Uncertain supply is next, bad Middle East policy. Supply worries in Africa. Not enough production.

And your plan is to postpone the problem. We need to get a hold of demand by lowering it. Alternative sustainable energy, mass transit, conservation. The US will never be able to increase oil capacity beyond demand without these fundamental changes.

Than please tell what is if it is not being unable to drill in the US and if it is not the refineries.

Respectfully,
The Squid

They are not using the ones they have now. New refineries would have no effect on the price at the pump because refining capacity is not what is keeping supply low.

Why can’t you understand that? Why do you refuse to understand that?

Probably because they were old, we have not built a new one in 20 years, correct?

Respectfully,
The Squid

Jay: “There’s this little economic theory that’s called supply and demand. You may have heard of it. Demand for gasoline has waned in the last few months, therefore output does not need to be has high.”

You have no idea what you are talking about, do you?

Supply and demand says that if refining capacity is running at less than 100%, adding more oil or increasing maximum refining capacity won’t change the price at the pump. The only way to do that is to reduce demand. ANWR won’t do that. Enforcing higher fuel efficiency standards will, but the GOP will block that legislation every time. Of course when they do, you will blame the Democrats for not doing anything.

No, its because ANWR would account for about 3.3 percent of the U.S. demand meaning no imapct on the price of gasoline.

There’s this little economic theory that’s called supply and demand. You may have heard of it. Demand for gasoline has waned in the last few months, therefore output does not need to be has high. 75% of the price of a gallon of gas is tied to the price of oil, and another 12% is in state and federal gas taxes. That leaves around 13% for refining and distribution.

As for “jacking up the price”, there are refineries that have to purchase oil on the open market to refine into gasoline, so some of them are producing more diesel which is in higher demand than regular gasoline. Because despite lower demand, prices are still increasing. That affects – tada! – refining profit margins. So with falling demand coupled with rising costs, refineries have cut back production. This may surprise you durablend, but companies actually need to make profits at some point to continue to operate.

Terminally brain dead indeed.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121090017595697445.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Couldn’t be to jack the price up, would it? (nah, they wouldn’t do that)

We have no refinery capacity and haven’t built a new one since 1976 in this country. South Dakota finally cleared a major hurdle in being able to do so, but said they won’t be ready to break ground for another two years. The NIMBY’s are up in arms and are expected to continue to fight it.

Duros, as for the drilling, it was around 10 years ago that Democrats (for the most part) pooh-poohed the idea of drilling in ANWR because it would “take nearly 10 years” for any of the oil to be used. Think that might have been important?

And speaking of profits, the United States government (state and federal) between 1977 and 2004 (adjusting for inflation) has raked in $1.34 TRILLION in revenue from gasoline. That’s about twice what the oil companies saw in profits over the same period.

Respectfully,
The Squid

I believe you’re right. Forgot to mention it.

According to CNN.com, oil companies profit margins on the S&P Energy Sector are 9.7%, while the S&P average is 8.5% – or oil companies, as measured by profit margin, are 1.2% more profitable than the average. Google’s profit margin, on the other hand, is 25%.

It seems to me that this comes down to which figure one finds more important, the per-unit profit or the total profit (if the oil companies make ten cents a couple of trillion times, that’s a hell of a lot of money). Unless there’s something I’m missing, profits made by virtue of volume don’t suggest that the oil companies are intentionally reaming the American consumer.

Rewarding the oil industry for reaming the American consumer?

A complex problem reduced to a bumber sticker. Of course Oliver offers no solution except taxation or, as some Democrats have offered, to nationalize the oil industry. Great solutions both, no?