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MiggySmalls6767 t1_iwpuscz wrote

Reply to comment by ArbitraryOrder in Eversource customers could face another rate hike as utility tries to lock in new contract by netnothing

The issue being the companies who run the refineries have decided it’s more profitable for them to not reopen, thus causing this realistically artificial inflation in the prices. Why pay more for the operation of more refineries when you can simply Jack up the costs on the consumers?

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SkiingAway t1_iwq9tdu wrote

The issue is that refineries are expensive and take a long time to build/reopen/expand. This means that any big investment you make is going to take a while to earn back it's costs.

Energy companies see the writing on the wall for the oil market, and that even if right now we've got a little rise in demand (vs the pandemic) we're likely looking at demand being in a long-term death spiral.

Many parts of the world and many US states are looking to outright ban new sales of fossil fuel vehicles within 10-15 years, and even in places that don't it's likely there will be an ever-increasing share of the market eaten up by electric vehicles. Elsewhere, there's a concerted push to switch away from oil/gas for household use and electric generation.

Even if you've got expensive gas right now, when they believe in 5 years they're going to be needing to close refineries/cut capacity, and will be in that downward spiral for decades, there's no reason to want to expand now.

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MiggySmalls6767 t1_iwqq3dd wrote

All the more reason to move our energy off the oil tit!

But I suppose back to the OG post… oil companies deciding it’s not worth it for them has nothing to do with Dems. It’s corporate decision making. Adverse to customers but better for their bottom Dollar.

That’s pretty much this whole inflation thing in a nutshell 😂

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