by Kerry Thomas
April 24, 2006
Not to be too blunt about it, but I have a message for ALL our elected politicians in Washington: Pull your heads out of your collective arses and fix the problems you created with America’s energy supply.
With the nation’s gasoline supply running low in many areas,
with the pump
price nearing $3.25/gal in many areas (and expected to hit $3.50/gal before
summer’s end), with refineries running at 100% of their capacity, it’s about
time Washington politicians stop all their whiny excuses and just get rid of
their government-imposed regulations on our energy producers.
These prices aren’t just affecting us at the pump. Take a look at the price of diesel fuel. It’s already past $2.80/gallon in most
areas. If the price of oil does go to
$100/barrel, forecasters predict diesel prices will top $5/gallon. At that price many smaller independent
truckers will park their rigs. Farmers
may not even be able to afford to run their farms. Analysts forecast shortages in both fuel and supplies if these
forecasted prices pan out.
As I write this, oil is selling for $75/barrel. And it’s expected to top $100/barrel before
the end of the year, on it’s way to a high close to $150/barel, before leveling
off around $100/barrel. We have plenty
of oil in the world, but here in America, our ability to refine it and convert
that oil to gasoline is limited.
Thanks in large part to our federal regulations, there hasn’t been a new oil refinery built in America in more than 30 years. After the oil crisis of the 1970’s our omniscient government bureaucrats decided to impose new regulations on the way oil is refined into gasoline. These regulations added to the cost of the finished product. They also limited the capacity of refineries to make gasoline.
Then came all the regulations from these same government bureaucrats that they said would help increase fuel efficiency, such as requiring gasoline contain more oxygen, by adding various substances to the gasoline. Remember the fiasco when they came up with methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) as a means of complying with the Clean Air Act requirements for 2% oxygen in gasoline? In September 1999 the EPA’s own Blue Ribbon Panel On Oxygenates in Gasoline recommended removing that requirement from the Clean Air Act.
Add in little things, like hurricane Katrina, that further strained the nation’s refining ability. Or putting some of the most plentiful oil reserves off limits to drilling, such as in the Gulf of Mexico or in Alaska. (Forget the Mexico is going ahead with full scale oil drilling in the Gulf.) The fact that, due in large measure to government regulations, there hasn’t been a new refinery built in America in 30 years has played a large part in our current situation.
Our refineries have been running at 100% of capacity since Kzatrina hit in 2005. They are at a point where they all need to be shut down, temporarily and one at a time, for maintenance. The refineries are also in the middle of switching from the refining they do for “winter blends” of gasoline to “summer blends.” Thanks again to the feds and their boutique fuels requirements.
The feds have managed to reduce the number of these boutique fuels required, but why not go the full measure and eliminate these requirements altogether?
When oil is cheap and plentiful, and the economy is humming along, and everyone seems to be enjoying life, we can afford to require cleaner, more efficient gasoline. But when times get tough, as they are doing right now, we need elected leaders who can see beyond the next election. We need government officials who consult with the chemists and physicists to come up with economic ways to refine oil into gasoline. Talk to the scientists who actually do the job, not the CEO’s of the companies that do these jobs. The CEO’s just run the businesses; they don’t do the jobs, and in many cases haven’t the foggiest idea how oil is refined into gasoline.
It’s time we, the American People, demand of our elected officials that they take responsibility for the problems they have caused. Most of the problems we are experiencing right now at the gas pump can be traced directly back to the regulations imposed on us all by our government.
It’s time to get the career politicians out and elect people who haven’t spent their entire careers in government. It’s time to elect people who understand the impact of $3/gallon gasoline.