Posted on 01/20/2015 12:05:20 PM PST by tcrlaf
I assume you are referencing the POTENTIAL that US refined products would be uncompetitive with those produced elsewhere?
I don't believe we export a lot of refined product now, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
If so, we just extend the Import Tariffs to refined products as well.
These are strategic, essential resources.
If we are not smart enough to protect them, we're probably not smart enough to be a country.
Not quite 4 million barrels a day.
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_exp_dc_NUS-Z00_mbblpd_m.htm
Now we have offsetting imports, different product balances, different locations in and out.
And a large petrochemical industry as well.
And now you want it to be cheaper to refine the products in Mexico and only import the portions we need, rather than import the full barrel, keep the refinery jobs and export the selected surplus.
You also will crush our imports with Canada by setting a “bottom” price for oil substantially above the market price. Their oil (bitumen) is low grade and cost more to refine, so it sells for less. If we have to pay a premium, why would we buy the bottom barrels?
Stop looking for the federal government to help industry. It can only help by reducing their impact, not trying to select winners and losers.
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The industry is plenty capable of surviving this down turn, just like every one before it. I’ve already had cuts, probably have more before it is done. But a conservative doesn’t look for the federal government to get deeper in their business.
The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.
- Ronald Reagan
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I said Middle America was being beat like a drum prior gas prices nose diving. No?
Now the oil companies and Oliviaforever say America will not prosper with low gas prices?
??
And that has zip to do with what I told ya.
The chain-and-carabiner combination that serves as an anchor
for the critter-trap was left behind after a Baker-Hughes
vehicle movement through Atlas.
Still gots some blue paint on it.
I believe .gov is trying to avoid a panic. When oil prices fall it is a sign of decline.
I just wonder how much pressure these lower prices are putting on the leveraged domestic oil companies? Does this portend another bank bailout?
As far as an improving economy put that along side these numbers of a decreasing deficit....
09/30/2013 11,976,279,236,073.83 4,761,904,290,623.49 16,738,183,526,697.32
On 9/30/2013 there was $16,738 billion in federal debt.
09/30/2014 12,784,971,238,978.02 5,039,100,141,755.80 17,824,071,380,733.82
On 9/30/2014, the end of last fiscal year, there was $17,824 billion of federal debt.
The net increase is $1,086 billion, or $1.086 trillion dollars, not $483 billion.
h/t tickerforum
how do they keep getting away with such fuzzy math?
I would not recommend govt intervention to pick winners and losers.
But, I do advocate for govt to take steps to protect a viable oil industry in the USA.
Just like I advocate we make our own fighter planes and submarines.
It's a strategic imperative, no matter the cost to adjacent industry.
Why didn’t the oil companies simply hold the price at $4.00 per gallon? Their profits would have been THROUGH THE ROOF.
Instead, they’re playing some kind of game with us and making themselves look broke.
Anyone in any employment field should diversify their skills enough so that when the economy tanks in one field a person can have a fall back skill. I got out of the Navy when the early 1980's recession hit. I changed professions five times in about as many years. I was an HVAC mechanic. I worked at the 1982 Worlds Fair in maintenance. When it closed the local economy tanked in all jobs. Many companies were laying off.
I went back to school for Commercial/Industrial Wiring. While going to school I worked in a Cemetery mowing grass and digging graves with pick and shovel. I also joined the Army NG. Between drawing VA for school, the grave yard, and NG stint, I got by. While in the Guards I took an interest to truck driving and after my school course was complete and the economy was still down I took a short Commercial Driving Course. I drove a rig for a while then finally got a job doing HVAC and Electrical Maintenance in a health Care facility. My biggest commodity was being able to pick up on new skills fast. Every profession a person can work in will have it's downturn except for perhaps an undertaker.
Low fuel prices are going to hurt some workers that's a stone cold fact. BUT Cheap energy prices will help many, many, more persons. Production and Transportation cost go down. That means groceries and other commodities go down. That's the way our economy is supposed to work. Oil Prices will drop, producers will adjust output, and prices will again rise.
If the government stays out of this it will work out for all concerned far better and faster.
Well, you’ve got the right attitude. The market doesn’t care about any of us, personally. It’s up to us to adapt and survive, so we aren’t left with the scraps. Others just choose to whine and point fingers when bad luck strikes them, and then they wonder why it keeps happening.
“Low fuel prices are going to hurt some workers that’s a stone cold fact. BUT Cheap energy prices will help many, many, more persons.”
That is another great point. I was going to save it in my vest pocket in case I needed a clincher, but you’re absolutely right, when the energy sector suffers, nearly every other sector of the economy benefits. Besides shipping, commerce, manufacturing, just think of the consumer choices that change. People take more road trips, go out to the movies or other events more, and take more trips into the “big city”. Naturally, when they do that, they spend more money, which stimulates the whole economy.
“Why didn’t the oil companies simply hold the price at $4.00 per gallon?”
Well, there is this thing called a market...
“It’s a strategic imperative, no matter the cost to adjacent industry.”
Well, this is a sensible argument and I think most would agree that the government might need to step in if our ability to produce oil is threatened. However, is our entire oil industry in danger from this price fluctuation?
If so, the next question is: why? Oil companies are not “new kids on the block”, they have been through worse fluctuations than this and survived. They know their business and they know what they need to do in order to ride out slumps.
“When oil prices fall it is a sign of decline.”
How so?
Didn’t oil prices drop in the 90s when the economy was booming? Maybe I’m simple, but my understanding is that commodity prices are influenced, for the most part, by supply and demand. Growing demand has led to higher prices over the last decade, but now there is growing supply which has offset that.
That same attitude towards protecting sugar gave us high fructose corn syrup. I take it you like ethanol in your gasoline and want more.
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