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526 Comments
- 0crabby0, on 04/03/2008, -10/+215Of course US inventory numbers don't lie. Largest gasoline inventory in 15 years.
- tgolferman, on 04/03/2008, -46/+210Another reason to bring charges of treason against Bush and Cheney. Secret meetings with energy executives. Iraq War and its destabilizing effect in the oil rich middle east.
- ScienceDoc, on 04/03/2008, -4/+118The biggest surprise is that this was published by "Business Week"!
- inactive, on 04/03/2008, -6/+93it's pretty obvious there's no gas shortage. if there was, we would all be waiting in line for gas and rationing it like people did in 1979. this isn't news.
- laserblazer, on 04/03/2008, -2/+66Artificial scarcification drives the diamond industry very successfully - it's no surprise they applied that thinking to fossil fuels. The human race just loves a scam!
- thechr0nic, on 04/03/2008, -16/+78It appears that the simple solution to these problems is to increase refining capacity. The questions we need to be asking, is why are they closing down refineries when they should be opening more of them. We have plenty of raw 'crude' oil in reserves, we just don't have enough refineries to turn that crude oil into a more usable product such as gasoline
- mfc5200, on 04/03/2008, -6/+60I'm just going to say this. We might have the "largest inventories" in the past 15 years, but it's possible he's cherry picking statistics. For instance, the ratio of gas inventories versus daily use may be at an all time low, meaning the markets are very tight. We do consume more gasoline than ever before in hour history. So if our use of gasoline has increased faster than the rate at which our inventories have increased, that means the markets are more tight, which would justify higher prices. To me though, this article just spelled out the obvious. We have to get rid of ethanol subsidies. The average consumer pays for them in two ways. 1) We have to pay taxes in order to provide these subsidies 2) Ethanol production raises the demand for corn, so the price of feed increases, and therefore the price of a lot of the things we buy in the grocery store go up, such as eggs, dairy, chicken, beef. corn, etc... It's not fair for all the consumers in the United States, to pay higher prices in everything because some farmers in the mid west lobby congress for ethanol subsidies, ON TOP of the $233 billion dollar farm subsidy package that recently passed. To Congress, if you really want to help the average consumer, stop worrying about keywords such as "oil dependence" and a bunch of other politically hot buzzwords, just lower our taxes, stop spending our money as YOU best see fit, and let us spend our own money in the way that we feel will best help improve our lives. We know how to spend our own money better than you do with regard to improving our lives, we don't need you telling us whats good and whats bad (ethanol vs. gasoline) -mfc
- dcmusicfusion, on 04/03/2008, -23/+73Great digg..... Down with big oil...and their connections to government & the bush administration. Can you say lapdog?
- pintomp3, on 04/03/2008, -9/+58corporations lying in order to increase profits? government in cahoots with corporations? color me surprised.
- inactive, on 04/03/2008, -9/+53But isn't making people use less oil good?
- way2muchsense, on 04/03/2008, -1/+45Of course there's no gas shortage. You can get all you want - for $3.40 a gallon.
- MacEnvy, on 04/03/2008, -1/+40Sure, but I'd rather the "extra" money made by raising fuel costs go back to the public (via taxes) rather than into the pockets of the already uber-wealthy, which is how it's working now.
- inactive, on 04/03/2008, -8/+43Largest inventory, a paltry increase in price per barrel, a overall minor decline in dollar worth.... all should bring gas to MAYBE $1.45, NOT $4.00
- StingingNettle, on 04/03/2008, -2/+35All those dollars being created have to bid up something. Gas hasn't gone up at all if measured in gold terms.
- VPurpmalkV, on 04/03/2008, -9/+33The Cake Is A Lie.
- stix213, on 04/03/2008, -4/+28Paltry increase in price per barrel? An increase form $10 to $100 a barrel in 10 years is paltry? That's a ***** 10x increase!!
Minor decline in dollar? About 1.05 USD to Euro 5 years ago, now 1.56 USD to Euro now. That is a huge change, not minor.
Care to share what you are smoking?
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=EUR ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Oil_Prices_in_d ... - apothekari, on 04/03/2008, -6/+30Yeah its all the lefts fault vote conservative!
If conservatives were in power none of this would happen!
Oh wait?!... - tewas, on 04/03/2008, -2/+25Do you even know how much that 120ft yacht costs? I need to get that money from somewhere.
- PueSi, on 04/03/2008, -2/+23The dude from the picture looks concerned so it must be true.
- StingingNettle, on 04/03/2008, -2/+21I don't think you read the article. They are not increasing refining capacity because demand is down. What are they going to refine? The problem is in the creation of new money by the Fed which creates bubbles. The reason why this administration is saying their is a shortage is because they don't want people to know about the bubbles. They pretended they didn't know with the tech bubble, and of course the housing bubble.
- oldhick, on 04/03/2008, -11/+30Destabilizing effect? What are some examples of this destabilization? Also, why single out Bush and Cheney? Congress knows all of this as well. They just had the CEO's on the hill and didn't do anything.
- SickMonkey, on 04/03/2008, -5/+23I agree but better to tax it and re-invest the money in alternative energy than to let a bunch of modern day robber barons steal it.
- franklymister, on 04/03/2008, -26/+44Good.
Gas should cost more. A lot more. The only way we're going to spend any money trying to get off the oil addiction is if we get hit in the pocketbook. I'm all for a world where the oil empires become history. - coit, on 04/03/2008, -10/+27As a republican, I'm able to give benefit of the doubt to many things. But Bush lost me when he sat back and allowed the price increases to occur on his watch.
There are MANY things he could have done or initiated to control this, but he is taking care of his own in the oil biz. - katenyc, on 04/03/2008, -10/+26Right here.... Bush is VETOING a bill that is targeted against the tax breaks these oil giants are getting. Doesn't this show more and more proof that this bastard should be hung?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-02-26 ... - hasslinthehoff, on 04/03/2008, -5/+21In future news: Ed Wallace, award-winning journalist and talk show host, was found dead this morning. Shot 300 times and stuffed in an oil barrel, authorities are ruling this a suicide and will take no further questions.
- ADA531, on 04/03/2008, -1/+17Speaking of lies: There are FIVE lights!!
- inactive, on 04/03/2008, -4/+20The Non-Energy Crisis by Lindsey Williams
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-866831928 ... - inactive, on 04/03/2008, -0/+15Business Week has always been a fairly straight shooter.
- SickMonkey, on 04/03/2008, -8/+22What do you expect when you have a President who is an ex-oilman, a VP who is the former CEO of an oil services company, and a Secretary of State who formally sat on the Board of Exxon and had an oil tanker named after her?
I knew this Administration was bad news all the way back in 2000 when they let Enron screw California over with their price fixing. - inactive, on 04/03/2008, -3/+17RTFA:
"Rounding out the list of experts discussing our oil and gasoline situation is Bill Klesse, head of San Antonio (Tex.) Valero Energy (VLO). He spoke in San Diego a week after those comments from Goldman Sachs, the President, and Secretary Bodman. Believe it or not, Klesse said poor margins may cause Valero to sell one-third of its refinery operations; he stated that poor margins in recent months had caused planned refinery expansions—which would have produced 500,000 more barrels per day—to be canceled. Moreover, according to a report from Reuters on Mar. 11, 2008, Klesse recently released the information that gasoline production has been curtailed in response to slowing demand.
Imagine that: Refiners cut gasoline production, yet gasoline reserves have grown to their largest since late 1992. So much for "surging demand."
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The "liberals made building refineries illegal" crap is as fake as the WMD. - oldhick, on 04/03/2008, -3/+16Did you read the article? There is no shortage, the oil companies admit this.
- badwithcomputer, on 04/03/2008, -11/+24but...what about the cake?
- BadseedJR, on 04/03/2008, -2/+15Not when the motive is making more money off that oil... and it causing the price of food to go up for the artificial market for ethanol to exist.
- BadseedJR, on 04/03/2008, -1/+13It would be nice if people finally realized it has nothing to do with Left and Right, Conservative and Liberal, Republican and Democrat. It has to do with who is in who's pocket, regardless of affiliation. Who can be bought and who actually wants to protect the citizens.
- d38as3r, on 04/03/2008, -2/+12Well DURRRRR,
If gas were in shortage, and did cost as much as were paying then the oil companies wouldn't be posting record profits, it doesn't take a brainiac to figure this out, god!!! - inactive, on 04/03/2008, -9/+19LARGEST INVENTORY IN EMERGENCY RESERVES !!!
That doesnt mean that the USA has a surplus nor does the world.
The demand argument makes more sense but that's 1st quarter comparison. Production might be up 3 to 4 % but then what is the expected demand during the summer when it's AT ITS HIGHEST?!?! And what production is it? Getting crude from the ground, or refining sweet crude?
And yes the weak dollar does account for a decent increase in price.
This guy seems to be relaying a conspiracy theory that was told to him, with only small bits of info that make him seem credible.
But yes, I would agree that Oil companies are, and always have, tried to make the best off a situation by increasing their profits through speculation. - markp93, on 04/03/2008, -3/+13The crux of the matter, fta:
"As for the speculators, in 2000 approximately $9 billion was invested in oil futures, while today that number has gone up to $250 billion. Now, if any publicly traded company had an additional $241 billion put into its stock in the same period, its stock would rise out of sight too—even if the company was not worth anywhere near that amount of market capitalization." - bjornski, on 04/03/2008, -2/+11Idiot. YES, take away their tax breaks. There's no reason the entire nation should be subsidizing lower costs for the wasteful few that refuse to reduce their fuel consumption. ***** you and your SUV. YOU pay more. There's no reason someone driving a Honda should have to pay higher taxes because you want cheaper gas for your SUV. YOU use the gas, YOU pay the costs. Quit trying to subsidize it on the backs of taxpayers, *****.
- bincoder, on 04/03/2008, -1/+10I've already noticed there is no fuel shortage. How? Simple. I go to the gas station, I don't wait in line because there isn't one, I give them money and gasoline somehow magically appears from under the ground. When we are low on fuel, that doesn't work. You wait in line, then get to the empty pump, wave $10,000 cash in the gas station owners face, and he says 'sorry we are out of gas' anyway. That's how you can tell if you are in the midst of a fuel shortage.
- mahdaeng, on 04/03/2008, -1/+10No, "making" people do anything is usually not good. Using less oil is definitely good but not if we're forced into it.
- minoss, on 04/03/2008, -3/+12There doesn't need to be a shortage for prices to rise due to increased demand and the weakened dollar. I don't think I've heard anyone other than the peak oil promoters (who are certainly not big oil) saying there is a shortage.
- ColonelJessup, on 04/03/2008, -1/+9No. You are forgetting about the poor who already have a hard time struggling with high prices. You can't have it that way. That is effectively pricing the poor out of evergy, it will kill and starve people.
You seem to be forgetting that not everyone can afford to go out and drop 25000 on a new hybrid. Not everyone can fix solar panels to their homes. Not everyone can afford to "go green".
I see a lot of people pointing fingers, and criticizing, but the same people are offering no alternatives. We can not neglect the poor, no matter how much you want to, they are there. - radink360, on 04/03/2008, -9/+17Digg the hell out of this. We need to get the word out.
- ratpH1nk, on 04/03/2008, -1/+9There is one fairly important concept in economics that both you and the author have overlooked, inelasticity. Gasoline, at least in the US/West, is an inelastic commodity. These do not follow your typical econ 101 supply/demand curves. Price elasticity is a measure of how demand responds to changes in price. Demand for an inelastic commodity, like gasoline, does not decrease much per unit increase in price. Some calculations say the short-term price elasticity of gasoline is about –.20. This implies that it will take a 45% increase in the price of gasoline to achieve a 9% reduction in demand for gasoline in the short term, or $4.00 per gallon.
It is in interesting concept, and wholly plausible in the US where suburbs and exurbs and beyond have flourished in the era of cheap oil/gas.
Also, @mohonri, I have seen no data that showed gasoline usage in the US is appreciably down. - SickMonkey, on 04/03/2008, -1/+9True, but he is right. I also have a buddy who works for an oil company in Malaysia. They dig test wells all the time that hit oil, but instead of putting them into production, they cap them and move on to do more exploration. The company just sits on them, knowing they have the wells in reserve as a long term asset.
- imitokay, on 04/03/2008, -1/+9or sarcastic
pwnt - Harabeck, on 04/03/2008, -1/+8I dont think you can compare a FREE service to big oil...
- oldhick, on 04/03/2008, -4/+11I don't think I'm nuts. I understand how Iraq is affected and Iraq's oil production. I am asking for examples of this "destabilizing effect in the oil rich middle east."
If the commenter simply meant Iraq, then why use the phrase "oil rich middle east"? Why am I nuts? -
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