With gasoline prices spiking to new highs, the critics of “big oil” are pointing to the profits of oil companies, accusing them of deliberately not building new refining capacity in order to restrict supplies, force an increase in gasoline prices – and therefore increase corporate profits at the “expense” of consumers.
After 30 or more years of being regulated and litigated out of the refinery-building business by environmentalists and the anti-oil crowd, it would seem that the companies who do the business of extracting oil from the ground and refining it into a form that we all can use – from plastics to automotive fuel – are looking once again into their crystal balls and are becoming increasingly reluctant to invest billions in new refining capacity for a product that (environmentalists and glowarmers tell us) society is increasingly ready to abandon as a fuel source.
Since refineries take up to 10 years to plan and build, and once built, have an expected amortized life of 30 to 40 years, plus maintenance, upgrades, and the increasingly onerous and expensive requirements for environmental “protection” and remediation – why should companies rush now to build refining capacity that we are all telling them will be un-necessary (and un-welcome) by the time they were ready to go on-line?
Al Gore and those other jet-setting limousine liberals who envision Euro-style gasoline prices of $6-$10 a gallon should be thrilled – not only for the environmental future of the planet, but for their own oil-heavy investment portfolios, whose dividends and stock values will apparently benefit in the meantime.
They ARE thrilled of course – it just isn’t politic at the moment to appear so, even for someone as allegedly “green” as Al Gore, or Ms Rodham.
Of course, villifying the oil industry may have one more happy effect – that of creating the political environment necessary to impose taxes on the products of petroleum that exceed the actual cost and value of the product itself – much as the critics of tobacco have enabled the imposition of taxes and “settlements” that far exceed the cost of the product – and all collected on behalf of government and it’s parasitical beneficiaries by the retailers, distributors, and producers. No pain – all gain.
Suck it up guys – you are getting what you’ve wished for – the opportunity to “pay more” to “save the planet”.
Oil tanker terminals and most refineries are in the south near the gulf. Some are still out East. A few are out West. None are near Wausau – except for one or two of the tiny distribution portals that sell to the retailers. The farther you are from the source, the more it’s going to cost to get a commodity.
And actually, isn’t just ONE refinery all that we need? Why should we all be forced to pay for all that expensive duplication of refinery and storage capacity? Doesn’t competition and the duplication of services actually result in INCREASED prices? Let the people and residents of Weston drive to the north side of Wausau if they need to fuel up!
Irony aside, if you go a little further north, say up to the little towns on Hwy 8, or even further north, you will find gasoline prices even higher than here. There just aren’t too many places farther north in Wisconsin than Wausau – at least that some of the participants here seem to want to go to, even if only to compare prices.
You can always move south – though the cost of air conditioning your house most of the year will probably soon compensate for any savings in buying your gasoline.
