http://www.forbes.com/energy/2005/09/23/hurricane-rita-fuel-cx_sr_economy_0923ritafuel.html
There is always somebody making an extreme prediction of dire gloom and doom, and there is always a salivating media eager to pass it on. The worse the prediction the greater the credence it receives. And they are almost always w-r-o-n-g. If you remember the 70’s you will recall the predictions of the Carter Administration (experts, of course) that by the turn of the century there would be no more oil. None at all! There was to be widespread famine - not somewhere in darkest Africa, but right here in the good old US of A. Pestilence, too. That would have been five years ago. I must have slept through it.
BTW, Neil Cavuto (Fox News) reported today the price of crude oil DROPPED $2 a barrel. Go figure.
One way, however, it does make some sense if you consider that if refinery capacity is disrupted, imports of crude will be reduced and the price should (and did) go down. And gasoline in short supply goes up. But $7? We shall see.
At $7 per gallon gasoline, the government will have to raise the poverty level to at least $50 K. At the current minimum wage, people would starve or freeze to death. This government needs to be changed before it comes to that. Not just the White House, but also the entire Congress. It has been heading downhill since WWII, but lately it has been accelerating toward the toilet.
The media could stand a good house cleaning too.
I am convinced that it is the government’s goal to make the people afraid. They don’t care what we are afraid of. They just want us afraid, and they exploit the media to feed us the message.
We need to wake up and vote them out, and pray we still can.
[tup][tup][tup][tup][tup][tup][tup][tup] [;)]
So should I believe David Icke and Arizona Wilder?[alien][alien]
I want to know why if the price is down per barrel, and the gas in the ground right now is still going up. I see this all as a mass rip-off, someone out to make a MAJOR profit. I have yet to see it dip back even close to June prices, even though barrel prices kept steady.
I think if the government doesn’t take a stand (unlikely) that we may see some revolting (though most of us are sheeples) or a complete breakdown of our society (can anyone remember New Orleans?)
I do think we will see 4-5 a gal in a week.
Seven dollars a gallon…no way in hell. This storm was a flake.
Allan.
We have a winner! Panic buying in Stratford Ontario sent gas prices to $2.24 per liter. That’s over $7 a gallon.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050923.wxgas-prices23/BNStory/National
Oh Canada![:-^][swg]
And according to a web site they are the 2nd largest in oil reserves. Do they have refineries? I haven’t heard that mentioned.
OK here it is from Economics 101:
A hurricane shuts down several refineries who no longer need crude reducing the demand so the price goes down.
At the same time there is less production of pertoluem products like gasoline but the demand is the same or nearly so and the price for the limited supply of the product rises.
However there is much more to this account the way oil futures and long term contracts are sold and traded but the basic economic principles make it work the way it does. I would doubt you will see $7/gal gasoline but if I could accurately predict what the price will be I could make a killing and quit my day job.
Screw it anyway, I’ll just stay home and work out of my home office and telecommute.
Absurd. That’s the kind of astute prediction that got Malcom Forbes the boot
when he ran for president.
I read at Yahoo news that the largerst refinery in America, the Exxon Mobile refinery in Baytown, TX will be down for two weeks. This one refinery produces 10 percent of America’s consumption.
World oil consumption has matched world oil production and refinery capacity which is 86 million barrels a day.
My seven year old grandson can do the math. Down one refinery which produces 2 million barrels of gasoline day from the 86 million barrels a day of world capacity leaves us SHORT 2 million barrels of gasoline a day.
But don’t fear or worry too much. We’ll see the long gas lines again with stations closed or out of gas long before gasoline hits $7 a gallon. When the lines appear, our government will finally do something smart, which is to bring back the 55 MPH speed limits again. Doing so will save 15 percent of our consumption, bringing us below the peak level…for a while until our consumption passes our refinery capacity again.
Keep in mind that world oil consumption is up 9 million barrels of oil a day in the last year alone…
America, the land of gas guzzlers driving dinosaurs…
What I find funny are people who drive 10+ MPH over the speed limit, have under inflated tires, massive amounts of “junk in their trunks” and nail the gas pedel in their SubUrban Vehicles. They turn around and complain about gas prices being so high. If it weren’t for 50 million of people like that, gas prices would still be a $1.50 a gallon.
A guy on CNN is actually PROMOTING higher gas prices…I wonder when he will be assasinated?
The benefits of higher prices assume (yes, economists use that word a lot) there is demand elasticity. That means there is a way to substitute something else for higher priced fuel. Short term there is really not any way to change the structure of the US economy to significantly reduce fuel consumption without causing massive turmoil. In the long run people may opt for more fuel effecient vehicles, better mass transit and solar heated houses. These things do not happen over night and the transition will be painfull for many.
It really makes me kind of chuckle. All this talk about how terrible high gas prices are but nobody ever thinks to maybe change their lifestyle or choose not to live in a suburban housing development with no sidewalks and the grocery store located three miles away, or to start taking public transportation or to start riding a bike (yes, you can get them to go faster than ten miles per hour - it’s called being physically fit). Nobody in this country ever seems to steer off the path that they’re told to go on unless they’re forced to by monetary reasons. SUch a pity. Where will cities like houston and atlanta (all based around DRIVING) be left when gas prices get even higher. These prices are not going to recede by very much, people, if any. Read about PEAK OIL. It’ll do you some good.
People behaved like that BECAUSE gasoline was $1.50/gal! With gas that cheap, what’s the incentive to conserve?
It’ll be under $2/gal in a year or so because everybody and their brother will be trying to produce as much crude and refine as much petroleum as they possibly can at these prices. And, we still have no national energy policy to encourage conservation and efficiency.
We can’t even get a cohesive STATE policy here in GA. The gov. cuts the fuel tax, which only encourages consumption, then cancels school for two days (that will have to be made up later in the year). Did he allow state workers to do 4x10 instead of 5x8 which would have cut consumpiton? No. Did he provide any vision at all in the past 3 years for the traffic mess in Atlanta? No. Has he taken any position at all on commuter rail or intercity rail in the state? No.
No leadershp. No direction. Just reaction.
Or, how about a gas tax?
Might be able to use the procedes to fund alternative transportation, in part.
I LOVE my hybrid - I’m now getting more than 50 mpg!