Too Much Gas

One of the most traditional meals in our house when I was growing up in Maine was homemade baked beans every Saturday evening.  Those baked beans made with molasses and brown sugar and served with hot dogs and brown bread were always great.  But there was just one problem with those great suppers back then and it seems our country's got the same problem these days..."TOO MUCH GAS".  


Here's what I'm talking about. 




According to this chart, the price for a gallon of gasoline has gone DOWN in the past three months.


  



And, according to this chart the price of a barrel of oil has gone UP in the past three months.




Guess what?  There's more gasoline  floating around than there is a need for people to buy it right now.  So much so that this chart shows for the first time, our country's exporting more petroleum products than it's importing.  And most of what I read says the reasons there's so much gasoline is because, first, the economy stinks so we're not using as much and, second, a lot of the cars running up and down the roads these days are getting a lot better gas mileage then they use to.


But I got a couple other ideas why there's TOO MUCH GAS.


First...

Yup, North Dakota.  In 2001 North Dakota produced 443, 071 barrels of oil for the whole year.  This year, North Dakota is producing an average of 488,068 barrels of oil per DAY and by the end of next year the only other state producing more oil will be Texas. Hummmmm!


Second,

Yup, ethanol.  Ever stand there pumping gas and look over at the pump and notice that 10% of what you're pumping is ethanol?  In 2000 this country produced 1.63 million gallons of ethanol.  In 2010 we produced 13.2 million gallons.  Hummmmm!   








With all that being said, you know what?  Those baked bean suppers I used to eat were so good I really didn't mind too much gas later on in the evening.  And, if too much gas is going to keep the price of a gallon of gasoline lower, I guess I won't mind that too much either.