Good for consumers, but who are the losers ( besides the refiners, of course)? Kloza considers the bankers, like Amex for example. Charge, baby, charge!

As for more to come:

The folly of putting a price on what it takes for companies to bring a barrel of crude to market has been illustrated many times in the last few months. The “average” price of one of the 87-million barrels per day of crude that get processed by refiners is a mystery. It can vary from a few dollars per barrel for older mature and incredibly successful fields to something closer to $60-$70 bbl in the tar sands or other harsh and brutal landscapes.

- There are many very capable and dedicated people at the Energy Information Administration (EIA). But EIA forecast an average 2009 crude price of $126 bbl last June, and then revised it lower to $112 bbl a month or so ago. This week, they revised it lower to $63 bbl. There is futility in issuing a long term forecast on something that is mostly dependent on human behavior. Be happy that EIA’s precision instruments are not being used to put siding on your house.

Looks like lower.

One of the questions he was asked by Steve Kroft was about whether his priorities have changed with regard to energy independence, since the price of gas has come down dramatically. Far-sighted Obama answers:

(CBS) Kroft: When the price of oil was at $147 a barrel, there were a lot of spirited and profitable discussions that were held on energy independence. Now you’ve got the price of oil under $60.

Mr. Obama: Right.

Kroft: Does doing something about energy is it less important now than…

Kroft: Why?

Mr. Obama: Well, because this has been our pattern. We go from shock to trance. You know, oil prices go up, gas prices at the pump go up, everybody goes into a flurry of activity. And then the prices go back down and suddenly we act like it’s not important, and we start, you know filling up our SUVs again.

And, as a consequence, we never make any progress. It’s part of the addiction, all right. That has to be broken. Now is the time to break it.

It’s more important than ever.

Daniel Gross purports that even though GM, Ford & Chrysler deserve to get their just desserts in the US free-market economy, there are plenty of reasons not to allow them to fail.

The corporate triage of Chapter 11 bankruptcy is way too complicated for GM,for example. Their place in the supply chain would send hundreds of other companies into Chapter 11. That and losing 3 million jobs nationwide, as well as MI basically sinking into the lake.

Recent experience shows that for auto companies, Chapter 11 is like the Hotel California. You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave. Auto parts supplier Delphi filed for Chapter 11 in October 2005 and still languishes there.

And we don’t know about you, but there is a certain reluctance on our part to buy a car from a company that might not be around for the first 3000 mi. oil change.

The failure of the American automotive industry—and let’s be honest, it has basically failed—is a matter of public policy. If the Big Three can be saved, they can be saved only by government

OPEC is trying to take oil off the market to keep pace with deteriorating demand.

An OPEC official said the 13-member states would meet in Cairo Nov. 29 on the sidelines of a previously planned meeting for Arab members of the group.

The official asked not to be named because the Vienna-based organization is not issuing a formal statement.

The hastily arranged meeting comes just weeks ahead of a previously set Dec. 17 gathering in Oran, Algeria.

Just not enough demand for the current supply.

Natural gas and heating oil futures also down.

The national ave. for gas down to $2.152/gal per AAA auto club, OPIS & Wright Express. This is close to a whopping $1 less than it was last month.

Is this a slippery slope? What will be the next industry with its proverbial hand out?

Those are not illegitimate concerns obviously,” said Dodd, “And you want to put conditions on any resources provided to an industry that hasn’t managed itself very well, but its not going to serve any of our interests if a major automobile manufacturer goes out of business between now and Jan. 20th if we could step in and keep them vibrant, we might allow them to survive.”

To us this actually sounds like good news for autos. A bailout could happen.