Imagine if only 33% of airplanes landed???...this seems outrageously high.


~snip~ Oil refineries across the country have been plagued by a record number of fires, power failures, leaks, spills and breakdowns this year, causing dozens of them to shut down temporarily or trim production. The disruptions are helping to drive gasoline prices to highs not seen since last summer’s records.

These mechanical breakdowns, which one analyst likened to an “invisible hurricane,” have created a bottleneck in domestic energy supplies, helping to push up gasoline prices 50 cents this year to well above $3 a gallon. A third of the country’s 150 refineries have reported disruptions to their operations since the beginning of the year, a record according to analysts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/business/22refine.html?hp

I agree, it's all staged all the time.

by repairing shit to keep the costs down..

Refining potential is definitely a national security issue that cannot, in good stewardship, be left in the hands of private, for- profit companies. It is obvious from the current situation that private industry cannot (will not) guarantee our country a sufficient, affordable supply of gasoline. Therefore our governemnt -- in the interest of national security, national economy and national morale -- should take steps to insure that our refinery capability is never again diminished by accident or sabatoge or, especially, by obsolescence.

That means we need to nationize the refining of petroleum -- or, at least, to establish refineries that are owned by the people which -- in times of refinery shortages like the ones we are seeing -- could be brought online to keep the nation running smoothly.

There is a reason that communism catches on in some places. That reason is rampant, remorseless, heartless capitalism.

Just a suggestion

when you don't get hurricanes you do something like having a hurricane.

None of this would

EVER

happened when Clinton was president.