Oil Drops to $88 a Barrel … Why does the Price at the Pump not Follow? Trump Says OPEC & Oil Companies Ripping Us Off

The price of oil has dropped to approximately $88 a barrel amid economic concerns and the concern that demand for oil consumption will follow. In mid-July 2008 oil was selling for a yearly high of $147 a barrel. So with oil falling 40% since July, why does the national gas average not reflect the same? So why has the price at the pump that reflected these price changes?

At $88 a barrel and falling one would think that the price presently should be under $3.00 nationally. So why isn’t it? Once again, where is the Federal Government and namely the Department of Energy providing oversight? The irony is that the DOE has a web page promoted to reporting price gouging & fixing. So how does one report that the entire practice of oil companies is price fixing and the DOE just turns their head and allows it to happen?

U.S. crude settled down $6.07 at $87.81 a barrel after hitting an eight-month low of $87.56. London Brent crude fell $6.57 to settle at $83.68 a barrel.

Crude prices have plummeted from a peak over $147 a barrel set on July 11 as high fuel prices and the growing financial crisis slow oil demand in top consumer the United States and other industrialized nations.

However, at $88 a barrel one would think that the cost of gas would be below $3.00 a gallon. Imagine what our economy would be doing today if people had more disposable income of their own and were not gouged on a daily basis to fill up their gas tanks. If OPEC is not manipulating the price it would seem that the oil compares are. Donald Trump spoke recently on CNBC as said the following,

“I consider myself to be a great capitalist, but I think the oil companies have been ripping off this country and the world for a long time,” Trump said. “I can see doing something against the oil companies. They’re making numbers–nobody’s ever seen numbers like this. They and OPEC and lots of people together are having a lot of fun.”

Trump has stated that the silver lining to the present economic crisis is the falling price of oil. However, will the consumer ever see the savings or will the oil companies continue to take that what OPEC does not?

Gas prices expected to fall further

There are predictions that gas prices will fall; however, don’t tell that to people in Atlanta, GA where the price of gas is far above the national average.

“We ought to see prices drop pretty quickly,” said American Automobile Association spokesman Geoff Sundstrom. “We’re well on our way to $3 gas within the next week or two.”

The national average price for a gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline fell 2.4 cents to $3.480 from $3.504, according to a daily survey released Tuesday by AAA. That’s down 18% from an all-time high of $4.114 a gallon hit on July 17.