Nothing intelligent to say? Just personal attack? My how clever you are.

I based my statement on my 20+ years of personal experience in the industry. I know what has been occurring in the industry, and the reason for prices being as they are.

Try, just for once, to use that organ in your head called a brain for something other than filling the vacuum between your ears.

Liberals often do this and as I have previously pointed out, Mr. Usher is a Liberal. He doesn’t truly believe in a free market, he believes in a government regulated market. Only government can truly tell us how commodities can be traded.

The lack of refining capacity, and its causes is no secret, and has been noted by “big oil” for some time. Its just that some “experts,” generally self-annointed-don’t like the explanation and therefore choose to ignore the underlying facts.

GAsoline prices rise solely due to supply and demand pressures. Refineries across America are generally running well above their designed capacities (110-120%). This is due to efficiencies in operations and new and better catalysts being invented by those evil private corporations who then-gasp-dare to seek to recover the cost of development of these efficiencies.

Developing new technologies is neither easy nor cheap. I have 20+ years of experience in production, enhanced oil-recovery, and in refining. Corporation spend a tremendous amount of money in R&D.

The other reason for the shortage of gasoline and the resultant high prices is the difficulty in obtaining the required permits, licenses and approvals from local, state, and federal authorities. As in the building of a nuclear power plant, our government entities, spurred mostly by tree-hugging Liberals, have made the construction untenable. They did this by intent, not serendipitously.

Groups like the Sierra Club have made it their business to interfere with energy corporations wherever and whenever they could, and they have been astoundingly successful, and networks like NPR and self-proclaimed experts like Mr. Usher have provided them the support they have needed to accomplish their aims.

A simple exercise for those of you who so strenuously object to the price you are currently paying at the pump is to look at the rise in the price of comparable commodities over the same time period. Compare the price of gasoline in the early and mid 70’s with the price of milk, bottled water, bread and most any other consumer product. Then compare the prices of today. You will find that on a percent inflation basis, gasoline lags far behind most other items on your list.

Oh yeah, and remember that it is those same folks on the Left who, like Al Gore, believe that higher prices on gasoline are ultimately good for America because they force people to drive less. The only reason they are upset with the higher prices is that the profits go to our citizens, the investors who comprise these corporations, rather than to the government, where we are to believe, they will spend the money far more wisely than can we poor ignorant citizens.

Small wonder Mr. Usher has chosen to stop allowing comments to his posts, he can’t stand the heat.

Conservativation has absolutely destroyed your entire premise and your prevarications won’t change that.

Oh yeah, and NPR is nothing more that a leftist propaganda machine. He’s correct about that as well.

You make it sound like a conspiracy, but I think it’s just the physical maturity of American production and no/few new big finds; they aren’t drilling to tens of thousands of feet in The Gulf for nothing. Fields in texas and oklahoma (as well as alaska) have been in production for so long that we’re on the inevitable backside of the Hubbert curve.

Otherwise, what conservativation’s been saying… Maybe there’s something subtle in your piece that I’m missing, but I don’t think the spot oil market is even 5% of what moves via futures contracts, which exist to help companies plan ahead. Yes, there’s lots of speculative money in the futures markets, but it serves the purpose of supplying liquidity to the system so there’s always someone available to take the other side of a trade, and if correctly done it’s rewarded for supplying that service.

Really big money can temporarily move the futures markets because of the leverage involved, but the fix is to increase margin requirements – just as was done with stocks following 1929. Arguably, the futures markets are Ok with 10% margin because the underlying involves something real and physical. Arbitraging will keep the spot market from deviating very far from the futures for very long. So I just don’t see how it can be important.

Enron was able to screw california by being able to take advantage of the fact that the electricity market is regional/national, whereas the oil market is global and less easily controlled by a single entity. Enron set itself up as the market maker in electricity and was therefore able to wrack things in its favor by being on both sides of the market – but only for a relative blip in time.

Case in point: the marriage market has been destroyed by no-fault divorce and automated child support entitlements. The marriage market will not be free unless laws are changed to prevent invasion of the marriage market by feminists and governmental bodies who vicariously profit from the destruction of marriage.

Specualtion Bad, Oil companies gouge, therefore regulate

vs.

Well, what Ive said.

Still on the other side though. It is going to take reading and lots of time, but you are factaul and dispassionate, and that helps!

You can’t believe everything you read in the news. You have to look at the perspective and see if objective facts support the view.

NPR gets the bone because they were the first to report the issue.

Yes, Squiggy. But Look out, you might be a pariha like me if you start considering the sources

conservativation – spot on. Supposedly, no one wants a refinery in their backyard, so none have been built in decades. I’ll donate my backyard, as long as they give me a cushy job. Then maybe prices will start to moderate. They actually are already beginning to fall, albeit not very much.

David this is my vocation (or was). I was a trader for 12 years, trading petrochemicals speculatively, benzene, toluene, xylene, and others all refinery based and crude oil cost driven. These have no official futures market though futures are traded by individuals creating them between the two companies involved. Most of this trade is physical, buying long, selling short, but always ultimately either receiving or delivering a barge of product. Geographic arbitrage, shipping the stuff between Asia, Europe, and here…al that. These trades are hedged using the energy complex on the MERC…futures contracts and all nature of derivatives. Enron was a big player in my business as well as all the other stuff they did. In fact I was thankful in 1994 they offered me a job and I said no!
That to attempt to get standing on the matter….

In these physical trades manipulation is rampant, hoarding or massive short selling can push the market violently, and even here though, every few months if the speculators have been pushing counter to fundamentals of cost and supply demand, the market will reset and correct. Indeed that is occurring as we speak. Why do I mention this? Because crude oil is the textbook example of an efficient market the speculators cannot materially build and hold a premium in this market that is divorced for the realities of the market…its just too big and efficient. Further, without the ability to buy forward crude against future gasoline production or sell forward crude against future well production the market would be whipsaw insane…the futures market serves to smooth out what would be utter chaos. Imagine 1 barrel of oil and 3 buyers and no futures market…it’s a friggin auction. The futures market tempers this by offering a well defined and always available alternative if there is timing flexibility. Unlike physical product, there is theoretically infinite future contract oil available, it being a mere commitment that can simply match up and net out all on paper. The spot market and futures market reflect back and forth…that’s why it works.

On distillation (as you put it) or gasoline production and fuels, we are supply constrained here simply because of environmental and safety reasons…some reasonable some not…especially the ones making new green-field plants non-starters. As I write BP Texas City refinery is down because they had the explosion a couple years ago, and are so afraid that a flickering light bulb in a restroom sends them to the Off switch to make sure nobody gets hurt…every 3 letter government agency is permanently there. OSHA isn’t a small Wisconsin town.

The government is double minded, restricting drilling and refining while crying about lack of product…that’s the place to start. Allegations of and legislation regarding gouging will create chaotic price changes and shortages. I will never trust government to meddle in any way in the free marketplace…it is Pandora’s box defined.

I guess we could go round and round about the corruption in government and companies, et al. But it might be easier to just say the their has just been a massive debasement of MORALS in today populace especially the leaders.

Proverbs 29:2 When the RIGHTEOUS are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.