Remember all the fuss raised in mainstream and blogospheric media outlets when oil prices were bumping up against $100/barrel recently?
I note that apparently only bad news merits attention. I haven’t noticed too much being said in those same outlets about recent developments.
From the AP:
Oil prices fell Thursday in Asia, extending an overnight decline of more than US$1 a barrel after the U.S. government reported unexpectedly large jumps in stockpiles of crude and gasoline and a surprise increase in stocks of heating oil.
Coming amid anxiety about the U.S. economy’s health, and concerns that demand for oil and gasoline is falling, the inventory report reinforced a growing view that oil and petroleum product supplies are adequate.
Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell 16 cents to US$86.98 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midafternoon in Singapore. The contract fell US$1.27 to settle at US$87.14 a barrel in Wednesday’s floor session.
Please note, however, that this improvement in the backdrop of oil prices shouldn’t give license for folks to stop making (or at least considering making) some conservation-minded changes in their daily lives.
Even if you don’t believe in global warming or the peak oil crises, there are still plenty of good reasons to live a more conservation-minded lifestyle.
(I accept global warming and peak oil concerns, but not to the extent that some of the green crowd would like. Of course, that may be because I understand that normal variability can mask subtle changes, and because I appreciate the tendency for issues to be over-magnified when framed in the language of activist hysteria.)