"Congress Urged to Ease Pain of Gas Prices"

[jhetley]

Yeah.  Right.

Repeal gravity and make Pi = 3 while they're at it?

A few billion people (China and India) have decided that they want to live like Americans.  Oil prices have risen accordingly.  That "pain" is the laws of economics telling us to change our ways...

Exercise for the student -- compare US gas prices with Europe.  Or even with prices in Saudi Arabia.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Well Jim, Congress isn't going to be able to re-invent $25 per barrel oil, but Congress can certainly take action to stop Vallero from shutting down 15% of the US refining capacity at the same time, resulting in a quarterly profit that's 29% higher than during the same quarter last year while refining less oil.

When the spot price of unleaded gasoline on the NYMEX is tracking the price of oil, that's global economic reality. When the prices of West Texas Intermediate and Brent North Sea crude are dropping at the same time spot unleaded is going up, that's market manipulation.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I don't own stock in Vallero or Exxon or any of the other oil oligarchy crew. None the less, I am fairly calm on their obscene profits. High oil prices and high prices at the pump are the most reliable route I can see to developing alternative energy sources and alternative delivery methods.

Last I heard, it cost about a dollar US on average to lift a barrel of crude out of the ground. Other than that, the raw material costs nothing. Any time the moguls want to, they can kill alternative sources dead dead dead.