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In Reply to: Expert confirms historically low gasoline prices posted by petew on June 29, 2000 at 07:53:16:

***Here are two well-informed people who agree that what we have is a supply problem. Demand exceeds supply, so the price goes up.
No shit. Anyone here ever argued this? Nope. It is 2x2 stuff...
Now, for the important part that you have been avoiding like Dracula avoids light: what *exactly* drove the supply down suddently this spring?
Ask your Mr. Clinton. Hint: that wooden stiff in the corner is responsible too. See some of his speeches this spring where he advocated reducing the supply in order to raise the prices in order to reduce driving...

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awsome power of the vice president petew 07:16:26 07/02/00 (1)
It is true, that Mr. Gore has exercised more responsibility as Vice President than anyone in the history of that office. And it is also true, that his twenty plus years of foreign affairs experince makes him uniquely qualified for the high office he seeks.
But you are investing him with power well beyond what the executive branch is capable of, even if there were a Democraticly controled congress to support such power.
Are you suggesting that the Clinton/Gore administration "engineered" the fire in one of the principle gasoline piplines feeding the midwest from the refineries on the Gulf coast--and that they busted the other pipline, causing an environmental hazard and months of delay while repairs are made?
And cleverly, they did this right at the time when distributors were trying to build up supplies for the summer, when demand reaches a yearly peak. Are you saying that as far back as 1994, when congress ordered the industry to begin plans to reformulate gasoline sold in regions with high ozone pollution, plans that were to be fully in place and on line in the summer of 2000--that Gore, Mr. Environment, stymed those plans--and held the entire petroleum industry at bay?
Because that's what the refineries are telling us: "It's too hard!,...we didn't have enough time! to add some ethanol to the gasoline and make it burn cleaner." This is the other reason the industry claims is responsible for the shortage and resulting price increases. This is a weird claim, when one considers that Archer Daniels Midland, one of the largest if not the most powerful sorce of cash in politics, has a headlock on the ethanol business. This is not rocket science: all you have to do is add the ethanol. You don't even have to mix it. It's as easy as pouring a liter of Vodka in the tank before filling up.
Are you saying that Al Gore makes a couple of speaches about consumer responsibility and the entire industry goes into a crisis? What awesome power he has! God forbid he doesn't win the election! In his rage, I bet he makes a speach and causes a world-wide depression.
As I've said above, oil prices last summer hit an historic low. Everyone in the industry agrees that this happened. As a result, OPEC reduced it's production of crude thru the fall and winter, to try and get the price back up. Starting in late summer, refineries change the cracking of crude to decrease the amount of gasoline produced, and increase the amount of fuel/heating oils, then in the early spring, they switch back. The stored reserves at distribution points serve to buffer these seasonal changeovers.
Clinton sent sec. Richardson to talk to OPEC in March of this year, to warn them that the forcast demand for fuel this summer, and the delay between production of crude, refining, and transport to storage facilities and distribution points, meant that they must immediately INCREASE production to capacity. This was confirmed THREE TIMES by Ed Murphy (manager of Petroleum Institute, an industry lobbist group) on a CSPAN interview last week. All of the OPEC countries are now at capacity, except for Saudia Arabia. But remember, the lag time between crude production and reformulated gasoline at the pump is MONTHS!
Most of the refineries in this country are located along the Gulf coast. The gasoline travels through the pipeline at 4 miles an hour. Right at the time when distributors were trying to build-up stockpiles for the summer SUV driving season, TWO major pipelines went off line. If you do the math, you will see that even if the pipelines were repaired immediately, you still have a minimum three week delay before the gasoline begins to appear in Chicago, during which time all the reserves already in Chicago are depleted. This is a simple supply/demand market force at work. I know Rush would love to find a vast left-wing conspiracy fixing the price of gasoline, but Rush knows his followers are idiots, and that's what they want to believe, and he's getting rich feeding it to them. I doubt Rush has the intellectual capacity to understand the process, so he just says "ditto", and nobody has to think any more. Whew! Thank God none of Rush's fans are smart enough to vote.
Personaly, I am in favor of high federal taxes on gasoline. I think the European countries are wise to tax gasoline at 80%. In addition to encouraging responsible driving, and public transportation use, it is an excellent buffer to the whims of OPEC supply variations that cause wide swings in retail gasoline prices in America. Fuel efficient cars have been around since the last gasoline crisis in the early 70's. People on the bottom of the economic pile who were caught with 12 mpg vehicles in the 70's when the first crisis hit don't have an excuse this time around.
And the truckers: who are getting 3 mpg at the 70+ mph speeds they drive now, could drive at a reasonable 55 mph, and gain a 30% reduction of fuel costs alone, not to mention the savings in maintainence costs, or the reduction in accidents.
I just don't believe gasoline pricing is important. Americans don't care about the price, or they wouldn't be buying SUV's as fast as they can be made.
What about public schools? What about universal health care? What about regional planning for housing, business, recreation and industry? What about regional planning for public transportation? How about a sensible energy policy for the nation? What are we going to do with all these old people (people like me--who are getting pretty pissed-off at today's youth!). How are we going to attract a decent world-class conductor to Philadelphia?
But most important, where's my ultra broadband internet access, and my $500 flat-screen HDTV ? I wanna know what that Son-of-a-Bush is going to do about my cheap, mass-market, flat-screen HDTV! Let's get to the issues America really cares about!
I don't give a shit about gasoline. I wish Gore could influence the price of gas, and make it $10/gallon!
C'mon Victor, you don't really care about the price of gas...what you really would like to see more empty roads...think about it. Interstates with nothing but a few high-performace european sports and touring cars.
Wicked!
- "Ditto" Victor Khomenko 06:05:00 07/03/00 (0)
  To learn how one can discuss simple (and complicated) things without calling an opponent an idiot, tune to Rush show five times a week.
  I know, I know, it is just so easy to become viciously envious of his success. Something one would have to gradually grow out, I guess.

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