Posted on 5/23/2007, 5:19:31 PM by CharlesS
The United States House of Representatives, responding to citizen complaints about the high price of gasoline voted yesterday to pass the "Gas Tax Relief Act of 2007". In an effort to lower consumer burden during the summer driving months, Congress has rolled back the 18.4 cents per gallon federal tax on gasoline, and sent a strong message to the individual States whose gasoline taxes are as high as 33 cents per gallon to do the same. If the States were to follow the Federal Governments lead this could mean a reduction in gasoline prices by an average of 40 cents per gallon, with the higher taxed States saving as much as 51 cents per gallon.
If you are wondering why you have not read about the "Gas Tax Relief Act of 2007" in the newspaper, the answer is simple. There is no such legislation being proposed in Congress. What the House of Representatives voted on yesterday was "No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act of 2007", or NOPEC. The bill which passed by a 345-72 vote, would revoke the sovereign immunity OPEC members currently enjoy from U.S. legal action and allow the Justice Department to sue them in U.S. courts.
Rather than pass legislation which would have an immediate impact on American consumers, the House of Representatives have decided to pass legislation which would take years to show any results. Unfortunately, this legislation if passed into law may actually produce higher gasoline prices if OPEC decides to retaliate by lowering production.
Approximately 40% of our Country's oil is provided by OPEC members, therefore it would not be a wise decision to make enemies of them by filing lawsuits in U.S. courts. As an alternative, Congress should be looking for ways to lower America's dependence on OPEC, either through alternative means of energy, or alternative sources of oil.
For over 20 years the controversy over drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has been ongoing with several attempts to open the region for drilling defeated. In the 1990s, President George H.W. Bush's National Energy Bill authorized drilling in ANWR, but a filibuster by Senate Democrats kept the measure from coming to a vote. In 1995, Republicans prepared to take up the battle again and included a provision for ANWR in the federal budget. President Bill Clinton vetoed the entire budget and expressed his intention to veto any other bill that would open ANWR to drilling.
In 1998 a U.S Geological Survey estimated there to be at least 5.7 billion billion barrels of recoverable oil, with possibly as much as 16 billion barrels. If drilling were to take place in this region the influx of oil into the market place would cause prices to go down, effectively ending the "crisis".
Congress has largely ignored alternative means of reducing consumer gas prices and opted for Judicial action instead. Interestingly, the bill only refers to foreign States who attempt "to set or maintain the price of oil, natural gas, or any petroleum product;" Apparently domestic States would be considered exempt from this legislation.
Currently there are about a dozen States which have price controls on gasoline, not to put a maximum price, but to set a minimum price. Recently in Wisconsin a gas station owner was threatened with a lawsuit from State regulators unless he raised his prices. The service station owner had offered a 2 cent per gallon discount to senior citizens. The state Department of Agriculture said those deals violate Wisconsin’s Unfair Sales Act, which requires stations to sell gas for about 9.2 percent more than the wholesale price.
Rather than address solutions which Congress has direct control over, they have decided to do what most Americans do when they are unhappy. Sue!
The first paragraph made my heart skip a beat—I thought congress had actually done something HELPFUL for a change. Silly me.
LOL, as if sicking trial lawyers on them will make gas cheaper. All this might do is make a few lawyers really really rich.
for a second I thought they were going to open ANWR, drill off the california and florida coasts and allow shale oil drilling in colorado..
silly me..
Quote I overheard:
“As long as people keep buying SUV’s then gas is too cheap”.
That’s funny. I thought insisting on the rule of law was a good thing....
They sue because OPEC doesn’t produce enough, and they sue so WE don’t produce more....
The best action that Congress could take against high gas prices is to open up the frozen tundra of Alaska and a multitude of off-shore sites to drilling. As well, they could reduce the number of environazi-induced barriers to building new refining capacity. In other words, get the heck out of the way and let the market work freely for a change.
Preaching to the choir.
Every single time I have ever made these same points to any liberal, they parrot back all the same moronic talking points.
ping
That's true. We've already made them mad with the weak dolllar.
This misleading article is actually great news—instead of hearing about the oil “ministers” on msm, we may hear of civil or even criminal indictments against these price-fixing crooks dba OPEC at long last.
Hating all attorneys except our own means hating everyone responsible for writing and enforcing our laws. I would avoid that mindset.
What OPEC is is an illegal price-fixing conspiracy that won’t take years to hurt in our courts. “Please don’t make them mad!” What hogwash, written undoubtedly by oil interests.
You had me going with that first paragraph! I was checking for flying pigs!
So the Dems are going to increase states’ debt to avoid dealing with their unwillingness to drill and refine gasoline.
Nobody is going to sue OPEC. This is a very silly idea.
And make lots and lots of money for lawyers. Say doesn't most of the money for congressional campaigns come from lawyers and aren't most of our congress critters lawyers? There 's no way this could smack of self interest is there?
That would just allow the gas moguls to stick it to us for another 40 - 51 cents per gallon.
The real answer lays with the people. We need to hit Exxon/Mobil with a grassroots boycott, not another e-chain letter pipe dream. The concept is good, but the execution of past boycotts has been worthless.
If all of the conservative Radio/TV hosts would join forces and lead the charge, "We the People" could control gas prices. It may take up to 30 days to get the boycott up to full strength, but through perseverance and endurance we would prevail. Once we get gas prices under control, we will have to keep awareness up in order to maintain said control.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.