Gas prices...a rant....

Sigh...I get so tired of the misinformation about why gas prices are so high. Sure it's part OPEC but not all OPEC related, yet almost every day I hear on the local talk radio show people calling in saying we should just "demand" those middle eastern countries stop the price increases. One caller suggested we demand the oil or we will nuke them, yeah that'll work.....NOT

First off we get under 40% of our oil from the middle east (most times it's closer to 30%). Secondly we get the majority of our oil from nations like Canada. Thirdly, while the oil per barrel price is part of the problem the real problem is we don't have enough refinery production.

Why? Because no new refineries have been built since the late 1970's and there have been quite a few that have closed. Then add to that all of the "designer" or "boutique" formulations of gasoline out there with an already stretched refinery system and you have? Shortages of product which means.....price increases....

For the "conservatively impaired" bunch they quip "OH see I thought the Iraq war was all about the oil so if it was where is the oil?". Well gee, there is this nasty little situation called "insurgents" or "terrorists" depending on your choice of verbage. They seem to enjoy blowing up strategic parts of the oil production line in Iraq. Then there is this equally interesting thing called "old parts", most people who paid attention knew before hand that the oil production system in Iraq was almost ready to collapse even before the war. Like many other things in Iraq we underestimated the damage that existed to the oil production system and we underestimated the way the insurgents would behave. No one seemed to expect them to keep blowing things up or stealing oil which is another rampant problem there.

Not to mention those of us who have done our "homework" know that the main "oil" issue with Iraq wasn't necessarily us wanting control of that oil for ourselves, it was Saddam changing the petro dollar unit used for oil purchases in Iraq from the dollar to the euro. Had that continued and had others followed it would have been a huge crisis for the US. One of the first actions the US did was revert the petro monetary unit back to the dollar. There was also some concern of letting Saddam be able to profit from the world's second largest oil reserves and what he could do as far as buying future WMD. I'll be honest and say I did support intially the war in Iraq, I believed there was WMD, of course I was wrong. My main issue with the war in Iraq though is how the aftermath has been handled. Alot of mistakes were made and it's taken alot more time and loss of life to get where we should be had proper planning been done. In hindsight it's easy to say we should have never gone, but since we're there? The goal has to be to get out as soon as possible without making things worse.

Okay...sorry side rant on Iraqi war over back to gas prices...Now what has our fearless leader and Congress done? Well we have an energy plan sitting in Congress supposedly the fault of the Democrats because they won't agree. The fact that maybe if it was a tad better plan there wouldn't be a problem doesn't seem to be addressed. Congress can meet in a special session for the Terri Schiavo situation on what is supposed to be their Easter break, but they can't find a way to resolve an energy plan?

Let's get our priorities straight...but first of all let's be honest...stop trying to make it be the US versus the Middle East and focus on what the real issue is. We need to stop or seriously reduce this whole designer fuel formulation with the way refineries are at peak capacity. That alone would at least be a temporary measure to make the system run more efficiently and reduce prices. If we continue at our same level or increased level of consumption and realizing that some of these refineries are going to close due to age and other cost factors of keeping them EPA friendly, we are going to need more refineries. We also need to realize part of the production aspect from crude oil being in such high demand is China's dramatic increase in oil purchasing. They started negotiating with Canada last year and have made inroads in working to participate in funding production of Oil from Canada. If they continue to buy more Canadian oil that means we as a nation will be more dependent on other sources including having to buy more from OPEC sources.

Where do we build more refineries? That I can't suggest as it seems every place that has suggested one has ended up involved in a flurry of legal events designed to stop them and it's worked. If we are going to focus instead on alternative fuels (another good option) then something needs to be done now, not years from now when we have even fewer refineries and increased need. We need to do this now, not wait until this "temporary" crisis is over because it's going to be a continual issue as our refinery system ages. Let's be pro-active rather than re-active.....