My Personal Opinion On Why Gas Prices Should Be Cheaper

There are many forms of transportation consisting of trains, public buses, and cars. What these vehicles have in common is that in order to function they need gasoline. Many refineries were down and tight in supply therefore causing an increase. Gasoline prices have gone from a slightly low price to an increasingly high price. The prices have gone above $4 which has been the highest price in five years. They have increased immensely, affecting people especially those who own cars.

I have seen that this increase in gasoline prices have been affecting my cousin. She travels from Westlake Village to Van Nuys to get to work which is 25 miles. Each week she spends $100 dollars on gas. Monthly it is about $400 or more. This amount is extremely high and she has even considered leaving her job because of how far it is and how much she spends.

She has taken upon herself to find places where they have the cheapest gasoline prices like for example in White Oak and Sherman Way the prices are a little less than other gas places. My uncle is a second person who spends a lot on gas because he travels 49 miles from Palmdale to Van Nuys for his job as well. In other locations people are paying $5 for a gallon of gas. Prices are the most expensive in the United States right now.

In an economist's point of view to answer the three basic economic questions gasoline should be produced for everyone because they need it to be able to get from one place to another more importantly work. Gasoline is pumped from oil wells and produced from crude oil where its then pumped into large storage terminals and loaded into tanker trucks to be delivered to certain gas stations.

Then customers pay for gasoline which then leads into the topic of inflation. Since there is a high demand for gas and it is an essential, that a lot of people use and need there is inflation. High gas prices has also affected the auto industry. They have made smaller cars that are fuel efficient, hybrids and electric cars. To reduce the prices of gasoline there should be an alternative way to produce gas using different resources. This way the availability for gas will be higher making the price go down. People won’t have to pay as much as before when traveling long distances.

The number of refinery outages is one factor that contributes to the increases in prices. Gasoline taxes and special gas requirements that increase the price of transportation is another. As Patrick DeHaan head of petroleum analysis at Gas Buddy states “To see several refineries have unexpected outages at the same time, it’s not normal. ” There are also programs that are used to help reduce smog and haze to which has increased the price of gasoline. California’s gas is more costly to refine to meet the states air-quality policies and there a few refineries that make approved gas making it harder for them to import oil. The state has established these policies by voters who elected for them. The prices for gasoline is seen to increase as time goes on.

As we can see the crashing of refineries has caused the demand for gasoline to be high making gas prices increase which is inflation. This has caused many people to spend quite a lot of money as I mentioned my cousin and uncle who travel far for their work. Gas is a resource that is produced for everyone but one that needs to lower its prices.