[Ansteorra] Re: gas prices too high...sorry had to share this

[Michael Silverhands]

On Apr 21, 2006, at 2:57 PM, Cairenn Day wrote:

> Opening ANWAR will not do much to reduce prices.  ...
> By the way, there are plugged wells that are being redrilled  
> (sometimes
> to another producing horizon) here in the US.  It is now reasonable to
> do this.  ...
>
> Cairenn, the Howling Artist

True, but there is actually already more oil on the US market than we  
can bring to the pump. The limiting factor is onshore refineries. The  
ones we have, as I mentioned previously, are operating at or near  
capacity. It would take years to build more refineries and bring them  
online -- even if there were plans in the works to build more of  
them, and there aren't.

The simple fact is that we find ourselves in the ludicrous position  
of shipping refined fuel home by ship from overseas. (That runs the  
distribution costs out the roof.) This is simply because our demand  
has not gone down, but the global supply has. India and China are now  
consuming as much as we used to. Soon, China will probably be  
consuming more than us.

The only thing we can do about this is to build more onshore  
refineries (which, as I said, isn't going to happen soon, if at all)  
or consume less fuel. In reality, that is the only option. We can  
either do it voluntarily to try to get our economy (both national and  
personal) back under control. Or we can do it involuntarily because  
we simply can't afford to pay the price at the pump. But either way,  
that's what has to happen.

Michael