Got Gas?

Stephen, you simply miss the beauty of a free market. When prices fluctuate creative destruction spreads through the specified market, in this case- private transportation. Your distaste for one of the most important creations in world history can be dismissed upon the price of refined gasoline going through the roof.

Unfortunately, you also miss the necessity of the ‘engine’. The technology for alternate fuels/energy is simply non existent. The world needs a ‘bridge’ or time to develop these tools- thus the need for off-shore drilling, wind, solar, and nuclear. I believe all Americans support these items and especially citizens of NC.

Actually, tests have shown that oil contamination off the shore of California is due to natural hazards- oil is seeping up through the Pacific Ocean floor and lapping on the beaches of the West Coast. This oil could be harvested from the depths less than 50 miles off the coast, potentially in the next two years since the congressional ban has lapsed and if the California Gov’t would allow this.

Also, in the Great Society that is California, a research organization has found that certain ‘bugs’ can excrete gasoline- fancy that!

Finally, Gov. Easley’s price cap on retail gasoline has had a negative effect in Western NC. As you have read, many in Charlotte and Asheville have been waiting in rather long lines simply because the wholesale price of gasoline is drastically higher than the retailer without a supplier contract can sell it for. Thus, the gas station does not buy the gas for it he/she did, they would be selling for a net loss.

And yes bus or train would be great, ONLY if the true cost was realized.

Not so, Stephen. Drilling can do wonders for the short term, as “speculators” see the potential for new reserves coming online, they will likely bid down the price per barrel today, affecting pump prices today.

But the commenter above is also right. In a market (which is not a creation, but an emerge property of certain institutions that are arguably a human creation/construct), you get the best and most cost-effective alternative winning. So whether we power our cars with batteries+nuclear, or natural gas, or whatever … may the best source win. That won’t happen under your “send-in-the-bureaucrats” model. It’s free market fundamentals (not fundamentalism).

In fact, if you were familiar with evolutionary theory and complex adaptive systems, you’d agree. But then again, lefties usually mock those who don’t believe in evolution, then turn around and prescribe economic Intelligent Design in every other sphere of life. A phenomenon I find truly bizarre. (It leads me to believe lefties believe evolution more out of groupthink than anything else. But I digress.)

If pump prices could be affected by the “potential” of 200,000 barrels per day in the OCS they would already have been affected by the 500,000 barrels per day promised by the Saudis by the end of this year. The recent shortages were caused by oil companies capping supply, not by price caps. Last year we exported 1,400,000 barrels per day. This year we’ve been exporting at a rate of 1,800,000 barrels per day, nine times the “potential” of the proposed OCS production.