SEPTEMBER 1st...don't buy gas!!

[BB1]

I bought gas yesterday,... now I feel dirty. 

[4402tuff4u]

I've cancelled this weekend's trip upstate to visit family members and kind of feel bad on waiting delivery of new heads from Bulldog for the Charger that will surely burn more gas. I was kind of hoping the government would step in to these oil companies and asked them to just cut their profit margins by 20 % for the good of the people. They can still make money, but just cut off profits by 20% until the refineries get back on their feet.

[Troy]

Ok, for those who think the government is doing nothing to help... I had to look very hard to find any mention of this stuff in the news but it really is out there. I knew some of it so that helped in my search. There's still one more that I can't find reported anywhere though. Here are the Cliff Notes:
1. 30 million gallons of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will be "loaned" to refineries.
2. An additional 30 million gallons of oil from the International Energy Agency has been made available.
3. The EPA temporarily lowered restrictions on the sale of gas which creates higher emissions (winter gas).
4. The EPA temporarily eased diesel fuel sulfur restrictions and rules on gasoline evaporation in all 50 states.
5. Saudi Arabia will boost output by 1.5 million barrels to replace shortfalls.
As mentioned earlier, Canada (and now Europe) is prepared to send refined gasoline to help cover the shortfall in production here.

Stock market news:
1. Gasoline for October delivery fell 22.53 cents, or 9.4 percent, to close at $2.1837 a gallon. (Wholesale contracts)
2. U.S. consumers are likely to pay $3 a gallon or more for gasoline for at least ``the next six to eight weeks'' because of refinery damage.
3. ``It's possible that with more oil coming into the market organized by the IEA, it will push prices a lot lower,'' said Kevin Blemkin, a broker with Man Financial in London. ``Gasoline is obviously where we have the main problem.''
4. One-fourth of Atlanta area gasoline stations had no fuel to sell this morning, said Georgia Association of Petroleum Retailers director Tom Smith. Smith said the state's gasoline distribution pipelines were running and stations would receive allocations of fuel throughout the weekend.
5. Panic-buying midweek because of rumors of gasoline outages contributed to the short supply, Smith said. ``The massive lines at all the stations sucked the bottom of the tank out.''
6. BP Plc and Morgan Stanley are among companies planning to ship European gasoline to the U.S. As many as 10 tankers were booked this week to transport 363,000 metric tons, according to five shipbrokers yesterday. (Remember that purchasing gasoline from somewhere else is more expensive than refining our own but we have no capacity to produce more at the moment.)
7. ``The EPA just relaxed gasoline standards, making a greater volume available,'' said Kyle Cooper, an analyst with Citigroup Inc. in Houston. ``Both chemically and physically it is easier to make winter-grade gasoline.''
8. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's second-biggest oil company, said repairs are under way at the 225,000-barrel Motiva Convent refinery in Louisiana. The plant may start next week.
9. Gasoline stockpiles in the U.S. have fallen for nine straight weeks and are at their lowest since November 2003, according to the Energy Department's weekly inventory report, which was released Aug. 31. Inventories are 4 percent lower than the five-year seasonal average, department figures show. (Basically, prices are up because we're using more than we can make.)

Troy

[derailed]

[

Our country is also slightly larger so shutting down the entire trucking/delivery system would mainly cause harm to only you-know-who (us - the people who can least afford it). Do we shut the airlines down as well? How about shipping? Construction? Public transportation? School buses? People need to use less fuel

People need to use less fuel, theres the answer. Buy a small car,hybrid, get rid of the 3 quarter ton truck that you drive to the office, whatever. We need to reduce consumption, long term, not just 1 day. As a matter of fact i dont think we will be left with a choice.Those hydrogen fuel cells arent looking so silly after all.