About America’s Lack of Oil Refineries

FactCheck.org has posted an article that answers the following question:

“The lack of U.S. oil refinery capacity keeps being blamed for some of the large increases in gas prices. Do we lack refining capacity and, if so, why?“

The short answers are below the fold.

Has the Price of Oil Signaled the Fall of the United States?

At the History News Network (HNN), Michael Klare has penned a sobering assessment of America’s superpower status. Basically, we ain’t got it anymore. Klare’s thesis is that the United States’ ascendancy as a superpower was fueled by cheap, abundant oil. But with oil prices reaching record highs, our national addiction to oil has left us at the mercy of forces we cannot control. Klare sees the $110/barrel threshold as the equivalent of the Berlin Wall coming down. Just as the latter signaled the end of the Soviet Union’s superpower status, the former signals the end of our own.

On Proposed Solutions to High Gas Prices

FactCheck.org has a new article analyzing the two proposed solutions to high gas prices offered by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain, and President Bush. The skinny: neither idea is going to work. Clinton and McCain’s suggestion of rescinding the federal gas tax will likely have no effect on the price at the pump, and could lead to gasoline shortages. Neither has a credible solution for how the Highway Trust Fund will be funded if the tax goes away. Bush’s suggestion of drilling for oil in Alaska misses two key points: at peak production, ANWR would supply only about 5% of current US oil consumption, not enough to have a large effect on gas prices; and peak production would not be realized for about fifteen years. More details below the fold.

Bush Defends War in Iraq, Gas Prices Going Up, and I Love My Bike

The New York Times reports on President Bush’s speech at the Pentagon in which he asserts the Iraq war, now five years old, has made “the world better and the United States safer” (quoting the article). Meanwhile, CNNMoney.com reports that gas prices have just begun to ramp upward. The national average price per gallon is expected to peak at near $4 in late spring. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll finds that 75% of Americans report financial hardship due to rising gas prices. (In this article, one expert predicts that gas prices will not reach $4 per gallon—that seems to be a minority opinion based on my reading.)

Gas Will Hit $3.50 by this Spring

In only a few weeks American motorists will face yet another spike in gasoline prices, according to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. government’s top energy forecasting agency. The target: $3.50 / gallon.