Oil prices...

[TAP]

Guess Iraq wasn't about oil, huh?

You guess wrong.

[SLCPUNK]

Guess Iraq wasn't about oil, huh?

Your answer to that, is written on the gas pump, chump.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Record gas prices are not attributed to Iraq.

[Doc Emmett Brown]

This graph shows how various car models are faring on MPG/price/sales: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-060708-fi-garage-g,0,4206852.graphic

Other than the Prius, it seems like the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic are still the best of both worlds (MPG and price).


And as for the record profits that oil companies are making, you'd think they could at least share a smidgeon of it with gas station owners.

"Gas station operators say the squeeze began years ago, as oil companies siphoned off more of the profits, took a cut of in-store sales and left owners to grapple with higher rents and equipment mandates."

from http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gas10-2008jun10,0,5035682.story

[SLCPUNK]

Record gas prices are not attributed to Iraq.

Yes, and Al Queda was in cahoots with Saddam chump.

[TAP]

Notice a common factor in gas price spikes?

[TAP]

http://counterpunch.com/nader05282008.html

What's Really Driving the High Price of Oil?

By RALPH NADER

What factors are causing the zooming price of crude oil, gasoline and heating products? What is going to be done about it?

Don?t rely on the White House?with Bush and Cheney marinated in oil?or the Congress?which has hearings that grill oil executives who know that nothing is going to happen on Capitol Hill either.

Last week the price of crude oil reached about $130 a barrel after spiking to $140 briefly. The immediate cause? Guesses by oil man T. Boone Pickens and Goldman Sachs that the price could go to $150 and $200 a barrel respectivly in the near future. They were referring to what can be called the hoopla pricing party on the New York Mercantile Exchange. (NYMEX)

Meanwhile, consumers, workers and small businesses are suffering with the price of gasoline at $4 a gallon and diesel at $4.50 a gallon. Suffering but not protesting, except for a few demonstrations by independent truckers.

A consumer and small business revolt could be politically powerful. But what would they revolt to achieve? Their government is paralyzed and is unable to indicate any action if oil goes up to $200 or $400 a barrel. Washington, D.C. is leaving people defenseless and drawing no marker for when it will take action.

Oil was at $50 a barrel in January 2007, then $75 a barrel in August 2007. Now at $130 or so a barrel, it is clear that oil pricing is speculative activity, having very little to do with physical supply and demand. An essential product?petroleum?is set by speculators operating on rumor, greed, and fear of wild predictions.

Over the time since early 2007, U.S. demand for petroleum has fallen by 1 percent and world demand has risen by 1.3 percent. Supplies of crude are so plentiful, according to the Wall Street Journal, ?traders of physical crude oil say their market is suffering from too much supply, not too little.?

Iran, for instance, is storing 25 million barrels of heavy, sour crude oil because, in the words of Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, Iran?s oil governor, ?there are simply no buyers because the market has more than enough oil.?

Mike Wittner, head of oil research at Societe Generale in London agrees. ?There?s various signals out there saying for right now, the markets are well supplied with crude.?

Historically, oil has been afflicted with the control of monopolists. From the late nineteenth century days of John D. Rockefeller, and his Standard Oil monopoly, to the emergence of the ?Seven Sisters? oligopoly, made up of Standard Oil, Shell, BP, Texaco, Mobil, Gulf and Socal, to the rise of OPEC representing the major producing countries, the ?free market? price of oil has been a mirage. Despite the breakup of the Standard Oil company by the government?s trustbusters about 100 years ago, selling cartels and buying oligopolies kept reasserting themselves.

In an ironic twist, the major price determinant has moved from OPEC (having only 40% of the world production) and the oil companies to the speculators in the commodities markets. What goes on in the essentially unregulated New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX)?without Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) enforced margin requirements, and, unlike your personal purchases, untaxed?is now the place that leads to your skyrocketing gasoline bills. OPEC and the Big Oil companies reap the benefits and say that it?s not their doing, but that of the speculators. Gives new meaning to ?passing the buck.?

Deborah Fineman, president of Mitchell Supreme Fuel Co. in Orange, New Jersey, summed up the scene: ?Energy markets have been dictated for too long by hedge funds and speculators, who artificially manipulate the numbers for their own benefit. The current market isn?t based on the sound principles of supply and demand but it is being rigged by companies and speculators who are jacking up prices for their own greed.?

Harry C. Johnson, former banker who worked for many years inside Big Oil and ran his own small oil company in Oklahoma, blames the CFTC, the Department of Energy, the Administration, and Congress, as ?asleep at the switch on an issue that is probably costing U.S. consumers $1 billion per day.?

He cites ?some industry experts, who profit greatly from the high price of crude, and have stated openly that the worldwide economic price of crude, absent speculators, would be around $50 to $60 per barrel.

Imagine, our government is letting your price for gasoline and home heating oil be determined by a gambling casino on Wall Street called NYMEX. The people need regulatory protection from speculators and an excess profits tax on Big Oil.

In addition, a sane government would see the present price crises as an opportunity to expand our passenger and freight railroad capacity and technology.

A sane government would drop all subsidies and tax loopholes for Big Oil?s huge profits and other fossil fuels and promote a national mission to solarize our economy to achieve major savings from energy conservation technology, retrofitting buildings, and upgrading efficiency standards for motor vehicles, home appliances, industrial engines and electric generating plants.

Those are the permanent ways to achieve energy independence, reduce our trade deficit, create good jobs that can?t be exported and protect the environmental health of people and nature.

Those are the reforms and advances that a muscular consumer, worker and small business revolt can focus on in the coming weeks.

What say you, America?

[Dr. Blutarsky]

That damn Corvair. Everything went downhill after that......

[SLCPUNK]

Supply report down, dollar down...138.

Dow gettin' killed man, shit.

[pilferk]

Supply report down, dollar down...138.

Dow gettin' killed man, shit.

Today, so far, it's given back most of those gains and is down near 132, which is still nuts.

I'm hoping that the volitility means that we've topped out on the "bubble" and it will start to retreat down some.  But that is probably just wishful thinking on my (and my wallet's) part.

I do have to say, I find it amusing that...the day of, and after, a good sized spike in oil prices...the prices at the pump jump pretty quick.

When that same price of oil drops.....the numbers at the pump take a bit longer to drop.

I've heard the reasoning, but wonder why it doesn't work both ways for the oil companies.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Funny it does not work both ways.

Some have said  ( I don't recall the source) that Oil will top out around $4.15 a gallon this summer and hold steady thru the fall. When demand decreases ( it has started already), things will correct itself and we may see oil back to about $100 per barrel in 2009.

Of course these projections are all over the map depending on what the source is, but at least we have a projection where oil does go down.

Waiting for that plug - in electric pick up truck to hit the market.......

[Smoking Guns]

Supply report down, dollar down...138.

Dow gettin' killed man, shit.

Today, so far, it's given back most of those gains and is down near 132, which is still nuts.

I'm hoping that the volitility means that we've topped out on the "bubble" and it will start to retreat down some.  But that is probably just wishful thinking on my (and my wallet's) part.

I do have to say, I find it amusing that...the day of, and after, a good sized spike in oil prices...the prices at the pump jump pretty quick.

When that same price of oil drops.....the numbers at the pump take a bit longer to drop.

I've heard the reasoning, but wonder why it doesn't work both ways for the oil companies.

Pilferk, the worst part is the gas in the tank was made 18 months ago.  Bastards!!!

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Supply report down, dollar down...138.

Dow gettin' killed man, shit.

Today, so far, it's given back most of those gains and is down near 132, which is still nuts.

I'm hoping that the volitility means that we've topped out on the "bubble" and it will start to retreat down some.  But that is probably just wishful thinking on my (and my wallet's) part.

I do have to say, I find it amusing that...the day of, and after, a good sized spike in oil prices...the prices at the pump jump pretty quick.

When that same price of oil drops.....the numbers at the pump take a bit longer to drop.

I've heard the reasoning, but wonder why it doesn't work both ways for the oil companies.

Pilferk, the worst part is the gas in the tank was made 18 months ago.  Bastards!!!

That is what is the most annoying part of it all - how it is priced.

Notice we never hear from any speculators on any of the news shows? I'd love to see a gutsy interview with one of them. Put one on the O'Reilly Factor!

[pilferk]

Today, so far, it's given back most of those gains and is down near 132, which is still nuts.

.....and, has now given most of that back due to the Nigerian govt announcing they're going to be taking control over oil production in certain areas from Royal Dutch Shell.  Supply concerns, apparently.

 

And THIS is the problem when speculation starts driving commodities like it is.   Any little blip either sends the price plummetting, or going through the roof.  It's just SOOO fickle......

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Record gas prices are not attributed to Iraq.

Yes, and Al Queda was in cahoots with Saddam chump.

A wise ass answer does not make you correct.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Here is a copy of an e-mail i recieved that some may find helpful:

What you can do.
 
Gasoline.  Use only Unleaded Regular gasoline with a maximum octane level of 87.  Shop around for the best gasoline prices.  Use www.gasbuddy.com or http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip=&src=Netx to help with your search before you hit the road in the morning.
 
Drive Sensibly.  Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gas.  It can lower your gas mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent around town. 
 
Observe the Speed Limit.  As a rule of thumb, you can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.20 per gallon for gas.
 
Remove Excess Weight.  Avoid keeping unnecessary items in your vehicle, especially heavy ones.  An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your MPG by up to 2% or the equivalent of $.08 per gallon.
 
Avoid Excess Idling.  Idling gets 0 miles per gallon.
 
Keep Your Vehicle Maintained.  Keeping your vehicle properly maintained following the prescribed ARI maintenance schedule can improve fuel economy 4 to 10% or the equivalent of $.16 to $.40 per gallon.
 
Keep Tires Properly Inflated.  You can improve your gas mileage by around 3.3% or $.14 per gallon by keeping your tires inflated to the proper pressure.
 
 
Consumer Reports Debunks Some Fuel-Saving Myths
 
YONKERS, N.Y. --- In its June issue, Consumer Reports debunks some fuel-saving myths after testing them in the real world.
Morning fill-ups. A common tip is to buy gasoline in the morning, when the air is cool, rather than in the heat of the day. The theory is that the cooler gasoline will be denser, so you will get more for your money. But the temperature of the gasoline coming out of the fuel nozzle changes very little, if at all, during any 24-hour stretch. Any extra gas you get will be negligible, Consumer Reports said.
Air conditioning vs. opening windows. Some people advise you not to run the air conditioner because it puts more of a load on the engine, which can decrease fuel economy. But others say that opening the windows at highway speeds can affect gas mileage even more by disrupting the vehicle's aerodynamics. Consumer Reports' tests showed that neither makes enough of a difference to worry about.
Using air conditioning while driving at 65 mph reduced a Camry's gas mileage by about 1 mpg. The effect of opening the windows at 65 mph was not even measurable.

[AxlsMainMan]

$1.32.6/L in Napanee yesterday

[SLCPUNK]

A wise ass answer does not make you correct.

I've already given you plenty of answers that are correct, all backed by economists regardless of political leanings.

As usual you get a big fat F.

If you need help checking your tire pressure send me a pm.

If you'd like a hanky for your next visit to the pump, you're shit outa luck though, sorry.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

We could learn a lesson from Brazil regarding the use of Flex Fuel Cars:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexible-fuel_vehicle

[AxlsMainMan]

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, benchmark light, sweet crude for July delivery fell $1.88 to settle at $134.86.

In other Nymex trading, July heating oil futures slipped by 10.59 cents to settle at $3.8368 a gallon, and July natural gas futures fell 17.3 cents to settle at $12.625 per 1,000 cubic feet. Gasoline futures settled at $3.4626, down 6.34 cents over Thursday?s close.

In London, July Brent crude lost $1.84 to settle at $134.25 on the ICE Futures exchange.

http://www.jamestownsun.com/articles/index.cfm?id=67827&section=Business&freebie_check&CFID=46160866&CFTOKEN=45808466&jsessionid=8830e5c7e8327f117538