12/30/11, "In a first, gas and other fuels are top US export," Miami Herald, Chris Kahn
"For the first time, the top export of the United States, the world's biggest gas guzzler, is - wait for it - fuel.
Measured in dollars, the nation is on pace this year to ship more gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel than any other single export, according to U.S. Census data going back to 1990. It will also be
- the first year in more than 60 that America has been a net exporter of these fuels.
Just how big of a shift is this? A decade ago, fuel wasn't even among the top 25 exports. And for the last five years, America's top export was aircraft.
The trend is significant because for decades the U.S. has relied on huge imports of fuel from Europe in order to meet demand. It only reinforced the image of America as an energy hog. And up until a few years ago, whenever gasoline prices climbed, there were complaints in Congress that U.S. refiners were not growing quickly enough to satisfy domestic demand; that controversy would appear to be over....
There's at least one domestic downside to America's growing role as a fuel exporter. Experts say the trend helps explain why U.S. motorists are paying more for gasoline. The more fuel that's sent overseas, the less of a supply cushion there is at home.Gasoline supplies are being exported to the highest bidder, says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service. "It's a world market," he says.
Refining companies won't say how much they make by selling fuel overseas. But analysts say those sales are likely generating higher profits per gallon than they would have generated in the U.S. Otherwise, they wouldn't occur....
Europe also has been buying more U.S. fuel to make up for its lack of refineries.
And there's a simple reason why America's refiners have been eager to export to these markets: gasoline demand in the U.S. has been falling every year since 2007. It dropped by another 2.5 percent in 2011. With the economy struggling, motorists cut back. Also, cars and trucks have become more fuel-efficient and the government mandates the use of more corn-based ethanol fuel.
The last time the U.S. was a net exporter of fuels was 1949, when Harry Truman was president. That year, the U.S. exported 86 million barrels and imported 82 million barrels. In the first ten months of 2011, the nation exported 848 million barrels (worth $73.4 billion) and imported 750 million barrels."
via Tom Nelson
2 comments:
Are you trying to imply this is the Presidents fault? I cannot be sure, but the name of the blog suggests it may be so.
Republicans are the ones who have came up with "Drill Baby Drill" and the "Keystone Pipeline". Yet, the US is exporting massive amount of fuel. I thought you guys always claimed to be economic experts, surely you can see what kind of impact this fuel would have on the US market. Yet you want to continue to subsidize the Oil Industry.
You guys will all be bitching about the Pipeline which will pay zero taxes (Considered a Free Trade Zone) that will bring the tar sands to places in Central and South America and Fuel that we will never see. Yet use our tax dollars to buy it.
Not to mention just where all the money that funded the 8 years of Dubya came from, hell where did he make his money? Why did we go to war in Iraq?
What a crock of crap.
The establishment GOP despises ordinary Americans like me and would be perfectly happy to see Obama re-elected. I stopped being a supporter of George Bush or establishment Republicans when he was still in office. The reason for Iraq was to bleed trillions from rube US taxpayers, give it to cronies, rid Iraq of Christians, and make it safe for radical Islam. That is what has happened. Democrats are equally into paying off cronies. $6 billion a month goes to organized crime in the Afghanistan cesspool, both parties go along with it, plus billions for expensive military ventures like Libya and other African hot spots. I posted this article because Obama's excuse for every scam diverting American taxpayer dollars in the middle of a depression is we have to do the scam (solar, cellulose, electric cars, more regulations) because we're crippled by dependence on foreign oil. The record high prices for gas at the pump have also been blamed on 'our dependence' on mid east oil, so we just have to suffer the punishment for being greedy. Obviously, these are lies of the worst kind. Obama isn't the first to tell them but his lies and scolding are worse and at the worst time in our history. The GOP for its part doesn't complain so here we are. A one penny increase in gas prices takes $600 million out of consumer spending. And people wait breathlessly for economic numbers as if anything good could happen. The media sell Obama's line and distract us from the crime going on in the background. The US operating like a third world country began awhile ago but has taken off under Obama. Everything is for the benefit of cronies, 'public-private partnerships' is the euphemism.
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