When the media interviews someone filling their tank at a pump why is it the person never complains about one of the real culprits of the cost of a gallon of gas?  Enviromental groups driving regulations.  Congress, through the influence of enviro lobbying groups, has regulated ourselves out of the business of refining crude.  The same thing applies to drilling for oil domestically.  There’s plenty of crude in the US plus there’s coal gasification which could be utilized.  But nooooooo, they have to mandate ethanol which is currently causing the price of corn to go through the roof which will drive all level of food prices. That doesn’t even cover the inefficiencies on the whole ethanol product.  Of course this is at the same time we are throwing all sorts of farm subsidies for growing corn and building ethanol plants.  But the media continues to focus only on the evils of oil and gas energy.  They have helped to mislead the public into believing the propaganda distributed by the junk science socialists. 

I just saw the movie “The Power of Choice” which is a biography on the life of Dr.Milton Friedman.  This should be required viewing by every Congress person.  Maybe, just maybe, they will get it through their dim brains that price controls don’t work. 

From The Washington Times - Price at the pump driven by aging U.S. refineries

Attention American motorists: It is not ExxonMobil or Middle Eastern oil producers who are driving the price of gasoline you pay at the pump.

It is shortages of gas and other problems at aging refineries in your neighborhoods.

While that has been true all year, oil analysts say, it has never been more obvious than yesterday, when the price of premium crude oil briefly hit a record $78.77 in New York trading even as gas prices continued to fall at the pump.

snip….”The refineries have finally gotten their act together,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. “They’re back to normal, almost.” The Energy Information Administration reported yesterday that refineries are operating at 93.6 percent of capacity, the highest in more than a year.

American refineries are aging and prone to accidents and other problems that require extended periods offline to remedy. No new refineries have been built in 30 years, largely because Clean Air Act regulations make building new ones prohibitively expensive, oil analysts say

Attempts by Congress to encourage new refinery construction through tax breaks and other enticements in recent years failed to produce the desired results. Most new refineries are being built in China, the Middle East and other countries where regulations are less restrictive. That has led to an increase in imports of gasoline as well as oil.

snip….In the meantime, the outlook for new refineries in the United States — or even adding to the capacity of existing ones — remains poor, said Michael Canes, economic consultant at the Energy Policy Research Foundation.

“Consumers will benefit if additions to refining capacity keep pace with demand,” he said, but “from a refiner’s perspective, uncertainties abound.”

The new Democratic leadership, rather than offering tax incentives and other enticements to build new plants, is enacting tax increases and other penalties, he said. A Senate-passed bill would punish suppliers of gasoline with severe fines for any purported “price gouging” during an emergency such as a hurricane.

Also clouding the outlook for refiners are vows by President Bush and Democratic leaders to cut oil consumption by 20 percent through stricter fuel-efficiency requirement on cars and trucks and greater use of ethanol — developments that would take years to carry out but still raise questions about whether new gasoline refineries are needed in the long run, he said.

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