Energy Hog Lessons

[phantom power]

I think the primary topic of this article was supposed to be the recent attempts to relax environmental standards for the oil/refinery industry.

But about this business of closing refineries to up profits. I'm of two minds. On the one hand, I find it outrageous to artificially drive up the price of fuel in the name of massive corporate profits. On the other hand, expensive fuel is a financial incentive for fossil fuel conservation, and fewer refineries implies that oil is being used up at a slower rate.

I would have proposed the same thing, but increasing prices via taxes, which could then be used to develop technology and infrastructure for a post-fossil economy.

I guess that means I'm outraged specifically that the money is going to make the super-rich even richer, and not for the public good.

Several years ago, Senator Ron Wyden's office started looking into the issue of US refinery capacity and found documents - oil industry internal memos - that show that oil companies deliberately shut down refineries all through the 1990s in order to keep supply throttled and profit margins high.

Wyden stated: "Information I have received during my ongoing investigation raises serious concerns that the nation's major oil suppliers have set out in a strategic effort to orchestrate a financial triple play, a coordinated effort that would reduce supply, raise prices at the pump and relax environmental regulations."

Between 1995 and 2001, 24 refinery closings took offline nearly 830,000 barrels of oil per day. At the same time, oil industry profits rose hugely. Taking the example of Texaco, the report found that while the company's production steadily decreased from 1998 to 2000, its net income more than quadrupled during the same period. Texaco gets high marks as an energy hog. You can read Wyden's report here

Now that they've got the reduced supply and high prices they wanted, the oil industry is working on the relaxing-environmental-rules part of their triple play, and that's what the refinery bill is really about.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100605I.shtml

[NNadir]

1. I agree with you 100%, except rather than use the oil more slowly...

...I'd rather we not use it all.

But I'm dreaming.

[IrateCitizen]

2. Profiteering is an innate feature of modern-day capitalism

Seriously, you advance an ideology in which greed is rewarded, and people will be greedy in return. Personally, I try to live an altruistic life, but altruism and concern for collective well-being is not rewarded in our society.

The oil companies are simply behaving predictably with a finite resource -- especially when they realize that the finite nature of it is imminently staring us all in the face.

I agree with NNadir, I'd rather we don't use oil at all -- but that's a pipe dream. I'll have to content myself with using less personally and trying to urge others I know to do the same.