Posted on 10/17/2012 12:32:23 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Of course denying permits for drilling on our own land and sea don't help to lower gas prices. Giving Canada the finger (id rather get oil from them than russia or saudi arabia, Canada doesn't try to fly our airplanes into our buildings for one) on Keystone XL because some rich enviros that dont worry about their gas prices tell Obama to do so doesnt lower oil prices. I doubt oil futures would remain as high if we permitted drilling everywhere we could. Constantly playing "yes, but" with traditional energy sources in favor of adopting not-yet-realized energy tech nationally doesn't help it either. Also glad for the question about Steven Chu. It reminded people that the president doesn't really care about your gasoline expenses, peons, you should pay a lot so you'll have to er, want to buy a greenmobile (Volt)!
Again, not sticking up for Obama (he's making gas prices worse), but this piece misinterprets his dumb argument. It was easy enough to demolish without doing so. I just did so and I'm not a rocket scientist.
Actually, I believe your description is the appropriate way to understand what 0bama implied. The writer of the article jumped the shark.
And HOW did Obama KNOW that Crowley had the Rose Garden TRANSCRIPT right there at her desk???? CHEATERS!
Because you are only looking at WTI pricing and not the average price most refineries have to pay for oil. Keep in mind we import more oil than we produce ourselves.
The price of oil most commonly quoted is West Texas Intermediate delivered to Cushing, Oklahoma. That is a bottlenecked, landlocked point in the delivery system and below the average oil price.
When you look back at the high prices in 2008, WTI was a premium price to imported Brent and corresponding to other imported oil.
These days the WTI is often $20 bucks cheaper than most the oil refined in the US.
In short, comparing the WTI/Cushing price of oil vs gasoline from 2008 to now, is comparing a number that was higher to the average refinery price to one that is lower today. It is not a real comparison.
Too many people want to compare to the spike price that lasted a few hours in 2008. That is not a useful comparison. The average monthly price of oil bought by refineries reached $129/bbl in July of 2008, the average price of gasoline was 4.114/gal at that time.
U.S. Crude Oil Composite Acquisition Cost by Refiners
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=R0000____3&f=M
U.S. All Grades All Formulations Retail Gasoline Prices
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPM0_PTE_NUS_DPG&f=M
The latest monthly data is for August. $100.2/bbl for oil and $3.78/gal for gasoline. The margin is a bit larger than before, but there are more regulations and higher costs associated with refining today then there was in 2008. The labor costs are higher, maintenance cost are higher. But the ratio has not changed greatly.
Price of Oil plotted against Price of Gold
You are right, but nothing there is in contradiction to my post.
Times are bad, but the dollar is low too. There are so many variables.
A drop in U.S. demand is still a drop in total demand. If the U.S. was only a small part of world demand, it might not be noticeable. But the U.S. is a large part of world demand. And when our economy is off, everyone else's tends to be too.
If the rest of the world increased demand as the U.S. decreased so that total demand stayed the same, you wouldn't see a price change. Usually the rest of the world economies are affected by ours, and their demands drops along with ours.
OPEC is the one spoiler in the whole equation because they can influence supply to manipulate price. But even they typically want the economies running well, because they have other investments now too.
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