27 February 2014 (01:56 UTC-07 Tango)/26 Rabi ‘ath-Thani 1435/08 Esfand 1392/28 Bing-Yin (1st month) 4712

I’ve seen many a news report trying to explain why fuel prices suddenly jumped, and once again they’re mierda de toro!  Reports say the average price increase for low octane gas, for the United States, increased 12 to 14 cents in the past two weeks.  Well in the cities of Pocatello and Chubbuck, Idaho, we’ve seen a 50 cent increase!

Some Idahoans have noticed the increase, but apparently most have not.

A week ago, when the price jumped to $3.19 per gallon, a local TV station did an explainer report.  Of course the reason they gave was bogus (blamed on the switch to summer grade gas, which is a bogus claim because the same claim is made when they switch to winter grade gas), but what caught my attention was that the reporter discovered that most east Idahoans filling up at the pump were not aware of the price increase!

One guy she interviewed was standing right in front of the gas pump, filling his car, and admitted he didn’t know that the price went up and thought it was still $2.79 per gallon!  Hello, you idiot drivers how can you not notice such a big jump in gas prices?  You’re the reason the oil industry gets away with ripping us off!

“Between now and April we’re likely to tack on another 40 cents a gallon, in some areas it could be 30 in other areas it could be 50!”– Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy.com

There are reports that the national average of low octane gas will be $4.00 per gallon by summertime.

Oil industry stooge, Trilby Lundberg, tired to use a red herring and  blamed fuel price increases on Obama regime backed violence in Venezuela and South Sudan.  Why is this bogus?  Because the United States is no longer an oil importer, we have a glut of extracted oil sitting around waiting to be refined!  The United States is on the verge of becoming the World’s number one oil exporter!   So why would problems in other oil producing countries affect our fuel prices?

Another excuse for high gas prices is that refineries are shutting down for maintenance.  So what, they always do that.  That’s why some areas have tank farms, where fuel is built up for storage for something like a refinery shutting down for maintenance.

Another oil industry stooge, Andrew Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates, claims gas prices are up because “…..that crude oil prices have been rising, as well as prices of gasoline futures.”

Here’s what Oil&GasJournal said about that: “Crude oil futures prices and natural gas prices fell on the New York market on Feb. 25 while analysts awaited a weekly government report that they correctly expected to show a sixth consecutive increase in US crude oil inventories.  The US Energy Information Administration said Feb. 26 that estimated crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increased…..”

In other words, and what the U.S. EIA has been reporting for years now, is that there is plenty of petroleum in the United States!

The U.S. EIA has also been reporting a consistent drop in fuel demand, for years now!  But, here’s where fuel price increases come into play.  The U.S. EIA is reporting a drop in available refined fuels for the U.S. market.  This is also a consistent trend in the U.S. fuel market, and I’ve explained it before: Most of the fuel refined in the U.S. is being exported to other countries, creating an artificial shortage for those of us in the U.S.   So even though demand has gone down, available supply of refined fuel is also down, hence the industry justifies charging us more.

This is apparently the price we U.S. fuel consumers have to pay as the U.S. petroleum industry returns to the number one spot as the World’s oil/fuel supplier.   And you thought all that rhetoric about ending U.S. dependence on foreign oil would be a good thing for your middle class/lower class pocketbook.