FDR wrote:

"Duane Bozarth" wrote in message
...
FDR wrote:
...

The problem is tha there's a concentration of refineries without
substantial
redundancy. But anyway, they still make money from jacking up the price.

A. So they're supposed to have excess capacity just scattered around
waiting, too?

We've been told over and over about how refiberies are working at their near
maximum. Why haven't they built anymore? Maybe because they are greedy.

Maybe, but not really. Prime reasons include-
1. High costs of investment in mandated environmental abatement
programs.
2. Very low ROI over the period of time until the recent upsurge.
3. The NIMB syndrome and other difficulties in siting.


B. As noted ad nauseum, oil and gasoline prices are set on open
commodity markets.

Uhm, who do you think sells the contracts for the gas? Refineries. And
they sure as hell have market hedges in place, as well as insurance. You
think they are dumb????? They are making money no matter what. Well, that
would sure answer why they don't invest any capital into adding refinement
capability.

No, they're not dumb. They're in business just like any other. That
they buy and sell contracts still doesn't set the price, they simply
respond as best they can to market forces. Their hedges are mostly on
the cost of the raw material, of course.

They have insurance on the facilities, granted. That doesn't mean they
still won't be out significant direct costs of rebuilding and cleanup
and the lost revenue.

But if you think these refineries are losing money, maybe you can start a
collection for them. I'm sure they would take your charity, sucker.

I know they were'nt losing money over the last couple of years. I do
know that the ROI wasn't all that great during a long period of time
until relatively recently.

I don't like the high cost of energy at present any more than you, I
just understand the underlying problems are more complex than many would
like to wish and that the policies of the country and world demand and
supplies have more to do with it than simply blaming avarice on the part
of "big oil".