Jun. 19, 2007 - 17:44 MDT

LOADED DICE ?

Seems like the average guy can�t win for losing anymore. There is an article in the Rocky Mountain News of June 18 that points it up. By H. Josef Hebert, quoted here in full:

OIL EXECS RETHINKING REFINERY EXPANSIONS

Push for biofuels could keep gas prices higher

WASHINGTON � �A push from Congress and the White House for huge increases in bio-fuels, such as Ethanol, is prompting the oil industry to scale back its plans for refinery expansions. That could keep gasoline prices high, possibly for years to come.�

�With President Bush calling for a 20 percent drop in gasoline use and the Senate now debating legislation for huge increases in ethanol production, oil companies see growing uncertainty about future gasoline demand and little need to expand refineries or build new ones.�

�Oil industry executives no longer believe there will be the demand for gasoline in the next decade to warrant the billions of dollars in refinery expansions � they anticipated as recently as a year ago.�

�Biofuels such as ethanol and efforts to get automakers to build more fuel-efficient cars and SUVs have been portrayed as key to countering high gasoline prices, but it is likely to do little to curb costs at the pump today, or in the years ahead as refiners reduce gasoline production.�

�A shortage of refineries frequentl y has been blamed by politicians for the sharp price spikes in gasoline as was the case last week by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., during debate on a Senate energy bill.�

�The fact is that Americans are paying more at the pump because we do not have the domestic capacity to refine the fuels consumers demand,� Inhofe complained as he tried unsuccessfully to get into the bill a proposal to ease permitting and environmental rules for refineries.�

�This spring, refiners, hampered by outages, could not keep up with demand and imports were down because of greater fuel demand in Europe and elsewhere. Despite stable � even sometimes declilning � oil prices, gasoline prices soared to record levels and remain well above $3 a gallon.�

Consumer advocates maintain the oil industry likes it that way.�

�By creating a situation of extremely tight supply, the oil companies gain control over price at the wholesale level,� said Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America. He argued that a wave of mergers in recent yeares created a refining industry that has no interest in creating spare (refining) capacity.�

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From what I have read the oil industry took a huge hit from Katrina and apparently have been unable to rebuild what was lost then.

Also from what I have read, it takes more energy to make �ethanol� that it supplies as fuel. Plus the fact that it is being made from foodstuff. I have seen articles citing facts that it is practical to make ethanol from most any plant life on the planet.

Facing the fact that �ethanol� is basically denatured alcohol (alcohol that has been rendered poison to the body) and much of the manufacture of it is devoted to denaturing it so that we don�t drink what we burn I wonder just who the heck is pushing corn as the ingredient for �ethanol� ?

I guess if I were a pooh-bah of the oil industry that would be one way I would tend to go also. Why build it if you aren�t going to need it ? But then, I wonder why the oil industry isn�t active in building ethanol plants ?

Regardless of gasoline, people and machinery are going to continue to depend on lubricants derived from oil from the ground. Do we stand to lose the capacity to make those necessities ?

Looking back, it seems to me that every time fuel efficiency on cars took place, the American public demanded, superfaster, bigger, heavier more powerful cars, thus negating the savings.

So it would seem that our country as a whole should get thing together and figure out the best way to cope. Windmill farms ? Ya damn right, it takes non renewable energy to make electricity by burtning fossil fuels, about time that more windmills are needed and sufficient and efficient transmission lines be built from those farms to the places electricity is used.

If we demand that the mpg of cars be increased drastically, then some measure of relief for the oil industry must be brought to the fore. And why not reduce the speed limit back to 55 mph ? ? ? ? It worked before, quite well and would again if the imagined need for max speed could be pounded out of the heads of our public.

It is such a totally complicated thing that it seems to me that cooperation between all parties is the thing needed. It appears that there can be only one unjustified winner if the game is played with LOADED DICE . . . . . . . .

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