Katrina's punch at the pump {year later, what have we done}

Washington Times ^ | September 3, 2006 | Ben Lieberman

[thackney]

Lost amid anniversary articles about Hurricane Katrina is how we've dealt with the energy fallout. We've had a year to get used to $3-per-gallon gasoline and come to grips with our energy supply vulnerability. What did we learn? We've learned the impact didn't have to be so bad and Washington can take measures to ensure the next big storm won't hurt drivers and homeowners as badly.

The price of gasoline shot up a recordbreaking 50 cents per gallon in the week after the storm, giving America its first taste of $3-plus gasoline. Natural-gas prices rose even higher in percentage terms, and only extremely mild weather prevented the 2005-06 winter heating season from being the most expensive ever.

Little wonder Katrina packed such a punch at the pump and in natural-gas bills, since nearly 25 percent of America's domestic oil and gas production was concentrated in its path. Offshore wells were shut down and evacuated in the days before Aug. 29, and many were damaged when the storm's 170-mile-per-hour winds and massive waves swept through. Related onshore refining, processing and pipeline infrastructure in Louisiana also was hit hard, cutting energy production in the region dramatically for a few weeks and to some degree even today.

The national impact wouldn't have been so severe if it hadn't hit the only offshore area with extensive oil and natural-gas production. The Pacific, Atlantic and eastern Gulf of Mexico also have substantial oil and gas resources. And many onshore areas, including Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), hold substantial untapped reserves as well. But federal restrictions have placed many of these areas off-limits to energy exploration and drilling.

Politics, not geology, is the reason America has concentrated so many energy eggs into one hurricane-prone basket off Louisiana and Texas.

[thackney]

we need to allow oil and natural-gas production elsewhere. We would have greater supplies, lower prices and less vulnerability to storms or other disruptions.

[sauropod]

It's more than that.

We need to increase and upgrade our refinery capacity.

NIMBYism is a huge problem.

[thackney]

Gulf oil refiners stretching out {expanding refineries}
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1694774/posts

[Right Wing Assault]

I just saw gas for $2.399 in Ohio.

[theBuckwheat]

>>
Politics, not geology, is the reason America has concentrated so many energy eggs into one hurricane-prone basket off Louisiana and Texas.
<<

Well, it is also economics because building onshore and nearshore facilities in the Gulf must be so much less expensive than doing so in the northeast or southern Kali, assuming you have the time, money and patience to get a proposed project through all the layers of approval and regulation.

[thackney]

all the layers of approval and regulation

That would be politics, would it not?

[Coldwater Creek]

Tennessee as well! I really can not afford even these prices, but don't complain as we have had cheap fuel for so long.

No one ever complains about the high cost of food.

[SauronOfMordor]

We need to increase and upgrade our refinery capacity.

We also need to cut out all the various different formulation standards for gas. You have situations where one or a handful of refineries have an effective monopoly on gasoline production for a particular area. When you don't have to worry about other outfits intruding into your territory in cases of shortage, then you don't have an incentive to increase capacity

[ClaireSolt]

Most people in the world spend a bigger % of every dollar on food than Americans. Visit France, if you want to see,

[Coldwater Creek]

I am not complaining!

It just irk's me to hear all this gripe about gas and then you see people's baskets at the store piled high with every convenience and junk foo imaginable.

[ClaireSolt]

I agree with you and with the man who asked O'Reilly, "Didn't they teach you any econ at Harvard?" The complaining is obscene. I wish there were an automatic system that would enlist all the complainers in the Peace Corps and send them to the Sudan for an attitude adjustment.