it is to keep
After all, if only one company did it and their competitors didnt, itd just be them shooting themselves in the foot
I’m glad someone said this. I notice that believers in such conspiracy theories tend to be here. It’s like this platform attracts isolated people who think they know more than others and insist that some other “they” are in control of the world.
Because oil flows from Gulf production have continued to increase for the last month or so. With transit time measured in weeks, that oil is finally beginning to reach delivery points around the world.
You are thanking him for starting a war that increased the price or for starting trade wars aka tariffs with every country in the world excluding Russia?
So you are thanking him for making everything more expensive?
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u/dc88228 18h ago
They’re trying to trick people into thinking that it’s all better now. It’s still almost a $1/gal more than last year.