For all of those folks who continuously bill The New York Times as a “traitorous lefty organization”, this morning’s article by Jad Mouawad entitled “Gas Prices Rise on Refineries’ Record Failures” should put that charge completely to rest; it’s nothing more than a far-right op-ed piece being billed as “news”.
The CLOSEST (and, that’s not saying much either) this writer comes to challenging the whining of “Big Oil” over how they supposedly can’t help temper the overly-high prices of gasoline, mainly due to recent hurricanes, is expressed in this lone paragraph:
“… Some critics of the industry have theorized on Internet blogs that the squeeze on gasoline and other refined products points to a deliberate effort among oil companies to bolster profits by keeping supplies tight. But experts point out that the companies have little incentive right now to hold back on fuel supplies. …”
And… as you can see, it doesn’t come very close as all to resembling any sort of a challenge to the charge. In fact, it might as well read thusly:
“… Amateurs say “Big Oil” is witholding supplies; experts say that’s ridiculous; “Big Oil” has no incentive to do so.” — THE END
Now, just for fun, let’s move on to some more “snippets” from this obviously, PRO “BIG OIL” article:
“Oil refineries across the country have been plagued by a record number of fires, power failures, leaks, spills and breakdowns this year, causing dozens of them to shut down temporarily or trim production. The disruptions are helping to drive gasoline prices to highs not seen since last summer’s records. …”
See, this is where the FIRST huge lie begins. I suppose it might help for me to mention that I once held the position of Operations Manager at a Fortune 500 Company’s site. It was my JOB to tell section managers “Sorry, we can’t replace those emergency exit signs you’ve requested because we don’t have the money at this time even though you tell me it would make the building safer. You can still read the word “Exit” even if it’s a bit faded, so live with it. We’re “broke” right now due to the fact [insert latest B.S. excuse from corporate office HERE].”
Remember, these are FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES we are talking about here. They DO have the damned MONEY, they simply refuse to open their purse strings for those “little things” they don’t ABSOLUTELY have to fix ASAP to keep those “Gub’mint” agencies off their backs…
You see, facilities maintenence comes about LAST on ANY Fortune 500 Company’s list and “Big Oil” is no different. It’s much more enjoyable to just let those facilities ROT so you can play with those increased profits. Along with those increased profits comes bonuses, and those are always nice, right?
With that in mind, let’s re-word the NYT paragraph above accordingly:
“Oil refineries across the country have been plagued by a record number of budget cuts from the corporate offices this year, causing dozens of the facilities to decay to the point of failure while their “Big Oil” CEO’s have the pleasure of retiring with $400,000,000.00 packages. These elaborate CEO retirement packages, sweet bonus packages for other corporate officers, combined with the racheting down on “non-red” items in order to increase the corporate “bottom line”, thereby, insuring WORLD RECORD “BIG OIL” PROFITS is helping to drive gasoline prices to highs not seen since last summer’s records. …”
And… THAT, folks, would be a MUCH more accurate statement. In fact, it is a COMPLETELY accurate statement. You’d think a so-called “MSM news piece” would at least ATTEMPT to remain a bit unbiased, but NOPE — The NYT goes on to keep on apologizing and apologizing on behalf of “Big Oil”.
Here’s another “snippet”:
“… These mechanical breakdowns, which one analyst likened to an “invisible hurricane,” have created a bottleneck in domestic energy supplies, helping to push up gasoline prices 50 cents this year to well above $3 a gallon. A third of the country’s 150 refineries have reported disruptions to their operations since the beginning of the year, a record according to analysts. …”
Again — what is the REAL story here? RECORD “BIG OIL” PROFITS — that’s the REAL story. And anybody who works in management levels at a Fortune 500 can tell you one of the quickest ways to show a profit is to cut down on facilities upkeep -slash- maintenence; the QUICK way; not the BEST (long-term) solution.
One last “snippet”, and then I’m going to have to move onto another topic on another day — I’ve had enough of this horse crap:
“… After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita disrupted the nation’s energy lifeline two years ago, oil companies delayed maintenance on many of their plants to make up for lost supplies and take advantage of the high prices. But, analysts say, they are now paying a price for deferring repairs. …”
Another GTL translation:
“… Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused much damage to some refineries. The refineries put in their requests for the money to pay for much-needed repairs, corporate offices said “no, you can have HALF the money you say you need, because we have CEO’s who are retiring soon and they deserve $400,000,000.00 packages, PLUS we must pay bonuses out to our Operations executives for cutting expenses to increase the bottom line”. But now, analysts are saying the corporate offices are reaping the rewards that come along with higher gas prices and lowered facilies management costs. …”
I’ve had enough of this. It’s OBVIOUS somebody from the corporate offices of one of the major “Big Oil” companies paid this “Jad Mouawad” character off to write a VERY sympathetic article “Big Oil” advertisement. I think it would be quite interesting if somebody near this guy could start doing a little “investigative blogging” on this so-called “reporter”. Read the “article” youself and you’ll see what I mean.
This guy’s SQUARELY in the pocket of “Big Oil” — and, there’s no doubt ABOUT it in my mind. And frankly, the rest of us join him in his solidarity with “Big Oil” as long as we continue to ignore the need to CONSERVE, carpool, utilize community transportation options, etc. The time has come for us to THINK. THINK — as individuals and THINK collectively, and as a society…
Or, we deserve those high gas prices which go toward shamelessly funding those $400,000.000.00 retirement packages for those “Big Oil” CEO’s.
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See also (thanks to MemeOrandum): Daily Kos
Thanks also to our friend Libby Spencer of The Impolitic for linking in with Gasbaggery
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10:14 am on July 22nd, 2007 1
Nice blog.
Does this topic really need to be a partisan issue? Is it a partisan issue or do people just wind up agreeing with what people in the rest of their party say?
It is quite aggravating to see these types of profits but if we tax/punish these companies won’t they just push that tax back down to the consumer? I don’t know the answer but these people’s careers and livelihoods have become utterly attached to one source of energy which is going to become obsolete one day. Looks like they are trying to milk it for all it’s worth.
7:27 am on July 23rd, 2007 2
The one and only reason you pay what you do for a gallon of gas is because you HAVE to. As long as the Oil companies have what we need to fuel our only common method of transportation in this country, they WILL charge just short of what they can that will not begin the fuel riots. We are so damn malleable in this country, it takes alot to stir us up enough to take to the streets raise all holy hell. The way the media is becoming apologists for this industry has made me realize that maybe they have now totally sold out and we are screwed. All you capitalists can jump in now and start your complicated, convoluted reasoning for this outrage. It didn’t make a damn bit of sense yesterday, and it won’t tommorrow.
10:42 am on July 23rd, 2007 3
Lee,
If not a capitalist system, what type of system exactly do you propose?
3:38 pm on July 23rd, 2007 4
Look, Mark, capitalism, supply and demand, free enterprise, all that cool stuff is just fine, but then there’s the common good. One of the major reasons for governments to exist period is to provide for “the common good”, and that includes those things that people need in order to live their lives in at least a half-assed secure fashion. We need military to protect the country, police to enforce the laws, the courts to at least attempt to serve justice, and some manner of government-built infrastructure that we can’t expect the private sector to provide. Then there are those things that the public at large needs to have access to to provide quality of life and for society at large to function, such as reasonably priced transportation and heath care. Of all the advanced industrial societies on the planet, ours is probably the worst at providing those two things in such a way that it doesn’t place an undue burden upon the lower middle class and lesser fortunate amongst us. Now, do you HONESTLY think that gas and oil is being priced to bring about a REASONABLE return, or can’t you admit that it’s a commodity that we have been addicted to and then held hostage to? Why does the United States say you can have all the heath care you can AFFORD, and not at reasonable rates? Like I said, there’s free enterprise, and then there’s extortion, and these gas prices are a direct assault on the common good for the benefit of a relative few in this society. Hey, I could care less how much money anybody else has, unless it has a constant downgrading effect on MY standard of living, THEN we have a problem.
3:51 pm on July 23rd, 2007 5
Lee,
Capitalism isn’t perfect and I don’t know anyone who claims it is. What is your alternative though?
I just start from the standpoint that the world isn’t perfect, nor are humans or the economy and no matter how much government intervention to try and alter that it won’t change.
Back to the point, what is your alternative? Socialism? Just curious.
4:00 pm on July 23rd, 2007 6
I’m all for Populism — SINCERE Populism; not necessarily what they say John Edwards’ form of Populism is, but more in the vein of Sen. James Webb’s version of it; a reasonably-regulated Capitalistic economic system where the vast majority of policies, laws, codes, and services apply to the largest economic classes of our society. Just my 2 cents
5:01 pm on July 23rd, 2007 7
Denmark, Sweden, hell, half of Europe, you could classify as “socialist”, yet they are considered free democracies that for the most part participate in capitalism. The key difference there is that the citizens needs are addressed FIRST, and THEN the movers and shakers get to do their thing. As far as here, I would not object to critical commodities/services being identified and then either nationalized or controlled in such a fashion that either government delivers the product/service without the need to generate an outlandish profit, or the free market is allowed to deliver it on a cost-plus model. Sure, I’d let Exxon drill for all the oil they want, only they’d make a REASONABLE rate of return on oil instead of allowing traders to jack up the price for any lame excuse they can think of, like reports that a certain world leader might have cut a fart that afternoon. And, I’d end this shameful conspiracy to keep us all tied to the internal combustion engine when there are so many alternative ways to get us to our jobs. Same with health care. Study after study demonstrates that Medicare delivers the service at far more efficiency without screwing the American people than any for-profit model has been able to do. We don’t need to be sucking profit out of people’s illnesses; c’mon, doesn’t this country have the LEAST bit of compassion for it’s own? If the only reason Americans have left anymore to get up in the morning is to see how much money they can SCREW out of their neighbor, than maybe it’s time to just stay the hell in bed…..life has to amount to more than that.
When a system is not perfect, which is to be expected, the prudent approach is not to simply shake your head, proclaim the system isn’t perfect and just keep on doing the same thing over and over. You do something about it. Worthless middlemen hate innovation, because they are the first thing to be eliminated.