Oil prices--the doorway to major corporate handouts.

Oil prices have jumped to over $60 a barrel. Wow.

"Prices are striking fresh records amid continued fears that refineries will struggle to turn enough crude oil into heating fuel to meet fourth-quarter demand amid the onset of the northern hemisphere winter."

Oil corporations have always been extremely profitable. They've also been among those who pay the least in federal taxes. And we see what they've NOT been doing with their profits...reinvesting it into the energy industry.

They've been cooling their heels counting their cash while letting the refineries deteriorate more and more. Why? Didn't they know demand would only grow in the future? Hell, of COURSE they did. It's a crisis they NEED. And now they'll soon get. Soon America will be so sick of high gas prices that they'll cave in to any demand by the oil industry that purports to give them relief. And the industry is setting us up now by blaming high prices on limited refinery capability.

So.... the oil corporations will demand (1) massive tax "incentives" and (2) erasure of any and all regulations, so that this self-inflicted "crisis" can be averted with the immediate build-up of refineries. Helluva scam, but it will work.