Someone explain this BS to me

Just now reading Jack Beatty's The Age Of Betrayal. There's a long passage about how much John D. Rockefeller hated free-market competition and how hard he worked to destroy it. Yergin's right. Oil has always been uniquely vulnerable to control-by-cartel. Argue about good-or-bad on that basis, but no oil company has truly exposed itself to market forces in an awfully long time.

 

Gas can go up 18 cents overnight because you and me and everyone else has little choice but to pay.

You can talk supply and demand and speculators and global markets and pipeline worries and trouble in Nigeria and all the economic factors you want, but for one second put yourself in the shoes of Mr. Convenience Store owner. If a higher price doesn't impact the number of gallons you sell, why wouldn't you put a few extra cents in your pocket?

There has to be a price where it has a great impact on our driving habits, but evidently we're not there yet.

 

This is the very definition of a market bubble. The dollar's drop in the last 18 months has been WAY disproportionate to the rise of the price of a barrel of oil.

The bigger the bubble grows, the bigger the pop. And the "beating off" will be to the joy of watching Joe Oil-Douche have to hock his BlueTooth after oil craters back to $40 a barrel.

 

Folks...she's spot on with this one. And trust me, we know from first-hand experience.

 

The Senate yesterday rejected, 56-42, an energy plan that called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and some offshore waters that are now off limits to oil development.

Well, at least the paisley-beaked worbler is safe. We can all feel good about that.

 

Oil prices are pegged to the dollar, ergo a weak dollar drives up the price. In addition, speculation is pushing the price of crude skywards. Increased demand from developing countries. They, too, want to drive SUVs.

Just as with tech stocks, hedge funds and housing, the speculation is pumping up a bubble.

Want to burst that bubble? Cut demand. That's coming as the consumer reacts to "market forces" -- those would be the bastards with their hands in my wallet.

 

Yes, let's continue to rape the planet so you and yours can drive gas-guzzling SUVs.

What happens then, smartass, when the oil runs out in that area? Right back where we are.

 

Under that line of thinking we shouldn't be drilling anywhere.

 

No...under the line of thinking from my argument, we shouldn't be drilling in an wildlife reserve. Big difference.

 

What about offshore?

 

With the waste and other secondary results that come with drilling offshore, the refuge could face ecological danger even then. With this administration's sometimes disregard for the environment and protections, I wouldn't trust them to do the job right even offshore.