Blog For Arizona

Michael: The Enrons of Gasoline

Internal memos show oil companies intentionally limited refining capacity to drive up gasoline prices. How much evidence do we need to determine that completely unregulated energy markets do not equate with efficiency and low prices, but with price-gouging and intentional shortages that hurt both consumers and the economy as a whole to line the pockets of a few unscrupulous bastards with friends in high places?

Now that Katrina has wiped out a large of chunk of America's refinery capacity, the national security implications of the government allowing energy companies to play this particular game should be apparent. What Enron did for the respectability of bilking people's grandmothers and randomly shutting off people's power to spike electricity prices, these new revelations should do for the fuel industry. Maybe people will finally absorb the lesson that even good people tend to act like sociopaths when the only standard by which they are judged is a quarterly report.

posted by Michael Bryan @ 9/07/2005 03:24:00 PM