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Editorial: Endangered Species -- May We Ask Why?
May 2nd, 2007

Editorial: Editorial: a Free Press
April 21st, 2007

Editorial: Airboat Noise
April 7th, 2007

Editorial: Another Delay in Dock Repair
March 5th, 2007

Editorial: Are Some Technological Wonders Economically Impractical?
February 27th, 2007

Editorial: Editorial: Weakest Tax Link Examined
December 22nd, 2006

Editorial: A New Year`s Resolution -- For the Levy County Commission
December 10th, 2006

Editorial: Political Tides
November 17th, 2006

Editorial: Blue Pencil Needed on Levy County Budget
October 30th, 2006

Editorial: Fiscal Incompetence?
October 2nd, 2006

Editorial: Paddlers May Get Hit in Pocket
September 18th, 2006

Editorial: Time for Another Cedar Key Tea Party?
August 30th, 2006

Editorial: Automotive Turning Point
August 11th, 2006

Editorial: Are There Limits to Southern Hospitality?
July 24th, 2006

Editorial: Armadillos and Anthros
July 9th, 2006

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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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