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Editorial: Help Elect Cedar Key News` Board of Directors
April 13th, 2003

Editorial: Cedar Key News: A Progress Report
March 11th, 2003

Editorial: Mercedes Meets the Mud
February 28th, 2003

Editorial: Happy New Year to All
December 29th, 2002

Editorial: Letter to the Editor - Thank You C.K. Police for Doing Your Job
December 15th, 2002

Editorial: Poll Results: Fact, Fiction, or Propaganda?
December 4th, 2002

Editorial: WANTED
November 27th, 2002

Editorial: 1,2,3,4 What Are We Fighting For?
October 10th, 2002

Editorial: Do We Really Want Law Enforcement in Cedar Key?
August 15th, 2002

Editorial: Levy County Emergency Management
July 26th, 2002

Editorial: We Have Our Own Heroes
July 17th, 2002

Editorial: Take a Little Time!
July 3rd, 2002

Editorial: Water Management District Trying Its Best
June 26th, 2002

Editorial: Bribery and Misuse of Public Office
June 25th, 2002

Editorial: Police Officer`s Improper Conduct Case Fades Away
June 24th, 2002

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Will Gas Prices Go Up?

Will Gas Prices Go Up?

Editorial

NOAA's prediction for the 2006 hurricane season will be announced May 22. Meanwhile, researchers at Colorado State University have concluded that we'll have seventeen hurricanes, with five of them in the severe category. Seventeen is an increase of six over the 2005 season.

Oil production in 2005 was reduced because oil wells and refineries along the Gulf Coast suffered hurricane damage. Twenty percent of the production is still down. When oil supplies are down gas prices go up. Political instability in Venezuela, Nigeria and Iraq has made oil supply even tighter. Lately a barrel of oil sells for over $70.00. A long range estimate of demand for oil includes more demand from China and India where the economies are booming.

Irrespective of the need to reduce fossil fuel consumption, the oil companies are doing very well. The return on shareholder equity in 2005 for Chevron was 22.5%, BP, 22.0%: Exxon-Mobil, 30.5%. Projections for 2006 indicate another good year for oil companies. That suggests that the profit motive combined with hurricanes and political unrest in the oil producing countries explains high gasoline prices at the pump.

At $3.00 a gallon for gasoline, a round trip from Cedar Key to Chiefland takes $6.00 to $10.00 worth of gas. Round trips from Gainesville to Cedar Key for a seafood dinner require about $14.00 for gas. Even if the hurricanes miss Cedar Key (and they usually do) we feel them at the gas pump.

The good news is that tax payers won't have to bail out the oil companies from bankruptcy. The bad news is that one needs to save $6.00 to justify a trip to the Chiefland WalMart. The recommendation of Cedar Key News is a careful look at the EPA estimate of gas mileage on the sticker next to the price tag when buying a new vehicle.

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