increase. These are just a few of the elements that affect prices, but none of them have enough power to greatly change the prices that exist at the pumps. The demand of crude oil is always cyclical. The United States demands more gasoline in spring and summer months than in the fall or winter, due to people driving more. The current trend in vehicles has moved to larger sport utility vehicles from small economy cars of the past. These large sport utility vehicles consume more gas and get fewer miles per gallon. The country is constantly searching for new and more efficient forms of energy. More importantly the country is searching for means of energy that will not make Americans poorer. Another interruption of the U.S. production of oil came during the spring of 1990 when Iraq accused Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates of limiting oil production. This severely depressed world oil prices and cost Iraq billions of dollars in annual revenue. On August 2, 1990, the president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, invaded and occupied the small Arab State of Kuwait. Hussein set afire 730 of Kuwait’s oil wells that spilled giant pools of oil and killed all surrounding animal life. Even though Hussein burned and spilled Kuwait’s oil, it did not directly affect the price of gasoline in the U.S. This little crisis, which is known as the Gulf War, cost Iraq countries buying their oil and wasted a valuable natural resource that could someday be gone from the earth. Recently, Saddam Hussein has threatened fuel resources again. Hussein does not approve of the United Nations investigating his private palaces for chemical warfare weapons, so he has made it even harder to buy fuel from Iraq. Supposedly he has landmines around the oil wells so no one can go near them. Several interruptions in the United States production of oil have staggered the country's production. The United States is the only major oil producing country where the landowner has owne...
