50 years since the Oil Embargo of 1973, the U.S. continues reliance on foreign crude oil to run the American economy.
Published December 13, 2023, at the Center for a Constructive Tomorrow
Ronald Stein is an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for the Heartland Institute and CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations.”
Seems that no one remembers the Oil Embargo of 1973, just 50 years ago!
In 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an oil embargo against the United States, triggering a crude oil crisis that sent the U.S. economy into a recession. To mitigate from any future shortages of oil, President Gerald Ford signed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, which established the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
The SPR is centrally located along the Gulf Coast where the oil can be distributed to nearly half of all U.S. oil refineries using interstate pipelines or barges.
Interestingly, California, the 4th largest economy in the world, has no access to the SPR as there are no pipelines over the Sierra Mountains to reach the “California Energy Island”.
A few years after the SPR was authorized, in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis in 1977, the Department of Energy was established to lessen our dependence on foreign oil.
Today, California, the 4th largest economy in the world, California is importing almost 60 percent of its crude oil demands from foreign countries, to support the States’ 9 International airports, 41 Military airports, and 3 of the largest shipping ports in America!
Now, after 50 years, the Department of Energy (DOE) is comprised of approximately 14,000 federal employees and over 95,000 management and operating contractors, and 83 field locations, and a $48 billion dollar budget, the United States remains a net crude oil importer. Although exports increased in the first half of 2023, the United States demands have also been increasing, resulting in imports exceeding exports, meaning the U.S. remains a net crude oil importer.
The United States, as a net crude oil importer, continues to rely on foreign countries to run the 118 international airports in the United States and the 500 Military airports in the United States.
50 years after the oil embargo crisis of 1973, there remain no American policy for crude oil independence. America continues to INCREASE its dependence on China for “green” minerals and metals, and on OPEC, Russia, and other countries for oil. Today, with LESS independence, America is more vulnerable to another embargo than we were 50 years ago!
Over the same period, California Governors have been continually decreasing California’s in-state oil production. The emissions policies of past and current Governors continue to force California, the 4th largest economy in the world, to be the only state in contiguous America that imports most of its crude oil feedstock to in-state refineries from foreign countries. The States Governor leaders over the decades have been:
- Gov. Gavin Newson (D) 2019 – 2027
- Gov. Edmund Brown (D) 2011-2019, and 1975-1983
- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) 2003-2011
- Gov. Gray David (D) 1999-2003
- Gov. Pete Wilson (R) 1991-1999
California’s growing dependency on other nations over the last several decades, some not particularly friendly to America, is a serious national security risk for all of us. It also deprives Californians of jobs and business opportunities and forces drivers to pay premium prices for the fuels and products manufactured at the decreasing number of in-state refineries.
In the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis, the Department of Energy was established 46 years ago in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. Today, with 14,000 employees and a $48 billion dollar budget, California, the 4th largest economy in the world, imports most of its crude oil demands from foreign countries to run the States’ 9 International airports, 41 Military airports, and 3 of the largest shipping ports in America!!
U.S. President Joe Bidens’ Administration has chosen to delete/sell off, much of the SPR inventory, which is currently less than half its capacity, resulting in an emergency reserve of just 20 days of supply remaining to deliver to U.S. based refineries.
The SPR was created almost 50 years ago, because of the OPEC crude oil reductions in availability in the early 70’s. Since Biden has no plan to restore this emergency oil reserve supply, if OPEC, or other countries cuts back oil availability substantially again as they did back in the early-mid 70’s, those of us who experienced the motor fuel shortages back then, can expect to reexperience the very long fueling station vehicle lines, and other product shortages we experienced 50 years ago.
The USA consumes about 19 million barrels of oil per day, while the United States and California are pursuing the elimination of crude oil production to focus on wind turbines and solar panels to generate electricity, China has no intentions of abandoning its economic, military, or strategic ambitions—all of which rely on non-renewables such as crude oil and coal. Asia is the region with the greatest number of future petroleum refineries. As of 2021, there were 88 new refinery facilities in planning or under construction in Asia.
The Energy News Beat Podcast Hosted by Stu Turley had an educational and entertaining conversation about energy security. Specifically, California which has become an energy liability to the United States’ energy security. Please enjoy the 37-minute conversation between Stu and Ron at: https://energynewsbeat.co/156-ronald-stein-energy-security-is-a-real-problem-around-the-world-countries-go-to-war-over-energy-security-but-when-does-a-state-become-a-security-risk/
Americans have obviously have not learned much in the 50 years since the Oil Embargo of 1973, as the following persist:
- California, the 4th largest economy in the world, was virtually independent of foreign oil in 1973, but now imports MOST of its crude oil demands to run the States’ 9 International airports, 41 Military airports, and 3 of the largest shipping ports in America, AND
- The USA remains a net importer of foreign crude oil, AND
- The possibility of importing manufactured fuels and petrochemicals from new Asian refineries in the coming years to support the American economy may soon become a reality.
In the meantime, under the watch of the Department of Energy that was established in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, with a $48 billion dollar budget in 2023, 14,000 federal employees and over 95,000 management and operating contractors, they have “allowed” California, the 4th largest economy in the world, to increase its dependency on foreign crude oil from 5 to almost 60 percent!
Ronald Stein, P.E.
Author | Columnist | Energy Literacy Consultant
https://expertfile.com/experts/ronald.stein
STORY TIP:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ukhsas-hecc-report-shows-impacts-on-public-health-due-to-warming-climate
propaganda and lies
In the Summer of 2022, Covid was still around – might that explain the 3,000 excess deaths? The answer is “probably” but a conveniently warmer-than-normal Summer gave these idiots the opportunity to blame it on the weather (which they then confuse with climate).
The excess deaths were due to complications from the rushed vaccine, like clotting and the heart attacks, or to the suicides and homicides to being cooped up like rats.
Propaganda by the government, they’re using RCP8.5 for their tales of doom and gloom.
Sadly this won’t be reported in the Misleadia nor will the fact that the IPCC says RCP8.5 is highly unlikely
Oh! I remember it well! It came in the hay day of the muscle car! The nights when we paraded our hot rods through he Frisch’s Big Boy curb service parking lot, creeping over the speed bumps while doing so.
Mine was a red 1969 Nova with a flat black crinkle paint top. 396 turbo, headers with cut outs. Hurst four on the floor. Grager wheels with 70 series tires on the rear. Positrac rear end. Had a link of chain bolting the frame to the block because without it I would bust the motor mount.
When I busted that motor mount the engine would rock locking the carburetor linkage wide open! After doing that once and spinning with smoke rolling twice in the middle of the road before I got it shut down I chained it so it wouldn’t happen again.
There were guys with supercharged 383s and 440 mags that were faster than mine. But man that car was fun to drive. and because of the heavy duty clutch no girl could drive it. I finally grew out of it. Sold it to a kid and the last time I saw it, it was going sideways down the road with tire smoke billowing around it.
My next car was a 1977 Cutlass Supreme Brougham with a 350 in it. The best car I ever owned.
Did you have an Elvis haircut? 🙂
Actually back then I had a minifro.
One of my friends had a 396 Nova, and it was scary fast!
I remember the gas lines. They started out long, around the block, but it got better as public panic subsided and people got used to the routine, and much better when they started filling cars up on alternate days, depending on the last number of your licence plate. Evens on certain days, and odds on different days.
My Brother-in-law had a 1970 SS 396 375 HP Nova 4sp modified with a bigger Holley carb and headers. But my stock 1968 Plymouth Barracuda 340 Formula S matched it in heads-up racing. Those were the “Good Old Days”, or so the song goes! Thanks Carly!
I had a friend who bought a new 1970 Duster with a 340 in it and that think was fast, too.
The only drawback to that car was the four-speed shifter was very stiff which made it a problem for powershifts.
If it had been me, I would have bought one with an automatic transmission. 🙂
But that was the fault of the government – there was no need for rationing if there were no price controls.
The Peanut Farmers wisdom:
https://youtu.be/3SFM999m5c0
Price controls are a real bad idea.
Nixon tried price controls. It didn’t work out well.
I hear that some Democrats are now proposing price controls now to try to rein in Biden’s inflation. Apparently, they think imposing price controls will help with Biden’s re-election attempt.
Price controls will stop price increases temporarily, but in the long run they cause prices to skyrocket when the restrictions are lifted, as happened with Nixon’s price controls.
Price controls often bring about shortages. It may not have the effect they’re hoping for.
Buying gas based on the last digit of license plate. Gas lines. Limited dollar amount buying. Turn down thermostat. Wear sweaters. I can’t drive 55.
Only good thing is right hand trun on red.
The only thing that the ‘drive 55’ did was to discourage long trips because of the extra time required to get there and back. Engineers are not stupid! After many experiments and building a computer performance-model from first principles, to run on my Atari 800, I discovered that my ’65 Corvette got its best gas mileage at about 68MPH. There is a plateau in the gas mileage at about 65MPH, the most common freeway speed limit at the time. The slope of the curve from 0 to 65 is steep, and then the fall-off after 65 is less steep. Because ‘cruise control’ wasn’t typically available at the time, and most people can’t keep their speed to more than +/-2MPH, there was less penalty drifting slightly above (or purposely speeding) the 65MPH speed limit than falling slightly below and then having to push the accelerator down to get back up to 65.
“Drive 55” was implemented specifically to reduce OPEC importation of oil for political reasons. When that didn’t work, it suddenly became “drive 55 to save lives” without explanation.
The failure of policy required that the goalposts be moved to save face.
“I can’t drive 55”
The speed limits on highways was reduced to 55mph from 65mph as a means to save gasoline, or so we were told.
The new speed law went into effect at midnight on Saturday night.
I had a job about 60 miles from home on the next Sunday morning and I was driving down 69 highway, four lane, at 6am in the morning, not another car in sight in either direction and I was going 65mph.
I came up over the Arkansas River bridge and about that time I saw an Oklahoma Highway Patrol car coming over the bridge in the opposite direction, and that trooper had to drive about two miles to find a turnaround, and he turned around and chased me down and gave me a speeding ticket for going 10mph over the new speed limit. Now that’s dedication!
I thought about telling him my uncle was also an Oklahoma Highway Patrolman, but decided that would probably be counterproductive and kept it to myself.
That was the first traffic ticket I ever got. Sunday morning, noone around, going 10mph over the new speed limit, and I got ticketed.
It should have been a warning instead of a ticket.
Had an SS Malibu. Awesome car. I appreciate the old school muscle cars that you built yourself. But the heyday of muscle cars is NOW. 1000HP+ corvettes from the factory that meet enviro requirements and can be driven like a daily driver until you put your foot in it. Same for the chargers/challengers. Amazing stuff. 300 HP, 400 H0, Pfft.
But I will grant you that a car that you took from a kitten to a beast and did the work yourself was a spacial kind of satisfaction.
Wanna see you work on your 2,000 hp factory “muscle car” today! And with the prices being what they are, not many kids can afford todays “muscle cars”.
I saw a price on one of those 1,000 hp engines: About $22,500.00.
Ouch!
Who needs 1,000hp anyway?
Here is an example of a modern muscle car:
2024 Chevelle 70/SS: Every Trim Compared (msn.com)
I saw an article about a new four cylinder engine that is producing 400hp and is not turbocharged.
It seems the automobile industry is working real hard on new internal combustion engines, apparently thinking ICE cars still have a future.
Joe Biden is not going to like this.
G’Day rah,
“…the hay day of the muscle car!”
Darn, I feel way out of place in this discussion. A 1970 VW Bug. But 28+ MPG really helped.
I had a ’67 VW bug. Loved that car! The only thing it didn’t have was a heater, or rather, an adequate heater.
I never understood how German engineers could put such a poor heater in a car.
Before the Nova I had a 1966 Corvair automatic.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=1977+Cutlass+Supreme+Brougham&sca_esv=591053097&tbm=isch&sxsrf=AM9HkKmcprcGFfsXShr7Wysl6XBlTxGF7g:1702598478951&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiwqKHMkZCDAxXlMjQIHZPpBogQ_AUIBigB&biw=378&bih=701#imgrc=Mv1X8maNyj_IvM
Just like mine was:
Lots if BS in this post.
First of all, the United States is now the world’s largest producer of oil and gas, and is a net exporter of both. The US produces way more than Saudi Arabia and Russia – 13 million BBD vs. 9 MBBD for either of the others. The fact that some oil used in the US is still imported is only a reflection of how private markets operate – if user A can get a better deal from a foreign producer than offered by the domestic producer, that’s whose oil they buy. Or if the foreign produced product better suits the technical requirements than a domestic producer, again the free market buyer will choose the most suitable product.
As for where the US’s imported oil comes from, the largest importer is Canada, whose imports vastly outweigh those of any other nation(1.6 MBPD vs the no. 2 importer, Mexico, at 0.3 MBPD). A total of 80 nations import at least some small amount of oil to the US.
In natural gas production, the US again vastly outstrips every other producing nation in the world, including the no. 2 producer Russia (33 billion cf vs. 23 billion cf).
In a national emergency, however that might be defined, such as a total cutoff of all foreign oil imports – which is impossible, actually, and nobody can build a credible scenario where Canada goes to war against the US, economic or otherwise – the US could simply stop exporting and rely solely on domestic production.
The biggest supply risk to the United States and any other nation in the world is not a cutoff of supply, but a temporary supply disruption caused by a war or increase in tariffs or a natural calamity that affects a major oil and gas producing region. The result of any supply disruptions naturally is an increase in price, of temporary nature. When supply climbs quickly, consumers naturally cut back thus reducing demand, which then tends to cap or even reduce prices until supply and demand are in effective balance.
That’s how markets work. No nation can repeal the law of supply and demand – it is immutable.
Apparently you don’t know the difference between the terms- import vs export. Try a dictionary.
The biggest supply risk is the climate lunacy which wants to stop all ff.
The good news is the U.S., as Duane says, imports most of its oil from Canada and Mexico, two friendly nations that are not likely to cutoff oil supplies to the U.S.
That, combined with U.S. oil production and decreased demand in a crisis should allow the U.S. to survive a 1970’s-style Arab oil embargo without much of a problem.
Canada will deplete a large % of its tar sands deposits when the whole Trudeau administration gets tarred and feathered.
Getting the feathers is the main problem, no access to the areas around the bird slaughterers.
We have a lot of Canada Geese you can have. (I was told by Canadians that the bird was named after the discover and not the country. Therefore “Canadian Geese” is supposedly not correct, but that toothpaste is out of the tube. My bird handbook calls them “Canada Geese.”)
AKA web-footed vermin.
Justin is already feathered. He is the closest thing to a chicken you can find in government. He has the intellect, courage and soberness of thought that fully qualify him for a place in your next bucket of KFC.
Trudeau and Biden are “birds of a feather”.
Both are too stupid to be running people’s lives.
Deplete a large percentage?
Justin’s really not that big – multiple layers of tar and feathers?
I know the difference unlike you. I cited the correct data correctly and you cite an irrelevancy. Despite the warmunists best efforts the U.S. is more secure in our energy supplies than any other nation in the world.
And nobody can repeal the law of supply and demand – it is the one law that always must be obeyed by everyone everywhere.
The need for a strategic petroleum reserve is now vastly less than it was in the 1970s when it was established. At that time the U.S. oil and gas production was decreasing year by year and the U.S. was a net oil and gas importer. But even with the OPEC oil embargo, the U.S. never ran out of oil or gas. The gas lines were a result of both consumer panic as well as the failed attempt by the Federal government to ration supplies (ie a failed attempt to repeal the law of supply and demand – rationing simply does not work).
Imports are largely a function of refinery configuration. US tends to produce light crude. Many refineries are optimized to refine heavy crude. Profit optimization favors importing cheap heavy crude, processing it and exporting finished fuels or intermediates while exporting higher priced light. I have not kept up with how the mix of refinery configurations has changed over the last decade since I have been more involved on the gas side of transportation and midstream but at one time the gulf coast was highly optimized to process heavy Venezuelan crude. Canadian imports are very heavy. Circa API 10 gravity or less.
Dianne. Your numbers are wrong. The US imports over 3 million barrels a day from Canada. The US also produces over 200 bcf of nat gas a day. When supply climbs, consumers don’t cut the quantity they demand. Markets work, but not the way you think.
Not 200, over 100 bcf a day. Phone typo!
Nope – the numbers I cited are current (2023) official import and export data.
Source?
Duanne, no offense, but you have no idea what you are talking about
Here is the link to this weeks EIA report for oil imports
Weekly Preliminary Crude Imports by Top 10 Countries of Origin (ranking based on 2021 Petroleum Supply Monthly data) (eia.gov)
Here is a link to this weeks EIA nat gas data
Natural Gas Weekly Update (eia.gov)
I manage 2 PE energy funds, I follow the data closely.
For the Board – The US imported 3.5 million barrels from Canada last week. The US produced 105 bcf/d of dry gas last week. I provide the links to the actual EIA reports from this week.
Obviously why Gasoline is $5.50 (NC) -$8.00(SC) per gallon in California… all that cheap oil from abroad instead of expensive domestic oil which provides gas at $3.20 for the rest of the nation. Sorry Duane but foreign Oil isn’t cheaper than domestic. California isn’t tied into the rest of the national supply line pipes so must produce intrastate or import.
How much oil does the USA produce?
Summary Table
Barrels per DayGlobal RankOil
Production14,837,6401st in the world
Oil Consumption19,687,2871st in the world
Daily Deficit-4,849,647
Oil Imports7,850,000
https://www.worldometers.info/oil/us-oil/
Yes, the U.S. needs to increase its oil production.
The U.S. oil production is actually increasing now, due to increased prices for a barrel of oil, but we are still not producing as much as we use.
If Trump gets elected, even more oil will be produced as he stops the Biden war on oil.
“Obviously why Gasoline is $5.50 (NC) -$8.00(SC) per gallon in California… all that cheap oil from abroad instead of expensive domestic oil which provides gas at $3.20 for the rest of the nation.”
A lot of that difference is from taxes imposed on gasoline and diesel in California.
That accounts for $1.20 per gal which makes CA gas $4.30 – $6.80 pre tax compared to $3.20 national average
Well they could have it shipped in by rail too, but the California Eco-Nazis would probably throw a hissy fit about THAT.
Plenty of that moving Bakken crude to east coast refineries, no reason why it can’t also go to Commiefornia.
Of course, there’s no reason not to produce their own resources other that Eco-Nazi stupidity.
Gasoline is heavily taxed in CA, much more than in most states, explaining most of their high prices. Here in Florida, current gasoline prices are now down below $3 a gallon (I paid $2.85 for my fill up this morning). Same oil and gas as in CA, most if not all of it produced domestically in TX and the Gulf of Mexico. Taxes are low in FL.
California taxes only account for $1.20 of their $5.50 – $8.00
California also suffers from the fact that they have suffered from a “fuel island” effect because they have mandated several custom gasoline formulations that in effect prohibit fuel imports from other mare rational locations. The rockies also make pipelines to the west coast problematic and CA has been in a war against in-state refineries for decades.
For example, Shell used to organize their downstream business as East of the Rockies (EOR) and West of the Rockies (WOR). They have abandoned CA in terms of refining because of the adversarial business climate.
Duane, in all that babbling, you forgot to tell us, again, that the president doesn’t have the ability to impact oil prices ….
Why have you gone off script?
Biden certainly seems to think he can affect prices by decimating the SOR
Since it shows policy, he can.
Shows policy ???
Shows stupidity!!!
Excellent comments, Duane. Right on the money.
You may have the numbers correct, but you neglected oil traders and the futures market.
We export large amounts of oil because our refining capability has dwindled and the oil we produce is not compatible. Your claim about stopping exports and rely on domestic is not accurate. As for Canada going to war with us we are pipeline limited as to how much we can get from them. Remember XL?
How is a “cutoff” of oil not a bigger risk than a “temporary supply disruption”?
We are limited by how long it will take to build things! Refinery, pipeline, or double hulled ships.
we have lots of oil, coal, and gas we lack the will to use them.
The law of supply and demand can easily be set aside by governments that wish to make supply zero or eliminate demand.
Actually mkelly, the US has a lot of refinery capacity. It is just that the unused capacity is in smaller refineries that Brandon, during his first day in office, forces offline by reinstituting penalties and fees suspended by TRUMP! during his presidency.
There are small refineries that cannot meet the EPA requirements, and with the EPA ready to hit the major refineries, and every wellhead, with methane capture requirements. There is no telling HOW or IF those new regulations can be met.
First act of new congress, repeal the EPA and include in the legislation the overturning of every “lawfare” ruling by “environmental” groups and activist EPA lawyers, with a note that the EPA does not have the ability to make up its own rules through lawfare.
Drake I said refining capacity has dwindled. Cause is irrelevant. We have built a new one in decades.
No, No No
U.S. oil refinery capacity 2022 | Statista
Nice call of BS, thanks!
Usage and capacity are two different things. In the case of refineries, just because they are siting idle doesn’t mean the capacity is no longer there.
Being on this site where we talk of “nameplate capacity” of unreliables and actual output, you should not miss that distinction.
“. . . repeal the EPA . . . .”
We can thank Nixon for that bit of stupidity–among other things.
“irst act of new congress, repeal the EPA”
Yes, I think something drastic like that is required if we are to move forward.
Severely restricting the EPA would probably be easier than abolishing it altogether.
mkelly, Daune’s numbers are just wrong. The reason we export a large amount of oil is that US refiners want heavier crude than the shales are producing. The US refinery capacity hasn’t dwindled. It hasn’t changed much over the last 20 years. US refiners have higher Nelson ratings relative to the rest of the world, which means they can process heavier crudes. We export light and import heavy. US gasoline demand really hasn’t changed much over time. Miles driven in the US isn’t growing much. The SPR isn’t as important as it once was. Short cycle shale prodution has changed the face of US crude production. Shale production is much easier to ramp up and down.
I guess you never heard of the Jones Act which is a huge interference in free trade within the US. It’s why California imports so much oil, and Boston imports LNG despite exports from Cove Point Md being not very far away. Of course, they could get gas by pipeline if several states didn’t ban them.
ah yes how aussies ended up driving crap 4cyl imports.
seriousQ
some utter morons in ausgovt decided OUR strategic reserves would be too hard to store….and did a deal with usa to store our reserves on mainland usa
apart from the distance and UNavailability in tome of crisis..
I wonder if theyre real at all or hypothecated like all the paper gold sold is??
Sorry, Australia, Joe had to sell your strategic oil reserve oil to make himself and the Democrats look better for the last election by trying to get gasoline prices lower. First things first, don’t you see.
yup thats about what I reckon
I saw on some news program- can’t remember which- that they sold oil from the reserve at a very high price- when it peaked due to Putin’s “special military operation”- and the intent is to fill it again when the price hits bottom.
The dems wouldnt allow the trump admin to replenish during the covid low
“Trump admin?” The reserves were depleted by Biden after Trump was no longer in office.
Trump wanted to fill the SPR during the COVID-19 lows at $25 per barrel. Congress rejected the attempt. Biden drained about 220 million from the SPR. They have a few million barrels of purchases lined up in 2024. They were hoping to buy back below 70. I don’t think they will get an opportunity unless the economy cracks. Look, the SPR isn’t as important as it once was. I’m not saying I agree with what the Biden Administration did, but the SPR just isn’t as important as it once was.
And ole Joe makes it even less important by selfishly using it to try to win elections.
The Democrat Party is Joe’s main concern, not the United States of America.
Max fill volume was in 2009 (714 million). Obama dumps 30 million right off the bat; then another 5 million. Trump era utilizes about 65 million (8 years). Biden era utilizes 65 million, then dumps 180 million (4 years).
Trump wanted to replenish when things were cheap. Couldn’t get agreement. So rather than putting 100 million back, we are now down to 50% of capacity.
(Is the glass half full, or half empty? I don’t care how you phrase it, it is at 50% capacity)
And was lowered for partisan political purposes not connected to U.S. national security.
The answer to the proverbial question about the glass is what was going on prior to asking the question. Based on that, because it was being emptied, the SPR tanks are half empty.
About 4.5 million people die from cold-related causes compared to about 500,000 people dying from heat-related causes each year. Cold or cool air causes our blood vessels to constrict causing blood pressure to rise and that causes more strokes and heart attacks during the cooler months worldwide.
‘Global, regional and national burden of mortality associated with nonoptimal ambient temperatures from 2000 to 2019: a three-stage modelling study’
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00081-4/fulltext
I filled up at Asda (UK Walmart) the other day; £1.42/l ($1.79/l or $8.13/gallon)
Best price in absolutely ages.
The price is still trending down here. I paid $2.24/gallon yesterday and a couple of stations outside of Denver have is for $1.99/gallon.
“I paid $2.24/gallon yesterday “
And you guys complain!
http://brisray.com/isu/images/us_uk_map.png
I did a road trip from Las Vegas NV to northern Idaho to the Portland Oregon area and back. That route, if on a boat, would circumnavigate the UK and Ireland.
So yes, we need MORE fuel just to get around. Especially in the west.
AND don’t forget at $1.99, a large % is taxes.
There is a double tax on U.K. fuel – fuel duty and VAT
I’ll file that under “great minds think alike.” (Didn’t see your post before I posted.)
Ditto!
Yes, we do, since as a rule, we have further to go to get to where we want to be (or need to be). 😉
Often what is missing from the front pages of newpapers is telling.
We have been bombarded for wees in the papers here with COP28.
This morning I glimpsed through the front page of papers and could not find any mention of COP28.
Success 🙁
Sticky key: weeks not wees.
I have now found one, one out of nine Irish papers with the headline:
Broad global welcome for COP28 fossil fuel deal. (The Irish Times)
Gray
DavidDavis was recalled after 4 years due to pitiful performance. And stupid adsO/T. Moonbat update
Call me all the names you want – I won’t stop telling the truth about livestock farming
The chances of a reasoned conversation across the divide are approximately zero. That’s not an accident. It’s a result of decades of the meat industry’s tobacco-style tactics and manufactured culture wars. Clever messaging triggers men who are obsessed by (and anxious about) their masculinity, generating paranoia over “feminisation” and a loss of dominance. The industry amplifies popular but false claims about livestock healing the land and drawing down more greenhouse gases than it produces. These efforts are reinforced by a tidal wave of disinformation from far-right influencers on social media. While many people have now become aware of how the fossil fuel industry has deceived us, there’s less recognition of the even grimmer game played by the livestock industry.””
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/14/livestock-farming-soy-soyboy
Why are people who disagree always labelled as far right? Moonbat is a Malthusian moron.
To the left, the ‘far right’ is the domain of the extreme hate-mongers, white supremacists, neo-nazi’s, despots and tyrants. They have spent decades indoctrinating society that the left is warm and cuddly but the far right is evil, nasty and depraved. It’s a marketing tool so that when they label someone or some group as ‘far right’ they get an instant knee-jerk reaction of fear and loathing.
Exactly.
“MAGA Extremists!” — Brandon
Yes, Joe and the Democrats want to portray every Conservative as being an extremist. If you are not a radical Democrat, then you are an extremist, according to them.
That’s rich: An extremist like Joe, calling us extremists! That’s equivalent to the terrorist, Osama bin Laden, calling us terrorists.
Joe and the Democrats
It appears here are a growing number of democrats for whom Joe is no longer left enough, apparently.
I thought that was you posting that drivel for a second – perhaps some quotes should be used to separate the referenced delusions from what you have to say about them…
Quotes would help. I was also confused as to who was doing the talking at first, although I wouldn’t expect strativarius to take that position based on his previous comments, so was pretty sure it wasn’t him..
And I did spot the quote mark at the end.
Off Topic but Google’s DeepMind AI is now doing for weather what it did for the game of “Go”
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/ai-weather
Weather forecasts more accurate than current and does it on a desktop computer.
I wonder what it would come up with if allowed to look at climate? Maybe that’s why they aren’t letting it loose on that subject?
Google anything applied to “climate” will parrot the propaganda, or will not be publicly released until it has been thoroughly “trained” to do so.
Every AI I have seen has a human-caused climate change bias.
And they didn’t get that from the science, because there is no science/evidence that humans are causing the Earth’s climate to change.
AI’s should be asked if they know the difference between evidence and speculation, assumptions and unsubstantiated assertions, and then to classify all the claims of the human-caused climate change promoters into those four categories.
Let’s see if AI can find any evidence among all that.
“modeling” … “suggests” …
Things are warming up in Oz for our primitive Climate Change Minister-
Chris Bowen calls on News Corp to sack Andrew Bolt for column saying Australians sick of ‘kowtowing to the primitive’ | Andrew Bolt | The Guardian
and that’s not the only climate that’s changing-
‘Remarkable’: Major psychiatrist college releases statement on gender affirming care (msn.com)
Finally a little bit of common sense and an adult conversation. Both items come under the heading of ‘treating groups of people like children, giving in to their demands, so they won’t be upset or start crying.’
Yes describing these emotional watermelon Luddites as primitives or primitive worshippers nailed them perfectly. With XR and Just Stop Oil types Primitive OCD would be an apt diagnosis. I’m going to start referring to them all as ‘the primitives’ in conversation out and about in future.
Yes, I remember it too. I was stuck driving a Buick Electra with a 430 cu in engine. I remember suddlenly $5 dollars of gas would’nt get me through the week driving to school and my minimum wage job bussing tables.
Although I am much better off now; I have experienced the same sensation of reduced purchasing power and the devaluation of the purchasing power of my nest egg since the criminals took power here in the USA
My friends called my Buick Electra the “ pimp mobile” Well now all the “ pimps” work at the White House the federal government and Democratic Party. It is so blatant I can’t even have a conversation with a leftist- we have actually been quite lucky so far- sooner or later one of our enemies is going to take advantage of these insane policies, Open borders, energy dependence, our deindustrialization.
If the SPR is down to 20 days then Joe Biden (and the rest of us) will get hit with higher oil prices just in time for the November elections.
That will not happen.
The US Political Oil Reserve will be drained by Brandon to keep prices down, just like he did before the 2020 midterms, and as Clinton did for his second run for POTUS.
When Republicans set up the reserve, they just gave Democrats another arrow in their quiver of political weapons to gain votes.
“To mitigate from any future shortages of oil, President Gerald Ford signed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, which established the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).”
I think that if the SPR is drained the oil markets would go into deep contango, with oil for delivery in later months and years at a huge premium to oil spilled out of the SPR. That would finance some other entity taking on the storage. China?
It would be a strategic blunder of enormous proportions.
Ronald: We got the message that California has the 4th largest economy in the world, imports most of its oil etc. etc. It really wasn’t necessary to say it four times. Try proof-reading before you post.
“Ronald: We got the message that California has the 4th largest economy in the world,”
I just heard, not five minutes ago, California’s governor, Newsom, say that Calfornia was the *5th* largest economy in the world.
So I guess under Newsom’s watch, California has gone from 4th largest to 5th largest.
What’s funny, and predictable is Gavin presented this factoid as a positive, never hinting that California’s prospects are declining not growing. People are leaving California in droves because of high prices and crime. That’s Gavin’s and the radical Democrats who run California real legacy.
Uncle Sam is laying on the curb with a needle in his arm, a needle filled with a drug made and sold by his enemies. The drug is energy that isn’t produced by in the US. He can see death and destruction all around where others have shared the addiction. He can see the doom that comes with continuing the habit. Yet he squeezes the plunger and mindlessly hopes he can scrounge the money for another fix. The Biden administration has not only failed to fight this addiction, it has actively promoted it.
When Trump was President Uncle Sam went to rehab and learned to become independent. Trump did his best to tell his allies to do the same but they didn’t listen. Biden offered Uncle Sam another fix his first day in office and cleared the path for the enemies of democratic western nations to ramp up the trade.
U.S. President Joe Bidens’ Administration has chosen to delete/sell off, much of the SPR inventory
What’s more important, national security? Or buying votes for Democrats?
Seems that no one remembers the Oil Embargo of 1973, just 50 years ago!
Of course not, history only began in 2016!
History for climate change alarmists began in 1979.
Questions:
1) Does any other country maintain a Strategic Petroleum Reserve?2) Since companies maintain their own supply lines, does the Strategic Petroleum Reserve really serve any purpose?
China’s SPR is about a billion. China needs it because they are not a big producer. The SPR made sense back when it was created. Oil production was a long lead-time operation. That is no longer true. Yes, we have offshore that takes time to develop, but shale can be ramped quickly in an emergency. Commercial crude inventories in the US are about 440 million barrels. This represents about 20 days of demand. I think having an SPR makes sense, but it isn’t as important as it once was.
Commercial stocks are really no higher than is required to fill the supply pipeline, unless oil can be stored profitably. Cut the supply at the input end, and the lack of any real buffer very soon becomes apparent. A hurricane breezing through the GoM will produce shortages in NY at the other end of the Colonial pipeline quite quickly.
That begs a slightly different question… Are companies not planning for foreseeable shortages and planning accordingly, and instead relying on the government to do so for them?
I remember the 1973 oil crisis very well. I was deckhand assigned to a US Navy Hunter-Killer group that was in Subic Bay after the Yom Kippur War. Just before Christmas I was excited that I was going to meet up with some friends from “back in the world” and go out and party a bit in Olongapo.
Just before we were getting ready to knock work for the day there was an announcement over the PA to lay below deck for an announcement. After all hands were inside and the hatches were closed
Captain then told us that liberty was hereby canceled and
to light off the boilers and make preparations to get underway. No other details were given.
At exactly 00:15 we cast off and without a tug or pilot went into the darkness, no lights or radar, total radio silence. There was a long piece of 2″ pipe that was wired with a light to make us look like a freighter mounted at the focsle. The rest of the adventure reads like a Tom Clancy story….we
ended up in the Persian Gulf…what we soon named the “arm pit of the world”.
It’s hard to believe anyone can be excited about partying in Olongapo. Guys I knew preferred Subic City.
Subic City was off limits to fleet personal. The El Paradiso in SC was
a wild party spot–or so I was told.. San Antonio the next small town up
the road I visited a couple of times and have some great memories especially
beach there. Some Sea Bee’s owned a bar there.
Apparently Subic City wasn’t off-limits to the P-3 crowd–of course, that was towards the end of the seventies and into the eighties. You didn’t have to fight off the prostitutes there. Olongapo reminded me of what Sodom and Gomorrah was like.
The guys I was going to meet up with were in a mobile SeaBee unit that
transferred in from Cam Ranh Bay after the withdrawal in early ’73. Subic
was not a wholesome place with over 10K bar girls during that time. Some
guys got into it, not my thing.
.
Grande Island was my favorite spot there . Just a pristine reef that started shallow and went down forever. Never ever saw anyone there, the diving was specular, it’s now a quality resort. Our ship picked a steel
cable from a fishing net and it wrapped up tight & cracked the screw. We were in dry dock for quite a while getting repaired and I got to know the area pretty good, not the usual sailor stuff. A few of us were into the diving scene
and had some good times.
Grande Island was interesting. The guns on Little Grande came from Fort Casey in Washington State. The state wanted them back, and eventually they were returned. They are now on display there. They have strafing bullet markings from the Japanese. The guns were never used as the Japanese came over the mountains and not by sea.
I have some photos of one of those guns with one of my shipmates
sitting on the barrel. When relations with Vietnam reopened in the ’90’s he and a couple of other mates went back just to see what we were shooting at. He now lives outside of Saigon, is married to a local
girl and has a couple of kids by her. He taught me how to weld when
we were at sea…
It will last longer if the ration cards only go out to Party members and special donors.
But, squandering our reserves to temporarily slow the rise in gasoline prices, and falling poll numbers was so worth it, and much easier than letting oil companies drill and produce more oil.
I suspect it is all part of the plan to wean us from oil. Cancelling pipe lines, canceling leases, not holding leases when required by law, all are intended to force us to go electric because there won’t even be reserves to bail us out if we start to run short. Unfortunately, if the shortage is because we are at war, the electric tanks won’t be ready. The autocratic behavior of Biden is treasonous.
This kind of information is invaluable to the enemies of the US. Who is Biden working for, or maybe he just doesn’t know?
Good question. Who is Biden working for? Everything he does seems to help the enemies of the United States. It doesn’t sound like Biden is working for the United States. Maybe that paltry $200,000 yearly pay isn’t enough for the Big Guy, so he sells himself for millions of dollars to the enemies of the United States. The Chicoms are very pleased with Biden, and have paid his many millions of dollars.
Our corrupt, criminal president is harming all of us with his actions.
Great Britain, or Canada, you should pray for a Trump victory.
Those from any country, who value their personal freedoms, should pray for a Trump victory.
The forces of evil have been gathering both in the East and in the West for a while, and it is time for a shakeup of the status quo, or down we all go with the totalitarian ship. The vehicle for that shakeup is a Trump election.
“ the SPR as there are no pipelines over the Sierra Mountains “
That is reasonable. That range does not extend into southern CA.
There are some lower elevation mountains in Arizona and New Mexico.
Regardless, CA makes its own (non-physical) mountains so the SPR is
of no concern there.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) 2003-2011
‘Nominal’ Republican only. Check out his wife’s family.
$48 BILLION a year!!!! That is at least one nuclear PLANT – 4 or more GW+ reactors – every year – but they waste it on paper pushing! 🤬
SPR: sell low, buy high — all part of Bleedin’ Back Better.
The SPR is a government run project so there are only 2 knowns, it is rife with incompetence and corruption. None of the salt dome storage facilties created were pressure tested. Much of the “oil” purchased from the government cronies was mostly colored water. Biden stopped pulling from the reserve because they found out it was depleted when only half of the “reserve volume” was reached.