Nothing was implied. I simply showed, through facts, that the purported shortfall in refinery capacity, which is simply untrue, was not an issue in the steep run-up of gasoline. As i said earlier, gasoline stocks are in fact high, 8.5 percent higher in the first quarter this year than last year, (we were paying $3 a gallon this time last year)and are still in the upper-half of their 5 year average. Refineries historically should be running well north of 90% right now, and they've been fluctuating somewhere between 85-90% for months.
US first quarter fuel demand, as measured by deliveries of petroleum products, was 1.4 percent below year-ago levels, the third straight quarter of year-on-year declines in the world’s largest oil consuming nation. The first quarter’s decline comes on the heels of three years of flat to declining deliveries.
Why are we now paying over $4 for gas? I suppose the weak U.S. dollar has something to do with it, as well as India and China, but that still wouldn't explain the meteoric rise of crude oil. The market appears to have come de-coupled from the supply/demand aspect of it, and now relies on innuendo and hearsay instead.
Every intelligent source out there, or at least the ones I choose to listen to, talks about reducing our dependence on foreign sources of oil and improving our self-sufficiency. They also talk about the need for more refinery capacity. Without trying to get mired in a political debate, it only seems that the Obamatrons want to hang onto the notion that we don't need to expand our exploration of oil sources to include Alaska, our offshore waters, and everywhere in between.
I heard that debate just yesterday on the boob tube.
I'm all for algae, biodiesel, hydrogen, bath water, grass clipppings, lemonade, coffee grounds, or whatever else they can come up with to replace oil, but that stuff needs, in my opinion, to be looked at concurrently with increasing access of existing technology (AKA gasoline) and a strong focus on conservation and improved efficiency.
If I'm going somewhere alone, I ride my bike. We're on the waiting list for a Smart Car.
If capacity isn't an issue, as you claim, certainly redundancy should be. If bin laden (he's not worthy of capitalization) and his goons decide to wipe out Baton Rouge and we lose a sizeable chunk of our ability to refine oil into a usable product, what then? If you're running at 90% capacity, what will the airlines do for fuel for their airplanes, provided any of them have managed somehow to escape foreclosure?
For that matter, what will the rest of us do? Gas for our cars? Heat for our houses? All of the things we buy that require fuel to ship them from China (won't buy it) to our local big box store (something else I refuse to patronize).
My standard of living no longer depends on the airline business. I don't miss that "when's the shoe going to drop" cloud over my head. I went through some very, very troubled financial times at USAir...times when we all thought our paychecks were going to bounce, rounds of layoffs, etc. Anyone remember that March when we almost went out of business because of the credit card processing snafu? It was in the last couple of years during BK1, I think. Banks were trying to cut off our ability to accept credit cards, or something like that, and it came right down to the wire, if I recall correctly.
This oil/fuel stuff is scary. I read yesterday that Hugo Chavez (speaking of kooks) is talking to Putin about getting nukes for Venezuela -- a huge producer of oil. Yet another notch in the instability bedpost.