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Patrick Holbrook
5/13/2014
Cooke 101
Gas Prices On The Rise
Some may ask why gas prices are so high today even though a barrel of gas hasn’t really
changed over the past couple of years. Well I am going to tell you how we can fix that today. My
topic is how gas prices are effecting our economy. If the United States built more refineries than
we would have more gas so we would have lower gas prices. Gas prices are so high that people
do not have enough money to spend on other things which are economy is a spending economy.
People need more spend money in order for the economy to do better. Some people say that the
solution to lowering gas prices is using less gas. But the problem with that is that if gas is not
getting paid for gas companies will have to charge more for each gallon in order to keep their
business open. Others would say that the solution is out of our hands and we can’t control it but
the problem with that is the solution is in are hands and its effecting everything in the economy
so we do need to find a solution. Another solution would be to dig for more fossil fuels but it cost
money to dig.
The problem with gas being so high is that no one has money to spend on luxuries or on
anything else like food. Plus if we have more money than other things will be cheaper. Gas has
reach almost four dollars and fifty cent a gallon which means if you have a car with a twelve
gallon tank you have to spend almost sixty dollars just on gas alone. Now if you are spending
that a week that is two hundred and forty dollars a month. Most people have a hard time making
that in two weeks. Now include that with bills and it almost leaves people with nothing, which
now they cannot spend that at places like stores, and then the stores have to close and that hurts
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the economy all over again. People then cannot pay for the places that they live and makes
foreclosures on houses. Some people say that different solution that will work but let’s take a
look.
One purposed solution as Stephen Lacey says that “we could just use less fuel
(thinkprogress).” But the problem with that solution is that almost everything that moves runs on
gas, such as cars, trucks, snow blowers, and, lawn mowers. If we use less fuel how are we going
to get to work or to school? Some people have to drive over an hour to get to work every day.
Plus if we stop using fuel that means that gas companies will have to charge even more for each
gallon just to keep the business going. If no one buys gas than gas companies will no longer exist
and no one will be able to get gas anywhere. According to Thinkprogress.org the white house
announced that in 2025 they want each car to go 54 mpg instead of this year’s 21 mpg cars.
