On the bright side, perhaps the lack of digits for the gas station signs will force companies to start measuring and dispensing gasoline by the liter, and we can finally join the rest of the world in adopting the common sense and standardization of the Metric System. Well, maybe not. Imagine pulling up at the pump where the sign says “$1.25”, only to find out that was “per liter” and your fill-up just cost $100.
(CNN/Money) Katrina damage was focused on offshore oil platforms and ports. Now the greater risk is to oil-refinery capacity, especially if Rita slams into Houston, Galveston and Port Arthur, Texas.
“We could be looking at gasoline lines and $4 gas, maybe even $5 gas, if this thing does the worst it could do,” said energy analyst Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover. “This storm is in the wrong place. And it’s absolutely at the wrong time,” said Beutel.
If Rita hits the Houston-Galveston area, as well as the Port Arthur-Beaumont region near the Texas-Louisiana border, that could take out more than 3 million barrels of capacity a day, according to Bob Tippee, editor of the industry trade journal Oil & Gas Journal in Houston.
“Before Katrina, the system was already so tight that the worst-case scenario was for a disruption that took 250,000 barrels of capacity out of the picture. That would have been considered a major jolt,” said Tippee.
“We’re already in uncharted territory now. We can’t project what happens from another shot the size of Katrina or worse.”
Some loonie American Taliban think God is punishing us for our sinful, decadent ways, like homosexuality, pornography, and abortion. They could be right, but perhaps the sins God is thinking of are remaining dependent on foreign sources of oil, propping up cruel dictatorships so we can keep getting the oil, and dirtying up His magnificent creation by not developing clean alternative fuels.
(But since I’m an atheist, I prefer to think that this is just our global warming chickens coming home to roost. Except, of course, global warming doesn’t exist… heh heh…)
