Link to article here.
At this point, you don’t have to be an economist to connect the dots and realize that toll roads with gas prices this high and rising with no end in sight, are NOT sustainable, will go belly-up, and will require a massive taxpayer bailout like Bear Stearns! TxDOT’s own studies show toll roads aren’t financially viable if gas hits $3 a gallon, yet they continue to promote this plan they already know is a financial house of cards.
There’s an economic perfect storm brewing, and those involved in sticking it to the taxpayers aren’t going to fair well when we’re already seeing rioting in the streets over food prices (driven up by ethanol production and higher transportation costs, ie – gas prices) in parts of the world. The elites want a global economy, now they’ve got one. How long before Americans have to hit the streets in protest? When we’re starving? We have a government derelict in its duty with regards to energy independence and trade policy that is allowing the cost of living to rise so high so fast we’ll become a third world nation if the people don’t put a stop to it!
Crude oil at new high just above $114; gas also at a record
Tuesday, April 15
By Adam Schreck, AP Business Writer
Crude oil prices reach a new high above $114; gas prices also reach a record at the pump NEW YORK (AP) — Energy traders rewrote the record books again Tuesday, pushing oil futures past $114 a barrel as gasoline and diesel prices struck new highs of their own at the pump.Light, sweet crude for May delivery jumped as high as $114.08 a barrel shortly after regular trading ended on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That is nearly $2 above an intraday high set last week.
Concerns about insufficient global supply, stoked by a high-profile report by the International Energy Agency that said Russian oil production dropped this year for the first time in a decade, was largely responsible for the surge. Oil prices rose as high as $113.99 a barrel during the regular session before settling at $113.79, up $2.03 from Monday’s record close of $111.76 a barrel.
“In an emotionally driven market like we’ve got now, it just doesn’t take much in the way of a headline to prompt a psychological response,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Ill.
Prices at the pump also charged ahead. Retail gasoline prices rose to a new average national record of $3.386, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices were highest in California, where mid-range and higher grades are now averaging more than $4 a gallon.
Diesel prices at the pump jumped to $4.119 a gallon, also a record, setting the stage for even higher prices on food and other goods transported by truck, ship and rail.
Prices are widely expected to keep rising as summer approaches. Gasoline futures jumped by nearly 6 cents to finish at a settlement record of $2.881. That is less than a nickel below the all-time intraday high for the benchmark contract that was set as Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005.
“Unfortunately, we do expect the price of gasoline, and probably diesel as well, are going to escalate as long as the price of oil keeps moving higher,” said Geoff Sundstrom, a fuel price analyst for AAA.
Oil’s recent run above $100 a barrel has been largely attributed to a steadily depreciating dollar, because the weakness prompts investors to seek a safe haven in hard commodities such as oil and gold. The greenback strengthened marginally against the euro Tuesday afternoon, but still remains near all-time lows against the 15-nation currency.
The oil report from the IEA — the Paris-based energy watchdog for industrialized countries — said Russia, the world’s biggest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, averaged 10 million barrels per day from January through March, down 1 percent from 2007. That is the first time production has failed to exceed previous-year figures since 1998.
Artyom Konchin, an analyst with Russian investment bank Aton Capital, attributed Russia’s oil supply lull to high taxes and insufficient reinvestment into infrastructure.
“It’s not that we don’t have enough oil,” he said. “We just don’t have enough capital going into developing the fields.”
Crude prices were also supported by reports of a number of supply disruptions.
Attracting the most attention was the closure of Mexico’s three main oil-exporting ports on the Gulf Coast because of bad weather starting Sunday. Only one of the ports remained closed Tuesday, according to Mexico’s Communications and Transportation Department.
The department issued a bulletin Tuesday morning that the Pacific oil port of Salina Cruz also had been closed because of strong wind and high waves, although that terminal is not a major supplier for the U.S.
“It just shows you how fragile the oil markets are,” Sundstrom said.
In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures surged by 7.1 cents to settle at $3.2739 gallon, while natural gas futures spiked 15.2 cents to settle at $10.212 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, May Brent crude rose $1.47 to settle at $111.31 on the ICE Futures exchange.
Associated Press Writers George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, Gillian Wong in Singapore, and Jessica Bernstein-Wax in Mexico City contributed to this report.
The Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation announced yesterday that the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) would hand over $20 million in gas tax funds to help build a 5.2 acre park near downtown Dallas. The $67 million park is intended to serve as a model public-private partnership with a restaurant, a children’s playground and a dog park. It will have no roads.