Back in the 60’s when we first experienced oil
issues of rising prices which could either be blamed on greedy oil folk or a
lack of supply, the president of the community college where I worked attended
a national meeting on the issue. He came back and reported, “Is it greedy oil
or limited supply? Yes.” Both were true. I remember at the time many of us
voluntarily dropped driving speed down to 50 mph to save gas.
We here comes the nth incarnation of this
discussion. Chevron spokesman, Walt Gill, said August 7th “We’re
very disappointed this happened.” He was referring to the Richman, CA refinery
fire that sent 900 people to emergency rooms in respiratory distress. He added,
“We’re sorry for the inconvenience.” Well, excuse me. And as a result we are
seeing our gas prices at the pump zoom up. So, we get apologized to as we get
had at the pump.
Bear in mind this is happening while the 5
largest companies are taking in $14.4 million in profits/hour along with
$270,000/hour in tax breaks. So our cost is predicted to be 35 cents more per
gallon this week.
This is not a new thing. Remember when BP’s
refinery in Cherry Point, WA shut down?
Sen Maria Cantwell (D-WA) asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Alon,
Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell, Tesoro and BP. The McCullock Research report
said that prices were about 68 cents per gallon more than they should be based
on supply. That garnered the oil companies a windfall profit of $43 million per
day.
Brad Blog reporting on this talks about the
subsidies these oil companies get while we resist alternative energy development.
There was a Greenpeace billboard banned in oil-friendly Canada which said, “When
there’s a huge solar energy spill, it’s just called a nice day.”
I really don't have a problem with prices going up at the pump, whoever's pockets it lines. Gas is still way too cheap for the long-term damage its doing to the atmosphere and climate. It probably needs to get to $10+ per gallon to seriously change behavior though
ReplyDeleteI want to clarify that I'm not ok with safety sloppiness etc
ReplyDeleteI think gas is way overpriced, and not "cheap". There are artificial factors limiting its supply, making prices go up. And the price at the pump is much higher due to the extra taxes on it. I would eliminate these special taxes, and leave it taxed in a normal fashion like any good is (like books, shoes, pencils, tires, etc). That would still be plenty of taxation.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see the price settle to something below $2.50.