tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148260.post114602806786627666..comments2023-09-06T08:56:14.610-04:00Comments on Eidelblog: What to do about the price of gasoline?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148260.post-1146173567289904862006-04-27T17:32:00.000-04:002006-04-27T17:32:00.000-04:00Well, the Senate finally came out today with somet...Well, the Senate finally came out today with something in the right direction. They want to suspend the federal gas tax till September and make up revenue short falls by cutting oil subsidies.<BR/><BR/>Less taxes supported by less spending. You'd think somebody hadn't thought of this sooner.TKChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00034651417671564654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148260.post-1146123645613712072006-04-27T03:40:00.000-04:002006-04-27T03:40:00.000-04:00You know, California has been getting royally scre...You know, California has been getting royally screwed by the government (both fed and state) and the environmentalists for two decades. Back in the 1990s, we were paying $1.50 or more a gallon of gas while the rest of the country paid less than $1.00. Why? <BR/><BR/>Well, there was this little (highly toxic and corrosive) additive called MTBE (which is a waste product of the oil refining process) that the environmentalists thought would be a great way to create cleaner burning fuel. (Of course, it was a total failure, with UC Berkeley finding no statistically significant benefit, but hey, it made the left feel good.) <BR/><BR/>Now, there were a couple of easily predictable side effects conveniently ignored in the name of environmental righteousness. First, tiny volumes of MTBE can pollute enormous volumes of water. Second, it had the nasty little habit of chewing through the underground fuel tanks used in gas stations. Thus was born another government acronym, the LUFT, or Leaking Underground Fuel Tank. <BR/><BR/>What was to be done about the LUFTs created by this government mandate? Well, of course, the gas stations would just have to shut down for months and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars (with no assistance from the government which caused the problem in the first place) to replace the LUFT with an MTBE-resistant fuel tank. Of course, since it was nearly impossible to tell which gas stations had LUFTs, EVERY underground fuel tank at EVERY gas station in the Golden State had to be replaced.<BR/><BR/>This led to the great independent station purge. Today, in California, the vast majority of gas stations, probably more than 90%, are owned by the big oil companies (Shell, Exxon-Mobil, BP, Valero, etc.). Of course, this has done great things for competition among CA's gas stations, like almost completely eliminating it. In the town I call home, there are six Shell stations, approximately one for every square mile of town. When I was kid, before all of this nonsense got going, 5 of those 6 stations were independent gas retailers.<BR/><BR/>Add to that the fact that CA can't import gas from anywhere in the country and has to switch formulas twice a year (again, with no provable benefit), and you have a place where prices will inevitable be far higher than they should be. (And by "should be", I mean without all the government interference.) <BR/><BR/>My policy presciption for Bush is a simple one: Firse, move the nation to a single blend of gasoline. Second, encourage the building of refineries to make sure they can meet demand spikes. Yes, it's that simple.<BR/><BR/>My political presciption for Bush is this: Get the truth out that this is a problem caused by left-wing economic and evironmental thinking meddling with the market. Don't let the left, especially the environmentalists, say I told you so. They are more to blame for this problem than every greed oil exec and gas station owner combines.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148260.post-1146063031486018502006-04-26T10:50:00.000-04:002006-04-26T10:50:00.000-04:00Neal Boortz is going on and on about the fact that...Neal Boortz is going on and on about the fact that not only do we have mandated ethanol use, at the same time we have a huge tariff on foreign-produced ethanol. Maybe our Democratic friends, always champions of third-worlders, might advocate removing that tariff. Of course, that would be a tax cut, and Democrats always protect their revenues streams above things like free trade or individual rights.<BR/><BR/>Boortz has also been harping on profit margin. Oil companies making 8.5% on their investment, individual station owners making maybe 5 cents (or 5%?) on a gallon of gas. That's what they get for their investment. What does government get out of each gallon for their "investment"? Somewhere between 40-50 cents per gallon, when we add fed, state, and local taxes?<BR/><BR/>It's demagoguery on both sides of the political aisle. Government makes gas this expensive, then taxes the hell out of it (and some of its components), and then blames someone else for the problem. We've got the exact same problem in healthcare. If government got its nose out of both industries, costs would come way down.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com