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SDUT: Who's to blame for high gas prices?
San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | April 11, 2005 | Brian P. Simpson

Posted on 04/11/2005 5:58:56 PM PDT by OESY

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To: Sam Cree
Maybe someone can tell me why diesel, the cheapest fuel to refine, is the most expensive at the pump.

Higher Taxes combined with a large market that will pay the high prices (trucking)

Federal excise tax rate on motor fuels and oil

41 posted on 04/11/2005 7:03:43 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney

The taxes are appalling, thanks for the link, but they've been in place a while. Diesel prices were still the cheapest until the last few months, when they suddenly became the highest.


42 posted on 04/11/2005 7:14:09 PM PDT by Sam Cree (Democrats are herd animals)
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To: John Thornton

Excise taxes fall into this category....but unfortunately, sales taxes don't. That's why the state does not have an incentive for lower prices!


43 posted on 04/11/2005 7:17:50 PM PDT by Diego1618
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To: paleocon patriarch
Why would an administration composed of oilmen possibly want to lower gas prices and oil company profits?

I see, during the vice-presidential debate, you saw this:



When, actually, what really happend was this:



Or, maybe you just need to read this:


44 posted on 04/11/2005 7:18:12 PM PDT by motzman (to the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time.....)
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To: Enterprise
Not to worry, any day now our fearless Governator is going to be leading the charge for more refineries and relaxed enviornmental regulations.

Nope, he is on Hydrogen Kick,

45 posted on 04/11/2005 7:20:43 PM PDT by itsahoot (If Judge Greer can run America then I guess just about anyone with a spine could do the same.)
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To: OESY

You don't suppose the loss of production capacity due to the explosion in Texas has anything to do with it do you....


46 posted on 04/11/2005 7:24:28 PM PDT by Modok
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To: willstayfree
One gets the impression that the increases are helping to pay for the war since there is a very large amount of tax in gas prices.

That impression would be wrong, price goes up, consumption goes down, tax revenue goes down. When people conserve, the politicians have to figure a way to pick up the lost revenue, don't cha know.

47 posted on 04/11/2005 7:25:49 PM PDT by itsahoot (If Judge Greer can run America then I guess just about anyone with a spine could do the same.)
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To: OESY
...the primary cause [of the high price of gasoline] is environmental regulation.

Brian "Bart" Simpson has apparently never given much thought to economics. Hey Bart, supply and demand may have something to do with prices. Just a thought.

48 posted on 04/11/2005 7:30:59 PM PDT by delacoert (imperat animus corpori, et paretur statim: imperat animus sibi, et resistitur. -AUGUSTINI)
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To: I got the rope
I want to know when we are going to build at least one new refinery.

I hear this tired old question too many times! How much of our unleaded gas is refined in this country? How many refineries exist in the US? What is the current capacity for refining crude in each of these existing refineries? What would the maximum output be if all refineries in the US were maxed out?

As the article stated, what would the output of each of these refineries be if 37 different blends were not required by environmental laws?

If these questions are answered, maybe then I will agree that we need another refinery......

49 posted on 04/11/2005 7:37:50 PM PDT by eeriegeno
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To: Doe Eyes

You do understand that our refineries are at 95% capacity with very little outage time don't you. You do understand that increasing competition will lower prices don't you.


50 posted on 04/11/2005 7:37:58 PM PDT by I got the rope
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To: Axenolith
California was the first state to REQUIRE MTBE and then they were the first state to REQUIRE that MTBE be removed when it was leaking into the ground water.

There isn't a market alive that the beauracrats in California can't screw up. And they use 20-25% of all the oil in the country so when they screw things up, they really screw things up.

51 posted on 04/11/2005 7:38:58 PM PDT by bpjam (Now accepting liberal apologies ....)
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To: OESY
BLah blah blah. Every time there's a gas gouge, it's always the same apologia: "Blame the EPA. BLame the '18 different mixtures.' Blame the refinery fire in Indiana or the pipeline lube shortage in Idaho." Anything but the oil companies.

Meanwhile, those thieving bas_ards rake in record profits and continue to expand, anti-trust laws notwithstanding.

And when the chumps ... er, consumers ... scream TOO loud, they turn the heat down a notch. Now, instead of $2.50 a gallon, we breathe a sigh of relief that gas is only $2 a gallon. Never mind that it's double what it was two years ago ...

I'm a free market capitalist, so I guess I don't advocate the government stepping in to regulate the oil companies. But I eagerly await the day when I can tell them to stick their crude back in a hole.

52 posted on 04/11/2005 7:39:28 PM PDT by IronJack
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To: I got the rope

You do need more refinery capacity, primary to deal with the ridiculous requirements to produce 17 different types of gasoline during different times of the year or in different zip codes. If everybody was producing the same 4 fuels, we wouldn't be bottlenecked at the refinery level virtually ever.


53 posted on 04/11/2005 7:41:28 PM PDT by bpjam (Now accepting liberal apologies ....)
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To: Sam Cree

I believe some new sulfur rules went into effect in January for diesel.

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/diesel.htm


54 posted on 04/11/2005 7:42:35 PM PDT by I got the rope
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To: OESY

ENVIRONMENTALISTS. PERIOD.


55 posted on 04/11/2005 7:45:18 PM PDT by montag813
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To: eeriegeno

All refineries are maxed out. The blends are additives to the gasoline.


56 posted on 04/11/2005 7:47:15 PM PDT by I got the rope
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To: I got the rope

Let me make sure I have his right. YOu don't think that gasoline prices have anything to do with the price of oil?


57 posted on 04/11/2005 7:47:54 PM PDT by Doe Eyes
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To: IronJack
Yes, its criminal to have to buy oil from a cartel. But you are leaving out one major source of the problem which is commodity speculators. There are lots of guys in suits adding cost to each transaction while not adding any value. Just think of them as very expensive middlemen.

Oil is twice the price that it was a year or two ago. Yet the supply has actually increased on a daily basis and there isn't a single request for oil going unmet. And demand, while higher each year, certainly hasn't doubled in the last 12 or 24 months. And we hear 'concern' about terrorism but somehow that concern has been here since 2001 and prices didn't double until last year. Traders are the ones who cite 'concerns' despite the existence of plenty of oil and plenty more which hasn't even been looked for yet.

Enron did the exact same thing 3 years ago with electricity. When the market supply gets tight, it is much, much, much, much easier to rape and pillage energy buyers. Every little hiccup becomes reason for a new rise in prices which would otherwise be considered ludicrous. You can either start investigating the traders and analysts, or you can start DIGGING UP SOME MORE FREAKING OIL!!!! Or do both. I'm sure there is a little criminalism mixed in with our capitalism out there.

58 posted on 04/11/2005 7:49:18 PM PDT by bpjam (Now accepting liberal apologies ....)
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To: I got the rope
I want to know when we are going to build at least one new refinery.

When the feds force one of the oil companies to do it or gives them some other kind of positive incentive.

If an oil company built a new refinery now it would lower the price of the products the company is selling.

Doesn't make much sense for an oil company to do that, does it?

59 posted on 04/11/2005 7:51:19 PM PDT by Walkin Man
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To: IronJack

Please let me know where it states that the price of gas must remain constant at 1.50 a gallon.

Adjusted for inflation, gas is cheaper than it has been in years.


60 posted on 04/11/2005 7:52:59 PM PDT by petercooper (Put Mark Levin on the Supreme Court.)
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