Tag: gas prices

Domestic Crude Oil Peaked at $145 a Barrel in 2008. It Closed Yesterday at $118.50. So Why Is Gas at the Pump at All-Time Highs?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Domestic Crude Oil Peaked at $145 a Barrel in 2008. It Closed Yesterday at $118.50. So Why Is Gas at the Pump at All-Time Highs?

Part of that, as the above stories illustrate, is just plain ole price gouging. But the big picture is more complicated than that. According to the EIA, in addition to the 61 percent of the price of a gallon of gas that comes from the cost of crude oil, the other 39 percent shakes out as follows: the costs of refinement (14 percent), distribution and marketing (11 percent), and taxes (14 percent).

And refining* looks to be a particular problem right now. The EIA reports that as of January 1, 1982, the U.S. had 301 refineries in operation. That compares to just 129 in operation as of January 1, 2021.

Related:

*Chevron CEO says there may never be another oil refinery built in the U.S.

Previously:

More Oil From U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Heads To Europe

Biden’s approval dips to lowest of presidency: AP-NORC poll

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

President Joe Biden’s approval rating dipped to the lowest point of his presidency in May, a new poll shows, with deepening pessimism emerging among members of his own Democratic Party.

Only 39% of U.S. adults approve of Biden’s performance as president, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Research, dipping from already negative ratings a month earlier.

Overall, only about 2 in 10 adults say the U.S. is heading in the right direction or the economy is good, both down from about 3 in 10 a month earlier. Those drops were concentrated among Democrats, with just 33% within the president’s party saying the country is headed in the right direction, down from 49% in April.

Biden’s approval dips to lowest of presidency: AP-NORC poll

More Oil From U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Heads To Europe

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

More Oil From U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Heads To Europe

Meanwhile, U.S. crude [oil] is flowing to Europe at rates never seen before.

Two cargoes of high-sulfur crude from the U.S. strategic reserve are headed to Italy and the Netherlands, according to tanker-tracking data and sources briefed by Bloomberg. The tankers have loaded crude at terminals connected to storage caverns of the SPR in Texas and Louisiana.

According to Matt Smith, oil analyst at commodity data firm Kpler, these would not be the last crude exports out of the U.S. SPR to Europe.

In April, some 1.6 million barrels of U.S. crude from the strategic reserve made its way to Europe, Smith told Bloomberg, adding: “That’s the largest amount of SPR crude that’s been shipped to the continent based on historical monthly data.”

Oil From Biden’s Emergency SPR Release Is Heading For Europe

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Oil From Biden’s Emergency SPR Release Is Heading For Europe

Related:

U.S. Exports Oil From SPR Release: Report

Bloomberg: Oil From U.S. Strategic Reserve Heads for Europe Amid Global Supply Crunch

[11-2021] U.S. Is Already Exporting Oil From Strategic Reserve at Record Pace

If the Biden Administration decides to tap U.S. emergency crude reserves to push down domestic energy prices, it may not help all that much. The supplies may just be exported away like last month.

…

The White House has been mulling a range of options to ease soaring pump prices and Democrats are pressing for a potential ban on oil exports as well as the release of crude from the nation’s strategic reserves.

It’s not “Putin’s Price Hike,” if prices were going up, last November!

America Is Headed for Class Warfare + More

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Nothing has revealed the class divide in the U.S. quite like runaway inflation and skyrocketing gas prices. But in addition to the economic impact the staggering incompetence of the Biden administration is having on the working class, there is a political one; it’s undeniably driving working class voters even further from the Democrats and toward the GOP.

America Is Headed for Class Warfare

Related:

“Workers aren’t getting bailed out like the billionaires”: Detroit workers livid over surging gas prices

“It’s just really hard to live”: Chicago workers describe impact of surging food and gas prices