The price of gas

"Dylan Smith" wrote in message
...

In our urban society, the threads are intricately woven, so even those
of us who don't fly or don't drive will see the cost of living increase
for a while. We'll survive, but it might not be all milk and honey for a
few years whilst we get used not to the lack of oil, but the lack of
cheap oil.

Y'all worry too much. We have plenty of cheap oil. 5 years ago the price
of gas, for a few months, was 86 cents a gallon. We'll be right back to
where we're supposed to be by winter. Except California, you're problems
are not economic.

On Sat, 22 May 2004 09:31:00 -0000, Dylan Smith
wrote:

In our urban society, the threads are intricately woven,

Indeed they are, and globally as well. Oil at $40/bbl affects Europe
and China as much as it does the U.S.

America-bashers like to point out that the U.S. greedily consumes 25
percent of the world's energy. Of course, it follows that 75 percent
of the world's energy is consumed outside of the U.S., and that the
U.S. has a correspondingly small influence on the price and
availability of oil.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
The Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
Viva Bush! blog www.vivabush.org

I agree that refining capacity has been impacted by various enviornmental
regs. These haven't affected drilling (and hence production) much though.

Mike
MU-2
"Tom Sixkiller" wrote in message
...

"Peter Gottlieb" wrote in message
et...
This doesn't sound right. Are you saying the "EPA and others," meaning
government regulation, reduced the oil well reserves?

Reserves (from the time) and known resources are much higher than what
we're
extracting.



"Tom Sixkiller" wrote in message
news

Production peaked due to interference by EPA and others, not due to
availability or resources. IOW he was right for the wrong reasons.

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
nk.net...
I agree that refining capacity has been impacted by various enviornmental
regs. These haven't affected drilling (and hence production) much
though.


Environmental regs haven't affected drilling? Are you kidding?

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
nk.net...

The source you asked for:

http://smartmoney.com/aheadofthecurv...story=20040521

BTW, he's doing a correction that the "Quadrillion" BTU's should have been
"Billion".

This doesn't sound right. Are you saying the "EPA and others," meaning
government regulation, reduced the oil well reserves?



I was there at the scene of the crime.

There are really two 'shortages' in domestic production.

One is the shortfall in refinery capacity. We haven't built a new refinery in
the US for 15 years, and that is entirely because of EPA regs and NIMBY
protests disguised as environmental concern.

But the shortfall in recovering domestic reserves is more complicated.
Enviromentalism is part of it, but there are economic reasons as well.

In the 70's and into the early 80's, we had a lot of domestic capability, and
the JR Ewings of the country saved our butts during the embargo. Unfortunately
for them, they made a lot of money doing it, so we destroyed them.

First was the "Windfall Profits Tax". Oil exploration has always been boom and
bust. Wildcatters made alot of money during the booms and invested in new
equipment and grew their companies during those times. During the lean years,
the capital reserves sustained them to the next boom. So, Nixon and Ford,
seeing the boom during the embargo years, called those profits obscene and
confiscated them with the "Windfall Profits Tax." Carter continued the price
controls Nixon started, then dropped them on everything EXCEPT petroleum and
health care, bleeding the Ewings with skyrocketing costs and controled prices
for their products. Then he finished off the domestic oil industry with the
Fuel Use Act, which attempted to force gas producers to sell their gas to
homeowners in the NorthEast at prices that did not justify the pipeline
capacity needed to get it there, by not letting them sell the gas to industry
in the South were they could make a profit at the controlled prices.

So, all our JR Ewings went bankrupt. Hundreds of billions of dollars worth of
equipment rusted away or was sold for scrap. The Arabs put the final nail in
the coffin by boosting production so the price feel for a while to 11 or 12
dollars a barrel.

Now, all the wildcatters who know how to get the oil have huge bankruptcies in
the resume and can't raise the money for new equipment. Further, the banks know
that the Arabs can drop the price any time they want to drive domestic
producers broke if they become a threat to their monopoly. So the banks arent'
going to finance domestic production so long as th Arabs can manipulate the
market to destroy their competitors.

The field is left to a few multinationals. And we're screwed.

Government meddling in the free market did it, but it was alot more complicated
than the EPA alone.

--
Wm. Donald (Don) Tabor Jr., DDS
PP-ASEL
Chesapeake, VA - CPK, PVG

Eeeek. What a mess.

"We're from Washington, and we're here to help you..."



"Wdtabor" wrote in message
...

This doesn't sound right. Are you saying the "EPA and others," meaning
government regulation, reduced the oil well reserves?



I was there at the scene of the crime.

There are really two 'shortages' in domestic production.

One is the shortfall in refinery capacity. We haven't built a new refinery
in
the US for 15 years, and that is entirely because of EPA regs and NIMBY
protests disguised as environmental concern.

But the shortfall in recovering domestic reserves is more complicated.
Enviromentalism is part of it, but there are economic reasons as well.

In the 70's and into the early 80's, we had a lot of domestic capability,
and
the JR Ewings of the country saved our butts during the embargo.
Unfortunately
for them, they made a lot of money doing it, so we destroyed them.

First was the "Windfall Profits Tax". Oil exploration has always been boom
and
bust. Wildcatters made alot of money during the booms and invested in new
equipment and grew their companies during those times. During the lean
years,
the capital reserves sustained them to the next boom. So, Nixon and Ford,
seeing the boom during the embargo years, called those profits obscene and
confiscated them with the "Windfall Profits Tax." Carter continued the
price
controls Nixon started, then dropped them on everything EXCEPT petroleum
and
health care, bleeding the Ewings with skyrocketing costs and controled
prices
for their products. Then he finished off the domestic oil industry with
the
Fuel Use Act, which attempted to force gas producers to sell their gas to
homeowners in the NorthEast at prices that did not justify the pipeline
capacity needed to get it there, by not letting them sell the gas to
industry
in the South were they could make a profit at the controlled prices.

So, all our JR Ewings went bankrupt. Hundreds of billions of dollars worth
of
equipment rusted away or was sold for scrap. The Arabs put the final nail
in
the coffin by boosting production so the price feel for a while to 11 or
12
dollars a barrel.

Now, all the wildcatters who know how to get the oil have huge
bankruptcies in
the resume and can't raise the money for new equipment. Further, the banks
know
that the Arabs can drop the price any time they want to drive domestic
producers broke if they become a threat to their monopoly. So the banks
arent'
going to finance domestic production so long as th Arabs can manipulate
the
market to destroy their competitors.

The field is left to a few multinationals. And we're screwed.

Government meddling in the free market did it, but it was alot more
complicated
than the EPA alone.

--
Wm. Donald (Don) Tabor Jr., DDS
PP-ASEL
Chesapeake, VA - CPK, PVG