Why Are Gas Prices Rising in the United States?

Gas prices are soaring all over the United States and the reason consumers are being told is that the Middle East conflicts from Libya, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iraq and all the other countries in between. This may be somewhat true; however, the real reason is "Speculators" who by some magic formula try to predict future prices for a barrel of oil. Speculators take into account oil production, refinery operations, past prices and the certain time of the year. The whole process of speculating oil by the United States is an illegal process.

One way to curb the speculation of the future of oil is to have those so called "Speculators" actually buy the barrel of oil for what they are predicting it to be in the future. If this requirement would happen consumers of gasoline would see lower prices at the pump and the big oil companies would see their profits shrink. If speculators would have to buy the oil for what they predict it to be in the future then we would see oil stay around $40-$60 dollars a barrel.

However, if we ever changed the oil speculation process we would have to also change the stock market and real estate markets processes as well because everything would be lower even the standard of living would be lower in the United States. You could say "Human lives are nothing but a speculation" because we never know how long we'll live or what the future holds for us.

Gasoline should always be affordable because we the "United States" are sitting on billions an billions of oil reserves. Also, if the governmental agencies that oversee oil refineries would allow additional private companies build new refineries this would increase supply and maintain a standard of demand.

According to The Guardian, "By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day". If the United States don't start building refineries, citizens and the overall economy will suffer. Hopefully, this year will be a wake-up call to government officials that something needs done to increase the oil supply or to start looking for alternatives ingredients to run a vehicle.
Rising gas prices is one of the main contributors in raising all additional items such as groceries, products and building supplies. As you can decipher, because the speculation of oil is allowed by our government it keeps the economy down and really puts a strain on American families to make ends meet.

Source:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25202.htm