Word: petroleum
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...pandering. The cycle goes something like this. Some aggrieved group begins to complain: gas prices are too high, beef prices too low, liability insurance too burdensome, there's a salmon surplus driving coho prices down. Clinton and Dole rush in with their offers: sell off part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (Clinton's offer), repeal the gas tax (Dole's offer). The moment one candidate makes a bid, his rival tops it. The immediate goal on both sides is simply to control the news cycle: there is no reasoned discourse, just strikes and counterstrikes. And he who moves faster wins...
...outdone, President Clinton last week ordered the sale of about 12 million bbl. of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Though a sale totaling $277 million was mandated by Congress in the budget agreement two weeks ago, the Administration's move to do so last week was a dramatic gesture that officials hoped would dampen the upward price spiral. The President's order, said White House spokesman Mike McCurry, is a "precise, prudent and modest step, designed to move the market in the right direction...
...used to be that Americans were happy with a full tank and an open road. Now they don't even need the road, given the growing passion for heavy sport-utility vehicles. "If there hadn't been this shift to larger vehicles," says John Lichtblau, chairman of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, "you would have seen a lower increase or perhaps a leveling off of demand...
...MORNING OF APRIL 15, 38,500 worshippers from all over the world will descend upon the tiny town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts. In a bizarre rite, they will shed most of their clothes, spread petroleum jelly over the more sensitive parts of their bodies and affix little timekeepers to their shoelaces. Then, as the appointed hour of noon approaches, they will either stand in line at one of the 750 portable toilets or, much to the chagrin of Hopkinton's 10,000 regular residents, go natural. At the report from a gun, they will try to race 26 miles...
...fire rapidly set the petroleum-filled shop ablaze, sending up huge plumes of smoke. Many students strolling by the Science Center overpass stopped to watch the smoke clouds...