W Urges Oil Conservation

[Nbadan]

NYT: Bush Urges Conservation as Retail Gas Prices Rise
By VIKAS BAJAJ
Published: September 26, 2005

President Bush called on the Americans today to conserve gasoline and avoid non-essential driving as the average national prices for retail gasoline climbed higher for the first time since they peaked over the Labor Day weekend.

The president's remarks appeared to reflect concerns that gasoline supplies may remain tight and prices will rise further, even as the energy industry and analysts were breathing a sigh of relief over the limited scope of damage at Texas refineries from Hurricane Rita.

"We can all pitch in by being better conservers," Mr. Bush said after being briefed on the hurricanes' impact on the energy industry at the Energy Department. "People just need to recognize that these storms have caused disruptions." In addition to urging consumers to cut back to ease the pain of the current supply shortages, he said federal employees should use carpool and public transport and not take non-essential trips.

Retail price increases were most acute in Texas, the Gulf Coast and Southeast, areas closest to and most dependent on oil refineries in or near the hurricane's path. Nationwide, the average price for regular unleaded gasoline was $2.80 a gallon today, up from $2.748 the day before, according to the Oil Price Information Service.

The president also said the nation needed to relax regulations on the construction of new oil refineries. A new refinery has not been built in the United States in almost 30 years, although companies have expanded capacity at existing plants and are running them closer to 100 percent capacity....

NY TIMES

I guess building new refineries with record profits oil companies are soaking from us is too much to ask for from W's buddies, and requiring auto-makers to increase fuel efficiency is blasphamy. Forget about it!

[jochhejaam]

NYT: Bush Urges Conservation as Retail Gas Prices Rise
By VIKAS BAJAJ
Published: September 26, 2005




NY TIMES

I guess building new refineries with record profits oil companies are soaking from us is too much to ask for from W's buddies, and requiring auto-makers to increase fuel efficiency is blasphamy. Forget about it!

Nbadan, Environmental Activism (NIMBY = not in my backyard) is deterring the oil companies from building new refineries;
Rough cost estimate for a new refinery is 4 to 6 billion.

But getting an oil refinery built is next to impossible, hence the 30-year construction drought. There will always be environmental activists who fight any new proposed refinery, regardless of where it might be located and how environmentally safe it is. And our environmental rules give them the upper hand.

The environmental impact-report process mobilizes the "not in my back yard" elements to oppose any proposed refinery, but it does not mobilize people or groups who are looking at national energy needs. You wind up with a very lopsided discussion where potential problems are thoroughly and perhaps overly represented, but the only group pointing out the benefits of the refinery is the "evil" oil company asking to build it - even though every automobile driver would benefit.

Consider the example of Arizona Clean Fuels, which has been trying to build a small refinery outside Yuma for almost 10 years. It took five years just to get air-quality permits. Now they hope to be operational in 2010, 15 years after they started the project.

President Bush recently signed a new energy bill that tries to make it easier to build new oil refineries, especially in areas with high unemployment – where the new jobs would likely be welcome. And yet, special-interest groups decried the provision as an environmental and public health injustice, arguing that these communities won't want refineries but won't have the political power to fight them off.

The opposition to building new refineries ignores the dramatic technological improvements that have been made since an oil refinery was last constructed here in 1976. New, clean refineries emit far less pollution than older refineries, with new scrubbers and design changes that dramatically reduce sulfur and other emissions. And at the same time our ability to model and map emission characteristics and distribution lets us choose the best locations for new facilities – where they will have the least possible impact on people and the environment.

Even as gas prices have soared beyond $2.50 per gallon in many parts of the country, Americans have not stopped driving. We might tighten our budgets elsewhere to make up for the added expenses, but we show no signs of giving up our cars. At some point, we need to admit our dependence on gasoline and add the capacity and refineries that will help lower gas prices.

Our environmental review process needs to embrace local concerns and impacts, but it can't facilitate the "not in my back yard" resistance that completely derails plans for any new refineries.

Hurricane Katrina has revealed an ominous weakness in our energy policy. If we don't start building refineries and adding capacity to handle our growing gas needs, it won't take a natural disaster to send gas prices soaring even higher.

http://www.reason.org/commentaries/moore_20050901.shtml

[Vashner]

Oil Conservation? Or refined gasoline...

Big difference.. we have no crude shortage.. just finished product..

[Nbadan]

I understand that tough enviromental regulations makes it difficult to build new refineries domestically, but my question is why we don't build them in Mexico or Central America were enviroment concerns are lower, or graft is higher, and the economies of the countries willing to build these new cleaner refineries for the U.S. would benefit tremendously? The Oil companies are raking in hundreds of billions of dollars in profits by keeping the system status quo. They have little incentive to increase refining capacity dramatically. This is why we need a strong Federal Government.

[SpursWoman]

And then complain that all of our jobs are going overseas? Or screwing the Mexicans and Central Americans of their environment so greedy Americans can drive their monster SUV's?

No matter how strong the Federal Government is, you'll always have the Barbara's and the human rights activists and environmentalists fighting every step of the way. If by your definition of a strong Federal Government is to just railroad over these people, why not just railroad the ones here to build more in the US and keep the freight costs of moving refined oil products to a minimum?

I mean damn, the leader or whatever of OPEC is chomping at the bit to build 2 refineries here already....

[SpursWoman]

Where is Mr. Dictionary I don't think "conserve" is in the english dictionary.

Asking excessive and wasteful americans to conserve a everyday product is a total waste of air. Conserve that shrub.

Do you guys have any idea how ridiculous that sounds when you say that? It's not even clever.

And why is a call for conserving resources a partisan issue? As far as I can tell the outrageous prices are effecting the hardcore, the moderate, and the I really don't GAF's.

I've cut down on my driving by at least half and have been very stingy with electricity used in my house. And I'm not going to lie...a big factor is of the acious CPS & gas bills that are doing it, and maybe a little goodness in my heart.

[IcemanCometh]

It certainly worked for Carter

[spurster]

It's been quite a year so far. BushCo has discovered poor people in the US and energy conservation.

[SpursWoman]

So there's hope yet...

[Hook Dem]

Do you guys have any idea how ridiculous that sounds when you say that? It's not even clever.

And why is a call for conserving resources a partisan issue? As far as I can tell the outrageous prices are effecting the hardcore, the moderate, and the I really don't GAF's.

I've cut down on my driving by at least half and have been very stingy with electricity used in my house. And I'm not going to lie...a big factor is of the acious CPS & gas bills that are doing it, and maybe a little goodness in my heart.

Couldn't agree more with this!

[boutons]

"And why is a call for conserving resources a partisan issue"

because the Repubs have done ALL in 5 years about advancing conservation, while subsidizing exploration to continue providing high-levels of consumption, which is the "Repub National Engery Policy", cooked up in secret, hidden behind Executive Privilege, by head and his cronies in the energy sector. Do you really think such a national energy policy has conservation as its priority? How about how to maximize, well hidden of course, the windfall profits of the the energy sector as a national energy policy?

And remember the recent bill that gave the energy companies, already drowing in windfall profits (out of YOUR pocket) $15B in energy research subsidies. That's $15B that we'll never hear from again. A flat-out tax-free gift to the energy industry.

dubya's half-assed call for conservaton is demogoguery reacting superficially to the consumer complaints about high gas prices. He doesn't really give a , he's just sounding like he does to try to hold on to his base. It's the same smoke-and-mirrors fakery he used when trying to show "hands on" during the Rita, after he ed up Katrina. ing liars, all of them.

Note that dubya did NOT yestrerday call on his buddies in the refineries to roll back their ing 255% increase in wholesale gasoline price in one year. See the graphic I posted here yesterday showing the %age price increase at each level of pertroleum chain, from the well-head to the gas pump.

[SpursWoman]

moving forward, then....we should all just continue living in the past.

[boutons]

with these Repub sons-of- es, the forward is just like the past.

See dubya appointing an incompetent crony to run INS,
see dubya appointing incompetent, inexperienced KR to run the re-construction,
even after dubya got burned by Allbaugh/Brown incompetents.

It's Repub business as usual, taking care of themselves, and the country sucks hind .

[Useruser666]

Jeez Boutons, do you ever get tired of yelling at the top of your lungs? If Bush would come out tomorrow and say everything he ever did was wrong and Boutons was right, you would come in here and post that he was an idiot, s , and wrong!

[Vashner]

with these Repub sons-of- es, the forward is just like the past.

See dubya appointing an incompetent crony to run INS,
see dubya appointing incompetent, inexperienced KR to run the re-construction,
even after dubya got burned by Allbaugh/Brown incompetents.

It's Repub business as usual, taking care of themselves, and the country sucks hind .

1. There is no such thing as INS.. it was disbanded after 911 due to what the liberals on the 911 panel wanted .. like splitting FEMA into DHS..

President did not want DHS.. he was forced to take it from the 911 panel.

2. KR? There is not reconstruction problem ..

3. Brownie sucked but not as much as the local democrats.

4. This is not really related to gas conservation request made for the storm events it's just bull because you nothing on the subject of this post.

[Vashner]

"And why is a call for conserving resources a partisan issue"

because the Repubs have done ALL in 5 years about advancing conservation, while subsidizing exploration to continue providing high-levels of consumption, which is the "Repub National Engery Policy", cooked up in secret, hidden behind Executive Privilege, by head and his cronies in the energy sector. Do you really think such a national energy policy has conservation as its priority? How about how to maximize, well hidden of course, the windfall profits of the the energy sector as a national energy policy?

And remember the recent bill that gave the energy companies, already drowing in windfall profits (out of YOUR pocket) $15B in energy research subsidies. That's $15B that we'll never hear from again. A flat-out tax-free gift to the energy industry.

dubya's half-assed call for conservaton is demogoguery reacting superficially to the consumer complaints about high gas prices. He doesn't really give a , he's just sounding like he does to try to hold on to his base. It's the same smoke-and-mirrors fakery he used when trying to show "hands on" during the Rita, after he ed up Katrina. ing liars, all of them.

Note that dubya did NOT yestrerday call on his buddies in the refineries to roll back their ing 255% increase in wholesale gasoline price in one year. See the graphic I posted here yesterday showing the %age price increase at each level of pertroleum chain, from the well-head to the gas pump.

all that hot air..

Listen the up ... Democrats want to give you a BETTER economy than GW bush.. that means DEMOCrats want a higher GDP% per year ..

THAT Means a of a lot more fossil fuel burning..

so unless y ou can get kerry and hillary to promise to cool off the economy not grow it that the lefties are talking out there ass...

[boutons]

user, I'm not yelling, IGNORE me.

[JoeChalupa]

All I know is that the oil companies are making huge profits, not that there is anything wrong with making a profit but I heard that...Exxon or one of the other major oil companies reported a 35% increase in profits over the same time last year.

Now, I'm no economic major but why would companies that are all reporting huge profits be given tax breaks worth billions?

And yeah I hear them say they need it to research for new fuel alternatives and such but damn!! Can I get a tax break, even though I'm not rich, so that I may research alternative fuel methods too!?
Can somebody explain that to me.....like I'm a 4 year old?

[SpursWoman]

It quit being clever upon it's 554,568,369,741,852,456,789th use. Well, that and the fact that unless you're talking about "a beverage made from fruit juice, sugar, and a liquor such as rum or brandy," the word "shrub" means the exact same thing as bush. So someone came up with an insult by using a thesaurus? I guess that could be considered clever...although most of us learned to do that by at least the 3rd grade.

No one necessarily has to change their entire lifestyle or make drastic changes...if everyone did at least a little ... as a whole it could make a significant difference.

[Neuromancer]

moving forward, then....we should all just continue living in the past.

Who controls the past now controls the future.
Who controls the present now controls the past.

[SpursWoman]

Wow you sure are comfortable attacking me.

The sad thing is for the most part I agree with you and sorry if first thing in the morning my humor isn't up to snuff.

The sad thing? It's okay, I'm a very well educated person and I have pretty good common sense....it's okay to agree with me. I don't think what I said was unreasonable at all.

[Shelly]

moving forward, then....we should all just continue living in the past.

That would explain why people are still sporting mullets.

[SpursWoman]

That would explain why people are still sporting mullets.

I didn't think there could possibly be an explanation for that...

[Shelly]

I didn't think there could possibly be an explanation for that...

True...when I was at Target (natch!) this KID had one that was down to his ass. I was trying to figure out a way to nonchalantly take his picture

Um..so yeah..If it ever cooled down here, I'd have every fricking window in my house open to conserve energy. It amazes me how many people never open their windows when it's nice out. And if my kids didn't get a new glass every fricking time they get a drink of water, I'd be running the dishwasher less.

[SpursWoman]

Um..so yeah..If it ever cooled down here, I'd have every fricking window in my house open to conserve energy. It amazes me how many people never open their windows when it's nice out. And if my kids didn't get a new glass every fricking time they get a drink of water, I'd be running the dishwasher less.

@ the incon uous picture ... I'm always trying to do that. At my daughter's softball league they have an umpire that looks uncannily like Manny...I've tried so hard to get his picture w/o his mask on.


I love opening the windows...I live on a pretty nice hill so it gets really breezy. It doesn't seem like it's ever going to be time for that though...