HERE SOME OIL, THERE SOME OIL, EVERYWHERE SOME OIL!

HERE SOME OIL, THERE SOME OIL, EVERYWHERE SOME OIL!

(Sympatico/Marquette Mining Journal/Reuters/Frazer Chronicle)

Gas prices are going up, here in Green Bay more than 20 cents in the past 10 days, we are in a gasoline crunch, people are once again lining up at the pumps to avoid the "pump job" that they will get at their local gas-filler-up station. Is it OPEC, hedge fund speculators, is there a conspiracy afoot to take more of our hard earned money.....is anybody immune from the greed?

The answer(s) in order are, yes, yes, yes and no, whenever there is a spike in gasoline prices, usually OPEC has something to do with it, speculators always drive the prices sky-ward, everything is a conspiracy, and nobody is immune from the greed that oil people seem to be driven by.

That said, the current raise in gas prices in mid-Wisconsin north, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan can be blamed pretty much on a pipeline break in Grand Marsh, Wisconsin. 1200 hundred barrels or 64,000 gallons of Chicago light crude unto the ground on Friday, July 27th.

The crude was coming from Canada to refineries based in Chicago, who in turn supplied much of Wisconsin and parts of Michigan's Upper Peninsula with the finished product.....regular and premium gasoline.

The owner of the pipeline is Enbridge Energy Partners, and they have a tremendous history of safety with regards to their pipeline installations around Canada and the United States, NOT! In 2010 Enbridge shut down pipelines capable of pumping 930,000 barrels of crude a day in New York state. The spill helped to prompt U.S. crude futures to month-long higher prices.

There was a busted pipeline spill near Kalamazoo, Michigan in July of 2010, again owned by Enbridge Partners; this time however, the spill contained almost a million gallons of the heavy sticky goo. The spill is still being contained, and clean-up efforts continue to this day.

Since the spill, some governmental officials and federal investigators have blasted the Canadian based pipeline company, citing numerous steps that could have been taken to prevent or minimize the spill. But skirting safety rules and regulations seems to be what Enbridge Partners is all about.

Since 2002, Enbridge Energy Partners has suffered 10 major spills involving more than 42,000 barrels of oil, or 1,764,000 gallons of oil, and that's just the major spills, what about the ones that nobody ever hears about.....like the 5, 10, or 20 barrels.

Enbridge is used to being fined; they figure that the fines are simply part of the cost of doing business in the United States. PHMSA, "Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has proposed $3.7 million fines against the company.....it's the largest in the agency's history.

The supply of crude oil and the manufacturing of gasoline are probably at a crossroads in the industry's history. As more and more sand oil comes into the United States from Canada it's abundantly clear that new and tougher safety rules need to be implemented to save us and our children's children from the pollution caused by these spills.

Gas prices do not reflect current prices; they reflect future prices, like what will a barrel of crude cost next month. Whenever future crude prices go up, the price at the pump goes up accordingly, but the prices aren't based on last month’s crude prices, rather next month’s prices. It's a "buffer" so that gas distributors won't get gouged.....but we will, and do.

NOW WE HAVE A GOUGE:

We here in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan are in a gouge time, the wildly raising prices of summer, I knew it was too good to be true, "if $3.42 a gallon is a good price for a gallon of gasoline." You see, we have been conditioned for the "really" ever raising prices in this most precious of commodity. In today's world, it's pretty hard to get along without an automobile, in fact, damn near impossible.

We know it, gasoline distributors know it, foreign oil knows it, and companies like Enbridge know it, it's like they say “They’ve gotten us by our collective short hairs." Without gas, we pretty much don't go anywhere, and that's a scary fact.

Whenever something happens in Iran, or Iraq, or any of the other Middle-East petroleum producing countries, like a sheik getting heart-burn, or the runs, our foreign oil prices suffer. The same can be said of Canada, we need to watch what we say and do with all of these "producers," unless we want to make war with everybody.

I believe that the petroleum industry has programmed us to except higher gas prices at the pump, and it's been going on for years. I remember the gasoline shortage in the early 1970's, ya, right, and a shortage of gas.....huh.

What the gas crisis of 1973 was, was an oil embargo, laid on those countries that supported Israel, like the United States. Members of OAPEC, (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) who were the Arab members of OPEC, (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) decided to refuse to sell petroleum unless you were in favor of OAPEC.

It never was an oil shortage, it was all political, and it was all about posturing by the Arab nations in their quest to defeat Israel. These Arab nations were shred, calculating that higher gasoline prices at the pump would fuel recessions around the world.....and they did.

Actually the world over has been programmed to except higher gasoline prices, in fact some people talk about "how good Americans have it," and site Europe as a prime example. People in European countries can pay as much as $8 a gallon for their petrol. I only have one thing to say to these "blow-hards," (quite already) don't you realize how stupid you sound.

PROBLEM SOLVED!

For all the problems that we have as a country in paying for our gasoline to power are automobiles around so that we can get from point A to point B, we still put up with the prices. I rented a car several weeks ago, drove it almost a thousand miles and spent about a hundred dollars.....that's right; I averaged almost 36 miles per gallon.

The car was a mid-sized, snazzy little Chevy, with plenty of pick-up, lots of room, and to top it off, it was comfortable and easy to drive. My point is simple, with regards to automobiles, "size does matter," a mid-sized economy car gets a person where he wants to go, in comfortable fashion, and like McDonalds, you get money back for your purchase.

Or, for a small price, a person can buy a small refinery machine, go around to all the oil leaks that happen almost on a daily basis, scoop up the spill.....and get to cracking, I'm sure it won't take that long to refine yourself a gallon or two of gas in nothing flat, and zoom.....you’re on your way.....to the next spill.

Really, the problem with gasoline powered automobiles isn't being addressed by any government in the world today. I know, I know, European countries are way ahead of the United States with how they are attacking the problem, but still they have $8 a gallon gas.

Alternatives are the answer, and I feel that we'd better get at the problems as soon as is possibly practical. As a nation, as a global community, we need face this petroleum problem head-on, and understand the problems that we, as a people face if we continue to rely on petroleum products as our primary mode of fueling our transportation.