Maybe it's just my questioning nature (I warned you about this in my first post!), but I usually believe there's more to a story than the sound bites we hear. Case in point.
We're hearing lots of noise these days about gas companies and price gouging. I'm not here to defend the guilty or incriminate the innocent, but I do find some things fascinating. Like just how easily governments and politicians can affect businesses. This was reported on Bloomberg.com.
Refiners are seeking to replace the additive MTBE in gasoline by May because of changes in fuel requirements in the energy bill that President George W. Bush signed in August.
(So I guess in one way, it is his fault. That should make Michael Moore happy.)
The U.S. average gasoline pump price is climbing toward $3 a gallon, a level last seen in September after Hurricane Katrina, partly because of concern about supply problems related to the switch to ethanol. Record crude oil is also pushing pump prices toward their all-time high.
(I don't get how the gas companies paying more for crude oil is their fault. So, what? They're raising prices on themselves?? I'm not a big conspiracy fan anyway.)
Unlike MTBE, which can be mixed with gasoline at the refinery, ethanol must be shipped separately by rail, truck or barge and blended with gasoline at local terminals.
(Ahh, now that's interesting. So we're paying more to become "environmentally responsible". Why should anyone complain about that?)
Lee Raymond, former chairman of Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest oil company, said government regulations regarding the composition of gasoline were partly to blame for high prices.
The government was told that if the move away from MTBE came during the switch to summer grades of gasoline, ``with the limited capacity that every service station has, we are going to end up having an apparent shortage of gasoline,'' Raymond said at an energy forum at Columbia University in New York on April 19. ``And it's exactly what's happened.''
(Heck, I didn't even know there were "summer" and "winter" grades of fuel.)
So I guess it's caveat emptor - Buyer beware. Careful what you ask for. You just might get it. And have to pay for it too!
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