Another Hurricane This way Comes...

A look at the National Hurricane Center's website might give one pause for concern, certainly if you reside anywhere where the storm may land.

I tend to observe what they do to the oil markets at times like this.Lucky for all of us consumers out there, this one isn't headed for the Gulf of Mexico. I am waiting for the excuse come Wednesday next week where the Energy Information Administration might say something like "Imports of crude oil were disrupted last week as a result of the storms on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts."

Interesting as it is, a storm like this one entered into the Gulf of Mexico twice last year and we all payed for it, not that it was necessary mind you. In the after-effects of Katrina and Rita last year, prices spiked to the highest since the Arab oil embargo of the 1970's. Back then, lineups at the pumps were a common sight and with Rita's promise of "damage" we lined up ourselves again. The traders in the oil exchnges also lined up, but for a different reason. They all collected the highest commissions that were earned off our backsides.

We paid for it...

While there was damage to oil infrastructure, inventories didn't dry up, the US government loaned "Big Oil" some of it's strategic reserve and an "imagined" shortfall never happened.

Just to let you oil traders and oil companies know; that your policies of putting oil infrastructure in dangerous places and speculating on the damage that can be caused, is not going un-noticed by the consumer out there and "we are on our toes" looking out for that next excuse you'll be using to reap from the consumer field.
Justified you might say?
I think not...

What have we learned from all this?...

We've learned that "Big Oil" will fall back on any excuse in a co-ordinated attack against our wallets, that "Big Oil" expects us not to re-act, that we had better watch the weather and don't buy property in Florida.