This is a heat map of gasoline costs as a percentage of income. The hardest hit areas are around the 10% of income mark.
Via calculated risk, Asian countries are reducing their subsidies for oil in an effort to lower demand. (more)
This is a blame the government and oil companies type of op-ed, however it has some interesting figures in it.
In January of this year, the U.S. used 4% less petroleum than we did a year ago. (Oil demand was down 3.2% in February.) Furthermore, demand has been falling slowly since July of last year.In 2003 I payed $1.50 USD a gallon now I am paying $3.50 a gallon. The price increase was both was sudden and constant. It was blamed on a number of issues, Katrina, Iraq, China, India, tornadoes, vacation driving, you name it. However it appears that refineries in the US have twice as much in reserve each month than they did a year ago and ethanol, while putting pressure on food prices, is alleviating demand. This isn't being seen at the petrol pump. (more)
It appears that the Russian demand for Ukraine to pay the market price of gas
has destabilised the relatively new government
- as was probably intended.
(more)
The cheapest oil on the planet is in Indonesia. The government subsidies it heavily, to the tune of about 3% Indonesia GDP, and approximately 30% of the Indonesia government budget. By comparison, Australia spends about 2% GDP on its military. This is a pretty massive and expensive subsidy for the Indonesia government. They have tried to remove it in the past, Suharto tried so in 1999 at the IMF's urging, but coupled with contagion, this contributed toward the Indonesian's throwing Suharto out. President Yudhoyono is going to remove the subsidy, Indonesians can expect to see petrol price rises of nearly 90%. (more)
Hartcher writes about the current pressures on oil prices around the globe in an article titled;
"The pain of oil addiction hits home"
. However he contradicts himself late in the article, and exposes the conundrum of oil and petrol energy, its current high prices will only make it more plentiful on the world market. We cannot use capitalism to escape oil dependency as; one, capitalism makes scarcity abundant; and two, we currently have no other option.
(more)
Tuesday,
Fuel excise to increase petrol price burden
. From the Liberal party room in Canberra was heard a loud OMFG WTF? Wednesday,
Govt scraps fuel tax plan
. Who says populism isn't alive and well.
(more)
This is a PDF paper from B.W. Robinson, B.J. Fleay and S.C. Mayo called,
The Impact Of Oil Depletion On Australia
[pdf]. It is from the "Sustainable Transport Coalition". I am not mocking them. I am sure they have good intentions, but their solutions wont be politically acceptable, wont be socially acceptable, wont be culturally acceptable and will just end up penalising those who are the most fiscally vulnerable.
(more)
Samuelson in Newsweek argues that cheap gas is a bad habit. He neglects to mention that consumers aren't really paying the true market cost of petrol - it is much cheaper than what it is sold for at the pump. Only a disruptive technology will replace fossil fuel.
(more)
