In a nutshell

From that little bundle of nuts known as FD, a brief primer in social versus libertarian conservatism:

Thank you, Little Big Man. Well said.

$200 by Labour Day

Anyone want to bet? Oil hit $139 a barrel today:

"Oil prices shot up more than $11 to a new record above $139 Friday after Morgan Stanley predicted prices would hit $150 by the Fourth of July. The unprecedented jump is all but certain to drive gas prices well past the $4 mark in the coming weeks."

This has passed the realm of "getting serious" and is now officially into the "almost an emergency" stage. $4/USgallon for gas is about $1.05/litre (1 US gallon = 3.79 litres), still not what we're paying up here (I paid $131.5 yesterday).

It wasn't that long ago I was a little freaked when oil went over $50/barrel. I'm really starting to wonder where this is all going.

Another day

...another record-breaking trading price for oil.

"Just in time for the start of the summer driving season: Oil near $130 (U.S.) a barrel.

Crude prices spiked to a yet another trading high Tuesday as supply concerns mounted and traders poured in for a last-minute buying binge. At filling stations across the United States, the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline approached $4, touching $3.80 for the first time.

The June contract for light, sweet crude traded as high as $129.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange before settling at $129.07, up $2.02 from Monday's record high. The imminent expiration of that contract, which ended with the close of Tuesday's trading, created additional volatility in the market."

Recently, it's been predicted that oil will break $200-a-barrel by the end of the year -- now it's starting to look more like it could even happen by the end of the summer. Never mind "just in time for the summer driving season", how about "just in time for home heating season" -- summer driving is at least something we can live without.

Something wrong and rotten is going on. Here's a historical chart:

Given the outrageous piggery at the trough just in the last 6 years, it's not hard to see where all these featherbrained 9/11 conspiracy theories come from, is it?

Pigs at the trough

Crude oil is at all-time highs right now, at about $115/barrel. Could we be looking at $200/barrel oil by the end of this year? And where's it all going?

Petro-Canada, Royal Dutch Shell and BP collectively hauled in $17.8 billion in first-quarter profits, with the announcements blowing past analysts' expectations yesterday as the price of crude oil continued to hover above $115 (U.S.) a barrel.

With some predicting oil at $200 over the coming years – Qatar's energy minister says even late 2008 is a possibility — the earnings party appears poised to last until the taps stop flowing.

As long as we keep paying, the pigs at the trough will keep sucking it up.

I paid $1.24/litre yesterday and was pissed off beyond words, even more so when I was told that the price would probably be up to $1.29/litre soon (definitely by the long weekend).

It's May, the weather's getting better, and my 21-speed bike is ready for deployment.

Pain in the gass

Oil was up to over $109 a barrel yesterday. (And to think I can remember freaking when it started getting close to $50 a barrel.)

The price of gas is correspondingly ridiculous. For the last few months the price of Regular has hovered between $1.05 - $1.12 a litre. It's been higher of course; during the Hurricane Katrina it zoomed up to $1.19/litre, but it's never been this high for this long. It won't be going down anytime soon. It definitely won't ever be under $1/litre again.

I shudder to think what it must be like to have to commute any real distance to work. I used to drive 20 miles (one way) and even then, at about 69 cents a litre, the cost of driving my truck to work was staggering. I could only manage it because the cost of winter driving was offset by the significantly lower cost of riding my 70-mpg motorcycle to work when the weather was good.

Now I live a mere 3 miles from where I work, so I have the option of using non-internal combustion transportation, and will start doing so as soon as weather permits. Either my hybrid bicycle or leftie-rightie will carry me to work, serving the dual purpose of allowing me to stay in shape while giving the oil companies the finger. (Never mind that I'll still be paying more for food and anything else that's trucked in, but oh well.)

But that's me -- I wonder what everyone else be doing. Making some changes or continuing to drive your Hummers in support of the Oil Patch?

Gas up now

Quickly quickly, fill 'er up. The price of oil closed yesterday at a record high of $80.09 a barrel:

"Oil closed above $80 a barrel for the first time in history Thursday, setting a record for a third-consecutive day as supply worries and refinery shutdowns lifted prices.

The price of a barrel of light, sweet crude for delivery in October rose 18 cents to $80.09. That's up 12% from a month ago and 25% higher than a year ago."

Energy industry analysts say it isn't likely to have any impact at the pumps. Do you want to believe them? Not I. Not when the industry is writing their paychecks. And anyway, we'll feel it one way or another:

"But the higher oil prices will still be felt throughout the economy. Heating oil prices may be higher this winter, airfares could creep up and shipping costs could rise, squeezing small businesses and truckers.

Such increases are coming when the economy is already in a somewhat fragile spot, with a volatile financial market, continued credit concerns from subprime mortgage defaults and some evidence of a slower job market.

"A lot of forces are coming together," says Timothy Rogers, chief economist at Briefing.com. "I don't think it's going to provide the force for a recession, but that's the fear.""

Almost time to go off the grid.