A strike by workers may have the same effect as any other reason for shutting down a refinery, and may be encouraged by management for that reason. However, the purpose of a strike is to encourage management to share the obscene profits of the oil industry with the people who make them possible, the people with their boots on the ground and gloves around the tools.

The companies involved–more than one, if you’ll notice–are in the process of trying to sell them to others who will then operate the refineries. If they can’t sell them, then they’ll be idled, but the Philadelphia one alone has four outfits interested.

This is called “business,” and if it’s a great price-hiking conspiracy, you’d think they’d be working with more than three or four of the 148 operable refineries in this country instead of a few refineries just in the Northeast.

Hint: three is 50 percent of what number? What percent of 148?

You don’t seem concerned with the union strike mentioned in your article which could idle ten percent of the whole nation’s capacity. Is that part of the “monopoly” conspiracy too?

“Sunoco said it could decide to idle another refinery in the East Coast by mid-2012. The Department of Energy said those closures could “cut as much as 50 percent of current East Coast refining capacity.”

“With less supply, prices for heating oil, gasoline and refined products are likely to rise — at a time where prices are already setting records.”

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2012/01/31/gasoline-prices-on-the-rise-as-refineries-close/

Analogous to the California electricity crisis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_electricity_crisis

Where there are near monopolies, there will be manipulation. I know that’s music to your ears.

Your question was:

“Artificially generated shortages don’t count? Pulling refineries off-line so as to drive up the price of refined products isn’t ‘manipulation?’”

The answer was that there are no “artificially generated” shortages.

Refineries have not been pulled offline to drive up prices.

I made that point in two ways. I showed that the refinery idle rate is pretty much the same as it’s been for years, and that it was actually even lower during the much worse price spike of 2008.

Your question, like so many of the things you post, was founded on something that isn’t actually true in the first place.

I expected you to make the connection yourself if I simply put the information up there.

As for the rest, Obama’s “investigation” is a political dog and pony show, intended solely to impress the uninformed, exactly like the previous investigations that were carried out by people hostile to the oil companies, and that turned up nothing.

I really thought I’d made that point pretty clearly, too.

There are simple answers to the questions about Yetis and water-burning carburetors, too. They would be useless. Do you understand my point there?

Analogy. “Did you break your arm?” “Do you know there are half the number of orthopedists who set twice the number of arms blah blah blah.”

Unresponsive.

“How many yetis live in the Pacific Northwest?”

“Are Hitler’s clones living in Argentina or Venezuela?”

“Why is the water-burning carburetor being suppressed?”

Getting the drift?

I generate plenty of answers. It’s what pisses people off.

For example, we could look at refinery numbers, total capacity (more relevant) and percentage of idle refineries now compared to a few years ago. Did you know we have about half the refineries we did in 1982, but that the total capacity is higher than it was back then? That’s efficiency, and building out existing sites.

Seven percent of this capacity is idle, for various reasons including essential maintenance. This percentage has been almost flat since the 90s, the lowest being two percent. It was three percent during the last oil price spike. For reference, in 1982 it was 16 percent.

Do you believe the oil market is a good example of a “free market”? Do you believe that Obama’s interest in seeing how it is being jerked around for the benefit of a very, very few is bad for a “free market”.

Answer those questions and I’ll have a better idea as to your complaint.

(Fat chance, Bow. A question simply triggers fear and anxiety and nothing responsive. You know that. The fool here is whoever keeps asking questions.)

From your link:

“There is currently ample supply and limited demand, which should not push prices to the places they are today,”…There is a speculative premium being paid by consumers and businesses alike.”

That particular investigation was started a year ago. Previous investigations were even longer ago.

If there was actually something illegal or fattening to find–hell, even if there was something Holder could have just made up for his boss–don’t you think it would have been out there by now?

A question: If supply issues aren’t a cause of the higher prices, how come Obama tried to lower the prices by releasing oil from the Strategic Reserve?

But this says it better than I did.

Edit: The link to the James Baker Institute was changed on the website. I don’t have it.

Makes you wonder, the jump and volatility in gas prices corresponds to the public availability of the internet.