This road is like this every day, all day. Shanghai. That's me in the gold newer model Santana behind the older model red Santana. Shanghai.
Posted on 04/21/2006 12:06:54 PM PDT by Matt Bruce
SARASOTA, FL. (NS) -
The all-time record high prices for gas - oil - diesel are no longer just an 'issue' to be talked about. Fingers don't need to be blamed. This has become an AMERICAN issue that requires both Democrats and Republicans to come together and quit their bickering and PASS an Energy Bill that will allow the United States of America to become energy self sufficient and put America and American's FIRST!
Have you have been to the gas station today? You did know how high gas prices have gotten, right???
Well, don't expect to see them going down any time 'soon'...
Oil prices have been hitting new record high's everyday this week. One New York gas station was selling gas way over $4 a gallon...
Prices that high were reported to be rare, with most of the nation paying something closer to $3 per gallon...
However, one of my trucks sitting in Ontario, CA. reported seeing prices as high as $4.04 per gallon at the pump...
Magnifying the sense of alarm is the fact that a few states were suddenly hit with shortages of gas this week. And in some places, people cannot get gas at all...
The price of oil due to be delivered in June was already selling at a record high today – $75.00 a barrel – that is up several dollars from just a few days ago. Many analysts say $80 dollars a barrel could easily be the average coming this summer...
Adding to the high pump price pressure is a booming China and India putting a big new squeeze on the global oil supply where there was little pressure before. These two huge countries alone could soon use up as much oil as the entire rest of the world does now...
It also does not help that guerilla war in Nigeria has knocked out about 20 percent of that oil-giant's production. Oil traders are also worried about Iran's nuclear buildup...
Iran has threatened Israel, the United States and the World with 'serious' consequences should sanctions be placed against them by the UN Security Council...
And let's not forget that there still are 3 Oil Refineries not refining any oil along the Gulf Coast. It has been this way since Hurricane Katrina struck, and no new Oil Refineries have been built in over a decade, despite efforts last year by the Bush Administration to get an Energy Bill passed that was stalemated by Democrats...
But even without these overseas headaches, America is having its own oil production problems. Production usually goes down in the spring, but this year the problem's worse because a few refineries damaged in last year's hurricanes are still out...
And the addition of a cleaner additive to the nation's gas is causing problems because that additive -- ethanol -- is in short supply, making gas itself in shorter supply. This is also known an E85 across the Upper Midwest...
Democrats, like New York Sen. Charles Schumer, are trying to make political hay out of the pain at the pump, even as The New York Times points out that Democrats did little about high energy prices when they hit during the Clinton administration...
Schumer's calling for an investigation to see if the big oil companies might be taking advantage of the oil panic to gouge the public...
What a FARCE! We all know Oil Companies ARE making record profits and every time prices go UP, the U.S. - State & Local Government gets more TAX money in their coffers too...
And that is one thing that is driving many Democratic and Republican leaders absolutely nuts! They all want the public to see just how remarkably well the American economy is doing, but right now, most people are not seeing beyond these gas signs, and WHY should they???
High crude Oil and retail pump prices affect ALL of us. Sooner or later, EVERYTHING we buy is going to go UP as a result of what's happening right now with OIL...
Our Nation's Farmers are going to have an extremely tough time planting their first crop, let alone trying to get a second one in this year with fuel not being readily available to them and the higher cost of production causing many NOT to plant at all...
Companies that were 'hanging' on a fence, just trying to 'get by' will be GONE as a result of these higher energy costs...
Wait until your electric bills start going higher in a manner of a month or two when Utility Companies start asking for emergency rate hikes...
How many people won't be going on their vacations this summer because they can't AFFORD to buy gas for their vehicles???
INFLATION and what you have today WILL get worse! But WAIT there IS one possible solution!!!
CALL your Senator's and Congressional Representatives NOW and have them ask President Bush CONVENE Congress right NOW to enact WHATEVER Legislation is needed to get the USA more energy self sufficient and REDUCE our dependence on Foreign Oil...
I don't care how many Oil wells, Refineries, Off-Shore Drilling Platforms it takes! The time is NOW to do SOMETHING about this issue...
We need to drop the EPA regulations adding to the expense of production and slowing down our refineries!
It's way past TIME for the President to call the Congress into Emergency session and NOT be let to go ANYWHERE until they PASS an Energy Bill that INCLUDES getting our Oil from Alaska shipped TO our Refineries in the Western United States. Give Americans American Oil...
For NOW, That's Just 'OUR' Opinion...
Matt Bruce Managing Editor News Sarasota.com
But what we have left in the ground is still *ours.*
Really? It takes approximately 10 years from breaking ground to operation for a refinery. Now look back 10 years and check out the changes in EPA regs, emissions standards, formulation requirements (which require changes in the construction of the refinery). Those changes are significant enough that in the last thirty years, about half of the existing refineries were shut down, dismantled, and shipped off to the third world where they have no EPA to bugger them with new regulations every time someone in Congress sneezes.
Now, dear God, people are flapping around with one wing in the air calling on Congress to "DO SOMETHING!"
I have a clue for you. The 'boutique blends' restrictions are back on. COngress could have suspended that, but no. amounts which do not exist, for which the production capability does not exist, and people are going to feel the pinch at the pump. Why? Because ethanol is in short supply.
MTBE (remember MTBE?) is being phased out, primarily because the legislated choice for an oxygenating additive between that and ethanol was left up to the companies back when, but MTBE is now decried as a carcinogenic pollutant and that leaves ethanol to take up the slack.
Congress refused to waive liability for MTBE pollution, so the oil companies are looking that litiguous critter in the eye as well.
Congress refused to allow drilling in ANWR, and Legislatures throughout the land are banning oil drilling in their offshore waters.
NIMBY, NIMBY, NIMBY, for whatever reason, but usually environmental.
So now the Legislatures, Federal and State are supposed to "DO SOMETHING?"
What a clusterf*ck! Those rat buggering skanks in every Statehouse across the land and in Congress are blaming this on the oil companies so they can make political hay, and they are the rat b@stards who have set this up, every step of the way.
And the MSM is trying to blame the incumbents to help the Damocrats who made this mess in the first place take over again.
Get the Government screwing around trying to "DO SOMETHING!" (to look good for the media) in an election year and you will be lucky to get fuel at any price.
As for profits, where do you think the oil companies get the money to drill wells at $5 million and up a pop? Where do you think they get the money to build pipelines, production platforms, etc? Where do they get the money to hire the people who can make it all happen?
I have news for you, the oil companies' costs have gone up, too. Everyone who works in the oil patch just waits for prices to go up so they can get a raise after 5-10 years of stagnant and inflation gnawed paychecks.
As for profit, look at return on investment. Coca Cola made twice the ROI of Exxon Mobil last year--on flavored fizzy sugar water and nobody bitches about that.
Exactly, that is what I meant about the refineries. The last refinery we built, in 1980 in Yuma, AZ (I think), took 5 years just for the permitting process. The building doesn't take that long, but getting permits, and fighting the lawsuits, take forever!
COngress could have suspended that, but no.
Fourty Seven flavors of gasoline have to be made for the US, and Ethanol has been mandated by Congress to be used in the future and even the present in increasing amounts--amounts which do not exist, for which the production capability does not exist, and people are going to feel the pinch at the pump. Why? Because ethanol is in short supply.
Right this minute most of them probably are working (except the ones that sat so long they had to be scrapped). Many of them are probably working elsewhere, though, as Oklahoma's remaining oil is quite deep or shale/sand, consequently expensive. At these prices though, if geologists say "go", they'll probably be drilling on people's doorsteps!
At the whim of markets, oil has always been a "feast or famine" business, compounded by the fact that no one can truly "look down the hole" and tell if there's a potential gusher just waiting down there. Oil speculation is still a gambler's game.
It can always get worse, and that was my point about Congressional action.
By passing all this off (with MSM help) as being oil company profiteering instead of the result of decades of failed geopolitical and energy policies, the Congress can shift blame and make themselves the 'heroes du jour' just in time for re-election.
People never stop to think that the panderings and posturings of a Congress playing for votes could lead to far worse disasters down the road.
Our best bet is to keep the politicians out of it.
I wonder how much gas is burned by illegals...
I didn't admit that I also fall into the category of "elderly on fixed income" either! ;) I'm a retired teacher.
I think that's a fact all of us tend to forget. It's just so easy to blame those big "oil companies".
I'm with YOU! Some of the worst messes we've ever experienced have been Congress-created!!
Huh? Not sure you are right there, I have a close friend who owns 17 gas stations and that is not at all how it works in his case, he sets prices based on the price he pays plus the margin he can get, based on competitors. I suspect it is the same accross the board for other stations. But oil cos do control prices by selling it to the stations for a certain cost and knowing the owner must make a profit.
This road is like this every day, all day. Shanghai. That's me in the gold newer model Santana behind the older model red Santana. Shanghai.
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