Did the Ice Maker on an Oil Platform break down?

[BiggJawn]

I see gas prices creeping up again. What horse-shit excuse they coming up with THIS time? Ice machine broken? VCR eat the Roughneck's fav J-O video? Freezer broke down and ruined all the Hagen Das?

I saw that video of the oil platform leaning over after Dennis and my first thought was "Hey! That looks like they flooded that pillar just to get an excuse to ass-rape us!"

After reading that report about the Industry's "almost embarrassing" profits last quarter, I'm not inclined to believe anything they say. Next week, it'll be a Martian tripod machine ate the platform...

[Squeech]

1. Good point

How could you think such a thing!? Could it be because you remember all those Enron phone tapes where they describe the power stations that were suddenly told to close for maintenance, and the strategies they had to route power outside the California state line and then back in again, and all the bragging about screwing Grandma Millie?

Oh, and that rash of suspicious refinery fires recently...

[jmowreader]

5. There is nothing suspicious about a refinery fire

It is, rather, a way to get around a whole shitload of paperwork.

Let's say you run a refinery. There's a new machine on the market that can pull out the gasoline fraction from crude using one percent less energy than the one you have now. One percent doesn't sound like much, but it adds up quickly.

If your old machine is still in good working order, you've got to file a huge stack of environmental paperwork to remove the old machine, to dispose of the old machine, to install the new machine and to get the machine back on line.

But if your old machine blows up, they relax quite a bit of the paperwork requirements so you can restore your plant quickly because people's livelihoods are at stake. And if it just so happens that you can't get another copy of the exact machine that exploded, you can replace it with one that has the same functionality...which just so happens to be the very machine you wanted in the first place.

And if your old machine explodes, your insurance company will buy you a new one.

I don't know if anyone would actually DO this, but there's definitely a motive behind accidentally pushing the "never, ever push this" button on the control panel over there.

[woodsprite]

2. It's the last push for family vacations before school starts.

Did you notice the timing changes? It used to go up over Labor Day weekends, which used to be the last vacation weekend before a majority of schools started. Now, it's been moved back. I'm assuming because people get back into their regular 'non-vacation' routines now before the Labor Day break.

Just my take on it.

[Chewy_dKos]

3. They will just....

keep upping, then easing the oil price until they find the happy price point where we start consuming slightly less, then they will settle there for the oil price. Basically keep pushing til they won't pay

[Skink]

4. Yes we are now able to maintain a two dollar price point in Texas

Each time we hit 2.25 for regular it starts coming down but the days of 1.99 are over. It is two bucks or more a gallon everywhere now.