Oil hits $104 as OPEC rebuffs Bush

[gonerail]

Oil prices reached a record close, surging above $104 after OPEC decided Wednesday to keep its production unchanged. The cartel ignored calls from President George W. Bush to pump more oil into an ailing economy.

OPEC rebuffed its top consumer, arguing that the world was well supplied with oil and blaming financial speculators and mismanagement of the United States economy for the current high prices.

But the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was not completely oblivious to the political and economic impact of $100 oil. The sharp surge in prices recently has deterred the group's ministers from cutting their production, a move they seriously contemplated a few weeks ago to offset a seasonal slowdown in global oil demand in the second quarter.

With the United States economy slowing down, oil prices have risen sharply as investors seek refuge in commodities like oil and other hard assets to offset the drop in the value of the dollar and hedge against inflation.

Oil futures settled at $104.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up $5 on the day. The spike came after United States fuel inventories unexpectedly declined while tensions escalated between Venezuela, an OPEC member, and Colombia.

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/lin...p?linkid=53707

[run4it]

I just SO can't wait until it's warm enough to start riding my bike to work again!

[raoul duke]

"What I think the president ought to do [when gas prices spike] is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots...And the president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price." - George W. Bush, 1/26/2000

I'll bet he's lying a Death Grip™ on his right hand. . .

[Mr. Lackawanna]

The price of oil is the basic reason the cost of our utilities (electric and gas) will go up. I believe the cost of our utilities are based on the cost of a BTU.

On the positive side of the increasing cost of oil is the additional revenues NY State and Eire County will recieve with their hidden taxes and fees.

In this global (free market) economy their is nothing we can do about the cost of oil. We can use less oil. and OPEC will still charge more.

Should we make more ethanol and charge more for our food?
Will ethanol be our salvation for our energy problem?

[run4it]

Should we make more ethanol and charge more for our food?
Will ethanol be our salvation for our energy problem?

Might be. Depends on what R&D finds. Also might be part of the answer to our energy issues, but not the whole answer. But at least it currently IS part of the answer to our environmental issues, as well as energy dependence issues.

That's what gets me about the whole 'anti-ethanol' group...why are you against even researching ethanol, finding ways to make it even more efficient and economical?

That would be like having told Salk that since he had to use Formaldahyde to make the Polio vaccine he should stop because there was no way Formaldahyde could possibly be good for any living organism. Well, it wasn't until Salk found a great use for it. Oh, and the entire concept of a polio vaccine grew out of his search for a flu vaccine.

But no....R&D on any new or promising technology is a waste of time unless that technology isn't initially super-efficient and useful.

ed. sorry...I know I shouldn't off-track this thread into another ethanol bitch-fest. But at least I can say that Lacks did it too...

[Mr. Lackawanna]

I have no objections for R&D on ethanol. But I think it will be an inefficient source of a fuel additive. From all I have read your gas mileage will go down using ethanol. So we need to use more oil to make more gasoline.
Didn't we have a fuel (alcohol) additive years ago that cause problems with the automobile engines?

How much land should we transfer from producing food to making ethanol?
Will this transfer hasten the increase in the cost of our food?

Once again our government in their wisdom of knowing what is best for us is rushing into unknown territories.

[gonerail]

You would think that with the situation as dire as it is someone with influence or an agency would force the hand of those that have knowingly hidden technology that would increse fuel mileage. How many of us have heard time and again that patents and inventions have been secreted away by power brokers to maintain the status qou? All we get is cheap talk and no action to end this crises we find ourselves in !!