Lawlessness is coming

What the f*ck are you talking about?! All they would be doing is hurting the gas station owner. Hell, next you can advocate holding up gas stations and taking the money directly out of the cash registers.

Ummm... Katrina is causing the most recent upswing in gas prices. The other cause is the world's increasing demand is growing faster than the supply side.

Now go have a drink and chill out.

Patrick '93 Cobra

Heh,,

Look at the pattern. He wants to get back at the guys who produce bad movies by not paying for good ones.

Wants to get back at Oil Companies by taking out a stations profits for a day. Thus making it hard -and inconvenient- for everyone else...

Yep... and the only reason those punks in Big Easy took TV's and Jewelry is there wasnt any food left.

See it's always SOMEONE ELSE'S fault or blame.

How would stealing from a gas station owner solve your problem? That's like stealing gallons of milk from the deli because you don't like the milk prices going up (which they have, incidentally). The owner only ads a small margin to the price. The actual price at the pump is set by the oil refining company and that's where the lion's share of the money per gallon goes. Actually, here in NY you then also pay 50-60 cents a gallon in federal and state taxes.

Cheers,

Someone has to be blamed for lack of production. The problem existed WELL before Katrina hit the offshore rigs. See if your benevolent oil companies now start processing shale oil (of which you have more oil in than Saudi Arabia) now it's profitable to do so and will stay that way as long as World demand stays high. My guess is you'll never see drop one from the shale deposits. They want you in the back pocket of the Arab scum and for eternity.

-Rich

Nobody is going to build more refining capacity in this country. It's horribly expensive to build a refinery (a billion plus) and you have a substantial amount of environmental expense/risks. In the current business/environmental climate in the US, you're looking at a 10-20 year time frame to even begin to pay back the capital investment in a new refinery. Most of the new capacity that I'm aware of is being built in the 3rd world. There, you just pay off the local government and can build whatever you want without the "hassle" of worrying about the environment. The end result is that the US is going to be operating more or less at 100% capacity for the forseable future. Given that demand shows no sign of slowing down, the oil companies are going to be importing a LOT more refined product (gas/fuel oil/etc). That costs more money than importing oil and refining it yourself, but they're just passing that additional cost along to the consumer.

Shale oil and bitumen is plentiful in North America, but it's also expensive to extract and then you're back to square one in terms of having nowhere to refine it beyond our existing refining capacity.

The bottom line is that if you want to keep tooling around in your big fat SUV or 9mpg hotrod, you'll just have to dig a lot deeper into your wallet. With or without Katrina, it's only a short matter of time before US$4-5/gallon gas is a permanent fixture. Get used to it.

Cheers,

Every station in the greater chicago area is pay first on almost all if not all the pumps. Those that still allow one to pump first only allow it at the nearest pumps. This is in good areas, bad areas, and all the areas in between.

According to one source (I don't know if it's true) at $3.00 per gal and up, shale deposits are economically viable to exploit. The oil companies are afraid that if they start the projects, and the price falls, they'll lose.

-Rich

Gas prices are a product of Chinese competition, (They want their share and are willing to pay for it) which drives up raw crude. The environmentalists getting refineries closed down so there is a shortage in manufacturing. And last, but certainly not least, oil companies victimizing us by jacking up the prices because they can. They are making record profits from this and since we would rather drive than walk, have no recourse other than to pay, and pay and pay.

It's been at least fifteen years since I bought gas anywhere in a station in Washington State without paying for it first. Stealing from the gas station owner is certainly not the answer.