HIGH US OIL EXPORTS MAINTAIN HIGH PRICES

Since President Jimmy Carter said in the 70s that we needed to become energy independent, we have been sold a bill of goods by the government and the US press that we are at the mercy of the middle east when it comes to petroleum. Would you be surprised to learn that for the first time since the big war ended, we are now a net exporter of petroleum?
Yes friends, this year we exported 753.4 million barrels of everything from gasoline to jet fuel, while we imported only 689.4 barrels, according to the US Energy Information Administration. How, you may ask, could this be, when gas has run over $3 per gallon most of this year? Well friends, it’s called the old law of supply and demand; and the gas producers have realized they can keep our prices high by selling to the ever growing third world markets and other countries across the globe, keeping our supply short.
In August of this year, US drivers burned 7.7% less gasoline than 4 years earlier; partly because of government mandates to the auto industry to improve mileage, and partly because we just plain could not afford to buy any more gasoline. Yet, did this reduction in demand bring down prices?
No-sirree, because the refiners knew they could sell it across the pond and keep prices up.
Furthermore, their insistence that we need to supplement our gasoline by adding up to10 per cent corn-based ethynol alcohol is specious, too. Look at what has happened to the price of corn-based food products as a result of the demand for corn. And yet we continue to give exorbitant tax credits for mixing gasoline and ethynol.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. I am a capitalist and I believe in free trade, but not at the expense of the citizens of this nation, for the benefit of China, et al. In September alone, we exported nearly 1 billion barrels of gasoline. Gasoline and low-sulfur diesel used by our truckers were the biggest lures for foreign customers, and look at the premium our truckers have to pay over gasoline for a product which requires much less refining. It’s insulting to us all.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Singapore’s petroleum imports from the US quadrupled in the last 5 years, while Mexico’s petroleum imports rose by two-thirds.
Growing domestic output means our refineries are producing more fuel than the US market demands, so they look overseas to keep demand up, and the prices high domestically. Corporate profits are rising for Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon, Valero and Marathon.
And the domestic petroleum industry continues to push for the Keystone XL pipeline carrying petroleum tar sands from Canada across our Midwest to refineries in Port Arthur, Texas. I am all for the pipeline, but I do not think we should see these sands refined, and then shipped across the world, so our $3 plus per gallon price can be retained. It is past time we all should join the occupy Wall Street movement and bombard Congress with the demand that restrictive tariffs be placed on US oil exports, and that all ethynol credits be ceased immediately.