Why are gas prices soaring this election year?

Here's some information you may not be aware of. Today, the combined burden of federal, state and local gas taxes costs American drivers an average of 45.9 cents on every gallon purchased. In some states the combined taxes exceed 60 cents for every gallon purchased. According to data on gasoline use from the U.S. Department of Transportation, that amounts to an annual gas tax burden of roughly $271 for every man, woman and child in the United States. Wyoming has the cheapest at 32.4 cents per gallon, and California has the highest at 60 cents per gallon. The federal portion of that is 18.4 cents per gallon. The balance is your state's taxes. The rest we can say is money in the oil company president's pockets. It's not just those here in our country though. Look at OPEC.. they controll how much is produced. The problem we have in the US is we aren't using our own oil. We have oil here in the US, but many of our own oil rigs sit idle. Then we have untapped oil resources that we are currently prevented from accessing. Alot of the problem as I see it is that we, as a country, are careless in our use of gasoline. We drive too much, we don't conserve. I am perhaps just as guilty as the rest of the country. I drive a 4X4 truck. But, I am on a farm, and I have to pull a trailer. I do have a smaller suv, that I have started using to get groceries and make my runs to town with. I'm doing what I can to cut back. Unfortunately, the nearest grocery store is 18 miles away from me. Where I used to get groceries every few days, I have been trying to go at least 5-6 days between trips to town. It's not always possible, but at least I'm trying. I also heat my home with propane, which is a petroleum distillate. Last year, I re-insulated my house with blow in inulation, resealed all of my windows, and set my thermostat lower and started wearing a sweatshirt and slippers around the house. I will say, just by getting blown in insulation and resealing my windows, I have reduced my propane use by just over 1/3. That's a start!!! We're all going to have to cut back where we can. It's not looking like it's going to improve in the near future.

Around here we blame one person for our personal high prices. See, there's one man that owns most of the gas stations but not quite enough to be considered to have a monopoly on the business. He manages to keep other chains out of the area so he can pretty much set his prices wherever he wants and the other stations have to keep pace with him...otherwise he retaliates with super low prices which could quickly put them out of business entirely. So we're always paying at least 5 to 10 cents a gallon more than surrounding area...and several cents over the national average. It's even worse on holiday weekends. So we blame him for our gas and heating oil prices since he's the big company here. In general though...I blame the money hungry republican oil men. My s/o blames the "tree hugging democrats" who'd rather protect the environment than drill for more oil in Alaska. I don't know that either one of us are right, we just enjoy harassing each other about our opposing political views.

It always makes me chuckle when I hear Americans complain about the high price of Gas. I cannot remember when it was a low as $4 a gallon, we pay nearly twice that amount in the UK. People still love their cars though. I think that the truth is that oil prices internationally have been to a record high. They are now falling back. But it is taking time for those reductions to be passed on to the customer. We are going to have to find other ways of getting around, because in the long term prices are going to be higher still.

Perhaps the oil men who will be leaving office after this election need to rape us even more than before to line their pockets a bit better?