In the last 7 days–
[ol]
[li]The California Refinery burned[/li][li]The Memphis-Area Refinery burned[/li][li]The Venezuela Refinery exploded[/li][li]And now, BP is evacuating the offshore platforms in the path of the Hurricane.[/li][/ol]
Will this result in $5/gallon gas in the US by mid-September?
I think you want to ask for a change in thread title. As for your question, I dunno.
Why?
Just for clarity & precision. Oil is priced by the barrel, not the gallon. The immediate concern of most people is how much gasoline costs, not oil. Currently the price of oil is $96 per barrel. Admittedly if oil reached the price of $5/gallon that would be bad, as it would b come out to about $210 per barrel – but nobody would express the price of oil in gallons even then.
I’ve edited the thread title from “oil” to “gasoline.”
MODS–please change my Thread title to "Gas at $5/Gallon by mid-September? "
I just bought a gallon of Rotella 15w40 for my bike and it was way over $5. I should have waited til September.
You mean this September? Next month? The month before the next US Presidential election?
That is pretty funny.
And the answer to the question in the OP, is No.
Ask again after the election.
This article currently on the CNN.COM front page attempts to answer the question in the OP.
Briefly, it says “no”.
$5/gal? I wish.
Still about $6/gal here.
Welcome to Canada. 
IN Newmarket, Ontario, gasoline is around 129.3 Canadian cents per litre. That is $4.93 US per US gallon.
I am not sure your point is. The U.S. President and even the U.S. government as a whole only has extremely limited control over gas prices in the U.S. Crude oil is a commodity that is on a worldwide market and run multi-national corporations. The only control a U.S. President would have would be to unleash the strategic oil reserves which is retarded because they are strategic and not there to prevent consumer shock at the gas station. They would run out in short order anyway and have to be refilled at the higher market prices.
You aren’t the first person to think such a thing though. There are social media calls for consumer gas boycotts frequently as well as the the U.S. government to do ‘something’. It is all the same level of ignorance. You are just dealing with the laws or supply and demand that should be apparent to anyone.
Michele Bachmann had a plan that would result in gas prices dropping to $2 a gallon after her election. I wish she’d share it before it’s too late.
I’m surprised the Romney campaign doesn’t make this a bigger issue. What was the price of gas when BO got elected?
About $1.75.
…Yeah, after the election. [It hit $4.12 in July of '08.](Gas Station Price Charts - Local & National Historical Average Trends - GasBuddy.com Average&city2=&city3=&crude=n&tme=96&units=us)
Romney’s not making it a bigger issue because it would be kind of insane to. Still, they haven’t been shy about trying out big lies…
That article does not reflect loss of supply due to refinery loss, nor Gulf well shutdowns.
Lying in a campaign race isn’t limited to any one party.
I have a couple of conservative friends on Facebook who have been making some hay out of this issue. But you’re right, so far the actual Romney campaign seems not to have seized on it. No idea why; if you’re willing to throw bones to the birthers, I dunno why you’d be shy about using any kind of wacky nonsensical accusations in this race.
It’s a current article on a major news site on the upcoming price of gasoline. I’m going to guess that the items you’ve brought up weren’t brought up in the article because the folks writing it didn’t think they were significant in terms of gasoline prices.
Refineries shut down and start back up all the time. Hurricanes pass through the Gulf every fall. The wells in the Gulf will only be shut down for a couple of days. I’m pointing out that the folks who tend to see their jobs in terms of apocalyptic headlines don’t seem to think there’s anything beyond a really short term issue here.
In the UK diesel was £1.40/litre when I filled up last week which works out to $8.50 US per US gallon. That’s around $100 to fill my little BMW 1 Series.