Gasoline Nears $3 in U.S., Hurting Bush, GM, Helping Refiners

[sabra]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=ata.4JwnqLP4&refer=top_world_news

Gasoline Nears $3 in U.S., Hurting Bush, GM, Helping Refiners

April 10 (Bloomberg) -- Gasoline is climbing toward the U.S. record of $3.07 a gallon, and the damage is piling up for President George W. Bush and General Motors Corp.

Higher fuel prices may deepen losses for makers of gas- guzzling sport utility vehicles and trim sales for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer. Oil refiners such as Tesoro Corp. and Japanese makers of higher-mileage hybrid cars are likely to benefit.

Hurricane Katrina in August pushed the U.S. average gasoline price above $3 for the first time. Since then, the percentage of Americans who don't like Bush's energy policies has jumped to 58 percent, according to a Newsweek poll last month. Now prices at the pump are $2.59 a gallon on average nationwide and rising because of crude oil costs, lack of refineries and changes in fuel rules, analysts and industry executives said.

``There's a good chance there's going to be problems'' as refiners try to meet peak U.S. demand this summer, said Tesoro Chief Executive Officer Bruce Smith, who runs six plants from Alaska to North Dakota. A requirement to reduce the sulfur in fuel and a switch to ethanol as the favored gasoline additive ``could be the equivalent of another hurricane,'' he said.

[babylonsister]

1. Hurting shrub? No, hurting the rest of us! He's not at all hurt, he's

inspired this, the asshat.

[exlrrp]

4. I think it hurts him

I think that the price of gas affects the average person much more than, say the Plame outing or the Downing street memos. And this is what kills Bush, not all the political meme.
Look at the cycles. Bush is never further down in the polls aas when gas costs skyrockets. WHile Bush maay not actually have much effect on day to day gas prices, he is seen as having powwer in the situatiopn--and the situation is getting worse.
Bush has managed to maintain a "guns and Butter" aspect of this war, by putting it all on the national Visa Card. America hasn't had to pay the full price of the war yet, that will be for future generations, because Bush has run the deficit astronomicaly. But what goes up must come down.
Putting all thee war and portk on the naational visaa ccaard is a pisspoor economic strategy, completely irresponsible, a national Ponzi scheme.
Gas prices going up are just the beginning, the wheels aare staarting to fall off of Bush's littlee Red Wagon.
Nothing pisses off the Americcan peeople more than having to pay high gas prices. Bush's numbers will continue to fall

[babylonsister]

8. Welcome to DU, exlrrp. You are correct in that more people

might pay attention because the high prices have an impact on Americans' pocketbook. I just don't think dimson has a clue how much this is hurting.

[Javaman]

15. Exactly, our first revolution started when Britian began taxing the

basics and imposing laws that directly effected average citizen.

Once people start feeling the squeeze, those in power feel the political hurt.

As prices go up, his numbers go down.

colossal racist failure*.

[tnlefty]

17. It doesn't help when some of us mention to bushbots**, "What did you

expect when Bush**, Cheney, Rice and who else in this administration have huge ties to oil!" Oh, and things like - they and their cronies, buds and pals are making lots of money while taking yours. Pointing this out loud and often seems to piss rwingers off and I'm more than happy to oblige!

Welcome to DU! :hi:

edited typo

[MadHound]

20. Thing is that Bush isn't runnning for an elective office anymore

Therefore he has much fewer constraints on him to keep these prices in line. And while this might impact Republicans in Senate, House and state elections, far fewer people will blame them, and they also have the backstop of Diebold in case things go awry.

Meanwhile the oil companies make out like bandits, and I'm willing to bet dollars to doughnuts right now that Bush's blind trust fund is heavily vested in oil industry stocks.

[DS1]

2. I'll be spending 360 a month on gasoline until I can move closer

to my new job. That's more than half the typical rent

[okieinpain]

35. no kidding, I'm averaging a 65 a week, 04 - 6 cylinder dodge ram,

I love the thing. moved both my daughters, towed my sons cars more then a couple of times. it's really handy, but I'm either going to park it or sell it and get something else.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

3. $2.89 per gallon for regular unleaded in Huntsville, AL....and climbing.

[exlrrp]

5. $2.57/gal in Eugene OR

At least we're still below the national average

[RebelOne]

11. Paid $2.58 a gallon yesterday here north of Atlanta.

[rkc3]

6. "America is addicted to oil." our fearless leader quoted recently.

"But I'll be damned if we'll do anything about it. I won't ask Congress to pass higher CAFE standards. I won't ask Congress to fund alternative fuels research. But I do promise you, I'll invade Iran to drive oil to $100 a barrel. Because that's what's important for Halliburton."

At least that's what I thought I heard.

[FlaGranny]

14. America is addicted

to getting to work, the store, and the doctor's office, Mr. Bush*. We're not addicted to gas, we're addicted to getting where we need to go in order to survive.

[C_U_L8R]

7. Chimps Oil Cronies

are probably doing a happy dance,
Profits have never been higher
for these war profiteering scum suckers.

[UpInArms]

9. Bush Approval and Gasoline Prices - chart

[NickB79]

21. That's amazing

Almost every peak and valley matches! I would have killed to get graphed results like that in my biochem classes in college :-)

[Lorien]

29. Just goes to show; most in America don't give a damn about war,

lies, global warming, corruption, health care, education, Katrina survivors, Plame, wiretapping, or anything else...it's all about their own wallet!

[okieinpain]

36. well I can't wait for the repugs to start complaining about how much

the wounded soldiers from iraq cost.

[ecstatic]

10. I noticed price skyrocketing after ports deal went sour...revenge? nt

[MissMillie]

12. Not only did they get their tax cut, but now

they're getting whatever pittance of dollars us poor working slobs managed to take away from the Bush tax cut.

They're getting everyone's share!

[zbdent]

13. The people need to be reminded that

just a week after the Republicans gave massive tax breaks to the oil companies, helping them out in the "crisis", the oil companies announced record PROFITS (not just sales, PROFITS) . . .

[brentspeak]

16. EXXON CEO Lee "Jabba The Hut" Raymond

At least he's enjoying the higher gas prices.

[Strelnikov_]

18. "A Requirement To Reduce The Sulfur In Fuel . . ."

They have known the ULSD (Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel) compliance date for years (it has already been pushed back a few times).

Regulation is a cost of doing business. It appears they are simply stalling, bitching, and hoping for regulatory relief.

Until ULSD is generally available, the next generation of 'clean' diesel power plants cannot be rolled out.

[cliss]

19. Here are some of the reasons why

gas is going up - in a nutshell - political instability. Here is where we get our oil:

1) Canada - 1,616,000 barrels/day

2) Mexico - 1,590,000 barrels/day

3) Saudi Arabia - 1,495,000 bbl/day

4) Venezuela - 1,297,000 bbl/day

5) Nigeria - 1,078,000 bbl/day

6) Iraq - 655,000 bbl/day

Of these, #3, #4 and #5 can be considered politically unstable. Saudi Arabia has had attacks on its oil facilities. Hugo Chavez is threatening to pull his supplies away from the U.S. Nigeria is in a crisis; I don't think they're shipping any oil to the U.S.

In addition, we've got our own weather problems here at home. Most of our oil refineries are in the US Gulf Coast. This summer is predicted to be "extreme weather", lots more hurricanes.

[truthisfreedom]

22. more like: "and a switch to ethanol as the flavored gasoline additive..."

ethanol is NOT an answer. it's idiotic.

[physioex]

23. I don't get your point......

Did you see what Brazil has done? They are virtually independent of middle east oil. Ethanol can be derived from the fermentation of sugar cane or corn. It is also renewable since the net CO2 emission is zero. Are there any flaws with ethanol that most of us here aren't aware of?

[NickB79]

24. It takes a lot of land to grow

Contrary to some claims, you do get more energy out of ethanol than you put into growing it. It is also an overall net zero CO2 producer. However, we currently use 14% of our corn crop in the US to grow just 3% of our fuel as ethanol. Producing more than a tenth of our fuel from ethanol would require clearcutting forests and plowing under the few remaining grasslands to expand crop farming. That, or we would have to all become vegetarians (livestock eat up much of our corn yields).

Brazil can be energy independent because they use sugarcane, which produces more ethanol per acre than corn. They also have a small population of drivers compared to the US, and clearcut a lot of land to expand sugarcane production.

If we can find ways to produce more ethanol per acre, such as using cellulosic ethanol instead of fermented ethanol production, we may be able to replace a good portion of our oil with ethanol, provided people stop driving trucks and SUV's as well.

[physioex]

25. That makes sense......

Thank You... :hi:

[cantstandbush]

26. Nears $3? It's already $3.10 in Bethesda MD for premium and

$2.99 for regular.

[Thor_MN]

27. Anybody have Blue/Red state gas price comparisons?

I'd be interested to see if "purple" states are benefiting from lower prices...

[madmark]

28. i think the high gas price encourages the development of substitutes

and is ultimately necessary and good. The sooner we get off this stuff for economic, environmental, and national security reasons the better.

[IDemo]

30. I agree, but

The biggest missing energy 'substitute' is conservation, which more often than not gets ignored with sexy technologies like solar, biomass, and wind waiting in the wings to rescue our wasteful lifestyles. Not much money to be made in non-consumption, however.

[recidivist]

32. There's plenty of money to be made in conservation.

Energy conservation is technology intensive. Sure, smarter planning plays a role; it's good to plan ahead so that you only run to the grocery once a week instead of every other day, but that's marginal. In the big picture, energy conservation is driven mostly by new products, new materials, new design, etc.

One reason high oil prices haven't plunged the U.S. into recession already -- to the considerable surprise of many observers, including me -- is that the U.S. economy is roughly twice as energy efficient as it was 30 years ago. Most of the efficiency gains have been in industry, where economies of scale have justified the often stiff investments in new technology. Consumers are the laggards. What we need more than anything else is a good, stiff gasoline tax to sober up the great American motorist.

[madmark]

39. if the prices of consumption are high enough, the value of conservation

increases.

[struggle4progress]

31. Well, waddaya expect when the top guvmint officials is oil folk?

[Blue_Tires]

33. one thing is certain:

it won't be hurting bush's offshore bank accounts!

[Post]

34. How about $5 per gallon by summer?

Bloomberg has it here: http://postanapology.blogspot.com/2006/04/5-for-gallon-of-gas-this-summer.html#links

[Maine-ah]

37. 2.59 on average.

it's 2.69 up here.

[4dsc]

38. And still we drive..

I just love to watch people complain about the so called "high" cost of gasoline and wonder when they'll wake up and come to the senses!!

the era of CHEAP OIL IS OVER people!! We need to change our collective ways or face disaster in the future.. No amount of wishful thinking and praying for alternatives is going to get us out of this mess... We are all in this sinking boat together..