Again, I'm not picking on you, Steve, because you're only repeating the drivel that we hear nationally through the filtered media.
Don't you get it? You are never going to "shut down" any refineries even if you wanted to (believe me, plenty of Californians want to). They are all running at 100% capacity all of the time and will be forever.
If you ever have a chance to visit a refinery, you will see that you don't just turn some dials and valves to make them "more efficient" than they are. These are places where pipes, valves, and more pipes and vessels are everywhere. There are many kinds of operations going on everywhere in a refinery.
Two times a year they 'shutdown' parts of one to replace the worn out parts. These are complex industries that can't be reduced to a headline in the local paper that says, "We need more efficient refineries. Spend some of that profit to make them better!" It ain't that simple!
We need more refining capacity, but there isn't any place where it is allowed; either physically or financially. It will cost as much to build a new refinery as it will to build a nuclear facility.
While we're screaming about high fuel costs and high imported oil costs, the regulators that you elected are conniving to create more ways to keep it the way it is now.
Hey, Chelse! Mostly what you might see in Texas will be a drilling rig that is drilling for natural gas. Not OIL!
C Nash - 3/3/2008 10:12 AM Been in Texas for going on 5 weeks now and aint seen one of them oil wells like John Wayne put the fires out on yet :laugh: . Where is the goo and mud Tex? Just great scenery :approve: . WOW, snowing here in FT Davis today. Dang this global warming. When in Alaska and all the way up through the Brooks range to Artic most animals were near the oil wells and the surronding area was well cared for.
Did you get the last word Tex? As we all know, there hasn't been a new refinery built in the US for over 30 years and If and its a big If ...the regulators allowed one to be built, it would take 5-7 years for the first drip of fuel to leave the refinery.
I agree with you completely on your points and I am very used to how these things work but always willing to learn more, I have visited many oil rigs and spent a lot of time in Texas and Alaska working with large oil concerns. I can't think of a time I voted for someone conniving on the issues we are discussing much less someone who's character would lead me to believe they would be conniving on any issue.
I think we both agreed on the point that we need higher refining capacity and legislation is a main issue holding us back there. We both feel the same about most all these issues. As for my statement about using profits to improve operations, it was not my opinion, it was a direct quote from EXXON, BP and Chevron executives regarding the reasons for increased prices.
My concern is that, are we becoming so set in our ways of thinking that we are unwilling to innovate a industry? In our country we have always been among the leading edge of technology and personal advancement and that is what has kept us great. Yet so many people today have the feeling that we have arrived or are entitled to something for nothing or it has been done this way for years and no one can change it. As a country many are beginning to rot because of this sense of arrival.
As a Nation we have always grown the most and profited the most out of a need to change or become more out of necessity or just to prove the people who said it can't be done wrong. While I am not the brightest or the most experienced through reading and studying I have come to find this true. Innovation is a necessity if we want to continue to thrive. If we do not it will surely be taken from us by those willing to change.
To make a company more effective in it's delivery of services or products often can be done in numerous ways but is not normally done at the same level of problem solving that created the current system. People become very creative out of necessity but rarely out of sheer want. As a country the only major shifts in business or anything historically have been those initiated by the people working together to insist on a new way.
When Ben Franklin realized that war was our only chance for independence he was living in England and had actually not set foot in the colonies for several years. While seeming impossible it had to be accomplished and by God's grace we stand still today.
Even though I live in California I can appreciate and agree with your view points, I just believe we can all become better even in the same industry.
The problem is, Steve, that there are too many pontificators and prevaricators making hot air that won't even turn a wheel!
I don't see how "bio" anything is an "innovation." I guarantee you that the bio-innovators have stock in the company!
Like Jim says 30 years is long enough to prove that the damn prevaricators are just people that tell damn lies. Our parents didn't do anything about it, and I guess we aren't either.
Look at the people we put up as leaders of the free world. How are these clowns going to advise us on better sources for fueling our economy? I can just hear them now, "Plant more corn! And, oh yeah, build more refineries in your garages!" :disapprove:
I do not consider Bio to be an innovation and never stated it to be, it is only an alternative. I only referenced it as a illustration.
Innovation as I am speaking is related to company structure, automation, technology implementation, evaluation and performance benchmarking.
The point I was trying to express is that we need market competition to drive things forward. The market has become complacent and will suffer as a result.
P.S. We are blessed to travel 8 months out of the year and we love our RV and every time I fill it up I smile, we are fortunate and we are thankful for that. I take pride in seeing my visions through but everything great starts as a good idea and those willing to see their vision through have profound impact.
And you don't think that the stodgy old 'oil bidness' types have any of what you call, "Innovation as I am speaking is related to company structure, automation, technology implementation, evaluation and performance benchmarking."
Actually I have two products going mainline in several oil companies as we speak that we finished testing on last year that will help tremendously.
I respect people in the oil industry very much, as always they are very skeptical of anything that was not invented in house, therefore slowing the integration of new ideas.
It is also public knowledge that when looking at the funding distribution within some companies the percentages have become skewed as years have gone on. Healthy market activity would bring those numbers into balance.
Hey Tex, lucky you. Today is your chance to be INSPIRED and vote. Then you can HOPE everything will turn out ok in the World. That's assuming you HOPE hard enough that you're INSPIRING candidate can talk all those oil producing countries that control the oil spigots, to turn the oil on full blast.
Hey I know, maybe you will choose to vote for the individual that will just take the big oil companies profit. After all, that individual and BIG GOVERNMENT knows how to best to spend our money. Of course you will take the chance that individual doesn't like RV'ers and we don't get to join in the redistribution.
I knew thatif I dragged you out longenough that you would eventually provewhatI believe is alwaysthe case. This is what I said previously:
Thesanctimonious drivel you speak is just advertising your product; not saving the country in a fuel crisis. You are just another 'oil company' trying to drive business to your products any wayyou can. The resultsofyour efforts now won't show up for another 30 years. You'll already haveyour huge profits by then and be sitting back and enjoying it.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for the free market and applaud theguy that finds a niche and goes for it big time. But please don't pull the wool over us. Al Gore is a classic example. I guarantee you that he has allhis investments inthis so-called global warming. The more he speaks ofit; the more he makes. Phooey! I'm done with you. :disapprove:
RV_Living - 3/3/2008 10:07 PM Actually I have two products going mainline in several oil companies as we speak that we finished testing on last year that will help tremendously. I respect people in the oil industry very much, as always they are very skeptical of anything that was not invented in house, therefore slowing the integration of new ideas. It is also public knowledge that when looking at the funding distribution within some companies the percentages have become skewed as years have gone on. Healthy market activity would bring those numbers into balance.
I got to step in and say something, recently I saw a program on the science channel about bio fuels and I am not sure if the fuels made from corn and sugar are also considered bio but the program showed the process of making these fuels and the cost involved with growing the corn and sugar than processing it to fuel. According to jthe show the cost over all was 100 to 150 dollars a gallon. How in the hell does that reduce our fuel costs if it cost ten times more to make it than they plan on selling it for.
I dont know how many of you are aware that all the oil being pumped out of Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming is being processed into fuel in Canada and sold back to the US at their price. Adding to our cost of fuel.
One last thing of interest, a man here in Utah who owns many oil wells and shale oil digs is building a refinerey in Green River, Utah out of his own pocket and the govt supposedly told him he cannot do it and he told them the hell he couldnt and is building to the tune of several billion dollars and plans to process his oils there.
Hey Lee, if they ever figure out how to get the oil out of the oil shale in UT and CO econmically, we will have all the oil we need.
Tex, I confess my kids and mom live in Ohio. When I was young and impressionable (needed more money), I transferred from Hill AFB, UT to the HQ's AF Logistics Command at Wright-Patt AFB, in Fairborn/Dayton OH. My kids stayed in Ohio. The Logistics Command no longer exists. I no longer work for the Dept of Defense. My wife and I were born and raised in Utah. I already wasted my vote in Florida.
Hey DL someone figured a way cuz he is opening a refinery out of his own pocket in Green River to process it. From the news reports he is putting out 3 billion to build it and the feds told him no and he told them stop him. They havent yet but it will be another two years before its finished and on line. So we shall see what happens. Another thing I dont know if you knew but all the oil wells in Utah and Colorado, now pump all their oil to Canada to be processed and than its sold back to the US at their cost. I hear that is part of the reason for higher prices.