Stand By: Gas Prices To INCREASE

Expect your gas prices to increase.

BP (British Petroleum) which owns ARCO in America has shut down its Prudhoe Bay operations as of August 7th, due to pipeline corrosion and possible subsequent leakage.

In 1998 BP merged with Amoco (once called Standard Oil) and created BP Amoco. In 2000, BP bought out ARCO (the Atlantic Richfield Company).

When you ram "low cost" gas into your car at ARCO (like I do) for cash, you're shipping money to BP.

From AP:

BP PLC said Monday it will replace 73 percent of the pipelines from the nation's largest oil field and that production could be closed for weeks or months, crimping the nation's oil supplies at a time of peak demand.

BP, the world's second-largest oil company, began shutting down the pipelines on Monday and said it would replace 16 miles of the 22 miles of transit pipeline it operates in the Prudhoe Bay field following a leak discovered Sunday.

Initially, speculators are indicating that gas prices at the pump should rise by roughly 10-cents per gallon immediately. Trust me when I say that the various oil companies will NOT fail to adhere to this "prediction."

Otherwise, additional speculators indicate the price per barrel may increase another $10 to $85+.

An incredible 8% of our oil is sourced from the Prudhoe Bay BP fields.

Perhaps it's time to garage your SUV and, in protestation of the crunch to come, bike or motorcycle or carpool to work -- just as the government advocates.

Except that, in a free market economy, too much conservation can impact the oil companies in ways they had not yet foreseen. And too much conservation is not what the oil companies want.

It is still my belief that oil is the primary reason for our involvement in the Middle East. I am nothing if not pragmatic. I want oil for my country; I also want us to sever as many ties to the insane Middle East as humanly possible.

Make no mistake: we are where we are because of our dependence on oil. We would not tolerate, for a moment, what is occurring in Persia had we true independence. Or we would tend to collectively look the other way.

We have done what must be done to sustain our way.

I submit that it is time for "our way" in terms of energy production and consumption to change.

Nuclear? Solar? Fusion? Hydrogen?

Bring it on -- as long as we hose the belligerent barbarians in Islam.

BZ