US to increase oil refining?

[Playboy]

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States needs to talk to OPEC (news - web sites) to ensure oil supply meets growing demand, but is also looking at increasing its own refining capacity, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites) said on Thursday.



"We believe the price of oil is too high as demand is outpacing supply," Abraham told reporters after giving a lecture on energy.


The U.S. would be discussing prices with the OPEC oil producers' cartel this weekend, he added.


"We will be dealing with how we can encourage the kind of investment needed to meet demand," he added, without elaborating on oil producer-consumer discussions to take place in Amsterdam from Saturday.


He did not say what price he thought suitable for crude oil futures, which set an all time high of $41.85 a barrel on the New York futures exchange this week.


But he said that for its part, the U.S. was looking at boosting its own refining capacity and hoping for a relaxation of tougher gasoline specification laws.


Analysts say that low stocks of gasoline in the United States ahead of peak summer demand are driving crude prices higher.


"In the short term we are looking at how we can increase refining capability to reduce tightness in the market place," Abraham said.


He added the government was hoping the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) would help to ease gasoline market tightness this summer by relaxing rules requiring cleaner burning fuels.


Abraham also warned that high oil prices could hurt the economy.


"We are deeply concerned about long term (economic) growth and don't think it is in our interest to see things that impede it," he said.


He said that in the long term, the U.S. was looking at ways to diversify its fuel sources as well as meeting environmental concerns with new technology.


He said the U.S. was leading a drive for hydrogen-powered transport, low or zero-emission coal power plants, a new generation of nuclear plants, and storing carbon dioxide underground to remove it from the atmosphere.

[Playboy]

He added the government was hoping the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) would help to ease gasoline market tightness this summer by relaxing rules requiring cleaner burning fuels. And what will that help?....

Abraham also warned that high oil prices could hurt the economy Wonder who thought of that......

and storing carbon dioxide underground to remove it from the atmosphere. And keep it under us only to slowly creep out later..........

We need to all turn to diesel then get free feul from local restaraunts. Check this out. (http://www.greasecar.com/) I know some one that coverted their diesel truck to this and she told me it run better on this then diesel.

[devDelay]

Damn! I was gonna post that link! Haha, yeah they run better on veggie oil and the benifits are free fuel of course and no pollutants. I think the whole situation is out of control......seriously, its a natural resource.....so its gonna run out sometime, why not wake up now and do something so that we're not so reliable on something that puts such an impact on our economy, environment, and is of a limited amount. Sheesh!

[maquereautin]

its bs how high oil prices are for the US, and other countrys over there in iraq. Seems like we could get some free oil or discounted for a while. This country is owed a few billion dollars by alot of 3rd world countrys, and all we do is keep on giving them free stuff hoping it will help them. We need to go back to isolationism, and work on our country first, before we try and take care of the rest of the world.

[Playboy]

Well helping other helps us. There arew many things in the world we can't get/make/grow in the us. There weren't many dinosaurs in the us so that accounts for the little oil we have. I admit greed has kept the us from making a different source of fuel.

[maquereautin]

yea i know helping some people has helped us, but in the most part, its made things worse. We go in and try to help them, then f*ck them over and leave them. then they hate us, then they kill us, then we say "why would you want to hurt us?" i know im *****ing here, but it really pisses me off when people wonder why some countrys hate us. And i think opec needs to get some bigger drills or pumps or somthing, and get prices lower, so the economy will grow, by giving people more money to put back into the economy.

[Playboy]

Monday I paid 43.38 for gas. I have a Ford Explorer. I also have a Porsch Boxster and it cost 35. to fill up. Now it's friday and the Explorer has 1/4 tank left and the boxster has 1/2 tank left. This is crazy. The higher gas prices are going to puch people to find other means of transpertation. I can see it now...... every one riding bikes, bikes with conopies to keep rain out. Mountian bikes in the snow..... Bet that would cure obeastidy...

[aweirdguy]

Bet that would cure obeastidy

lol! obeastidy! nice

man, if you can afford a f-in boxter you dont need to complain about gas prices. its like owning a hummer, it voids your right to whine about gas....

[Playboy]

It's actualy less then my Explorer a month. The boxster even uses less gas and i drive it hard and baby the explorer

[maquereautin]

i hate porches, i dont have a car of my own right now so i cant say much i know, but i never have liked them. and talk about a playboy, got your self a boxster, and a explorer :)

[popo]

I think it is purely a myth about dino's turning to oil. Sinclair Oil is most likely to blame for starting that sh*t back in the 60's or 70's. There would have to have been a SH*T LOAD of dino's to create all that crude. It just doesn't make sense. As far as gas prices, those M.F. are living like kings, reaping the money from hard workers n the U.S. There are apparently billions of surplus oil stored here in the US, in case there is ever actually a shortage. The problem is, we buy from foreign countries to try and balance the economy and create international trade. I agree with cantthink, we need to help ourselves before helping the other countries. We have starving, freezing Americans sleeping in the streets in boxes, yet we ship our lumber over to Iraq for the unappreciative f*cks to blow up. GW needs to get his hand out of his pocket and look at his own country first.

[modmyxbox]

yes support isolationisim. I'm down with that help us b4 we help others.

[Phunnybonz]

Ya know, gas prices wouldn't be an issue if everyone would just keep their ass at home and play Xbox. ;)

As for alternative fuel like veggie oil...Dude, there's a gas station on every freakin' corner and half the time I coast into them on fumes. If I switched over to something else I'd always be running out of fuel.

I might have to sell my F150 xlt and find me a good 'ole Chevy Sprint. Yeah baby, 50 miles to the gallon! :D

[losturmarbles]

lmao

[modmyxbox]

LMAO... DUDe i gotta get me photoshop that pic was 2friggin funny mIn <-----middle finger pic... LMAP

[losturmarbles]

shhh... youre going to get me in trouble. :D

[maquereautin]

i got photo shop, and i have no idea how the hell to use it. All i can do so far is cut and paste, i cant even do things like brushed metal. makes me mad.:(

[modmyxbox]

heheh dude i using that pic as a screen saver.

[Phunnybonz]

Okay, now that is the funniest thing I've seen in awhile. What makes it even funnier, at least for me, is the fact that I used to own a Sprint that was the same color.

That's hilarious, the more I look at it, the harder I laugh. I'm gonna save that pic!! :D

[losturmarbles]

this guy has lost his mind! :p

[Phunnybonz]

I wasn't using it much so the loss is no big deal. :D

[Playboy]

Hey i has an old Toyota Corolla 1.8 total spic car the same color. That thing started no matter what and got about 30-35mpg. Now i get 10mpg if i'm lucky :(