Gas prices have risen to a nationwide average of $3.80 per gallon, per gasbuddy.com early this afternoon, and an Ohio average of over $3.90.
Is Asjylyn Loder at Bloomberg worried about the effects on drivers' pocketbooks and travel plans over Labor Day? Don't be silly. Loder is worried about its impact on Dear Leader's presidential reelection prospects, and avoids the implications of the ten-year rule of another Dear Leader, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, on the current situation. Her first three paragraphs in graphic form, plus a few more on Venezuela, follow the jump:
Here it is:
Now to the Venezuela-related paragraphs:
Amuay Fire
The Amuay fire highlights the risk to supplies of oil products from large, aging plants and may lead to more exports from Asia to the U.S., according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The U.S. became a net-exporter of products such as gasoline and diesel last year for the first time since World War II as Latin American refining capacity remained insufficient to meet the region’s demand.
Venezuela imported an average of almost 38,000 barrels of refined products from the U.S. in the first five months of the year, up from about 23,000 barrels in the same period last year, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Brazil imported an average of about 146,000 barrels a day this year through May, an increase of 17 percent from last year, the data show.
Both Venezuela and Brazil have succumbed to statist impulses (the former far worse than the latter, thanks to El Presidente Hugo Chavez and his minions' mismanagement of the state-run oil industry), and they have to import more of their needs because they can't produce enough at home. Imagine that.
As I noted earlier this week, the Amuay disaster is probably the deadliest refinery explosion in world history. If that is indeed the case (or even if it's the second- or third-worst), I haven't seen anyone in the establishment press acknowledge it as such.
Well, according to Loder, we may not need to worry too much about the impact on Obama's reelection prospects because Hurricane Isaac and Hurricane Hugo will "give the Obama administration political cover for releasing fuel supplies from the reserve, a move that may bring prices down before the election." Well, they didn't do that the last time it was tried, so that pesky "debate about energy costs" is probably still coming -- and the spinmeisters in the Obama campaign and the establishment press (but I repeat myself) are surely working on their next set of fables as you read this.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
