Yeah, now I'm real glad that I hung onto my '82 Honda -- 30 mpg is nice and they truck stays parked most of the time.

I disagree that an oil company wouldn't want to build a new refinery. If you're a potato farmer and prices are high, wouldn't you want more land to grow more?

Our #1 import from Canada is petroleum. I wonder if they pipe refined products to us as well -- probably.

B-Run,

here you go

Does Anti-trust enter into any of this? Notice how mergers have cut the number of oil companies in half? At least among the big players. Chevron and Texico are now one. Exxon-Mobil. Connoco-Phillips. ARCO, but that's been a real long time. Probably others. It's looking more like an oligopoly, the next best thing to a monopoly, if you can get it. Big oil companies can; potato farmers can't.

Seems like big oil is just positioning itself for that peak oil myth that has been discussed here. If the supply of crude oil isn't going to grow, why build more refineries? Might as well merge and merge and control ever more of the remaining supply and squeeze the maximum profit out of it.

A lot of us are gonna' be taking sailing lessons in the future, I expect.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Hey Lupo I gotta agree (scary huh?) with you that drilling in the ANWR will not solve our energy problems. We need to go nuke and alternative fuels. And we need to start NOW.
By the way has anyone ever heard of windfall profits tax? Good time to speak to the Oil companies about it.

KK,

The potato analogy works if there are several competing farmers. If anti-trust laws are being broken, that's a different subject.

I was against building the Trans-Alaska pipeline big time. But since it's there, we need to drill ANWR during the pipeline's service lifetime. That coastal plain is not the beautiful paradise the anti-drill people would have you believe. It makes the Bonneville salt flats look like a good place to live.

The anti trust laws acutally help with collusion. It forces the Oil companies to communicate. That communication allows them to signal their thoughts and tendancies. They may not overtly discuss pricing or pricing strategies but it is inferred. Same thing that happens when you get to know somone real well you can communicate a lot of things with out rally coming out a saying it.

KK, I doubt your issues in collection are related to political affiliation. People on the eastside are jonesers and usually living beyond their means trying to keep up with the other guy. They would like topay you but have to go find Peter and Paul to rob them first.

More saber rattling:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/27/news/senate_oil.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes