U.S. Energy Dept warns of possible gas shortage by July?

Wanna hear a funny story?

Okay. "Gas prices--already at record levels--are expected to climb even higher, because large refineries in the northeast U.S. are having to close." (Story behind paywall. Copy here, from Fox.)

You may wonder why, if gas prices are at record levels, a company would be closing a refinery. You'd think profits would be soaring just as prices are, so they'd all be at full throttle.

Well, according to the WSJ the problem is that east coast refineries get most of their crude oil from overseas, and it's slightly more expensive than oil from the U.S. Since refinery profit margins have always been thin (surprised to hear that?), refineries in the midwest can deliver gasoline to the northeast that costs just a bit less. Thus the eastern refineries are being priced out of the market.

Yeah, I know it doesn't seem all that logical--because when gas runs short, you just know the price is gonna climb by at least a buck a gallon.

Then what will happen is that northeastern gas retailers will up their prices first--and the more affluent northeasterners will pay whatever is asked. That will produce shortages in the energy-rich midwest and southwest, as product flows to the highest bidder.

And the socialists/Dems/liberals/"progressives" will scream "It's a conspiracy!!!"

"It's dose eeeevil Rethuglicans!!"

"It's all Bush's fault!!"

"See? Capitalism punishes the little guy, so we need to destroy it!!"

"If only the Rethuglicans had cooperated with Barack, everything would be fine!! I mean, look how their insisting on Keystone totally forced Barack and his State Department to take time out to examine all the environmental issues again."