Thing is? The price gouging is just so blatant. I mean, it takes 3 to 6 months for oil pumped up to be cracked, refined and shipped anywhere. The wrecking of the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico had exactly zero immediate effect on oil and gas supplies in the US.
Profiteering from this misfortune is a Bad Thing. But there's more to this equation than price gouging. Though the wrecking of oil infrastructure has little *immediate* effect, where will we stand in a matter of weeks? People are feeling the effects of high prices, and they're acting accordingly- many are driving less, carpooling, mass transit, etc. Right now, about half the country's refining capacity lies in the gulf region. Wanna guess how quickly they're going to get those refineries back online? Gas stations in the region are already running out of fuel- this fear became realized *yesterday.* Apart from the oil industry reaping insane profits from this, I'd say that it's not a bad thing that high prices are causing people to reconsider their love affair with the automobile. (I'll propose poetic justice- that the profiteers get hit hard by increased taxes next fiscal year, and that these monies are used to pay for the reconstruction.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 07:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 08:54 pm (UTC)Thing is? The price gouging is just so blatant. I mean, it takes 3 to 6 months for oil pumped up to be cracked, refined and shipped anywhere. The wrecking of the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico had exactly zero immediate effect on oil and gas supplies in the US.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 09:11 pm (UTC)Though the wrecking of oil infrastructure has little *immediate* effect, where will we stand in a matter of weeks? People are feeling the effects of high prices, and they're acting accordingly- many are driving less, carpooling, mass transit, etc.
Right now, about half the country's refining capacity lies in the gulf region. Wanna guess how quickly they're going to get those refineries back online? Gas stations in the region are already running out of fuel- this fear became realized *yesterday.*
Apart from the oil industry reaping insane profits from this, I'd say that it's not a bad thing that high prices are causing people to reconsider their love affair with the automobile.
(I'll propose poetic justice- that the profiteers get hit hard by increased taxes next fiscal year, and that these monies are used to pay for the reconstruction.)