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| Cliff Harris |
A hurricane in the gulf (or a war) could spell $200 oil
I continue to receive numerous phone calls and e-mails in response to my recent 'Gems' articles predicting that crude oil prices may someday reach an incredible $200-a-barrel. I would not be surprised to see gasoline soar to $5.50 to $6.00-a-gallon at the pump. A 200 gallon tank of home heating oil could eventually surpass $1,000.
Just this past Friday morning, crude oil prices approached an all-time high of $128-a-barrel on the NYMEX in New York City after the Saudis told President Bush that they saw "no reason to raise oil production at this time." (Talk about GREED!!!)
A long-time Coeur d'Alene Press subscriber asked me this week if I was in favor of suspending the federal gas tax during the summer months. My answer is "NO."
Bob, there are three main reasons why I'm against it.
#1: Suspending the federal gas tax would actually cost American taxpayers more money as it would merely transfer funds from our pocketbooks to the already super-rich oil companies and the incredibly greedy oil-producing nations, including OPEC.
#2: Any disruptions of available crude oil supplies or critical refinery production and stocks, perhaps from a war breaking out in the Mideast or elsewhere, or a major hurricane destroying vital oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico later this summer or fall, could easily encourage the oil companies to quickly replace the gas tax savings by raising crude oil prices to $150, $160, or possibly, even $200-a-barrel, especially if the U.S. Dollar remains extremely weak cutting their investment profits in this country.
#3: It's my not-so-humble opinion that this gas tax suspension is just another 'political ploy' by both parties favored this election year by Hillary Clinton and John McCain amongst others. Besides, suspending the gas tax, even for only the summer months, would severely deplete the Highway Trust Fund that we've supposedly set up to repair roads and bridges across America that are reportedly "in horrible shape."
This is a LOSE, LOSE situation, pure and simple. One major Gulf of Mexico hurricane could spell D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R.
NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND SUMMER OUTLOOK
Whatever happened to SPRING?
In just a matter of a few short days, we went from wintry snows to scorching summer heat. All the trees and flowers in my backyard bloomed simultaneously in less than 48 hours! I've never seen anything like it.
Early this past week, we had well below normal temperatures with morning lows near freezing and light frosts with afternoon maximum readings only in the mid 50s.
By Friday afternoon, however, temperatures soared to 85 degrees in Coeur d'Alene, the first day in the summery 80s in more than 8 months, since September 14, 2007, to be exact.
Saturday afternoon was even hotter with a high of 90 degrees at 3:18 p.m. This was our first high of 90 degrees or above since September 3, 2007, the last such 'Sholeh Day' of 31 logged during the hot and dry summer of 2007.
The 90 degrees on Saturday was not a record locally for May 17. Just two years ago in 2006, we reached 93 degrees on Player Drive on that date. It was 95 degrees in Hayden.
But, there have been other cities in the Pacific Northwest that have set new record highs this mid-May, including Salem, Oregon, where the mercury soared on Friday, May 16 to an incredible 99 degrees, the hottest temperature that Salem had ever seen so early in the season.
Believe it or not, Medford, Oregon reached 102 degrees last Friday, likewise a new record maximum for this early in the season. Triple-digit readings were also observed throughout the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys of interior Northern and Central California.
It's no wonder that we've seen widespread lowland flooding in many areas west of the Rockies in the past several days, including the Cataldo region of North Idaho.
Things should quickly cool back down to normal or even below normal mid-to-late May readings, though, as this next week progresses. It's likely that afternoon high temperatures by Wednesday and Thursday will be lucky to reach 65 degrees. Morning lows by late this week may dip into the upper 30s, so cover those sensitive plants just to be safe.
Along with the cooler temperatures, there will be occasional showers and isolated thunderstorms. It doesn't appear as if these rains will be heavy enough at this time to cause additional lowland flood problems. But, the continued melting of this past winter's record late season snowpacks combined with heavy downpours could spell even higher crests on area rivers than we witnessed this past scorching weekend. As always, stay tuned to local media updates.
Longer-term, early-to-mid June is still likely to be both cooler and wetter than usual for the late spring season. But, late June through mid-September will undoubtedly be warm to hot and mostly dry. I'll have more Summer of 2008 details next week.
DRILL NOW wrote on May 23, 2008 7:02 PM:
How hard is it for you to understand that the earth has had natural fluctuations in temp since creation. Most related to the sun's cycles.
Drill what? How about super massive 200 billion barrel oil field the Bakken Formation in North Dakota, from Nextgen news 2/13/08.
Up to 15 billion in the Gulf of Mexico, from Wash Post 9/2006.
With your outlook I would start drinking heavily.
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