Prepping America for the $4 gallon.

The media today started the run-up to the record high gas prices that are going to happen around Labour Day weekend this year. Apparently, all-out war in Israel and a hurricane in the Gulf Coast could push oil to $95 a barrel, representing the $4 gallon at the pump. This is all Bush regime and Big Oil groundwork to soften the public up ahead of time. Obviously the reality of the situation is so much different. The API (American Petroleum Institute) publish weekly and monthly figures available to anyone who cares to look, which show exactly where America gets its oil from.
In descending order:
1. Canada - 17.8%
2. Mexico - 12.9%
3. Venezuela - 12.9%
4. Saudi Arabia - 11.6%
5. Nigeria - 10.2%
6. Angola - 4.5%
7. Iraq - 4.1%
8. Algeria - 3.4%
9. Virgin Islands - 2.6%
10. UK - 2.4%

Taking into account Saudi and Iraq, America gets only 15% of its imports from the middle east, and most of that comes from Saudi - a 'friendly' country to America's oil needs. Not one drop of it comes from Iran, so what happens in the middle East has virtually no bearing on the actual price of oil in America. The problem is that 99.9% of people don't know that - Bush has led everyone to believe that America is dependent on oil from Iraq and Iran. This allows his fearmongering tactics in favour of Big Oil to push up prices at the pump because of the average American's ignorance.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hey Chris,

Don't forget that the price is made by merchants acting on what is happening in the world. These merchants are basically day traders, speculators, pension- and investmentfunds (like in the metal business the actual consumers are not the largest traders), so when stock exchanges are dull, they choose another market with a high volatility to make their profit. These are the people who are 'succesful' and drive around in their Hummer, complaining about the high petrol prices. You know that the ones taking the oil from the soil are the ones not complaining about these prices.
Saluti
Patrick
04:39
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