Avoid Major Oil companies

you might have been."

Hmm...my guess is that you Ralf and Kerry must both have advanced degrees in economics to come up with such a brilliant chain letter. The only thing missing are directions for the latest respondent to send $5.00 to the 10 names listed at the bottom. How do you plan to control the fuel that Exxon/Mobil sells to other refiners, to other non-house filling stations and on the international market. Don't forget that gasoline is a homogenous commodity.

All this will do is make sure you get the same chain letter back from

10,000 people every day for the rest of your life.

I bet this guy plays the lottery a lot.

Try this right now in the Atlanta area and you may not be able to get gasoline. Many of the independents in my area are now out of at least RUL gasoline even at $3+ per gal.

Lugnut

you might have been."

What you COULD do is refuse to use your car just one day of the week. A work day, preferably, not a sleep in day.

Ride with a friend, ride your bike, walk (and screw up the actuarial tables).

One day's average savings would drop the gasoline consumption about 14%. Do you think that would show up in a few months? I think so.

Better still, if we all chose one day of the year to vote by not driving....a mass demonstration...it would also be seen.

Don't cheat and fill up the day before... Actually tighten your belt and STOP USING ALL PETROLEUM PRODUCTS FOR JUST ONE DAY PER WEEK:

Similar tactics worked for Mohandas K. Ghandi and Martin Luther King. Awareness raising can be a powerful force.

According to FOX news this evening, some stations in Atlanta are selling gas for nearly $6.00 a gallon today!

I saw that too. I cant see how that would not be regulated by gouging laws.

So all this gas price increase must be the fault of Bush and the Iraq war and gouging oil companies eh?

Couldn't have anything to do with all the oil rigs and refineries that have been shut down by two significant storms in a row, or the tankers with foreign shipments that had to be rerouted or held at sea due to the storms huh?

Do you blame the farms or the government when some vegetables get more expensive due to a drout or other crop problems?

Pete C.

Better plan to not eat either skippy.

Morons seem to think food "jes' grewed".

"What you COULD do is refuse to use your car just one day of the week. A work day, preferably, not a sleep in day."

What you could do is quit driving a friggin' land barge with one person in it slack jawing on the telephone and wasting gas (both fuel and air).

you tell 'em Pete.

Not to mention China may be screwing with our ability to function....

Jumping to conclusions, Pete? I didnt say anything at all about Bush.

There is really no oil shortage YET. The Saudis can and are willing to produce more, but nobody is buying their excess product. The oil price is around $70, but the Saudis see support for it at the $40 per barrel range, not below.

True, there is not enough refinery capacity at the moment because major and independent oil companies have had too much of a fight with environmental agencies, have wanted to put their money elsewhere, AND because we Merkins sop up gasoline like there was no tomorrow.

I have been in the petroleum related business sector for over 40 years. This latest price eruption smells like the Hunt brothers silver kiting of a few years ago.

Now, while this particular price hike is, I believe, a manipulation, it won't be for long. No matter if Bush taps into the strategic reserves at Elk Hills, no matter if the Saudis bust their burnooses to try to fuel our gluttony for oil, this is a dead end street. Production WILL become unmaintainable at present demand rates.

And when gasoline gets above $4-5 per gallon, we will probably look for ways to conserve.

A lot of morons DO think that food just 'grows'. For every calory of food produced in the USA, we expend 10 calories of petroleum. Project that out to $250 per barrel oil!

There was an article on the local news radio last night that due to the interruption caused by the hurricane that refineries in Washington will help to pick up the slack. They went on to say that the "Non-Branded" (independent) stations will be the last to get fuel. So, the big guys win again.

what you might have been."

It is a complicated question, Scott. Yes, there are slowdowns due to the hurricane, due to lack of refinery capacity, etc etc.

The base price of oil is the big issue right now. Refinery capacity has nothing to do with this.

Think about it. An oilfield barrel contains 42 gallons of crude. This crude is now costing about $70 per barrel. That means that crude oil is $1.67 per gallon. Refine it to make gasoline, and the cost goes up a lot. Add taxes and $3.00 per gallon for gas is not too far out of line.

What we are seeing is something much more basic and intrinsic to our consumption pattern.

So, in 'the land of freedom', appearing on the market as a gas buyer is 'screwing' with someone elses 'ability to function'??

shakiro

[snip>

Or intrinsic to Bush's wrong assumptions that if he 'd invade Iraq (where most of the oil is) there would be plenty of oil (for the americans). But he forgot that unilateraly (or together with some puppets) invading an islamic country would attract resistance fighters like a honeypot attracts bees (and bears). But what the heck, this is the land of freedom, meaning Bush is still free to invade Venezuela to 'pre-emptively secure' the strategically important supply of oil. Or shoot Chavez, the next president will then know not to 'screw around with the USA's ability to function'. That's a lot easier than invading Iran, because they will fight back more than the Iraqies.

shakiro

I cannot argue, Shakiro, that Bush did the right thing in Iraq. I would like to believe that it had little to do with oil, and more to do with pulling the fangs of a desperate and dangerous dictator.

I would like to, but cannot summon up much credibility for his tactics at this point.

America has to come to grip with the facts that we are no longer energy rich and independent, and that we have to find ways to deal with the energy problems we are facing.

In the longer run, we will have to be more frugal and efficient with the fuel we have available to us. The 'well' is not bottomless. We CAN live with it...other countries do....but not if we maintain the same arrogant attitudes that have characterized our energy consumption for years.

Wow, you're very honest here, I appreciate that! Word has that Saddam has been fooled twice by the US:

1st when the CIA, after supplying him with a wealth of weapons, convinced him to attack and go to war for a 10-year period. But boy, did they fight back :) 2nd when the american embassador convinced him that if he'd attack Quwait, US would not intervene. But boy, what an intervention :)

And then, while there were no terrorists (yet) in Iraq, while Hussein did not have WoMD, BANG! Gone were all his toys... And in were the terrorists. And the oil flow stopped. You can call Hussein a fool, but Bush?... his ways are inexplicable.

shakiro

There are some omens which are more dependable than Bible prophecy:

One of them is NEVER get up before your national television and wave a nickle plated sword around. (To wit: Manuel Noriega, M. Qaddafi, Saddam Hussein). It is like waving a toreador's cloak in front of Ferdinand.

A lot of people dont know or believe the bit about the American ambassador to Iraq. It was true, and I suspect that the person was trying to be politically correct when she made the comment. Oops!

And, yes, we did back Hussein when he was at war with Iran. We stepped on our twinkie in that one.

By arming the Taliban in Afghanistan, we sort of fed blood to the sharks too, didn't we?

[snip>

Did it hurt? :)

shakiro

No, that really was very deliberately to let the Taliban fight against the Russians, so they would be weakened and maybe (which really happened) leave there.

Bottom line is that there has been a continuous intervening by the US in the Arab states from the time on that the English and French left there. Ruthless dictatorial regimes have been supported and kept in business. Crowds of honest and democracy loving people have left their lives or have been imprisoned and or tortured as a result of that. Main reason: oil. And nobody realised that all this screwing around could ever backfire into the own territory by people who, unlike the CIA, know what they are doing. It is called the 'globalisation of violence'. Nowadays one can not screw around with people at the other end of the world and expect not to be held accountable and suffer the consequences in his own country.

shakiro