I DO work for an oil company (Stone Energy - SGY on the NYSE). Long ago our
government decided cheap gasoline was the unwritten #11 on the Bill of
Rights, and they sacrificed the domestic oil industry in exchange for cheap
oil. Now that we import more than half our oil, we are at the mercy of OPEC
along with most of the rest of the world. BTW, they just announced a record
trade deficit, and called it the weak link in the strong US economy. What
do you think all that money is going for? Toyotas? Chinese electronics?
No, it is for foreign oil. It is the law of supply and demand, folks.
Since we can't do much in the short term about supply, all we can do is
reduce demand or the price will not come down.
I'll get off the soapbox now.
Jim Pickard
Lafayette, LA
B9473298
-----Original Message-----
From: SJC Worldwide <rootes@ix.netcom.com>
To: Steve Laifman <Laifman@flash.net>
Cc: JACranwell@cs.com <JACranwell@cs.com>; jeff@v8tiger.demon.co.uk
<jeff@v8tiger.demon.co.uk>; alpines@autox.team.net <alpines@autox.team.net>;
tigers@autox.team.net <tigers@autox.team.net>
Date: Thursday, September 14, 2000 4:42 PM
Subject: Re: Fuel shortage
>
>
>Steve Laifman wrote:
>
>> JACranwell@cs.com wrote:
>>
>> > It would be interesting to see the sort of revolt you'd have in the US,
>> > should your price get to +/- $5/gallon, which is roughly what it is
over here
>> > right now. Some crazies have been paying $20/gallon in the frenzy to
find
>> > fuel the last few days.
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> >
>> > Julian Cranwell
>>
>
>Here's some gas politics for the list. Historically, when fuel shortages
show up,
>it's almost always not that there isn't enough fuel, it's because of
distribution
>problems, usually brought on by stupid government regulations, as in our
fuel crisis
>in the 1970's when the geniuses in Washington made it illegal for gas
companies to
>distribute fuel from states with an over supply, to states with an under
supply. The
>other reason these show up is due to over regulation and heavy taxes, as
the U.K. is
>now experiencing.. The U.K. is one of the world's larger oil producers and
the
>excessive price of fuel, which has caused the current "trucker revolt"
there comes
>from over taxation, not under supply. If the free market were allowed to
determine
>fuel prices in the U.K., you wouldn't pay any more there for a gallon of
gas/petrol
>than you do here in the U.S. And remember, the government makes as much or
more
>"profit" (taxes) per gallon of gas than do the oil companies that produce
it. And
>no, I don't work for an oil company.
>
>I'm especially interested in this now since I'm just about ready to plunk
down my
>$$$ for my 320 HP Tiger engine and 5 speed and I don't imagine my fuel
consumption
>is going to go down too far!
>
>Steve Sage
>
>
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