Thursday, May 04, 2006
With gas prices soaring above the $3 mark and expecting to soon eclipse the $4 mark, people are wondering who is to blame. There is no individual company or person to blame for this problem but there are plenty of individuals responsible.
Supply Lines – Limited Blame
In this article, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister stated supplies are not a problem because there is plenty of oil being produced. Saudi Arabia contributed 9 million barrels per day to the world supply and is expected to increase production to 12.5 million barrels by 2009. But he admits if the price of crude oil is to stabilize then other suppliers will have to increase production and the world will have to have better conservation methods.
Where is all of this oil we were supposed to get from Iraq? We were told we could pay for this war with the oil we got from Iraq only I don’t see any oil. Can you imagine how the price of crude would tumble if Iraq also produced 9 million barrels of oil per day?
American Consumers – Most of The Blame
Let’s face reality here; America uses most of the oil produced. You can complain about increased demand in China until you are blue in the face, but the reality is the American consumer uses most of the world oil supplies. Oil demands by the American consumer grow so fast production cannot keep up. By comparison, demand in most European Nations is up only slightly.
Therefore, the primary culprit of the soaring gas prices are the knuckleheads that still purchase gas guzzling automobiles. I am not talking about someone who owned one before 2004 (although there is some blame for them), I am talking about the idiot that bought one this year or last year.
Even though gas prices are at record levels, SUV sales are declining but only by 30%. Who are these knuckleheads that are still buying SUVs even though the outlook on gas prices is horrendous? The people that purchase SUVs in today’s market are are mostly responsible for the rising gas prices.
Every time I see one of these “Darwin award recipients waiting to happen” on the news, filling up their monstrosity of a gas tank and complaining how it cost $120, I laugh out loud. Just once, I would like it if the reporter would bitch slap them and say, “Idiot! Why do you think gas is so high?!!” They never do.
Another disturbing report stated RV sales and rentals have shown a slight increase in demand. These vehicles get between 5 and 8 gallons per gallon, thereby proving the knuckleheads that buy or rent these are solid idiots. I’ll bet these people also have 2 SUVs in the driveway. The next time you see one of these mental giants driving down the freeway, you should thank them for contributing to the $4 gallon of gas by extending the finger to them.
Refining Companies – Much Blame
The refineries are a big problem because bottlenecks in production translate into more profit for them. We have known about the bottleneck in the refining process for at least a decade but yet absolutely nothing has ever been done to remedy the problem. It is a known fact that every spring the refineries close a large portion of their production to do “maintenance” which contributes to the spike in prices in April and May.
Why doesn’t the government force these companies to do their “maintenance” in the fall or the winter when demand is very low? Why doesn’t the government force these companies to build more refineries? Because we all know as long as big business profits are high there is no incentive to do anything except lay off people to make even more money.
Commodities Traders – Much Blame
These are the people largely responsible for setting the price of oil per barrel. Do you remember hearing the reason for the rising oil prices was “because of rising tensions in the Middle East” or some other ridiculous reason that eventually never happened? Well these are the clever capitalists responsible for that. When our government looks into price gouging instead of looking at the gas pump they should look at these vicious sharks. The true market never sets an accurate price because these cajoles always find an excuse to keep prices high.
Our Government – Much Blame
Our government should be responsible for keeping the industry honest but they have not done a very good job. Here are a few ideas for the guys and gals in Washington:
• Keep the refineries on-line during peaks in demand.
• Hold the refineries responsible for increasing production as demand increases.
• Set higher standards for fuel efficiency for the auto makers. The American consumer has proven they are too stupid to act responsibly so we might have to start regulating this.
• Allow Tax breaks for people that buy hybrids. How about no sales taxes for cars with fuel efficiency ratings over 30 miles per gallon? You can make up the difference by up charging taxes for the purchasers of vehicles with a fuel efficiency rating of less than 22 miles per gallon.
• During peaks in demand the government should lessen or eliminate all gas taxes. If it’s true that Exxon earned $8.4 billion in one quarter from 9.5 cents profit per gallon of gas, then the government with taxes running over 40 cents per gallon earned close to $40 billion during that same quarter.
• The federal government also needs to end the state regulated gas formulas and mandate one formula for all. Because each state can mandate is own custom gas formula, supply is always an issue because refineries cannot keep up with all of the different mixtures. They have difficulty enough with keep up supply without this added burden.
American Auto-Makers – Much Blame
Do you realize that since the first Model-T rolled off the assembly line we have not made any significant improvement in gas mileage? The Model T got 34 miles per gallon. They have invented plenty of other costly improvements; mostly only in comfort areas. But they have never invented something to help save the consumer’s money only improvements to help spend the consumer’s money.
The primary reason the auto industry still produces large quantities of SUV’s is because they make more money from those models than from smaller more gas efficient automobiles. New smaller cars can sell for as little as $8,000, while their larger counterparts can sell for as high as $50,000. You can see why the auto industry does not want American tastes to change and will not promote these changing tastes. If not for foreign auto makers, they would still be producing the muscle cars from the 1970’s because consumers would not have any other choices.
But the worst decision of all is the auto makers’ insistence in staying with the internal combustion engine. You would think that after nearly a century they could produce a better engine. I don’t know if the oil companies are partially to blame but this engine should have gone the way of the dinosaur many years ago.
Patriotism
If you really want to be a true patriot and do your part to help the country; then conserve energy. You can start with changing your tastes from huge inefficient automobiles to smaller more fuel efficient ones. Take smaller trips or consolidate your trips in the car.
Remember, every time you fill up your gas tank you put money in the hands of the Arabs. Eventually that money finds its way to terrorists.
Conclusion
The bottom line is there is no simple solution to combat the rising gas prices. Even if you don’t drive you will pay higher prices for other goods; there is no way to avoid inflation. Who is to blame for high gas prices? There is plenty of blame to go around. Some of us only need to look in the mirror to find someone to blame.
Supply Lines – Limited Blame
In this article, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister stated supplies are not a problem because there is plenty of oil being produced. Saudi Arabia contributed 9 million barrels per day to the world supply and is expected to increase production to 12.5 million barrels by 2009. But he admits if the price of crude oil is to stabilize then other suppliers will have to increase production and the world will have to have better conservation methods.
Where is all of this oil we were supposed to get from Iraq? We were told we could pay for this war with the oil we got from Iraq only I don’t see any oil. Can you imagine how the price of crude would tumble if Iraq also produced 9 million barrels of oil per day?
American Consumers – Most of The Blame
Let’s face reality here; America uses most of the oil produced. You can complain about increased demand in China until you are blue in the face, but the reality is the American consumer uses most of the world oil supplies. Oil demands by the American consumer grow so fast production cannot keep up. By comparison, demand in most European Nations is up only slightly.
Therefore, the primary culprit of the soaring gas prices are the knuckleheads that still purchase gas guzzling automobiles. I am not talking about someone who owned one before 2004 (although there is some blame for them), I am talking about the idiot that bought one this year or last year.
Even though gas prices are at record levels, SUV sales are declining but only by 30%. Who are these knuckleheads that are still buying SUVs even though the outlook on gas prices is horrendous? The people that purchase SUVs in today’s market are are mostly responsible for the rising gas prices.
Every time I see one of these “Darwin award recipients waiting to happen” on the news, filling up their monstrosity of a gas tank and complaining how it cost $120, I laugh out loud. Just once, I would like it if the reporter would bitch slap them and say, “Idiot! Why do you think gas is so high?!!” They never do.
Another disturbing report stated RV sales and rentals have shown a slight increase in demand. These vehicles get between 5 and 8 gallons per gallon, thereby proving the knuckleheads that buy or rent these are solid idiots. I’ll bet these people also have 2 SUVs in the driveway. The next time you see one of these mental giants driving down the freeway, you should thank them for contributing to the $4 gallon of gas by extending the finger to them.
Refining Companies – Much Blame
The refineries are a big problem because bottlenecks in production translate into more profit for them. We have known about the bottleneck in the refining process for at least a decade but yet absolutely nothing has ever been done to remedy the problem. It is a known fact that every spring the refineries close a large portion of their production to do “maintenance” which contributes to the spike in prices in April and May.
Why doesn’t the government force these companies to do their “maintenance” in the fall or the winter when demand is very low? Why doesn’t the government force these companies to build more refineries? Because we all know as long as big business profits are high there is no incentive to do anything except lay off people to make even more money.
Commodities Traders – Much Blame
These are the people largely responsible for setting the price of oil per barrel. Do you remember hearing the reason for the rising oil prices was “because of rising tensions in the Middle East” or some other ridiculous reason that eventually never happened? Well these are the clever capitalists responsible for that. When our government looks into price gouging instead of looking at the gas pump they should look at these vicious sharks. The true market never sets an accurate price because these cajoles always find an excuse to keep prices high.
Our Government – Much Blame
Our government should be responsible for keeping the industry honest but they have not done a very good job. Here are a few ideas for the guys and gals in Washington:
• Keep the refineries on-line during peaks in demand.
• Hold the refineries responsible for increasing production as demand increases.
• Set higher standards for fuel efficiency for the auto makers. The American consumer has proven they are too stupid to act responsibly so we might have to start regulating this.
• Allow Tax breaks for people that buy hybrids. How about no sales taxes for cars with fuel efficiency ratings over 30 miles per gallon? You can make up the difference by up charging taxes for the purchasers of vehicles with a fuel efficiency rating of less than 22 miles per gallon.
• During peaks in demand the government should lessen or eliminate all gas taxes. If it’s true that Exxon earned $8.4 billion in one quarter from 9.5 cents profit per gallon of gas, then the government with taxes running over 40 cents per gallon earned close to $40 billion during that same quarter.
• The federal government also needs to end the state regulated gas formulas and mandate one formula for all. Because each state can mandate is own custom gas formula, supply is always an issue because refineries cannot keep up with all of the different mixtures. They have difficulty enough with keep up supply without this added burden.
American Auto-Makers – Much Blame
Do you realize that since the first Model-T rolled off the assembly line we have not made any significant improvement in gas mileage? The Model T got 34 miles per gallon. They have invented plenty of other costly improvements; mostly only in comfort areas. But they have never invented something to help save the consumer’s money only improvements to help spend the consumer’s money.
The primary reason the auto industry still produces large quantities of SUV’s is because they make more money from those models than from smaller more gas efficient automobiles. New smaller cars can sell for as little as $8,000, while their larger counterparts can sell for as high as $50,000. You can see why the auto industry does not want American tastes to change and will not promote these changing tastes. If not for foreign auto makers, they would still be producing the muscle cars from the 1970’s because consumers would not have any other choices.
But the worst decision of all is the auto makers’ insistence in staying with the internal combustion engine. You would think that after nearly a century they could produce a better engine. I don’t know if the oil companies are partially to blame but this engine should have gone the way of the dinosaur many years ago.
Patriotism
If you really want to be a true patriot and do your part to help the country; then conserve energy. You can start with changing your tastes from huge inefficient automobiles to smaller more fuel efficient ones. Take smaller trips or consolidate your trips in the car.
Remember, every time you fill up your gas tank you put money in the hands of the Arabs. Eventually that money finds its way to terrorists.
Conclusion
The bottom line is there is no simple solution to combat the rising gas prices. Even if you don’t drive you will pay higher prices for other goods; there is no way to avoid inflation. Who is to blame for high gas prices? There is plenty of blame to go around. Some of us only need to look in the mirror to find someone to blame.
posted by DarthImmortal at 8:57 AM
3 Comments:
Your point is well taken. Imho, oil co profits are a result of enormity of scale--BILLIONS of people every day consume their product EVERY DAY. So it follows that their profits would be huge. It also follows that part of the solution if looking at ourselves and our consumption habits. Other parts of the solution? Opening up ANWR, the Outer Continental Shelf and the Rockies to increase supply and reduce our dependence on foerign oil. And since 40 cents on the dollar of pump price is taken by the government in taxes AND burdensome regulations prevent oil cos from building and expanding refineries, I would suggest that getting government out of the way would also have a lowering effect on pump price.
I agree with your conclusion, darthimmortal. I get tired of Republicans blaming Democrats and vice versa. I also get tired of government blaming oil companies and vice versa. I think we need to stop finger-pointing and everyone sit down together and come up with a solution. I think flake has some good starters.
Flake,
Supply lines are not really the problem. While it can never hurt to have more oil I would rather we spend our resources on building more fuel efficient cars or cars than run on alternative fuels. No I am not talking about corn.
Instead of corn we should be looking at sugar but the corn lobby is richer and better represented than the sugar lobby. It takes a lot of energy to refine corn into fuel and it is too corrosive so it eats the pipes. So it must be shipped by truck even further increasing the cost. Sugar uses less energy to refine into fuel and can easily be pumped through pipes.
Those burdensome regulations keep our water and air clean; two important natural resources we need for survival. When more refineries are built, they should adhere to the newer standards to limit pollutants released into the air instead of getting the exemption of the older refineries. There is no reason why newer refineries should be exempt from a cleaner environment.
Ultimately we should wean ourselves from the internal combustion engine to fuel cells or something similar. This way when dumbass Billy Bob buys his 2 ton truck to drive to the store, he will only be releasing water into the air instead of carbon dioxide. Because dumbass Billy Bob has proven he cannot be responsible by continuing to buy his Hummer or Escalade or whatever the dumbass wants. So I think our dollars would be better spent in readying our country for alternative fuels instead of promoting more drilling for oil. The more we drill the more dumbass will use anyway.
Techjunkie, I am also tired of the partisan blame game our government plays. They are both guilty as charged.
Thanks for both of your comments.
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