Auto129
104
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russia-faces-domestic-fuel-crunch-braces-more-shortages-2023-08-31/
Russia, one of the world’s biggest oil producers, has faced shortages of fuel crucial for gathering the harvest in some parts of its southern breadbasket and the situation may get worse in coming months, market sources told Reuters.
Russia has tried to tackle diesel and gasoline shortages over recent months, contemplating export curbs as the last-ditch attempt to prevent a serious fuel crisis - which is sensitive for the Kremlin ahead of a presidential election in March.
Russia made its own bed in many respects, but that doesn’t excuse the rancid greed on display here.
Fuel shouldn’t be exported out of a country where domestic markets are facing shortages. Curbs should have been the first-ditch effort.
Good energy policy must make exports unprofitable miles before reaching that point.
I don’t want to see a situation where Americans have to learn a lesson like this the hard way.
Gaius
105
We face absolutely no shortage in natural gas.
It is so cheap and available it is literally free in many places, all ya gotta do is pick it up at the well-head. Nearly 100% of the cost of natural gas is in transportation and storage.
It can be compared to water.
At the going rate (which includes exporting it & giving it away in many places,) the US has at least an 86-year supply of natural gas.
Your assertion is a accurate as it would be for someone in the 1920s to complain “we are running out of oil we’d better conserve it and ban exports.”
Auto129
106
Don’t have to conserve it. I just don’t see the need to send it anywhere else.
If an american in 1920 asked about the benefits of exporting oil and gas, what would you tell them?
Gaius
107
I would tell them go ahead and export.
The free market is a much better arbiter of natural resources than Malthusian central planners.
Auto129
108
I would disagree, then. Better for who? It’s not always better for Americans, and that’s unacceptable.
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Gaius
109
It is always better for Americans.
At least the whacky “It’s not a free market it is a corporate-acracy” folks recognize that free markets are superior. (They just claim we don’t have one.)
Price controls naturally create shortages. That should not be a surprise.
Traders said the shortages on the retail market followed by a sharp rise of wholesale prices. The state caps the retail prices, ordering the sellers to raise prices of gasoline and diesel only in line with official inflation.
How is the price cap on Russian oil going for Europe?
WuWei
111
It’s not a “free market.”
DougBH
112
NOt as simple as keeping our oil. We export and import oil. If you want us to keep more of “our” oil, support building more refineries.
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/america-produces-enough-oil-to-meet-its-needs-so-why-do-we-import-crude
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WuWei
113
Why don’t we not allow foreign companies to extract?
Guilds
114
There is no such thing as a free market.
Someone always make the rules.
LucyLou
116
If I’m understanding your double negative, who would you have extract?
WuWei
117
It’s not a double negative. US companies. That’s a pretty silly question.
LucyLou
118
There are no “US companies”
They are all multinational and for all intents and purposes, “foreign”.
There is no interest or principle for them to keep it “here”, only to sell it where profit is maximized.
WuWei
119
That’s not exactly true. There are multinational companies which were founded by Americans and have their headquarters in the US.
Chevron-US
Exxon-Mobil-US
Then there is
BP-English
WuWei
122
Government is better? Why?
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