Inflationmonger Joe trying another dip into the SPR, but it probably won't work

Yes, President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he would release more crude from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to counter OPEC+ announcing cuts in production last week, and yes, oil markets and gas markets responded.

One big problem, though: diesel refineries are running out of stock. As this Bloomberg analysis piece notes, the diesel oil + fuel oil combined stock is at its lowest this time of year since a guy named Harry Truman was president. Oh, and we had half the population at the time, and much less semi traffic, and other things.

As Javier Blas noted, diesel has increased at the trucker's diesel pumps by 50 cents or more in the past two weeks. There's other things you need to read there, and that Team Blue would probably like to imagine away.

Let's start with this pull quote, then a few small specifics:

The American diesel market has been in crisis mode for most of 2022, and the warning lights have been flashing for months.

Oops.

One of those is that a fair amount of diesel stock had come from Russian crude. Oops.

Second is that Biden can either do nothing, thus boosting inflation, or he can take steps to help the US, which will boost energy insecurity elsewhere, and among Latin American neighbors that are NOT part of the NATO fight against Russia. Given that he's already gone Trump one worse earlier this month by expanding use of Title 42 to deport Venezuelan Ill Eagles, and kind of pissing off Mexico, which is a definite importer of US diesel right now, that won't be good.

Third is that the EU still relies on Russian diesel imports, but plans to cut that off in February. We'll see how well that goes. Remember the last time somebody in Europe got into war with Russia with crude oil being a key factor, oh, about 80 years ago? At the same time, did we cut off Russian oil during Afghanistan invasion years.

Fourth is that, under US law, he has to keep it above 250 million barrels. Wiki links to other information that says 90 days of imports, which would be far less, but here's the actual US law, and it says 250 million barrels. DOE website confirms. Oilmonger Joe says that his plan is to refill it when oil is at or below a $67-$72/bbl range. Problem with that? Except for the COVID plunge, which actually started pre-COVID, oil prices haven't much been below that range for half a dozen years. And, that was with loss-inducing fracking in the Permian Basin keeping them that low. Beyond THAT? Oilmonger Joe said back in May that he had a plan to replenish the SPR.

That was surely as much of a lie as the one he told Peter Doocy Wednesday that, on the latest SPR release, "It's not politically motivated at all."

Meanwhile, despite Biden's attempt to low-key this, voters have loudly said "It's the economy, stupid" to Inflationmonger Joe and Passive Pelosi.

Hey, Team Blue? Stop clutching your pearls over Madcow Maddow's unemployment hyping

Here's the reality behind that 3.5 percent September unemployment rate that she breathlessly pushed:

Employers added 263,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. It was the slowest month of hiring in 18 months, showing the red-hot job market is cooling slightly as the Federal Reserve hits the brakes on the economy. 

The unemployment rate fell to a 50-year low of 3.5% in September as businesses continued to hire from a shrinking pool of workers. The labor participation rate fell slightly, indicating fewer people are working or looking for a job.

There you go.

Yes, per the rest of the piece, it's still a tight job market. 

It may "loosen up" once we actually get into recession.

Meanwhile, the piece also notes that the hiring numbers have been sliding for a few months.

The job market has been weakening for the past few months, with the three-month average job gains shrinking from roughly 530,000 a month at the start of the year to 370,000 today. Job openings fell by more than a million in August, to the lowest level since June 2021.

Quitting? Home sales money to make that easier? Just "taking a break"?

Meanwhile, there's the final angle, as the piece also notes.

If the Fed sees the unemployment rate, by itself, as a sign that inflation is still untamed, it may jack interest rates yet again even as gas prices are back on the rise.

Add to the mix? The nation's No. 3 railroad union rejected the contract that Amtrak Joe brokered to head off the strike. Per that link, via Mike Elk, a strike isn't imminent; the degree of opposition isn't high enough. Four unions have ratified the deal, per the link; seven others are in the voting process of 12 total, leaving the Teamsters' sub-union as the first to vote no. Nothing is expected before Nov. 19, which puts it past the midterms.

So, even to the degree this might be good news for #BlueAnon for the midterms? It could be catastrophic after that.

Wave bye-bye to those cheap gas prices — the why behind that

An OPEC+ oil production cut is coming right up, reports say.

This benefits two countries: Saudi Arabia, the leader of OPEC, and Russia, the +.

The Russian benefits are obvious: Increased pain on the West, along with, perhaps, letting China and a few other countries know they can't exploit its predicament too much. (Since Russia is also a net food exporter and Xi Jinping is blowing his top about Chinese food security, this has other angles, too.) Currently, Russian oil has been trading at as much as a 30 percent discount. So, tightening the market means the degree of discount will also drop.

The Saudis? Mohammad bin Salman, fresh off his international diplomatic immunity from being named prime minister, can keep Warmonger Joe Biden dancing like a fist-bumping yo-yo. This has added importance with the breakdown of a ceasefire in Yemen.

This is beyond the issue of simply addressing sagging gas prices.

The story above notes that purely domestic American issues had already brought a halt to declining gas prices in much of the country, though some stores here on the Red dropped a cent again in the last few days. It's ... interesting that Nevada (and I assume the story is overlooking Hawaii and Alaska) has the nation's most expensive gas outside of California.

And, although Inflationary Joe hasn't much reduced food inflation, even with the drop in gas prices, his chances of doing so decline even further with this. And, of course, Democratic Congressional political chances. (Hit the polls at right to offer your thoughts.) This will probably also further crimp the possibility of massive LNG exports to Europe this winter; my take on that is here.

Climate Change Joe, meanwhile, is talking about trying to limit American oil majors from exporting refined gasoline. Good luck with that one.

What about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Biden can still release more from it, but — and I did not know this before — due to various national and international legal obligations — it can't go below 250 million barrels. It's just short of 420 million now. 

In other words, at Gas Pump Joe's rate of 1 million barrels a day during past releases, he's got a bit under six months' cushion left. Vladimir Putin will still be rolling dice at that time.

And, the real issue is not just the SPR, but the psychology behind it. As Biden's margins get narrower, getting the SPR closer to its 250 million barrel flatline, the market-influencing power of releases wanes.

Will oil hit $100/bbl, as this story speculates? I doubt it, at least not hitting there and staying there, but trading in the $90-100 range? You bet.

Meanwhile, a final thought on the first story. So-called "NOPEC" legislation to sue OPEC for market manipulation? Even if it DID pass Congress, it's nugatory. How would the US enforce it? Especially since it has opted out of so many international institutions. And, if it tried to, Saudi investments in US defense kit would dry up and blow away to Beijing.

In similar veins of stupidity, first referenced by me a week ago, is the EU's attempt to put a price cap on oil that originated in Russia, as a backdoor sanction. Here is how stupid that is.

It's still the economy, stupid!

Warmonger Joe Biden may be touting inflation being on hold in July, and will surely soon tout falling gas prices in August.

Not so fast, starting with the fact that the Consumer Price Index went up last month, even if only a small tick, when it was expected to drop.

Last week, in my area, gas prices went back up 30 cents a gallon, first. (That may be related to the Saudis and Mohammad bin Salman telling Warmonger Joe to go fuck himself, with a small CUT in oil production. This NYT story has that and more about MBS et al working with Putin on the latest round of OPEC+ activity.)

Second, inflation is more than gas prices. When the ounce-less-than-a-pint size of Shedd's Spread Country Crock is costing $2.49 and that's not in San Francisco or New York, you know food prices are a problem. Indeed, according to this story, in the past year, margarine has the second-highest price hike, just a tad behind eggs but a lot more than butter in No. 3.

(Sidebar: Feel free to hit the polls at right.)

The why on that particular item?

I'm guessing it's a mix of a couple of things.

One is that sunflower oil may be one of the oils used in Shedd's and other margarines. And, there's this certain country in southeastern Europe that is a major grower of sunflowers and exporter of sunflower products.

If not sunflower oil, corn oil is another constituent of many margarine-type products. Guess what country is a major grower of, and exporter of, corn?

I am not condoning Putin's invasion, and it's possible it still would have happened had NATO barked less, to use Pope Francis' phrase, at Russia. But, by the number and level of sophistication of weaponry Warmonger Joe has agreed to send or has already sent Ukraine, plus his statements on Putin, he is exacerbating the war. And, between Zelenskyy's corruption and both sides breaking the Minsk Agreements, for starters, we shouldn't be exacerbating the war. (And, not to go too much in the direction of Cucker Tarlson and Glenn Greenwald, but doesn't some of this make you wonder about Hunter Biden's laptop?)

Meanwhile, back here in Merika, drought has put a mild damper on the Midwestern harvest, though much less than like it has and did down here in Tex-ass. And, guess where you find soybean oil?

In some margarines, including ... Country Crock.

Meanwhile, Warmonger Joe should probably be glad Thanksgiving Day is after Election Day.

In my column for last week, I wrote about a pending turkey shortage. The local grocery store, which started as a German meat market, has traditionally done "turkey marks" during the fall. It's a punchcard system, where, after you buy enough groceries to get it totally punched up, you're eligible for a discounted whole turkey.

Not doing them this year. Can't get a guaranteed turkey supply.

So, I goggled. And, Minnesota, the nation's No. 1 turkey state, had a spring outbreak of avian flu and is fearing more this fall. Unmentioned was drought making the price of turkey feed cost more than chicken scratch. I'm sure it is. Per that story about the five biggest food hikes? Spiraling feed costs is what has driven up the price of eggs. That means, I would think, that if you do get a turkey, it's going to cost more in two ways, or else producers just aren't going to fatten them up as much.

Meanwhile, the problems behind the averted for now potential railroad strike show that high gas prices and Chinese lockdowns of port cities aren't the only things affecting product delivery and thus leading to inflation. And, if Amtrak Joe's fig-leaf settlement isn't accepted by railway workers, getting tubs of Country Crock or frozen Butterballs to your grocer will be even harder.

Texas Progressives talk ConservaDems, small towns, more

"Nice" that Houston area ConservaDem Lizzle Fletcher, fresh off mouth-breathing "drill baby drill" now thinks that price gouging isn't a real issue, even though gasoline prices are higher today than in 2008 when oil got over $140 a barrle. Of course, she's doing Houston Big Oil's bidding. Shock me.

Kenny Boy Paxton "versus" John Cornyn. First, it's "interesting" that Cornyn only now considers Paxton's lingering state indictments an "embarrassment." Is he afraid that, if Kenny Boy wins the AG runoff, they'll be that much of a boat anchor? Is he afraid a shoe is about to drop on the FBI investigation? Second, it's also "interesting" that Kenny Boy claims Big John represents "the Bush wing," when there's been no such thing in Texas for years.  Pee Bush himself is a Trump lapdog, and Big John's been Havana Ted Cruz's lapdog for years.

Samsung pollutes Austin water, gets TCEQ award. That about says it all about TCEQ.

SocraticGadfly offers a variety of thoughts on small town graduations, partly applicable to graduations in general, and a couple of aspects of small town manners. 

Off the Kuff sees some positive signs in the latest poll of the Governor's race. (Your blog editor sees this more as grasping at straws; Strangeabbott is underwater on approval ratings due to a mix of new anti-incumbent feelings and still not reconciling the GOP's wingnuts squared. I'll eat Kuff's hat if Beto finishes within 5 percentage points.)

DosCentavos friend, Cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz was awarded the Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning and even showed up in The New Yorker.

Tina Petway warns of the damage that helium balloons do to marine life.

The Kinder Institute presents a retrospective on the career of Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineberg, founder of the Houston Area Survey.

Melissa Kean remembers Houston icon Sandy Havens.  

CultureMap reports on the new digs of Houston's longtime public radio station KPFT.

The Current notes a bump in the bromance between Greg Abbott and Elon Musk.

So, presidents can't control gas prices (or the general economy)?

Well, if "control" means fully control, that's true, and would even be true if the US were less federalist and more of a centralized national government, a la France. But, Macron also can't totally control the French economy. Setting aside acts of God, Xi Jinping might not 100 percent control the Chinese economy.

But, US presidents can influence the economy. And, they can influence oil prices, either directly influence oil prices, or influence the larger economy, which will then influence oil prices, and of course gas prices.

Take Shrub Bush 15 years ago. By 2006 or 2007, people who were educated news readers knew something about the housing bubble and why it was bubbly. Bush could have leaned on the Fed to start easing air out of that bubble, as well as leaning indirectly on the accreditation agencies to stop rating shit sandwich CDOs etc as being significantly above shit grade.

But, he didn't. And, no, I don't think he was totally idiotic about this. Yeah, he got gentleman's C's on his MBA, but he got an MBA.

That wouldn't have controlled the economy, but it would have influenced it. And, it would have influenced oil prices from not going to $147 a barrel (about $125-130 in today's terms). 

Or, before then, LBJ's guns and butter certainly influenced the economy. So did Nixon's price controls attempts.

As for influencing oil prices more directly?

Well, Russia IS the second-largest producer of oil after Saudi Arabia, and though it uses more itself, it's still a major exporter.

And, gee, WHY are oil prices so high right now?

Yes, recent winter storms were a factor, but as West Texas Intermediate threatens to approach triple digits, we all know the biggie: Russia and Ukraine.

And, those of us who aren't part of the bipartisan foreign policy establishment know the roots of all this: Slick Willie Clinton breaking Poppy Bush's promise not to expand NATO eastward. That then has been followed by hints, off and on for 15 years now, or more, that Ukraine (and Georgia, remember that?) would be covered by NATO's "umbrella" in some way. (Maybe we need Roe v Wade type penumbras and emanations?)

Then, there's "who's Ukraine?" Answer: kleptocrats and neo-Nazis. And, other than briefly, during the Russian Civil War, there's not been an independent Ukraine for centuries. Closest to that is the old Kievan Rus of pre-Mongol times.

From Biden's point of view, this is exacerbated by NATO members not wanting to fall fully in line on trade embargoing, and in some cases actively resisting. 

From the sensible point of view, the problems of NATO's European members are exacerbated by Biden, who may get lucky if Macron can get him off his tree limb.

Beyond backing off warmongering, there's other things Biden probably could do at the margins to help a smaller bit.

Could he knock prices back to $70 a barrel? Probably not any time soon. Could he ease them back to the $80/bbl range if he backed off on Ukraine and did whatever he could domestically on the edges?

Yes.

As for those gas prices? Panicky Democrats like Maggie Hassan and Mark Kelly wanting to nix the federal gas tax right now? This is a lower-grade version of the same dumb as suspending FICA taxes and other things. It's only 5 percent of the current cost of gas prices, and, since it hasn't been raised, well, since Slick Willie kneecapped Boris Yeltsin on NATO, it's part of why we needed Biden's infrastructure bill — our highways are crumbling.

And, Status Quo Joe's idea of releasing 50 million barrels of strategic reserve oil? We import 6 million barrels a day, and that is going up, slowly but surely, as the fracking miracle becomes hollow. Backing off warmongering would help a lot more. (We imported 10 million barrels a day in 2018.)

Paging $40 on #oilprices

If, per a previous blog post, $45 a barrel is the "break point" for a lot of US shale oil production, then we could be about to see a whole bunch more "breaking."

Goldman Sachs has pushed down its estimate on West Texas Intermediate prices to $40 for the next six months.

I'd blogged two weeks ago about this possibility, and how, if there were any realistic possibility of it being true, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar was full of Republicanism on his state budget revenue estimates.

Well, Glenn Hegar, you're full of Republicanism.

Sachs is tracking what I think will be the playout for the second half of the year, too, probably at $65 by the end of the year. But, it cautions that the timetable for a presumed rebound is still uncertain.

Meanwhile, Houston Chronicle business columnist Chris Tomlinson thinks that eliminating the government's ban on crude exports will help.

Can't say that I agree, not totally.

As Chris notes, refined gasoline is already exportable.

And, while it may vary a bit from source to source, for California's oil, at least, a bit more than half of it is refined into gasoline, per the diagram at left, although the EIA says its 45 percent across the US.

That said, diesel and jet fuel can also be exported. EIA doesn't list percentages, but Wiki is our friend; it notes that transportation fuel makes up 70 percent of the refined portion of a barrel of oil here in the US, though more gets used for electricity production abroad. (That said, WTI wouldn't likely be wasted on electricity.)

Even if, per the Council on Foreign Relations, there's a "mismatch" between US oil and needs and such, it's still easily arguable that half our crude oil is already "fungible" for export via refined transportation products.

That also said, Tomlinson says this would lower the price of gasoline.  Well, Chris or a web editor say that.

I don't see how. I agree that it wouldn't increase it. But, I can't see that it would decrease it in any way. Because we still import gasoline, right now.

Now, ideas of "energy security"? I agree with Tomlinson and CFR that it's hooey. So, I'm not worried about holding on to oil right now — other than possibly using low prices to expand the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

In fact, I don't get why we aren't topping off our current reserve, which is still about 7-8 percent below capacity, then finding new storage options to expand it.

Oil price rigging: A header you'll never see in the US

But it IS one we're now seeing in the European Union, which is investigating Shell and (shock me) BP for that practice.

And, no, this isn't a one-off practice:
The London offices of BP and Shell have been raided by European regulators investigating allegations they have "colluded" to rig oil prices for more than a decade.
"More than a decade."

Meanwhile, a former Liberal Democrat leader in the UK wants to know why his own government, since both oil companies are from there, haven't done anything themselves. Indeed, David Cameron's Conservative dog/shat-on LDP tail coalition explicitly rejected such an idea recently:
Just four months ago the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) ruled out an investigation into petrol price fixing after finding "very limited evidence" that pump prices rise quickly when the wholesale price goes up but fall more slowly when it drops.

That said, it's not just British. Per the Guardian story, Norway's Statoil and Platts, the world's leading oil price reporting agency, say they're being investigated, too. If this has spread to Platts, it's really, really big. Having worked at a daily newspaper in the Permian Basin of Texas, I know just how big a deal Platts is.

And, here's why it's in the mix:

"The suspected violations are related to the Platts' Market-On-Close (MOC) price assessment process, used to report prices in particular for crude oil, refined oil products and biofuels, and may have been ongoing since 2002."

Platts said the investigators had "undertaken a review at its premises in London this morning in relation to the Platts price-assessment process".

So, were editors or other staffers at Platts providing insider trading info to the oil giants? Jiggling the books in some way? Shaking down oil companies? What?

Meanwhile, Platts is all huffy that this is being compared to the Libor interest rate-fixing investigation. The fact that it's that indignant means that EU regulators must have struck ... er ...

Oil!

Texans: Blame Rick Perry for gas prices

Map from NRDC via High Country News

Per this post from my go-to magazine about the American West, High Country News, rather than blaming Barack Obama for high gas prices, inside Texas, wingnuts should be honest and blame Rick Perry instead.

Oh, and wingnuts should also be honest and join the reality-based community another way. The future EPA standards will save drivers a lot more in gas money than they will add to the price of a car. Of course, the new EPA standards are full of loopholes, like “credits” for air-conditioning, alt-fuel vehicles (Ford could roll out a shitload of E85 vehicles), etc., but it’s still an improvement indeed, both for saving oil and for reducing carbon emissions.

$5 gallon gasoline next?

We're already at $4 in selected U.S. spots. And, Peak Oil, not just the unrest in Libya, is a cause, it seems.

"Peak Oil" only comes strongly into play if demand is pushing upward fairly rapidly.

And it is.

China has already passed the U.S. in coal use. By 2020, it may pass us in oil consumption.

Since we may well have hit "Peak Oil" three years ago, if China doubles its oil use in a decade or less, that will inevitably put upward pressure on oil, and thus gasoline, prices.

In Canada, where gas prices are fairly similar to those in the U.S., gas is at $5 a gallon in liter equivalents already. That's leading to talk of gas at $2 a liter, or about $7.50 a gallon, being just a year or so away.

In case you think any of that is due to cheap Canadian money, the loonie is trading with the U.S. dollar at rough parity.

So, we could see gas at $5 a gallon in the U.S. heartland a year or so from now, and $6 a gallon in places like New York City and San Francisco.

Now, the one silver lining? Per Rubin's column from Canada, this could mean, if not the end, at least a partial reversal of globalization. He touches on that more in a book, Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization. And, he's not alone. Walmart, when oil prices hit $147 in 2008, was already talking about how some of its supply chain might have to move back from overseas.

That said, U.S. workers wouldn't benefit, in many cases. Mexican maquiladoras would see new spurts ... if U.S. companies could stomach the overhead of armed guards against drug lords.

That then said, such actions could spur Mexico into further disintegration, with major manufacturers extending their security forces outside their factories and creating de facto statelets.

At the same time, don't forget that hear in the U.S. President Obama refused to tackle the need for more regulation of commodities derivatives as part of financial regulation reform. If Peak Oil is here, Enron of a decade ago will seem like nothing.

Trade deficit increases in recession - another 'green shoot'?

Why?

Primary due to rising oil and gas prices.

Why? Wall Street hails this as another sign of recovery, but, maybe it has another reason.

Meet Andrew J. Hall, arguably the king of oil commodities future speculators. It was him and his ilk, in addition to legitimate supply and demand concerns just 12 short months ago, who were probably adding an extra $25/bbl to the price of oil even as we were already officially in a recession and moving deeper into it.

It’s people like him who have caused the recent spike in gas prices, all because Wall Street is less “recessed” than you and I.

Oh, and he wants $100 million from Citigroup for his work, even though Citi got bilions in TARP money from Uncle Sam, aka “you and I.”

Wall Street recovery = gas price speculation

Yep, the bailed-out recovery of folks like bipartisan fleece-meister and Obama financial best buddy Goldman Sachs is why gas prices are rising in the face of an inventory glut.

Oh, and speaking of all that, where is the commodity speculation regulation legislation that was being talked about last year already?

Quo vadis gas prices?

The U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration claims they’ll be the same at the end of September as they are now.

Yeah, right. If you believe that, I have CO2-free Alberta tar sands to sell you.

Especially since OPEC announced today it will not increase output, it wouldn’t surprise me if oil hits $80/bbl by the peak of summer vacationing and is still over $70 at the end of September, putting national gas prices at that time at $2.60/gallon or so.

Why we need a $1-gallon fuel tax increase

ABC offers the worries that plummeting fuel prices could mean a return to 1980s cheap gas and 1980s cheap gas mentalities.

That $1 a gallon, sensibly phased in over five years, would keep Americans of 15-minute mindsets from rushing back to SUVs when the recession lightens.

It would also keep the floor higher for alt-fuels (and, hopefully, alt-fuels besides the ethanol ABC touts in the story).

More on those first two points at HybridCars.

It would fund a massive road-and-bridge repair project.

That, then, would help the economy, right now.

I'll have a newspaper column about this later this week.

Passive Pelosi™ flopping again?

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi supposedly now will allow a House vote on offshore oil drilling.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is going to try to keep a lid on the issue on his side of the Capitol via a continuing spending resolution, but that might not hold up.

Given the amount that oil and gas prices have dropped recently, this is stupid as far as political strategy.

Given the need for an increase in gas taxes, this is stupid policy.

Give Exxon the finger with your own Exxon sign!

Here¹s the backstory.

Here¹s how to do it.

You can obviously see the results.

Naked lady parade request raises issue of ‘tragedy of the commons’

If a lady wanting to go topless in a parade on the Fourth of July offends the commonweal, then, doesn’t driving a Hummer all over doorknob’s green earth offend the commonweal in spades

Schadenfreude — I feel the Tahoe owners’ pain, and laugh

I just don’t give a damn about your self-inflicted pain. The average American SUV owner, in addition to blaming Detroit, Congress and the White House for a lack of fuel policy, not that they’re all not to blame, which they are.

You the SUV driver are ultimately the one to blame. Your belief in American greed, American exceptionalism, and American invasions in the Middle East, along with a willful parochialism which includes a refusal to learn much about the outside world, let alone learn from it what we could be doing better on energy issues, is why your Tahoe now costs $100 to fill up. (Getty images photo original.)

In essence, lured by cheap gas, and five-, six- or even seven-year loans, you willingly signed up for the vehicular equivalent of a subprime mortgage.

And, you’re going to have to deal with it a loooongggg time. As former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond (AP original photo) said:

“By the time there is panic, people need to realize this: There is no quick-fix on this. By the time you panic, it is way too late.”

Oh, and here’s a bit of ironical bitch-slap for you. David H. Obelcz, founder of the Chevy Avalanche Fan Club of North America, has sold his Avalanche.

And, as late as it is, one top-ranking elected official, GOP Sen. Pete Domenci of New Mexico, is admitting he made a mistake in the past:

“We were like everybody else,” he says. “We should have been more active on CAFE sooner.”

Dirty little non-secret, though, is that Pete feels free to say that because he’s retiring.

At the same time, Domenici doesn’t believe GM’s hype about the Volt, or anything else that’s coming from Detroit’s mouth:

“They talked a good research game,” he says. “But let’s face it, little was being done. They are suffering the consequences and could go broke just like the airlines.”

New driving psychology – gallons per mile

Duke University researchers say people would be more fuel-economy conscious if we all, from automakers on down, talked in terms of “gallons per mile” rather than the current “miles per gallon.”

“The reality that few people appreciate is that improving fuel efficiency from 10 to 20mpg is actually a more significant saving than improving from 25mpg to 50mpg for the same distance of driving,” said Richard Larrick.

The story adds that the research findings suggests people who use two different cars equally will always save more on fuel by improving the least efficient car.

And, thus and unwittingly, the state of Texas is onto something. Its program to give owners of old, polluting oil-burners vouchers to get newer, less-polluting cars will also help the gas consumption in the state a fair amount.

Coming soon to a police department near you

A fuel surcharge on speeding tickets.

Holly Springs, Ga., just adopted the idea of a $12 surcharge. Neighboring big city Atlanta says it’s interested in the idea. Other cities are calling Holly Springs.