If states are having a hard time balancing their budgets now with gas around $3/gal, just think how loud the law makers are gonna scream when it drastically drops.
Will they start cutting social programs or are state employees gonna get furloughed? Will the trucking industry begin lowering their rates because one of their built in costs almost vanishes? Will wages stagnate because prices begin to be reduced, thus companies won't be making as much revenue?
This might be a way of helping new home buyers get a home loan. Will people want to go to work for lower wages?
Look, I'm just spitballing here, but if America begins draining Venezuela 's oil fields and shipping it to America, we will be swimming in cheap priced gas. That has a trickle down effext. What can you see that might happen? Will it be sunshine and roses or will there be severe belt tightening within the halls of state governments to keep the lights on?
Why would dropping gas prices affect the taxes a state takes in related to gas? They have fixed taxes on the sale of a gallon, the price per gallon is not relevant to the tax amounts collected.
A one dollar price has the same tax as a three dollar price? I thought it was a percentage. Say ten percent. A big difference between ten cents a gallon as opposed to thirty cents a gallon.
California will just raise the tax to 6.00 per gallon
Venezuela’s oil requires lots of refining.
Most of our refineries are dialed in for their heavy crude.
We have a lot of refineries on the Gulf coast.
"We have a lot of refineries on the Gulf coast."
...not for this thick goop...
https://www.cfr.org/expert-brief/increasing-venezuelas-oil-output-will-take-several-years-and-billions-dollars
President Trump just shipped 20-50 million barrels of the goop to a refinery in America after Delta Force operators seized a oil tanker a couple of days ago. Yes, we have the refineries to distill gas from heavy oil.
I think that was silver of gold on that tanker, hence the Russian escort.
Venezuela's crude is really high sulfur, worse than Canadian crude from what I hear. I don't recall if the Gulf Coast refineries are able to handle it right away without it shortening the life of their equipment.
Venezuela has a three hundred year supply of oil sitting under its land and we now have access to it. Do you think we will turn our noses up at that potential or will the refineries retool their cat crackers to handle the oil? I think America yearns for cheap gas and President Trump is very willing to tell the big oil companies to retool for the good of America. We have the technology, we have the oil, we will get it refined and sent throughout the country.
51 - I don’t think we’ll be using that much of the Venezuela’s oil. I think we’re headed towards natural gas and nuclear.
I agree. I think this move by Trump was more about restricting Chyna than America.
No, fusion and hydrogen. Both have been tested and both are safe and cheap to make as far as power goes.
gtfo.
gas is like .20 in the middle east
they still have jobs and wages
True, but those countries have built their economies on twenty cent gas, we've built ours on an ever increasing cost of three bucks and once that cost goes down consequences will happen. I'm just playing Devil's advocate for a minute and hoping GAW members can see what might occur.
Those countries, while corrupt, have a firm control on their civil servants.
The civil service is the root of every problem in the West. A bloated bureaucracy filled with the dregs of society, bleeding our countries dry to pay for their system.
Every “social” scheme they propose is simply another method to grow their ranks and justify more theft.
Gut the public sector and we have utopia.
what might occur?
ok cities lose some revenue they can take very low interest loans
what's next?
The unintended consequence is that if oil drops below about $50 a barrel, it becomes impossible to turn a profit so they start shutting down production and abandoning Wells and a large portion of the oil industry loses their jobs
Venezuela's oil is not well suited to refine into gasoline. It's the kind of oil you use to fuel cargo ships and diesel engines.
America will become an industrial giant like pre-Ukraine Germany on cheap Russian gas.