Germany Blames US for Soaring Oil Prices

Zaman.com ^ | 9/1/2005 | Staff Writers

[Jarhead1957]

Heil Wolfgang!!!!

[toddlintown]

Wait a minute. I thought we had the oil situtation under control when we "invaded" Iraq? You know, the Bush family, the Saudis, the Halliburton connection, etc.

Get the last G.I. out of that sixty-year old European "quagmire" and let them rot when we take our money with.

[VRWCmember]

The US is partly responsible for the high oil prices as it has not expanded its refinery capacity for a long time, said German Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement in a statement to German radio. High oil prices were not due to the oil companies but due to the US administration's economy policy, he said, and he hopes the US administration would change its attitude and take action to increase its oil refinery capacity.

And why has refinery capacity not been expanded? Because of econazis and excessive regulations imposed by democrats.

[VegasVic]

I hope that is a joke? You obviously haven't seen the movie "Animal House."

[RobRoy]

>>The Germans ceased to be relevant 65 years ago.<<

That is EXACTLY what I was thinking.

[asp1]

No, I haven't. :o)

[Common Tator]

The U.S. government does not own the oil refineries. The oil companies do. Our government cannot dictate to companies and force them to make huge capital investments. But, I agree that oil companies should have expanded refinery capacity ten years ago.

It takes decades and huge amounts of money to get a refinery approved by local state and federal goverments.

The odds of even getting approval to build a refinery are small.

No one with a brain would spend millions appling for something they had a very little chance of getting approved.

The enviornmental and endangered species laws produce only one result.. If you want to build a factory of any kind, you can do it a lot better and a lot cheaper overseas.

[Prince Caspian]

One good thing about all this -- in the future, it should be some serious shock therapy that innoculates the stock market from being so jumpy about oil supply speculation. Just get all the bad news over with, and things can only get better from here.

[Archidamus]

Lack of refinery capacity would increase the cost of gasoline and lower the cost of crude.

[Archidamus]

"The concept was we need more refineries, I agree."

Building more refineries would cause us to use more crude, thus increasing the demand for crude oil. The increased supply of gasoline from any new refineries would tend to increase the supply of gasoline, but if that gasoline is made from more expensive crude oil, the cost of gasoline would still be high.

[Archidamus]

"Why did the United States government construct a bunch of huge oil storage depots with no method of refining the stored product?"

The stored oil will be refined in existing refineries in the event that crude supplies from outside the US are cut off. It is not that difficult to understand.

[samadams2000]

You know what you ungreatful krauts???... If your pushing for round three bring it on.

[Doogle]

Get the last G.I. out of that sixty-year old European "quagmire" and let them rot when we take our money with.

..your right on there, close all US Military bases in Germany we'd be able to build another base in Little ole Belgium or other "friendly" nation..

Doogle

[Archidamus]

Classic post. Thanks!

[skimbell]

[A CA Guy]

We have trouble with various refineries going down all the time with age and now disaster.
We should have at least always 120% of what we need as capacity, not 90% IMO.

[Kenny500c]

"Blaming speculators is nonsense"

I don't know about that.
A few billionaires acting in concert can easily manipulate the market because of the huge leverage derivatives provide.
For those who don't know what a derivative is you will find out when the house of cards comes crashing down because the media will blame "derivatives" not the speculators themselves.

[Doogle]

..yeah, reminds me, since france has dropped germany like a bad habit and their not being lead around by the nose anymore
..how is their economy?
Guess since germany and france couldn't "corn-hole" the US into the Kyoto pickpocket...guess it went out the ole..????...how do you say in german "outhouse window"
(I use caps where significant)


Doogle

[xzins]

I'm not real sure why too few refineries would change the bid price of oil. It actually seems that it would lower it. Why bid for oil you cannot process?

Germany needs to blame China and India. They're the new entrants to the market.

Therefore, blame the people who buy cheap Chinese goods and Indian high tech labor. If we made our own clothes and designed our own software, then we might pay more for a shirt, but I'd rather pay $30 for a shirt than $3 a gallon for gasoline. That shirt will last me a long, long time.

[ChildOfThe60s]

How is it the administrations policy about refineries? Where does this puke get his information.

Keep in mind that Germany is as socialist as the rest of western Europe. For them, it is logical to expect the government to be responsible this.