[Bloodclot]

Is it time to start drilling now?

[saganite]

No, it's time to stop producing these idiotic boutique fuels. If it takes 30 days to shift gears so refineries can comply with the loony tunes environmental requirements then it's time to change the rules.

[linear]

I've noticed it is increasingly difficult to find regular gasoline here in Dallas. Premium is plentiful however.

[angkor]

there's a derth of fuel in the New York and Philadelphia areas.

A strange story that doesn't go one bit toward explaining why there's an apparent "shortage" on the wholesale market.

As for the retailers, presumably some kind of state-mandated price controls are keeping them from matching prices with supply and demand. Otherwise they woudn't be running out.

[Huck]

Haven't seen any shortages in northern NJ. There was a run on some gas stations the week New Orleans flooded, but that was just people trying to get cheaper gas while it lasted. I just filled up last night. I wait until it's almost completely empty. These prices are rough. But it could be worse.

[Shannon]

Last night I watched Anderson Cooper's show. It had a long segment on Brazil and said when the gas shortages hit in 1975 (yes, over 30 years ago) Brazil started putting money & research into alternative fuel. Today their cars run mainly on ethanol and by year Brazil will be "energy independent". I was amazed.

[mware]

How about dropping the gasoline tax to help us common folks get through this dry spell.

[AmericaUnited]

Thanks Jimmy PEANUT BRAIN! Your duplicitous treachery in helping overthrow the Shah is still haunting us.

[tobyhill]

Gas is going to be the Republican lead congresses downfall unless something happens fast. Almost everyone here on FR understands supply, demand and market forces but for the average American they could care less about any of that when they see gas companies making record profit and one CEO making $400 million for leaving. ANWR would help but that won't be any consolation for the public who still sees record profits. The oil and gas companies better try something because if the Rats get control there will be caps and windfall profit taxes.

[LambSlave]

Is it time to start drilling now?

It's time to start buying up short calls on "Big Oil" /unrepentent capitalist enthusiasm off-- can't turn it off...

[greasepaint]

Republicans are slitting their own throats,
with these goofy gasoline chvnges.

about ethanol, it can loosen crud in
the gas tank, causing problems

[backhoe]

Allow me to drop out of Lurk and Link Mode for a brief bit of commentary- we all need to get serious about our dependency on foreign sources of energy, and use our own resources.

Our consumer-based economy is driven by and dependent on readily-available, reliable energy-- choke that off, and we'll all be back to using one rotary dial phone in the dining room, watching one TV, and driving one car per family-- probably a Hudson Hornet or a Rambler...

We need to

1) end the nonsensical ban on offshore drilling off California and Florida--read & weep:
Castro Plans to Drill 45 Miles from US Shores, But We Can't

2) build a lot of next-generation nuclear power plants, not just for electricity, but for any process requiring heat, power, or steam.

3) end Jimmy Carter's idiotic ban on recycling nuclear waste, and reprocess the stuff rather than fighting over where to bury it. Europe has done this for decades.-- what to do with spent nuclear fuel? Answer here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1468321/posts?page=50#50 hattip:  Mike (former Navy Nuclear Engineer)

4) use the 300-500 years worth of coal we have on our own land, using the new clean-coal technology.
-Clean Coal Centre--

5) and finally, there's nothing wrong with conservation, we should all practice it- but you can't conserve your way out of a shortage. Nor is there anything wrong with "alternative" energy sources- except they don't supply the vast ( not to mention readily-available ) amounts of power we need at a price competitive to more conventional sources.

We do need to get serious about this before we get strangled by a bunch of petty thieves and dictators who don't like us much.

My tongue-in-cheek collection of energy-related links:

Sticker Shock-$3 a gallon gas? Click the picture:

And kindly note, and note well-- the first reply to this post ( when gas was $1.45 a gallon ) was derisive... so, who's laughing now? My guess is $4.00 a gallon gas is next...

[kittymyrib]

The day the enviro-nazis have to walk to work will be the day the chickens have finally come home to roost. I also wish for the day when Mel Martinez, Bill Nelson, Babs Boxer, and Di Fi won't be able to make it to the Senate chambers because there is no way to get them from FL and CA, thanks to their opposition to drilling for oil off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. It's time the coasts pay big time for the crazy enviro-nazi regulations they've saddled the US with for the past 25 years. I just wish TX and LA could cut off the Gulf supply to both coasts and we'd get to hear some real whining from the clueless.

[eastforker]

I have posted this info before but here it goes again: Every rig in the US is working and has been for the last 2 years. There is a 2-4 month wait if you want to drill a new well.

[Wolfie]

I think we should wait another 30 years, declare we're "addicted to oil", and then repeat the cycle.

[Tribune7]

Thank you again Dems.

[Former Proud Canadian]

It is OVERTIME to start drilling, EVERYWHERE. It is also time to start a crash project to bring an additional 500,000 BPD out of the Alberta tar sands ASAP.

But it is really time to IMMEDIATELY rescind the regulations prescribing "boutique blends", ethanol, and other government mandated blending techniques. Let the market decide.

Building some more refineries and about two dozen nuclear power plants would help too.

[upchuck]

Refiners are switching to fuel formulations containing corn-based ethanol, prompted by the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005.

I wonder if there was an estimate in that bill of how much this switchover was/is gonna cost. And of there was, I wonder how much off target it's gonna be? I bet at least 60%. Lowball it so it'll pass.

retailers must clean their tanks, remove all water and install extremely fine filters on their pumps. Terminals have to clean storage tanks, too.

Do I need to clean the tank in my car and install a different filter?

Sounds like "water in the gas" is about to take on an expanded meaning.

[Flavius Josephus]

While it's tempting to laugh and shout "Shadenfreude", the fear that these may spread is no laughing matter. The lib-leninist hold over the energy policy of this country may cripple us just as surely as price controls.

[kx9088]

At what point do I need to call Ford to verify that my Escape will burn gasoline with a 10% additive of Ethanol?

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Darned Democrat environmentalist wackos won't permit us producing our own oil. They want shortages. They think they can blame Republicans for it. They may be right.