PROOF YOU'RE GETTING ROBBED AT GAS PUMP

[SpaceBuddy008]

March 24, 2005 -- HERE'S all you need to know to understand that Americans are getting screwed at the gas pump.

Fact 1: The inventory of crude oil in the U.S. right now is 8 percent larger than it was this same week last year. And that's the biggest amount of crude on hand since the middle of 2002.

Fact 2: That the 8 percent increase doesn't include all the oil purchased by Washington and put into the emergency Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which now has 685 million barrels. That's up from 650 million barrels last year and 599 million in '03.

Fact 3: There is 7.5 percent more gasoline in stock right now in this country than during the same week last year. And you'd have to go back to this same week in 1999 to find more gasoline inventory — when the average price at the pump was only $1.01 a gallon.

Fact 4: Including everything made of oil, there is 4.9 percent more supply this year than when Spring began in 2004. And there's about 10 percent more of all petroleum products in stock today than when the Iraqi war began.

And, finally, Fact 5: American consumers are being conned by speculators — and a media that doesn't ask enough tough questions — into thinking there is some sort of supply problem.

PROOF YOU'RE GETTING
ROBBED AT GAS PUMP

BY JOHN CRUDELE

http://www.nypost.com/business/22624.htm

*****


OIL SHILLS TOIL IN SCAM FOR ROYALS

[Warpy]

1. Not quite

Remember that any increase in the price of crude oil futures is felt immediately at the pump, months before the high priced oil hits the refinery. In the months leading up to the election, the oil companies were holding the line on gas prices, taking a loss on higher crude prices which peaked at about $56/bbl.

The amount of crude on hand also reflects the way Bush stuffed the strategic reserves during those peak prices last fall. Since he's not letting a drop go to alleviate the quickly rising prices at the pump, one can only assume he's holding the record level of petroleum reserves in case they're needed to supply us during his next military adventure in the middle east.

That the prices are rising so quickly now is just a reflection of what has happened in the past when crude prices have spiked. The aberration was last fall, when the oil companies were trying to lull the consumer into complacence so that their boy would get elected.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. The fact is Crude oil is at the highest price/ barrel in history.

Do you think that they are going to absorb the hit? I long ago realized that I wanted to minimize the pain, so I have been driving a moderate/ low end 4 door that gets fairly good mileage and is practical. History shows that the government isn't going to do anything to help with this.

[K-W]

3. And oil companies are making huge profits as we speak. EOM

[htuttle]

4. But that 'speculation' is the Glory of Kapitalism!

Buy it as cheap as you can, sell it for as much as people can pay for it. Scamming and ripping off others is the HEART of the American Way! The amount of gas and oil actually available has no bearing on the price -- it all comes down to what they think people will be willing to pay for it. When you find you are the only water vendor in the desert -- TIME TO CASH IN!

Of course this is what makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, but this is America -- if your kids had been born to different parents, they might have had a chance to grow up rich, too!

In for a penny, in for a pound, you know -- you aren't a Commie, are you?

;)

[MsTryska]

5. boy howdy - are folks gonna be pissed when they see

what gas prices are like when the government ISN'T subsidizing them anymore....