(05-19-2022 12:52 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(05-19-2022 12:26 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(05-19-2022 10:36 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  My food and energy bills are all up at least 50%... and with two kids (really 4 now) that's a big deal. My two youngest will be getting cars soon... Used car prices are through the roof... and fuel of course. We can go electric but the new ones cost a fortune and the old ones do too, and aren't 'cool' nor as efficient. I'm almost 60, but now with teenagers again.... so I'm perhaps in the worst scenario, especially with my 401k taking a bath as well.

Demokkkrats say you're doing very well and should be taxed more to pay for millions of additional illegal-border-crossers and their spawn as well as more trans operations to increase their voter base so they can tax you more to increase the number of illegal-border-crossers and their spawn as well as more trans operations to increase their voter base so they can tax you more to increase...

Where I notice it the most is gasoline and fast food. I do not remotely believe the big lie that it is Putin's price hike - gas prices were rising long before Putin entered Ukraine. Not hearing Blue teamers call it a lie, though. I don't drive as much as I used to, but whenever I fill up I think about all those workers like lawn care or roofers who drive those old beat up pick ups all day. This must be killing them.

I notice fast food because as an old single man, I get about half my meals from a drive-thru window. Easy to compare the price of a #2 combo now with what I paid just a few months ago. Plus the help wanted signs have not come down.

I do shop at the grocery store once or twice a week, but hard for me to compare those prices as I get different basketsful every time. Mostly microwave stuff, though.

Fast food and microwave - quite a change for a guy who used to host a gourmet cooking club at my place three times a year.

My utilities are stable, thanks to a plan I signed onto last year. No water bill as I am on a well, unless the pump goes out, in which case my water bill for that month goes to $20K.

Which is why I am so distressed at the way my retirement funds are going south. That's the money I and my sister will live on the rest of my life, and it's down 15-20% while Biden bleats it's not his fault - and the Blue Teamers are either supporting that or remaining mum.

They have shut down 7 refineries in the US since Former Vice prezdunce Biden* was placed in "control." Diesel fuel is scarce and about to get scarcer...they just love Texas, don' they?

(05-19-2022 12:05 PM)MileHighBronco Wrote:  A bit more on the diesel fuel shortage.....

Quote:Today, we’re taking a deep dive into why diesel-fuel costs are rising so quickly — and no, President Biden, it’s not just because oil companies are “greedy.” It has a lot to do with the shutdown of six refineries, the upcoming closure of a seventh, and the fact that the U.S. has built only one new oil refinery since 1977.

Quote:We are now reaching the point where the cost of diesel fuel is making some goods too expensive to transport. One trucker told the Orlando Fox affiliate yesterday that, “The cost of diesel is single-handedly taking us out of the game one by one no matter how big you are. . . . If you’re getting paid $2 per mile you’re not taking that load no matter if it is baby formula or orange juice because the cost of diesel is $5 plus. You just can’t take that load.”

Quote:But if we really want to know why the cost of diesel is increasing faster than the cost of regular gasoline, we need to look at those refining costs. It doesn’t matter how much we “drill, baby, drill,” unless we also have the ability to “refine, baby, refine,” — or we become dependent upon foreign refiners.

Back in 2020, U.S. oil-refinery capacity peaked at 19 million barrels per day, according to the EIA. But because of the pandemic, and the delayed decision to permanently shut down the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery after a major accident in 2019, U.S. refinery capacity declined significantly during that year. (PES was the largest oil refinery on the East Coast and refined 335,000 barrels per day.)

In addition to the PES refinery, five more shut down over the course of 2020: the Shell refinery in Convent, La., the Tesoro Marathon refinery in Martinez, Calif., the HollyFrontier refinery in Cheyenne, Wyo., the Western Refining refinery in Gallup, N.M., and the Dakota Prairie refinery in Dickinson, N.D. Those six collectively refined more than 1 million barrels of oil per day.

Thus, the U.S. started 2021 with its lowest annual refining capacity in six years, and that capacity did not expand significantly over the rest of the year. And as the pandemic’s effects on American life faded, month by month, demand for fuel increased — not just from drivers but from trucking and shipping companies, construction companies — remember, 98 percent of all energy use in the construction sector comes from diesel — and from airlines and other consumers of jet fuel.

Why are we experiencing these stunning fuel prices? Because we’re getting back to pre-pandemic levels of demand, while our refineries are pumping out about a million fewer gallons of fuel per day than they did before the pandemic. And you know what happens when you mix lower supply with higher demand.

Right now, someone is likely shouting, “Reopen those closed refineries, then!” But that’s not so easy.

Quote:Wait, I haven’t even gotten to the bad news: Chemical maker Lyondell Basell Industries announced in April that the company will permanently close its Houston crude-oil refinery by the end of 2023. That plant refines about 263,000 barrels of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel per day.

We almost never build oil refineries in the U.S. anymore. According to the EIA, the newest refinery in the United States is the Targa Resources Corporation’s site in Channelview, Texas, which began operating in 2019 and processes 35,000 barrels per day. Before that, the newest refinery with significant downstream unit capacity was Marathon’s facility in Garyville, La. That facility came online in 1977.

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morni...ly-rising/