I lived in Texas for almost 10 years and got to know a lot of people who were close to the oil industry.
It is a complex and fickle world that many get involved in but few understand. The amount of money involved in mind-boggling.
In another lifetime I worked the oilfields of South Texas and the people I worked for bought 18-wheelers, bulldozers, pipe, pickup trucks and machinery daily. They paid me good money and I liked it.
One of the youngest guys on our crew - a college boy - made six figures. I’m sure those wages have not gone down.
But higher education called and a first-love for journalism brought me back to the newspaper business like a moth to a flame.
Years later I returned to a town just south of Fort Worth to start a newspaper for my company.
I found out quickly the business of energy is always big news in Texas. Windfarms, fracking the Barnett Shale, natural gas fueled turbines that spun generators that kept the lights on in Dallas and solar energy are all stories I covered at the start of this century.
I also got to know an older man who had oil on his property. He told me when the price of a barrel of oil went over $74 dollars he turned on his pumps. He also said that in 18-months of steady pumping he would make $1 million dollars.
He said petroleum is used to make or move just about everything in this world. He pointed out the ink on this page is made out of oil.
The price
I’ve never figured out how they set the price of gasoline. You can talk about the war in Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East, high-tech drilling that makes old oil fields productive and pipelines from Canada to refineries in Houston, Texas.
Some like to simplify it and say it is supply and demand and how much people are willing to pay.
Some want to talk politics and policy set in Washington.
But it is so much more complex than that.
I firmly believe it’s set in boardrooms around this great country and driven by capitalism.
Let’s take a look around. Why was gasoline $4 in Clarksdale just a couple of weeks ago and $3.50 in Batesville?
Like I said there are people who have this figured out. Most of us don’t have a clue.
What we pay
I understand a local farmer had his tractor worked on in Batesville recently and was towing it on a trailer back to Clarksdale.
He pulled in that Batesville gas station and that wise old agri-businessman decided to take advantage of the price difference.
“I want this Dr. Pepper, three tater logs and the rest in gasoline,” he said as he laid two, $100 dollar bills on the counter.
He filled up his tummy, his truck and tractor all at the same time.
Like I said, there are people who have this figured out.
What you pay
There is a story on Page 2 of your Clarksdale Press Register about Clarksdale Public Utilities explaining the high cost of energy and their decision to help people with high energy bills this summer.
Please understand CPU buys that electricity somewhere, and just like you and me, they have been hit with high energy bills. Their energy bill last month was 371-percent higher than it was two years ago.
Like I said the price for energy is set by people sitting around a boardroom table.
I’m glad our CPU commissioners had the heart and compassion to help people with this summer’s electric bills.
These are the same men who set up a reserve fund for a rainy day -- or in the case of Clarksdale a 100-degree month of July. They are to be commended for their foresight and decision this week.
Sara and I paid a $600 electricity bill on Monday. We used that electricity, we owed it, and we paid it.
I wish people understood that electricity, healthcare, and the food they buy at the grocery with an EBT card are not American rights and someone has to pay for those items.
It looks like CPU, our hospitals and the Ingrams are running out of money.
The problems this country and this community face are not simple ones. I hope someone has it figured out.
Floyd Ingram is the Editor of your Clarksdale Press Register. Please drop by his office at 128 East Second Street and help him figure it out.
