China realized that protecting the environment was a priory if they wanted to have a healthily labor force so formed their own EPA, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) in 1998 with many laws similar to the US.
They also really ticked some US businesses off when last year they passed a law that any company setting up shop in China had to meet the environmental laws in effect in their home country.
In other words China is slowly entering the age of environmental protection because they know it is the only sustainable way.

 

It's not just that politicians are making billions off of oil (although that certainly doesn't help), its that no one has figured out how to make a profit on alternative energy yet.

This is the reason that solar power hasn't ever really taken off. And I say its the same reason biodiesel hasn't taken off. Sure, you can sell biodiesel at the pump and make the same profit as regular diesel... but you can also grow it. Anyone can grow soybeans. And with a little reading anyone can make their own biodiesel. This scares the energy companies.

Now does the average american have access to an oil refinery? Regular diesel cannot be made by the general public. So oil companies can safely collect 100% of the profit.

 

I think the gov. should be pushing more biodiesel, good for farmers and us.

 

If I have learned nothing else, I have learned that whatever the government touches it completely screws up. It's government regulations and taxes which have given us the present mess. Only free trade will give us a sustainable energy future, not government. Government can only destroy things. It doesn't produce anything but misery, death and taxes with swarms of bureaucrats to eat the bread that industry produces.

When oil prices climb high enough to make it economical we will have biodiesel, probably at a cheaper price once people discover how good a product it is. But if the government attempts to mandate it then it will be completely FUBAR.

Why don't we have nuclear energy? Government regulation that's why!

Edwin

 

From MSNBC.com

On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Department said in its weekly petroleum supply report that the nation's inventory of crude oil grew by 5.4 million barrels last week to 314.7 million barrels, or 9 percent above year-ago levels.

Gasoline inventories fell by 2.9 million barrels last week to 214.4 million barrels, or 6 percent above year-ago levels, the agency said. The supply of distillate fuel, which includes diesel and heating oil, dropped by 1.1 million barrels to 103.4 million barrels, or 2 percent below last year's level.

"Crude oil keeps rolling into key consuming markets, but refiners have been slow to convert it into enough gasoline and heating oil to rebuild product stocks. And tight product markets are helping soften downward price reactions to the crude stock builds," Energy Intelligence, which reports on the global energy industry, said on its Web site

 

The problem is refining capacity and new international competition, not supplies or the amount being pumped out of the ground, and not necessarily price gouging, either, although some of that happens all the time.

U.S. and world refining capacity has not kept up with growing demand, as industrializing nations such as China and India need more oil. This has created an extremely competitive market. The Chinese and some other nations are willing to pay more for long term refining and supply contracts, and American, Canadian, and British petroleum sources have responded by diverting more refined oil into the East Asian and South Asian markets. As the supply has constricted and the bidding has become more competitive, prices in the U.S. have risen.

 

Crude oil and refined products are commodities, just like wheat, corn, soybeans and pork bellies. Their pricing is market-driven by supply, demand, weather, speculation and other market forces. The primary commodity market for energy trading in the U.S. is the New York Merchantile Exchange - NYMEX. For current wholesale market prices (exclusive of taxes, transportation, etc.), see HERE. On NYMEX, #2 diesel = heating oil.

Rusty

 

Speculation has a much larger effect than one would suspect however because of the beliefs and delusions of the speculators. In a bull market, speculators tend to believe the price will continue to increase until a reversal causes a panic then prices drop more than they would otherwise. The delusions cause prices to be more volatile than they would otherwise be and this is especially true for crude oil and it's products given the political instability in OPEC countries.