Houston may face gasoline shortages (Also East Coast, TX, Summer)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3677520.html

The East Coast and Texas regions -- including Houston -- that use reformulated gasoline may face local supply disruptions and price spikes at the pump later this year as oil refineries switch to blending the motor fuel with ethanol, the government's top energy forecasting agency warned today.

The government in May will no longer require refineries to use in gasoline oxygenates like MTBE, banned in many states for polluting drinking water supplies. Some oil companies are being sued for using the additive.

Many refineries, worried they could be held liable, plan to stop using MTBE, known as methyl tertiary butyl ether, and instead switch to cleaner-burning ethanol that is made mostly from corn.

However, the federal Energy Information Administration said U.S. ethanol production is running near capacity and "is not adequate to replace the MTBE lost at this time."

[tanyev]

1. All those SUV drivers in Houston better start looking for carpools.

[BrainRants]

2. Sorry, my sympathy meter isn't working for Texas.

You keep voting for the oil man, get him to fix it while he's vacationing down there.

[phantom power]

4. What's that pop country song...

my give-a-damn's busted!

[babylonsister]

5. Might I remind you that I'd venture to say there's no one on

this board living in TX who voted for the POS. Just a thought...

[RamboLiberal]

11. Yeah but they also said East Coast

And there's a helluva lot of Blue State DU'ers in these states. I'm in PA.

[babylonsister]

14. Yeah, but the poster I responded to was slurring people in

Texas. That gets old.

[Paladin]

15. It Sure As Hell Does Get Old

Seems like the one acceptable form of bigotry in DU is Texas-bashing. Keep in mind that there is a huge number of loyal Texas Democrats, some of whom post here regularly---me, for instance.

A few months ago, there was an anti-gay provision voted on in Texas. Unfortunately, it passed---but 536,000 of us voted against it. Think about that, the next time you're tempted to shit-can an entire state, alright?

[ninkasi]

16. I know what you mean, babylonsister

I live just south of Conroe, and every time something affects Texas negatively, I cringe to see my fellow DUers delighting in our misery. The same can be said, though, for most states, and I guess people are just so fed up with Bush that they forget that those of us adamantly opposed to him suffer along with the Bush voters.

[babylonsister]

17. Hey, neighbor! I live south of Hobby!

Do you ever go to the TX forum? Lots of info on there, Re: primaries and candidates for this year's elections! :hi:

[ninkasi]

18. No, I haven't, but it sounds like I need to!

I think we're going to make some gains this year here in Texas!:hi: :hi:

[babylonsister]

19. Well, so you don't forget, here ya go!

Beware of passionate, liberal Texans who are fighting for those gains!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=180

[AnneD]

9. Got news for you...

Houston and Austin are Blue and Texas is more purple than given credit. I have the honour of NEVER EVER voting for a Bush. We make Bush's life miserable in Crawford and his fundraisers always have a nice side walk turnout. Don't paint us all with the same brush. This will hurt because DeLay has always tried to cut funding for mass transit. Consequently we have poor transit and this will hurt the poor more than the SUV drivers (does that fix your givadamn).
We may even be able to send DEM's to Congress in spite of redistricting-we are working hard. Remember, it was our DEM's that left the state in order to try and prevent quorum. We tried to warn you folks about this.

[WI_DEM]

3. Gas shortages and high prices won't help the GOP in November

so that is one silver lining.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

7. I'll gladly cut down on my driving

if it means taking a few R's with me.

[KamaAina]

6. Ethanol production near capacity? Weren't we going to switch to it?

as a fuel, that is, not just an additive? That's what Bush** said, anyway. He even managed to croak out the word "cellulosic" without gagging! Wonder if Mr. Cheney let him ride the Segway after that? :sarcasm:

Seriously, how can we think seriously about ethanol fuel if we can't even make enough to use as an additive?

[hatrack]

8. Whassup with that? I thought The Magic Fuel would solve all our problems

Guess Chimpy's patented photo-op science project isn't working out as well as he thought it would.

[Mithras61]

12. How 'bout a new slogan...

"Thunderbird... It's not just for drunks anymore!"

:D

[lovuian]

10. It maybe a disruption but its for a worthy cause and its about

time!!!

[roguevalley]

13. this is going to bite the fuckers in the ass at election time. I hope

we don't have that problem up here. We are spread way apart.