The largest single component to the price of anything is demand. With a world wide recession, the demand is down, not just here but in countries like China and Japan, huge consumers of foreign oil.

As far as the "new guy", aka President Elect, I say to my Republican friends the same thing I said when the "old guy" was elected: I'll support him 100% and pray he makes good decisions for all us. If he doesn't, then I''ll criticize, but until then he gets the support he deserves and there's really nothing to which we should react until he actually takes office and does something.

Like many, I opted to lock in this summer as well. Read your contract carefully. Some contracts have a buy-out provision where you can pay liquidated damages equal to a certain percentage of the gallons you have yet to purchase. With the dramatic drop, this will save most a lot of money. The local dealers were required by law to "buy" the oil you purchased within 7 days of your contract date, so it's not your dealer who's making the windfall. Their margins range from 15 to 25 cents per gallon regardless of what we pay for it. I'm stuck with two buildings at $4.29 per gallon and that sucks but if oil had gone to 200 bucks a barrel I'd be one of the lucky ones. Too bad it has to be such a huge gamble.

So, is this thread getting too close to the type of political strain that is discouraged?



Quote Originally Posted by brdad View Post
One of the big reasons right now that the prices are low is that the ban on off shore drilling has been lifted. Not that we are currently getting any extra oil from it, but just the concept that it has been lifted has reduced the price.

If the new guy gets what he wants and reinstates the ban and adds the taxes he would like to add, we can easily be up to $4 or more for good.