American pravda 'splained the high gas prices to me last night..

[Virginia Dare]

you see, us stupid sheep Americans keep buying gas guzzling SUV's, driving up the demand. Meanwhile, production is down, that's right, and everything that could go wrong has gone wrong with the refineries, in fact, some refinery in Oklahoma recently got struck by lightening. Oh, and some bullshit about Hugo Chavez too.

No mention that the oil industry only has a year and a half of their good buddies Bush and Cheney in the White House, so they want to make all the money they possibly can while the gettin' is good.

[liberal N proud]

1. I saw a report as well indicating that times are rough for the oil companies

Everything that could go wrong has and the bull shit about Chavez. And the American drivers just keep driving more, not less.
The piece I saw led you to believe that the drivers just like to complain

[Donnachaidh]

2. of course, no one in the government has actually LOOKED into the

refinery *problems*.

Corporations have this new trick, especially since the thugs got into power. They just *forget* to do regular maintenance, or repair parts go missing, or they supposedly cannot get parts, etc. Then the refineries have problems -- and it's cheaper to shut it down for long lengths of time. Add to that the FACT that prices at the pump go UP when refineries have problems and their is really no reason for these companies to fix the refineries or maintain them to keep them running.

I just paid 9 cents more per gallon at the gas station this morning. OVERNIGHT. But the press poodles are making the rising costs into a *we're all suffering and there's nothing we can do about it* puff piece. :grr:

[Roland99]

3. The 2nd Smartest Guys In The Room

[LiberalEsto]

5. During the California "energy crisis"

the blackouts and brownouts and skyrocketing prices were blamed on generating plants being "down" for various reasons.

Subsequent investigations revealed -- to nobody's surprise -- that the plants were deliberately shut down for "preventive maintenance" etc.

The power company execs made their huge pile of profits because electric prices were jacked up as a result of deliberate manipulation.

It looks like the oil barons are copying the techniques of their pals in the electric power industry.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

8. well, all that maintenance shit is

expensive you see, and it takes highly paid employees to do it

[gratuitous]

9. Maintenance costs money

And the poor oil companies, strapped as they are (ExxonMobil didn't even declare profits of $40 billion last year, only $39.4 billion -- profits, not earnings), can barely stay in business as it is. If they had to squander money on infrastructure upkeep, how would they maintain their scant profit margin? What's clearly needed is another tax cut for Big Oil.

Unless you want the terrorists to win, and you don't want that, do ya?

[gasperc]

10. right, Billions in profits, NO Money for new refineries

yes, I get their shit headed logic

[Canuckistanian]

4. Strange, I heard it was an attack on an oil tanker in Nigeria

I always think, wow, the tiniest piece of bad news makes the price jump for EVERYONE. Even though there is never any loss incurred by the oil company.

If the market is THAT skittish, we should be getting out of oil as soon as possible.

What will happen when something BIG occurs?

[Virginia Dare]

6. That was exactly my thought, if a lightening strike in Oklahoma effects..

the market that much, what the hell does a major hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast do? Well, we've already answered that question, haven't we?

[Turbineguy]

7. To check on the real impact

of Nigerian oil news check the share price of Shell (RDSA). If it's serious, it will show up in the share price. Otherwise it's just noise to justify gas prices.

But at the end of the day, if Americans want to drive, they are going to have to accept that there will be oil processing facilities, tanker ports etc.