Oil prices likely to keep wallets light for a while

ON MAY 28, 2003, President Bush signed a tax-cut bill projected to save Americans roughly $35 billion a year over a decade, an economic jolt that propelled consumers back to the stores last year.

Unfortunately, the oil business is taking away what Congress and the president gave. Since May, the price of oil has risen from $30 a barrel to $36, which translates to about an extra $40 billion a year that gets vacuumed out of our pockets and deposited into the accounts of ExxonMobil, the Kingdom of Norway and so forth.

By itself, the oil price increase is not a big deal in an $11 trillion U.S. economy. But it's not by itself. Combined with other cannonballs, oil prices have the potential to prolong economic problems or, if they keep rising, nudge us toward recession.

No...what is left out of this story is the fuel tax hikes not only from the federal government, but from all the states themselves. California has one of the highest taxes on fuel in the country.

We have not built a new refinery in years in this country...I think over 25yrs. The last refinery I believe was built in Texas by FINA, and their cracking units are not making trimethyl-pentane(gasoline).
BTW, many of our refineries are now in repair outages. This is the best time because of the drier weather...therefore the higher gas prices.

Another reason democrats don't talk about is all the rules and regulations passed on to the refineries. Until W took office, anytime there was an outage and repairs made...it was up to some bureaucrat to decide whether that refinery should add the latest and greatest pollution control technology. At a minimum this would cost 20 million for a electrostatic precipator, or 10 million for a oxidation catalyst. Sometimes they would have to add both. Who do you think has to pay for that?

When John effing Kerry voted on requiring MTBE to fuel...how much do you think it cost to build the plants to make this stuff? Now they want to change that and mix alcohols in the fuel? Jeesh.

"No...what is left out of this story is the fuel tax hikes not only from the federal government, but from all the states themselves. California has one of the highest taxes on fuel in the country.

We have not built a new refinery in years in this country...I think over 25yrs. The last refinery I believe was built in Texas by FINA, and their cracking units are not making trimethyl-pentane(gasoline).
BTW, many of our refineries are now in repair outages. This is the best time because of the drier weather...therefore the higher gas prices.

Another reason democrats don't talk about is all the rules and regulations passed on to the refineries. Until W took office, anytime there was an outage and repairs made...it was up to some bureaucrat to decide whether that refinery should add the latest and greatest pollution control technology. At a minimum this would cost 20 million for a electrostatic precipator, or 10 million for a oxidation catalyst. Sometimes they would have to add both. Who do you think has to pay for that?

When John effing Kerry voted on requiring MTBE to fuel...how much do you think it cost to build the plants to make this stuff? Now they want to change that and mix alcohols in the fuel? Jeesh."

I agree this is part of the story, however, this does not explain why the supply is being cut by the oil producers. We have turned our energy policy over to a bunch of dirt worshipers.

We are getting wacked twice - the religion of the left - dirt worshipers "we are gods" and those that suck it out of the ground in the first place. Could it be a conspiracy to harm a recovering economy?

We are getting wacked twice - the religion of the left - dirt worshipers "we are gods" and those that suck it out of the ground in the first place. Could it be a conspiracy to harm a recovering economy?

No. It's business. The Saudi are not making nearly the amount of money they could make if they just sold the finished product. Why should they ship raw petroleum when they can create more refineries and more jobs to ship out finished product of Jet A, diesel, gasoline, naptha, pet coke, etc? This is their end game and it has been a long time coming. BTW, don't we get most of our oil from Canada now.

"No. It's business. The Saudi are not making nearly the amount of money they could make if they just sold the finished product. Why should they ship raw petroleum when they can create more refineries and more jobs to ship out finished product of Jet A, diesel, gasoline, naptha, pet coke, etc? This is their end game and it has been a long time coming. BTW, don't we get most of our oil from Canada now."

I don't know if we get most of our oil from Canada now.

If what you say is what is going on then why did the Saudi's just cut production?

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