New at Reason

March 23, 2007

Ron Bailey asks why the Trilateral Commission, the CIA, and the Five Jew Bankers are trying to goose gas prices... or, you know, if they're not.

Comments

|3.23.07 @ 1:36PM|#

For example, Americans consumed 355 million gallons of gas per day in January 2006 and 394 gallons per day in August 2006.

Wow, a 99.9999% decrease in seven months. That's conservation.

Dave W.|3.23.07 @ 1:42PM|#

Mr. Bailey would know, I guess.

Guy Montag|3.23.07 @ 1:48PM|#

Our Leftie friends, like VP Gore, keep wanting the price higher, but they whine when it goes up.

Why is that?

|3.23.07 @ 1:58PM|#

"Our Leftie friends, like VP Gore, keep wanting the price higher, but they whine when it goes up."

1. They (somewhat legitimately) see carbon emissions from automobiles as a negative externality, and want to raise prices to compensate.

2. They want the extra money to go to tax revenue, not oil companies.

3. Advocating an increase in gas prices, during a media cycle where everyone is panicking about high gas prices, is political suicide.

Frunobulax|3.23.07 @ 1:59PM|#

That the price of gas goes up in the spring is understood

the con is when the oil cartel anticipates the rise in price, and raises the sales price prior to their costs actually raising

eventually, the rise in production cost catches up, but before it does the profits realized from having raised prices early are prodigious

The Wine Commonsewer|3.23.07 @ 2:01PM|#

...the Trilateral Commission, the CIA, and the Five Jew Bankers are trying to goose gas prices...

LOL, dang it, I just spit coffee all over my high dollar monitor.

Gimme that roll of paper towels....

|3.23.07 @ 2:20PM|#

Silly rabbits, everyone knows it's all due to the gnomes of zurich

|3.23.07 @ 2:22PM|#

How can you reduce/cap/control vapour pressure on a non-pressurised liquid? Wouldn´t that be like trying to regulate O2 content in tap water?

|3.23.07 @ 2:26PM|#

How can you reduce/cap/control vapour pressure on a non-pressurised liquid?

Gasoline is not homogeneous, and presumably the different molecules have different vapor pressures. Reduce the quantity of the more volatile components, and you reduce the total vapor pressure.

|3.23.07 @ 2:36PM|#

It's all controlled by a secret society of the five wealthiest people, known as the Pentavirate, who run everything in the world, including the newspapers and meet tri-annually at a secret mansion in Colorado known as The Meadows. The Pentavirate consists of: The Queen, the Vatican, the Gettys, the Rothschilds...and Colonel Sanders, before he went tits up.

|3.23.07 @ 2:40PM|#

How can you reduce/cap/control vapour pressure on a non-pressurised liquid? Wouldn´t that be like trying to regulate O2 content in tap water?

Gasoline is not homogeneous, and presumably the different molecules have different vapor pressures.

Correct. Gasoline is a mixture of all sorts of hydrocarbons, including some in the kerosene/diesel fuel range. The general rule is that short chain hydrocarbons (heptane and octane) evaporate more quickly and have a higher vapor pressure than long chain ones (kerosene, diesel, heating oil). Depending on the season, your gas could have a fair amount of "diesel" in it.

(In fact, as a quick octane boost you could add a couple of gallons of diesel to your gas tank when you fill up. However, I would not advise it because 1) it's illegal in some jurisdictions, 2) it will void your warranty, and 3) if you put in too much it might damage your emission controls.)

The longer-chain hydrocarbons are more expensive to refine because they don't evaporate as quickly, thus it takes more energy to separate them from the crude oil. Hence low-evaporation gasoline, which contains more of the heavy fuels, is naturally going to be more expensive.

|3.23.07 @ 2:51PM|#

It is because of price gouging, that is why the price is keep going up. We need a windfall tax on the oil companies to take back their ill gotten gains and bring the price down now!

The car of the future is the SUV, it has better styling, is safer, roomier and sportier and can be drove of road. Also, the SUVs are getting bigger. EVEYONE wants the BIGGEST!!! For reasons of safety be done gots to get everyone into an SUV.

I order to make more cheaper oil so we can all aford to drive in an SUV, wo got to drill anywhere and everwhere for more oils. We also need a windfall tax on gas companies so the price it goes down.

|3.23.07 @ 3:02PM|#

Bergamot, that boy's head has its own weather systems.

Dave W.|3.23.07 @ 3:02PM|#

It's all controlled by a secret society

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_task_force

Oh, that secret society . . .

ed|3.23.07 @ 3:10PM|#

That's one fucked-up post, Bill.

|3.23.07 @ 3:16PM|#

I think Bill was being sarcastic/satirical?

|3.23.07 @ 3:26PM|#

Bill,


A M E N !!!

Venting, Will Not Necessarily |3.23.07 @ 3:34PM|#

I didn't read the article, but I just want to say that it's important we continue to use refined oil for fuel and never worry about running out of oil. Even if we do eventually run dry, it won't be for 20/50/100/500/take your pick years so we shouldn't worry about it now.

Also, anyone wanting to fund research into energy sources other than oil is a communist who hates America, and capitalism, and free markets, and my body is my property, and earning a shitload of money is the sole objective of my life, and good thing I'm always right about everything so nobody has to think for themselves.

|3.23.07 @ 3:39PM|#

The talk now is nonsense, but there's a fair case to be made that Morgan Stanley engineered a sizable and rapid price drop before the 2006 election, by manipulating a gas-related index they controlled. Because it was an index, their own moves were duplicated by many other players in the market seeking to match the index, multiplying the market effect far beyond the cash value that MS themselves moved.

|3.23.07 @ 4:02PM|#

Trilateral Commission, the CIA, and the Five Jew Bankers are trying to goose gas prices...

Also responsible for sending the Mexicans to invade all your temple.

Gahan|3.23.07 @ 4:16PM|#

Well all of this makes me reconsider my previous economic model, which holds that the oil companies become increasingly greedy during the summer months and then become more philanthropic in the wintertime, only to become greedy again after natural disasters like Katrina and then gradually see the error of their ways.

VM|3.23.07 @ 4:20PM|#

"Trilateral Commission, the CIA, and the Five Jew Bankers"

James Watts's Coal Committee 2: The Revenge!

(for shame that it took this long)

Dan T.|3.23.07 @ 4:20PM|#

I remember reading back that there was a report a few years back that put the actual price of a gallon of gas at around $15/gallon when all the external costs were factored in.

I imagine it's much more than that now, especially if you consider our Iraq project as a cost.

|3.23.07 @ 4:26PM|#

Our Leftie friends, like VP Gore, keep wanting the price higher, but they whine when it goes up.

Why is that?

It is called "Hypocrisy", Guy, which is the daily staple of all politicians, not just lefties.

Joe|3.23.07 @ 4:27PM|#

Who benefits?

|3.23.07 @ 4:34PM|#

"I remember reading back that there was a report a few years back that put the actual price of a gallon of gas at around $15/gallon when all the external costs were factored in."

Uh huh.

Dear Mr Dan T:

My brother in Lagos is having trouble getting his $41,254,550 fortune transferred out of Nigeria. If you could just send $50,000 facilitation funds to account ###_###### in the Faux Bank of Geneva, he would be happy to pay you ten percent of the $41,254,550....

|3.23.07 @ 4:40PM|#

I love these people who like to chase every single theoretical externalized cost into the ground, but never can be bothered to look at externalized benefits.

Sure, burning gas in your car has externalized costs in the form of pollution. But it also has externalized benefits, in the form of, oh, I don't know, modern society?

Dan T.|3.23.07 @ 4:41PM|#

Aresen, I could make the same offer to those of you who think the price of gasoline is based strictly on the pure and free market, made up of very powerful actors who would never consider for a moment using that power to manipulate things thier way.

Dan T.|3.23.07 @ 4:43PM|#

Anyway, here's what I was talking about:

http://www.icta.org/press/release.cfm?news_id=12

Washington D.C. -- A report released today by the International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) calculates that the actual cost of a gallon of gas to the American consumer could be as high as $15.14. The report "The Real Price of Gas" identifies and quantifies the many external costs of using gas that consumers pay indirectly by way of taxes, insurance costs and retail prices in other sectors. Established in 1994, the International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA), is a Washington-based research organization that analyzes how technology affects society.

The CTA study examines more than 40 separate cost factors associated with gasoline production and consumption. These include subsidies for the petroleum industry such as the percentage depletion allowance; tax-funded programs that directly subsidize oil production and consumption, like government-sponsored R&D for the oil industry; the costs of protecting oil supplies, shipments and motor vehicle usage, including military expenditures for protecting the Middle East and other oil rich regions; and environmental, health and social costs including those for global warming. Together these subsidies for gas paid by consumers total up to $1.68 trillion per year.

|3.23.07 @ 4:57PM|#

Dan T.

That's the best example of cost loading and double counting I've seen since Enron.

|3.23.07 @ 5:01PM|#

Dan T.: And here's where their analysis goes tragically wrong: "military expenditures for protecting the Middle East and other oil rich regions; and environmental, health and social costs including those for global warming."

Heck, I was totally with them up until that point...

|3.23.07 @ 5:52PM|#

No. No. No. You're doing it all wrong. Chicken is spelled g-o-l-d-m-a-n s-a-c-h-s.

Jon H | March 23, 2007, 3:39pm | #

The talk now is nonsense, but there's a fair case to be made that Morgan Stanley engineered a sizable and rapid price drop before the 2006 election, by manipulating a gas-related index they controlled. Because it was an index, their own moves were duplicated by many other players in the market seeking to match the index, multiplying the market effect far beyond the cash value that MS themselves moved.

|3.23.07 @ 6:50PM|#

Interesting folks, the CTA. Whenever I see a seemingly innocuous org name the bells go off. Just come out with your luddite agenda already. Folks like Dan will still stop by. Anyway, after perusing their genetics=evil eugenics page, I stopped by their sister organization (also innocuously named) The Center for Food Safety. They have a welcoming poster splash of some apple cheeked lad with a green milk mustache. Keep cloned animals out of the food supply!!!! They are also against irradiating food to kill bacteria. Wonder how they feel about the old radar range.

|3.23.07 @ 7:13PM|#

Together these subsidies for gas paid by consumers total up to $1.68 trillion per year.

Even taking this at face value, I don't think its implausible at all to suppose that there is over $1.5 trillion in second-order economic benefits from individual use of automobiles in this country.

Tom Accuosti|3.23.07 @ 9:26PM|#

the Trilateral Commission, the CIA, and the Five Jew Bankers

Nah. It's the Freemasons who need to money to finance another baggage carousel at the Denver International Airport.

|3.23.07 @ 9:41PM|#

Good discussion of summer gasoline at the link below.

in the summer, when temperatures can exceed 100 degrees F in many locations, it is important that the RVP of gasoline is well below 14.7. Otherwise, it can pressure up your gas tanks and gas cans, and it can boil in open containers.

Dave W.|3.24.07 @ 4:08PM|#

Even taking this at face value, I don't think its implausible at all to suppose that there is over $1.5 trillion in second-order economic benefits from individual use of automobiles in this country.

Aren't free markets supposed to handle that?

Do the same people who pay for the benefit get the benefit?

Archer D Midland|3.24.07 @ 6:44PM|#

What are the external costs of ethanol as fuel?

We are trying to figure how much rent we'll collect.

|3.24.07 @ 7:35PM|#

I'd like to take a stab at answering Mr. Midland's question.

Government mandates that favor ethanol have driven up the price of corn. Of course, nobody would bother turning maize into alcohol if the much cheaper process of starting with sugar was used. Sugar's price is propped up, by things like the ban on imports from Cuba, and the import quotas on sugar produced anywhere but the USA. That's also why the dreaded High Fructose Corn Syrup is used in soft drinks, and why the candy industry is fleeing the country. There's also a tariff on ethanol that's Not Produced Here that props up the price of gasahol.

One interesting side effect of all this is that there's been a secular increase in the price of corn used as food. Mexico has been especially hard hit. Will more expensive food below the Rio Grande exacerbate emigration to el Norte, or do we expect our fellow North Americans to just eat fewer tortillas? Land that is marginal for corn production could be planted, then abandoned when the corn price eventually drops. Those farming it will probably call for a taxpayer bailout before they quit farming.

Kevin

Guy Montag|3.24.07 @ 7:58PM|#

One interesting side effect of all this is that there's been a secular increase in the price of corn used as food. Mexico has been especially hard hit. Will more expensive food below the Rio Grande exacerbate emigration to el Norte, or do we expect our fellow North Americans to just eat fewer tortillas? Land that is marginal for corn production could be planted, then abandoned when the corn price eventually drops. Those farming it will probably call for a taxpayer bailout before they quit farming.

Enviroloons want to starve brown people so they can ride around in E85 limos.

Ralph Nader|3.24.07 @ 10:33PM|#

Ah we can replace CAFE standards with taqueria standards and the virtuous can brag how their ethanol hybrid only starves 2 orphans per tank unlike those uncaring ethanol burning SUVs and Muscle Cars that starve 6 orphans per tank.

And the best part, it takes petroleum to produce less efficent ethanol so we can continue supporting religon of peace terrorists and greedy Big Oil at the same time we show off our smug greeness.I can't count the wins.

Guy Montag|3.25.07 @ 6:30AM|#

E85 kills brown people and produces more greenhouse gasses than C8H18.

Embrace environmentalism while you still can.