Crude oil is $86 today.... beginning of the end?

Gotta agree. Interesting theory but the price of fuel would have to be astronomical to eat up all spending.

 

Technically there is still a ban on CRUDE oil exports. There is a loophole that SLIGHTLY REFINED crude can be exported as a fuel. Shale oil is easiest to refine in this manner and therefore export.

 

Are U.S. companies really banned from exporting oil?
Yes—for the most part. The relevant laws here date back to the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which directed the president to ban crude oil exports except in select circumstances.

The exceptions: Over the years, the Commerce Department has handed out export licenses for certain types of oil. Crude from Alaska's Cook Inlet gets a pass. So does oil that goes through the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline. So does any oil that's shipped to Canada for consumption there. So does heavy oil from certain fields in California. There are also exceptions for re-exporting foreign oil and for small swaps with Mexico.

Meanwhile, there's no ban on exporting oil once it's been refined into gasoline or diesel fuel. In fact, U.S. refineries are now shipping record amounts of gasoline and diesel abroad:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...d-for-40-years-is-it-time-for-that-to-change/

 

The ones that are really going to be upset about this are the Wall St. speculators.
Gas companies are going to try to keep retail prices high for as long as they can get away with.
Law of unintended consequences: force people into smaller cars and the government won't collect as much in fuel taxes.

And yes I do think the fuel prices "spiked the football" of this recession.
Twice my wife has turned down part time jobs because the available hours (15 a week, but 5 days) didn't really justify the costs of transportation (30 miles round trip every day, 16-18 mpg in traffic @ $3.50-$4.00/gal = $6 per day for a job that only net $20) frankly it was cheaper for her to continue to be a stay-at-home mom.

Oh, I also forgot to add child care to that equation.

 

That's true!

I feel for many during these times. Walmart employees, working 30 hours or less per week yet working 4 to 5 days getting those hours. And there's many of them they will not let work over 30 hours per week.

If your within walking distance it might be worth while, yet those who have to drive to work their paycheck gets eaten up buying gas.

 

Lol no sympathy for the whiners for me, especially considering everyone on this forum should be readily aware of how many great-paying jobs there are in oilfield areas. Wal-Mart is paying $17.80/hr to start here in Midland and begging people to work overtime. Definitely more than enough to afford gas.

Your job not paying enough? Either get an education and further your value to employers or move to an area where you can effectively double or triple your value for the same job, which is what anyone in the retail or service sectors can do in the Permian, Bakken, Eagle-Ford, etc.

Until then, their whining means nothing because no one is entitled to cheap gas or a great-paying job.... you have to WORK for things you want in this world. Our previous generations understood that, idk why people these days feel everything should be handed to them.

 

I did the latter as a driver and made myself available in the Permian Basin. I'd like to get an education at some point just figuring out how to pare my expenses house payment Harley payment down enough to get that education is the hard part for me. Not whining but I am doing what I have to do lol.

 

Somehow I'm going to guess you listen to a lot of radio, because it sounds a lot like what I hear on certain stations. To generalize that someone is a "whiner" and doesn't "WORK" and lacks an education and because of all this deserves to be economically where they are shows an extreme lack of understanding the human condition. Things happen that you have no control of. Your cure all of just get up and move or just get out and get an education is too simplistic.

Be specific if you want to make a point. Who are these "people" that want everything handed to them. My guess is to you these "people" are the type you would rather have to go without a basic necessity such as health insurance and that these "people" just DROP DEAD instead of getting it through the Affordable Care Act because we know how bad that Act is.

 

Lol you make quite a few baseless assumptions, some of them very extreme and odd. Considering the content of your post, that's particularly ironic.

As for "get up and move" being a working solution to better one's life, you're darn right it is. Throughout human history it's what people have done when their situations weren't acceptable where they were. This goes for individuals, families, and entire civilizations, including our own.

Btw, every single individual on this sub-forum who relocated to take a job in the oilfields, be it permanently or temporarily, is living proof that it works.

Living in your fantasyland of entitlement where anyone who disagrees with you must want people to "drop dead" sounds lovely, but here in the real world, capable adults do what they have to do to survive and thrive.

Care to join us in reality?

 

Some are just used to being mediocre and barely but comfortably making ends meet I guess. It would be interesting since the economy supposedly get better what is the real unemployment rate nowadays.
There are mitigating circumstances that need to be accounted for like children or a medical condition. But for the most part let us just say it: it is Laziness!
Pack your stuff, get a Greyhound ticket and off you go.
Got nothing to lose except your chains anyways