Gas Up . . .

 . . . before gas is up.

Trump's war on Iran has caused gasoline prices to start climbing, and the Iranians have closed the Strait of Hormuz that separates the Persian Gulf from the Arabian Sea.  This strait, one of the narrowest maritime bottlenecks in the world, is the only way Arab oil can get out into the world because that's where the Persian Gulf is from where the Gulf states ship their oil exports.

Which is very inconvenient for people who own a Ford Expedition.

Or just about any other sport utility vehicle on the market today.

Of course, if you have a Honda Civic, you'll get off easier.  Maybe not by much, but you'll still be able to drive by a gasoline station and honk your horn in merriment while some guy is blowing 140 bucks to fill the gas tank in his Chevrolet Tahoe.  

But if you prefer to try to save money on gasoline, no matter what vehicle you own, you'd better be prepared for spending more money on gas and liking it, because mass transit, never very comprehensive in most of These States, has been contracting and cratering of late.  As I noted on this blog, it's almost impossible to take a bus into new York City from parts of northern New Jersey.

No matter . . . given how long and protracted this oil shock will be - because even though the U.S. is a leading oil producer, the closing of the Strait of Hormuz raises oil prices everywhere, because it's a global commodity, and they won't drop for a long time even if the war in Iran is over tomorrow - that means that the era of the sport utility vehicle and the daily-driver pickup truck is almost over.

It's too bad that General Motors and Ford don't have any existing car platforms, especially in the compact segment, to replace the light trucks and crossovers that are suddenly going to be even more hard to sell than they already are.  Stellantis may be able to retool its American factories with cars based on Opel and Peugeot platforms. 

And I have one question to ask of Volkswagen . . .

VW?  Can we have the Polo here now?  Pleeeeeeeeeeeeez???? 

Royal Pain

It was once said that there would come a day there would only be five kings that would matter - the king of clubs, the king of hearts, the king of spades, the king of diamonds, and the king of Great Britain.  King Charles III may matter somewhat, having just assumed the British throne at a time when Britain is undergoing an economic crisis and the Commonwealth is getting restless, but there is a sixth king that matters, a king that matters more than Charles.

Actually, Mohammed bin Salman isn't the king of Saudi Arabia yet, but as the country's crown prince and prime minister and the regent in light of his father's frailty,  he is king in all but name.  And his lust for power is becoming more apparent before he's even assumed the throne.

Mohammed bin Salman has already attacked rebels in Yemen, cracked down on feminists, assassinated Jamal Khashoggi, tapped Jeff Bezos's phone, and entered into an alliance with Russia.  Now, as a key player in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in concert with OPEC+, a consortium of non-OPEC oil exporters that includes Russia, the crown prince has kicked the United States in the fanny.  After President Biden met with Mohammed bin Salman this past summer to maintain high oil production to keep prices low, Saudi Arabia has moved to cut production drastically - by two million barrels a day - and thus increase gasoline prices.

The Saudis and OPEC say that this production cut is meant to stabilize prices after radical swings back and forth, and that may be part of it.  But it also noncoincidentally allows Vladimir Putin to bring in more oil revenues to fund his war in Ukraine and, as MSNBC's Ali Velshi noted, hurts President Biden and the Democrats going into 2022 midterms.  The Saudis made out like bandits when Trump was President, making a lot of sweetheart deals with Trump and his family, and they also profited handsomely during George Walker Bush's administration despite the fact that Saudi nationals, including the late and decidedly unlamented Osama bin Laden, were involved in 9/11.  Biden is no friend of Big Oil, as his administration moves to supplement and eventually replace gasoline-powered vehicles with electric ones and cut back on fossil-fuel consumption to slow climate change.

And if and when the Republicans win back power in Washington, they're likely to crate a repressive, authoritarian society not unlike what Saudi Arabia has now.       

Congressional Democrats have had enough of trying to please Saudi Arabia with arms sales and military protection and are ready to pull the plug.  That will help weaken the Saudis, but until we have more plentiful alternative forms of energy for transportation, we have to do something about rising gas prices.  Biden has already said he'll release ten million more barrels of oil.  American oil companies, the same Big Oil Biden has demonized, have offered to increase production to offset OPEC production cuts. Kevin McCarthy has encouraged people to vote Republican as a sure way to make that happen.

No one dares suggest dumping our SUVs and getting automakers to supply the market with small cars like, ahem, the Volkswagen Polo.    

Uh, Mary Barra, doesn't GM still make small cars in China that you could bring over here in a pinch? Jim Farley, didn't Ford say it could being the Focus and Fiesta back here if the situation called for it? Toshihiro Mibe - yeah, you, pal! - how about re-introducing the Honda Fit here?  My mother has one and she loves it!  😡   

Foot Off the Gas

President Biden imposed a long-awaited ban on Russian oil imports to cut off an important source of revenue for Russian President Vladimir Putin to finance his invasion of Ukraine.  Biden had not only done this with bipartisan support but with majority support among the voting public . . . even though, even before the ban  on Russian oil imports, gas prices were already beginning to look like this!

I, for one, approve of President Biden's move, for two reasons.  First of all, it will cause even more economic hardship for Putin than it will for American consumers as he tries to keep his war machine going.

Second of all, it will finally get these goddamned mothertruckin' SUVs off the road! 

Yes! Yes! Revenge is mine!

Oh, yeah, don't expect your friendly neighborhood Lukoil gas station to be around for long.

Drilling For Ignorance

Maybe it's time for Republicans to lighten up on the energy debate.

With gasoline prices rising again, Republican presidential candidates are accusing President Obama of not doing enough to get prices in the opposite direction, suich as drilling for more oil. Obama shot back today in Miami, pointing out that his administration has drilled, baby, drilled - all over the place, with drilling increasing fourfold since he took office in January 2009. But with demand for oil in countries like China and India rising, Obama points out, gasoline prices are bound to go up based on global market demand. And generous subsidies still keep gasoline half as expensive as it is in European countries. If gasoline were sold in the United States at prices genuinely based on the free market that Republicans worship, we'd be paying as much as the French and the Germans.

Republicans, of course, are going to ignore these stubborn facts. They will also ignore the huge profits oil companies are raking in, as well as the fact that the U.S. now exports more oil than it imports - qualifying us for OPEC membership. They'll continue to insist on two-dollar-per-gallon gas. Of course, if we hadn't gotten addicted to big cars, if we had more mass transit, if Republican governors didn't keep canceling high-speed rail projects (as has happened twice in Florida in the past fifteen years), if more people could walk to work, and if more people could bike to work, as the mayor of Montclair, New Jersey does, how likely would Republicans even be starting conversations based on such asinine talking points? As I type, the House is pushing for dedicated spending for highways only, and mass transit projects like the Second Avenue Subway in New York City are aberrations rather than norm in this country.

Texas populist Jim Hightower once said that if ignorance were as valuable as oil, he'd want drilling rights on George Bush's head. He was referring to the elder George Bush. But if ignorance were as valuable as oil, the combined heads of both George Bushes wouldn't even pay half as many dividends as those of the four remaining candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

By the way, I have a message for those who bitch about high gas prices but won't ride a bus: Get a subcompact. You'll find a subcompact more nimble and fun than your SUV. Get a Chevrolet Sonic, and help an American autoworker keep his job.