Let’s Nationalize The Refiners!!

This is how far this country has gone down the looney road, folks. I guess some of our citizens have already forgotten the failed socialist experiments of decades past. No sir, it seems that we need to repeat some of these mistakes, so that we may feel the sting of its boot upon our collective butts. To the fore comes the specter of American style Resource Nationalism—it’s not just for Saudi’s and Russians anymore. Look Chavez, we wanna be just like you!

The taxpayer would, of course, be on the hook (yet again) for the folly that nationalizing the refiners would undoubtedly bring. I suspect that our government would run the refineries with as much efficiency as the post office before semi-privatization and hard competition from Fed Ex and UPS.

Somebody should tell the lady in this video, Malia Lazu (an Obama supporter—what a surprise), that refiners’ profit margins are actually being squeezed by high prices and that nationalizing them will not result in a drop in gas prices. Since most of the cost of a gallon of gasoline comes from crude oil (70-75%) and refining makes up about 10% or so, how exactly does Ms. Lazu believe that a government operation is going to be able to cut that down any more? Refining is a tough and dangerous business with high maintenance costs and heavy environmental regulations to boot. The government wouldn’t know what to do with a refinery except maybe cause a fire.