oil jumped $10 today

[storch]

I sell woodstoves and pellet stoves for a living.

Been doing it since bout 1985.

I have NEVER seen such a surge in sales of these products.

The factorys are having a hard time keeping up with all the orders.

And its June for cripes sake!!

Most people here in New Hampshire are paying 4.50 a gallon for heating oil.

I can't imagine what the price will be this winter.




Boner

post a linky

[DREDIOCK]

Where do speculators have there drill rigs?

Man I know I should be the last person on earth playing spelling police.
They have their oil rigs over there. In our wallets. LOL


http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_9514415

"WASHINGTON - One is a billionaire financier and the other operates seven gas stations and convenience stores in a farming community of 7,000 in eastern Washington state.
    But George Soros and Gerry Ramm joined others in delivering the same message last week to the Senate Commerce Committee. Rampant speculation has helped spur out-of-control crude oil prices, which neared $140 a barrel Friday.
    In the measured tones of high finance, Soros, whose hedge fund by some accounts made $3 billion last year, talked about a ''speculative excess'' and warned that the run-up in oil prices could drag the United States into a recession.
    ''It is intellectually dishonest, potentially destabilizing and distinctly harmful in its economic consequences,'' he said.
    Ramm, the president of the Inland Oil Co. of Ephrata, Wash., was a bit more plain-spoken.
    ''Excessive speculation on energy trading is the fuel that is driving this runaway train in crude oil prices.''
    Others testifying said speculation by investment banks, hedge funds, institutional investors and others may be responsible for more than half of the skyrocketing price of crude oil. The Federal Trade Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, they said, have failed to investigate.
    Gasoline should cost about $2.25 a gallon, and everything above that is ''funny money'' largely tacked on by speculation and manipulation, testified Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America.
 ''The speculative bubble in energy commodities has cost households about $1,500 over the past two years in increased costs for gasoline and natural gas,'' said Cooper, estimating that the total cost to the U.S. economy has been more than half a trillion dollars.
    As retail gas prices have reached record highs for nearly 30 consecutive days, Cooper said the recent $120-$130 price for a barrel of crude oil could be split into thirds - about $40 for the true economic cost, $40 added by OPEC and $40 because of speculators.
    Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who chaired the hearing, was especially critical of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for deciding that regulators in London and Dubai should patrol international crude-oil markets rather than doing so itself.
    The International Petroleum Exchange is in London but is owned by an Atlanta exchange; the oil trading exchange in Dubai is connected with the New York Mercantile Exchange. In addition, West Texas Intermediate Crude is the benchmark used on most international oil markets.
    Cantwell said that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had oversight authority over international exchanges but so far had refused to act. Speculators are taking advantage of the situation, she said.
    ''This is no different than when U.S. businesses take out a post office box in the Cayman Islands to avoid U.S. business laws,'' Cantwell said. The commission, so far, has ''abdicated its oversight responsibility.''
    Even as speculators and others are getting rich, the retail side of the industry is getting squeezed, Ramm said.
    ''Last year, gasoline dealers and heating oil retailers saw profit margins from fuel sales fall to their lowest point in decades,'' he said, adding that most station owners make their profits by selling drinks and snacks.
    Ramm, representing the Petroleum Marketers of America, said retailers were near the limits on their lines of credit because of the high petroleum prices.
    Michael Greenberger, a University of Maryland law professor, said that not only were speculators playing the markets, they also were starting to take delivery of the petroleum products. As they drive prices higher, they then can sell their products for even more. Greenberger said that one investment company was the largest owner of heating oil in New England, where oil heats 80 percent of homes.
    Soros said there are real economic reasons for oil prices to be going up. First, there is ''the increasing cost of discovering and developing new reserves and the accelerating depletion of existing oil fields as they age.'' Second, oil-producing countries have less incentive to sell their oil reserves - which are gaining in value - for dollars, which have lost value in recent months.
    Third, countries where demand is growing fastest, such as China, are keeping energy prices artificially low for their domestic consumers by providing subsidies.
    But Soros said speculation is also artificially increasing oil prices, which have risen by more than 40 percent in the past six months. "

[CHECKERS]

Oil Speculators in this country are nothing more "Than Congressional Authorized & Legalized Gangsters "

  You can thank Senator Phil Gramm and the sheep in the Democratic Party that supported his Oil Cartel backed bills in Congress .

 

[john9001]

can you say Enron?

[Elfie]

As far as GM shutting down their pants, well I don't really feel bad for them.. The workers yea but not the company. The writing has been on the wall for a very long time, that we needed to start making changes. Ford, GM and Dodge all kept pumping out 12 mpg vehicles. They will now reap what they sowed.

They have built what their customers want. Their customers want SUV's and Pickups so they built them by the hundreds of thousands.

[BlkKnit]

Ford, GM and Dodge all kept pumping out 12 mpg vehicles. They will now reap what they sowed.

As will we all.

Its a self perpetuating situation, one high price drives up another and anyone who thinks the oil companies aren't gone turn every possible profit is dreamin.

They have built what their customers want. Their customers want SUV's and Pickups so they built them by the hundreds of thousands.

And we still want them.  This really ticks me off.  I drive 78 miles a day to work (one way).  Gotta move now, cant afford to pay $100+ a week for transportation.  Need a vehicle with better mileage too, but mostly I need to move.  looking at spending over $90,000 for a place while I work in a business that is very dependent on fuel (aviation) and there are already cuts in commercial flights and routes all over the US.  I need to have my head examined.

lasz may have a point about how things will be in 20 years, I hope so, but dang things are gonna be rough around here until then.

[JB88]

Coal and Nuke power stations are steam engines.  My plant (Nat Gas) is 2/3 jet engine and 1/3 steam engine to make electricity.

More than half the energy we (USA) consume as a nation is used to produce steam to power steam engines to rotate generators to feed the grid electricity.

point taken.

 

but still...

ya.  time to get on the good foot.