BaronVonBigmeat
Senior Member
- Sep 20, 2005
- 1,185
- 163
- 48
The lack of supply is not the government's fault. That's grasping. One, US oil companies shut down wells when they're only 2/3s used because it costs more to process the last third. Just more bullshit based on greed.
The lack of supply is largely due to china, which isn't really due to either big bad oil or big bad government. It's simply there, and the world has to deal with it. *Some* of it is due to our government, though. Mainly the war, which has disrupted supplies from Iraq and debased the US dollar. A patchwork of dozens of different required gasoline formulations for different regions doesn't help, either.
Oil companies do shut down wells that aren't producing much, when the price of gas is too low. Then when it goes up, they become profitable again and are started up again. This is a good thing. This is capitalism in action. If they kept cranking, there would be some hidden cost to that somewhere.
Two, when the EPA guidelines were stiffened in the late 70s, the oil companies quit building new refineries. It's refined oil products we're short on. The existing ones are grandfathered but the oil companies said FU and refused to build anymore. MORE greed.
You can't really blame them for that though. If they go through the tangled web of EPA regulations, they will produce a product that costs more than their competitors. Then the company will go bankrupt, and all the pensioners who were relying on that stock for income are going to be poorer.
And anyways, the main reason they didn't build new refineries after the 70's is because gasoline was dirt cheap. There was no reason to build them. It would have been a waste of steel and manpower.