Zero Tolerance For Those Who Exploit the Tragedy

While we apparently don't want U.N. aid to deal with the tragedy, we seem more than happy to accept 2 million barrels of OIL per day from the International Energy Agency nations. So let's see, 2 million per day for 30 days plus 30 million from the US strategic oil reserves, that's 3 million barrels per day.

Let's do a little math here. According to reports I've read, oil wells in and around Louisiana make up about 10% of our national oil usage. According to statistics I found, in 1999, we used 18.5 million barrels of oil per day. In 2003, this was 20 million/day and in the first ten months of 2004, it was up to 20.4 million/day. So let's assume that by now we're up to 21.5 million barrels per day. Ten percent of that figure is 2.15 million barrels per day.

So by this simple math, we can see that rather than being short by 10% of our daily usage, we’ve actually got a SURPLUS of 4% coming in (if we consume all 30 million stratigic reserve barrels during the same 30 days).

Let's do this another way. If we're losing 10% of our oil usage, that works out to 2.15 million barrels per day, or 64.5 million barrels per month. The IEA countries have released 60 of those 64.5 to us over the next 30 days, so in order to just maintain status quo, we only need 4.5 million of the 30 million barrels Bush released, leaving another 10 days worth before we have any deficit at all. 40 days to get the wells back working. 40 days before there's any shortage.

I think we can all clearly see why the gas at our local stations has jumped by nearly a dollar per gallon since Monday. Clearly there’s no price gouging going on here.

(Yes, I know, I said that the price of gas was a problem for next week, and that there are more important things to worry about right now. Clearly, the Administration does not share my priorities, and so it's worth pointing out the extent to which the oil companies are profiteering from this tragedy. Bush promised us Zero Tolerance for those who exploit this tragedy, and he clearly included in that statement both the small (looters) and the large (insurance scams & oil company price gouging). Was this just another Bush lie, or does he have both the inclination and the cajones to stand up to his Oil Industry cronies?)

Liam.