Any person who understands the impact of gasoline and diesel prices have on the costs of food and almost every product sold in stores. Will be disturbed to know that Obama has knukled under to the "tree huggers" and Environmental movement by canceling a Bush directive, and announcing that he may punish oil refiners who do not meet his standards of reducing emissions from the refineries that produce the life blood of our economy.
Overall, U.S. demand is down to 18.8 million barrels a day, almost 2 million barrels below demand in the first quarter of 2007. But within the general picture, there has been falling demand for distillates, mainly consumed by industry, which reflects the general industrial gloom, along with steady to robust demand for gasoline.It also should make the "glbal warming zealots happy!
According to the International Energy Agency, global demand for oil this year will be 83.2 million barrels a day, 3 percent or 2.6 million barrels below last year. Global supply in April was 83.6 million barrels a day.
The White House suspended a ruling signed by President George W. Bush four days before he left office that found refiners were adequately controlling benzene and other cancer- causing gases, said Cathy Milbourn, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Obama is trying to convince the populace that way to renewed prosperity is through elimination of the oil industry and substituting new energy sources such as LED lighting, new concrete products that last longer than conventional concrete.
Obama held a press conference yesterday, and he said we must not look backwards, but change how we produce energy, rather than continue to rely on old ideas.
Of course,He is still blaming Bush for the state of the economy, despite the fact that people are getting tired of waiting for the stimulus programs to show positive results on the economy and unemployment rate.The problem is that his nw way is a march toward government control and socialism!
A perfect example of how Obama will force the increase in the cost of gasoline at the pump is this story from Bloomberg.com
" While U.S. law doesn’t cap toxic emissions from refineries, which convert crude oil into gasoline and diesel fuel, it does require plants to match what the best refiners are achieving at reducing hazardous pollution. Thirteen of the 20 largest refineries are in Texas and Louisiana, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
Standards were last set in 1995. If Obama finds those measures insufficient, the government may take six to nine months to propose new requirements and a similar amount of time after that to adopt them, Walke said.
Valero Energy Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and other oil companies together spent $100 billion from 1990 to 2007, and $8.3 billion in 2008, to cut pollution at refineries, according to the American Petroleum Institute. Further regulation may increase refiners’ costs and raise the gasoline prices paid by consumers, according to the lobbying group. You would think that a reasonable person would take this as a good faith effort to comply with environmental concerns, but apparently not Obama!
Fumes from refineries, factories and utilities account for about a quarter of man-made emissions in the U.S. that are claimed to be potentially hazardous to human health, the EPA has said. While it’s impossible to estimate the potential cost of new rules the agency may propose, additional pollution controls will add to the cost of making gasoline, said Howard Feldman, the API’s director of regulatory and scientific affairs.
“It’s hard to attribute any final retail price to any specific control but it certainly does impact the cost of manufacturing, which ultimately will impact the cost of fuel,” Feldman said in an interview. It doesn't take an economic genious to realize that any additional costs to the refineries will either be passed on to the consumer, or will force the refinery to shut down!
Limits on carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming were adopted by the House on June 26 in a 219-212 vote. ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulva said the legislation may lead to the “potential shutdown of refineries and investment and, ultimately, employment.” This will mark the begining of a slide toward a third world power for the once proud USA!