The oil is still the biggest cost component of gasoline.
I do not agree with this call...
The reserves were not intended to be used to ease the cost of gasoline to the public...
Releasing any amount (from the strategic reserves) will not do anything to make that cost go any lower for any of us...
It is rather funny that when the thought originally came to the front page of the news radar late last week...That the story (they are using now), is that the release of a portion of our strategic reserve is to make up for the loss of incoming barrels from domestic drilling operations, which have obviously been hampered by the storm...
Like I have said before, something else is amiss...
I have never seen "inflation" drive a mass-use commodity like oil/gasoline, to be inflated over 200% in a 24 month period...
They key to all of this is that we can no longer "refine" the oil to gasoline products as fast as we are taking in the oil...
We got all the oil we need coming in...Its the refining of that product to what we can use that is driving up the cost...
When you have accidents (natural or mechanical) that reduce that refining potion of the process, thats what hurt the majority of us...
Remember we have not been able to build ANY new refineries in years...Thanks to the eco-freaks, and their successful efforts...
Thanks to them and the weak-kneed government, we ar now paying the price...
Expansion of existing refineries has been minimal, if not just upgrades to those facitities, no increases of refining of the oil, means a "cap" on what gets to the pumps around the corner from you...
I expect to see $3.00 per gallon of gas within the next month...
And it will not get any better till we expand the refining capability in this country...
Yeah, getting our oil from ANWR will help us eventually, but getting that supply to us to do any good to reduce the cost of this commodity will take at least a minimum of 5-8 years...
Bottom line...I think we should leave the reserves alone...We can tough this out...
The reserves were not intended to be used to ease the cost of gasoline to the public...
Releasing any amount (from the strategic reserves) will not do anything to make that cost go any lower for any of us...
Releasing oil from the reserves is a matter of opening a few valves. Restarting production from offshore platforms is a lot trickier. Considering that most of the oil production in the Gulf of Mexico (one quarter of US domestic oil production) had to be shut in due to the storm, I think it does make sense.
The oil is still the biggest cost component of gasoline.
So get down to your banker and tell him you just had a great idea and want to borrow some money.