It’s A Con
You hear all this propaganda about the Keystone XL pipeline and what it’s going to do for the US, and all of the cheerleading along the same lines about drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve and in the coastal waters of the US. It is all a lie, a con game played by multinationals who couldn’t care less about the US.
McClatchy tells us that US exports record amount of refined fuels
U.S. refineries exported a record amount of refined fuels in 2011 to markets in South America, Central America and Europe. It was one reason why Americans spent a record amount on gasoline this year: Supplies that might have helped lower prices here had been shipped abroad.
In 2007, U.S. exports of all kinds of fuel held steady throughout the year at 1.24 million to 1.25 million barrels a day, according to Energy Department statistics.
But by 2011, exports of diesel, gasoline and other products surged. In November and December, U.S. fuel exports averaged between 2.77 million barrels a day and 2.89 million barrels a day, the highest ever.
Meanwhile, U.S. drivers paid an average of about $3.50 a gallon for gasoline during the year, also the highest ever.
If the refineries get more crude than is necessary to support the $3.50/gallon price of gasoline, they will export the refined products to maintain that price. Gas isn’t going to get cheaper, and the oil companies will make sure of that, the same way OPEC keeps the price of crude oil high – they will manipulate the supply.
9 comments
I’m “shocked! shocked!” to hear this.
Yeah, who could have imagined that oil companies might do something ‘shady’?
“If the refineries get more crude than is necessary…”
More crude, say, than the roughnecks on the rigs? 😈
In a sane society, petroleum would be subject to regulations, particularly export regulations, but ours is not a sane society. My only hope is that when alternative sources of energy finally come to predominate even in the US, the oil companies will get what they deserve… and I say that as one who spent a lamentably large number of years contracting for them. Burning fossil fuels really sucks as a way to produce energy, and we will pay dearly for being the last nation to let go of the practice.
We have become too dependent on a few industries, and those industries have been allowed to consolidate to the point of being effectively monopolies. They wield too much power, and are too readily able to block any effort for reform.
We have to find something else, because oil is running out, and the sooner the better.
The only thing worse than Peak Oil….Peak Chocolate. IMHO. 😉
The current issue with the oil reminds me of the California “energy crisis”, which was actually a few bad actors who monopolized chokepoints in the energy distribution system artificially manipulating the system to create artificial “shortages” in order to suck out massive profits. About the only good thing to come out of it is the ultra-cheap power I currently get from the City of Santa Clara Municipal Power Company, since they had to build their own (gas-powered) power plant to insure a consistent supply, and it turns out that generating their own power is way cheaper than buying power wholesale from the established monopoly incumbents. But gosh darn it, government can’t do anything right, how can that be?! Funny, that, huh?!
BTW: NO, the power plant was not built with low-interest government bonds, it was funded entirely out of the accumulated cash in the utility company’s capital improvements fund, and NO, the city-owned utility company is not tax-free, they pay a far larger percentage of their revenue as “in lieu of tax” payments than PG&E pays in taxes to the surrounding cities, yet *still* manages to be more efficient, more reliable, cheaper, and provide better quality power, while providing such huge returns that the San Francisco 49’ers have mounted a raid on the utility slush fund to build a sports palace for themselves just down the road from the power plant… funny how that works, eh?
One reason Venezuela nationalized their oil industry, thereby turning Hugo Chavez into the right’s bogeyman of “leftist dictators” (despite the fact that Chavez has been democratically elected by a truly astounding percentage of Venezuelans in elections that all but a few right-wing zealots agree were fair and free), was that the oil companies were exporting all of Venezuela’s oil — and oil profits — and leaving nothing for Venezuelans, who suffered fuel shortages and high gas prices. Clearly the oil companies haven’t learned…
– Badtux the Socialist Power Consuming Penguin
Chocolate is only slowly beginning to recover from problems in the Ivory Coast. Some things are more important than local political squabbles, Jill. 🙂
Yeah, Badtux, it is amazing how much cheaper most publicly owned utility companies seem to be than the large investor-owned variety. Even the Co-op that powers the people north of me in Florida seems to provide more for less than the huge Southern Companies provider I have. They also seem to be able to add pollution equipment that is ‘too expensive’ for the investor- owned companies, and make a profit without raising prices every year.
They only voted for Chavez because he promised them health care and other luxuries, Badtux. Then they reelected him after he provided it. 😉
“They only voted for Chavez because he promised them health care and other luxuries, Badtux. Then they reelected him after he provided it.” – Bryan
How dare they thwart democracy! Our wingers tried to tell them they had the right to vote for anyone we wanted, but did they listen? 😈
Relatively tiny Livingston, TX and a few surrounding small towns formed a power co-op perhaps 35 years ago. First my parents in their lifetime, and later I when I inherited their mobile home, enjoyed reliable and on the whole reasonably priced power. I don’t want to think what we’d have paid if we had been supplied by Houston L&P, now Reliant Energy.
I have yet to see any proof that a private monopoly is more efficient than a public monopoly, and public monopolies tend to spend less on their executives, as well as not needing a profit.