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January 31, 2009

Gas prices about to go up?

Topics: Oil
How else to interpret the effect of refinery workers going on strike?

HOUSTON -- Some 24,000 refinery workers from the Gulf of Mexico to Montana are preparing to head to the picket lines.

A labor agreement expires at midnight Saturday. On Thursday, union negotiators turned down the third and latest offer of a 2.5 percent wage increase for each of the next three years, in addition to changes in medical coverage.

A strike would affect 60 producers, according to the United Steelworkers, which represents more than 30,000 oil workers nationwide.

The nation's biggest refiner, Valero, said it will shut down some facilities if workers strike, as will European oil company BP.

Shell Oil Co., the lead negotiator for the industry, along with Exxon Mobil, said its refineries will continue to make gasoline, diesel and other fuels using nonunion or replacement workers.

The impasse comes with refiners already cutting back production. Industry experts are divided over whether a strike would hit the pocketbooks of motorists.

With the economy already hitting the pocketbooks of consumers, the last thing we need is for gas prices to go up. And this in the face of politicians like Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. saying that every gallon of gas should cost $1 more, so Americans buy less and the country imports less foreign-made oil. This guy obviously doesn't have to pay for his gas to drive to work.

Posted by Hyscience at January 31, 2009 8:19 PM

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• Gas prices about to go up? - Jan 31, 2009