Are you getting resentful at the oil companies because of their enormous profits? Do you want them to be knocked down a peg? Well, ethanol may be the key.
It seems that ethanol output in the U.S. will be 33 percent higher over last year and could help to lower oil profits.
Ethanol usage is expected to grow to 11.3 billion gallons a year -- 33 percent higher than 2007, but 20 percent below analysts’ forecasts. Regardless, the growth is enough to worry the oil execs who are raking in major profits at the moment.
Our take? Let's get real here. The report's a sham. Do you really think the oil companies are worried about ethanol? Not only is the biofuel in big trouble with, ironically, environmentalists, but all the oil companies would have to do is increase the oil supplies briefly to lower gas prices to get consumers and, more importantly, the government off their backs.
Oil companies greatest fear would be if the U.S. government decided to open the tap to the vast oil reserves currently in storage. Faced with such an act would immediately have them scrambling to lower prices to gouge as much profit as possible before such huge supplies force them to lower prices.
And what are the chances of the government doing such a thing? Probably as great a chance as there being a female president this term.