Posted on 03/26/2010 7:41:30 AM PDT by NMEwithin
Gas prices have risen $1 since just after President Obama took office in January 2009 and are now closing in on the $3 mark, prompting an evaluation of the administration's energy record and calls for the White House to open more U.S. land for oil exploration.
The average price per gallon across the U.S. hit $2.81 this week, according to the Energy Information Administration. That was up from $1.81 the week of Jan. 26, 2009, just after the inauguration, and marks the highest price since Oct. 20, 2008.
John B. Townsend II, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said price increases are a result of the cost of crude oil, thanks to a decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries not to raise production even as economic growth in countries such as Russia and China spurs more demand.
"From all indications, we're going to see $3 gas again this summer," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
“I’m sick of it too but what amazes me is that a majority of my aquaintences are still more concerned about who will win on American Idol”
Hey, you have to have your priorities.
Remember when Bush announced he wanted to open our land for drilling and oil prices went down immediately?
Obama will never let us drill and prices continue to rise. I am perfectly comfortable blaming Obama.
“Outrage from MSM = *crickets*”
Some MSM hack working on a story:
“In further news, Prez. Bush was blamed for all economic, socials and spiritual woes currently plaguing the nation. Our dear leader, the messiah Obama has confirmed this truth to us, and we hold him high with the greatest esteem.” ;)
BARF.
“Now, if cap and tax gets passed, that’s a whole other story.”
RATS blame Bush before, during and after his elections for everything. Time we tried the same trick...;)
They don’t even try to hide it.
March 26, 2010, 11:11 am
In Policy Shift, Transportation Department Embraces Bikes
By LEORA BROYDO VESTEL
From our colleagues at Green Inc:
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced a “major policy revision” that aims to give bicycling and walking the same policy and economic consideration as driving.
“Today I want to announce a sea change,” he wrote on his blog last week. “This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of nonmotorized.”
The new policy, which was introduced a few days after Mr. LaHood gave a well-received speech from atop a table at the National Bike Summit, is said to reflect the Transportation Department’s support for the development of fully integrated transportation networks.
It calls on state and local governments to go beyond minimum planning and maintenance requirements to provide convenient and safe amenities for bikers and walkers. “Walking and biking should not be an afterthought in roadway design,” the policy states.
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/in-policy-shift-transportation-department-embraces-bikes/
Maybe because the judges on Idol will listen to voters while our elected officials will not.
Stay strong and stay patient. We’re going to retake control of our government and our country in the next three years. The GOP will retake control of the House in 2010 and then take control of the Senate and the White House in 2012. There are many reasons why this will happen but the biggest reason is that liberals do not understand economics and free enterprise and don’t know how to implement policies that generate strong economic growth and low unemployment. Despite the recent cheerleading and positive spinning of the economic news by the liberally-biased MSM, the US economy will still be very weak in November, 2010 and will still be in bad condition in November, 2012. Growth will start to slow down early next year and unemployment will remain stubbornly high until the GOP retakes control of congress and the White House and stops the democrats’ solemn march towards socialism and away from economic freedom.
The clincher in 2012 will be energy policy and energy prices, as I’ve written before here on FR. Because of misguided environmentalist ideology, America is not using our vast energy resources and we’re not producing enough energy here at home. While domestic natural gas production is more than adequate this year, domestic oil production is completely inadequate when compared to domestic oil consumption and the percentage of oil demand that is provided by imports is close to an all-time record high. Global energy prices will continue to rise in the next three years because of strongly rising demand in emerging countries (especially China and India) and restrictions on offshore oil drilling in the US. Oil will move above $100 per barrel later this year or next year, and the response to oil inflation by the moronic democrat leaders will probably be (incredibly) to tax our domestic energy industry more heavily to punish it for rising global oil prices caused mainly by rising demand in emerging economies and restrictions on offshore drilling in the US. The twisted liberal rationale for higher taxes will be something like...”well you oil men failed to produce enough oil here in America and now you’re making too much profit this month and prices are now back above $100 so we’re going to tax you as punishment.” What the liberals, in their economic ignorance don’t understand, is that higher oil prices and higher profits in the short term in the oil industry, are necessary incentives to free people to invest in more oil drilling and exploration. The liberals furthermore do not understand that the temporary surge in profits will subside over time as prices for all oil drilling supplies and services also rise in a signal to all suppliers to increase their investment in productive capacity. This price increase then moves all the way down the supply chain to the producers of steel, aluminum, motor vehicles, and all kinds of industrial equipment used in oil production (pumps, compressors, valves, etc). After all the price increases occur the profit margins for the oil producers at the top of the supply chain will decline back to normal long-term margins. These profits margins are not excessive “windfall” profit margins in any way and are generally well below the after-tax profit margins of many technology and health care companies.
The end results of the punitive taxation of our oil industry will be lower production and skyrocketing energy prices. If significant new taxes on our oil industry are enacted in response to high oil prices, global oil prices will move up over $125 in 2012 and gasoline prices will move up over $4 per gallon. Even without any new taxes, because of all the restrictions on offshore drilling in the US, global oil prices will move up over $100 and gasoline will be pushing $4 per gallon in 2012. (BTW, There’s absolutely no good reason why the federal government should not end all federal restrictions on offshore drilling and leave these policy decisions up to the states to decide where offshore drilling should be allowed.)
Because of all the misguided energy policies of the current administration and congress (and the previous congress), energy prices will move steadily higher and by 2012 our economy will most likely be growing slowly and fighting serious energy inflation. Because of higher taxes on business and higher personal income taxes on entrepreneurs, job growth will remain sluggish and unemployment will still be over 8% in November 2012. This climate of stagflation (caused by policies that restrict domestic production and job growth), will be the biggest reason why the GOP retakes complete control of congress and the White House in 2012. There will be a lot of other reasons for our return to power, but the economy, as always, will be the biggest driving force in that election.
“That is because he already told us that energy costs were going to increase under his administration.”
Not just “increase.” He said they would “skyrocket.”
Actually oil prices were much lower than today at the end of Bush’s term. But that was because of a collapse in both the stock and bond markets late in 2008 and fears of a global depression.
Worked for Clinton- recall "It's the economy, stupid." Which had followed, "read my lips, no new taxes."
Outrage from MSM = *crickets*
0bama and the left will blame the oil companies and set their sites to nationalize them along with the rest of our energy.
The libs and old hippies are doing just that, as our gas price goes up to $3.14 today, God knows how much tomorrow.
“How come BO isn’t rushing to put gas in our car? Remember the dimwit that said something like *I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car*?”
I don't know what happened with the end of the federal ban on offshore drilling that Bush announced in 2008. But we're facing a looming global oil shortage not far in the future--only about 2-5 years from now depending on how fast demand rebounds from recessionary levels. So Obama should be working now to increase domestic oil production to prevent skyrocketing prices. Instead the administration has tried to implement an absurd cap-and-trade policy and has proposed higher taxes on oil producers.
I've heard a lot of talk from congressional democrats that oil companies aren't producing yet from all their offshore leases in the Gulf of Mexico. Well I follow a lot of oil companies as an investor, and I can tell you that there's a tremendous amount of exploration and production activity and building of infrasturcture right now in the Gulf of Mexico. They are making a lot of significant oil discoveries out there but so far only a couple of mega-discoveries of 3 billion barrels or more that we need to substantially increase domestic production. After discovery it usually takes at least five years to build all the infrastructure needed to produce oil from deepwater discoveries. So we need to open up the Atlantic and Pacific coasts for offshore drilling and hopefully we can find some mega-discoveries offshore just as the Brazilians have done off their coast. We should leave it up to the states to decide where offshore drilling should be allowed. There is no environmental threat from offshore drilling, but it can cause visual problems that affect the tourist industry if oil platforms are too close to shore. I'm sure the state governments can figure it all out and implement good drilling policies.
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