US activist pushes 'terror-free' gas (You'll love the pic!)

AFP via Yahoo ^ | 2/15/07

[Rodney King]

Got a link?

There is no link to be had. This is theoretical economics (teh effect of a boycott on a nearly perfectly competitive product) mixed with knowledge of the oil industry (I worked in corporate finance at a $10 billion + oil company.)

[Rodney King]

First, per your previous message, I am cranky for reasons that have nothing to do with this, so I am sorry if I seemed rude. But anyway, here is an example you might be able to better get your hands around:

A guy named Osama grows grain in Kansas. After he harvests his grain, he sells it to the local grain tower. 100 other farmers sell to this same local tower, and all the grain gets mixed together.

Along comes Kellogs. They buy up all the grain from this tower, as well as towers all over the midwest, and they mix it all up together. So Osamas grain is mixed up with the grain of tens of thousands of others. Kellog makes wheaties with this grain.

Later, Osama blows up a building. Kellog's announces "we've never bought any grain from Osama, our cereal is Osama free!"

They have never written Osama a check, but they have no way of knowing one way or another if Osamas grain is in their cereal.

The same is largley the case with Crude Oil. It gets all jumbled together in the midstream and downstrem processes, and there is really no way to say where the gasoline in your tank comes from.

[ASOC]

Thanks

I was trying to read the pump instructions or whatever that appears to be a flow chart.....

Nice tag BTW

[AnnaZ]

I do, and did, understand the analogy. Thanks, though, for taking the time to explain it further. (Like the "no animal testing" thing on products... the final product might not have been tested on animals, but each separate ingredient within it most definitely was.) But anyway...

I find it hard to believe that a company couldn't simply put domestic petroleum products through a refinery. If not, that is a problem.

I think people need to be a little pro-active about this and demand "terror-free oil". If the premise behind it grows, it might overwhelm the propaganda against off-shore/Alaskan drilling. (And then we just need to reallyreally come up with convenient cost-efficient alternatives.)

[AnnaZ]

Just a thought, do any States post, on the pump, the TAX on a gallon of gas?

I've heard that some do, or did... I'd like the fed and state taxes posted in comparison to the profit percentage that goes to the oil company. It'd shut up Hilliary Chavez PDQ.

= )

[Rodney King]

I find it hard to believe that a company couldn't simply put domestic petroleum products through a refinery. If not, that is a problem.

You could, theoretically. You could only buy oil from say Chesapeke energy, and own your own refinery and demand that it go through some small refinery where you know what is going on. The problem is that your total distributions costs would be higher than your competitors and you would then go out of business. Now, even if you did that, it still wouldn't really harm the arabs all that much, because they would sell the oil elsewhere, you would need the whole world in on it.

[AnnaZ]

Now, even if you did that, it still wouldn't really harm the arabs all that much, because they would sell the oil elsewhere, you would need the whole world in on it.

Which brings us back to my original analogy -- I realize the Chinese, for example, have no qualms enriching the Saudis or Iranians or Chavez, but we shouldn't if we can avoid it. Sure, the sheikhs will stay rich, but I'd really rather it not be with the help of our money.

[WKUHilltopper]

I'm waiting for the "Mo Ham 'n Eggs" special slam breakfast at Denny's.

[sinclair]

Yep, Sinclair gas. Nope, no relation.

[plsvn]

Me, too but I haven't seen a Sinclair station in ages.

Come on down to Oklahoma City, we have them here. Same dinosaur sign from the 60s!

[MarkL]

Hmmm.... I didn't know about that... Sinclair buys their oil from US and Canadian suppliers? There's a Sinclair station that I've never gone to before, but I'll do so now...

Mark

[MarkL]

I get a huge kick of buying Sinclair gas just because of their dinosaur logo. It's kinda like the picture on a can of vegetables that shows you exactly what you're buying.

I remember playing with a toy dinosaur that we got from Sinclair when I was a little boy.

Mark

[plsvn]

I remember playing with a toy dinosaur that we got from Sinclair when I was a little boy.

[metmom]

I love old stuff. I just don't love seeing toys I played with as a kid in antique shops.