Posted on 12/29/2010 10:30:35 PM PST by Kaslin
Five dollars per gallon of gas by 2012! A former president of Shell Oil considers this likely. The average price on Christmas Day for a gallon of regular gas reached $3.28 in Los Angeles County, the highest price since October 2008. In one month, the price rose 13 cents, up 35 cents year to year.
Where are the calls to sic Obama's Justice Department on Big Oil to hold the oil companies accountable for "market manipulation"? Why aren't we hunting down the amoral "oil speculators" responsible for repealing the law of supply-and-demand in order to line their pockets?
During President George W. Bush's administration, we constantly heard demands to hold the President accountable for "Big Oil's price gouging." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., just two years ago, knew exactly whom to blame for "skyrocketing" oil prices: "The price of oil is at the doorstep; $4-plus per gallon for oil is attributed to two oilmen in the White House and their protectors in the United States Senate."
In 2007, when the average national price ranged from $2.17 to $3.22, then-Sen. Barack Obama demanded that the Federal Trade Commission investigate Big Oil for "price manipulation." In 2008, presidential candidate Obama urged the Justice Department "to open an investigation into whether energy traders have been engaged in illegal activities that have helped drive up the price of oil and food."
Obama also called for "a windfall profits penalty on oil selling at or over $80 per barrel." As of Christmas 2010, a barrel of oil sold at slightly above $90. What happened to the windfall profits tax?
Yes, back then the average price per gallon was four bucks. But blaming "oilman" Bush for high prices began when the average price was well below today's $3.05 national average.
The average price was $1.72 on March 5, 2003, when CBS News posted a story online with this headline: "Dems Blame Bush For High Oil Prices." It referred to an investigative report by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. Levin blamed Bush's post-9/11 decision to increase the amount of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by 40 million barrels in 2002 -- bringing the total to 600 million. Levin said, "We're confident this had a significant impact on the price of oil in 2002." Never mind that the Bush administration called the amount of oil diverted too small to matter.
The average price was $2.80 on April 22, 2006, when USAToday.com posted an article with the headline "Democrats blame Bush for high gas prices": "Consumer gasoline prices continue to soar as the Bush administration places too much emphasis on drilling reserves and not enough on alternative fuels, Democrats said." The article quoted Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who praised Brazil's "energy independence." "In Brazil," Nelson said, "drivers are filling up their cars with ethanol instead of gasoline."
Not exactly, Sen. Nelson.
Brazil may be "energy independent" in that it imports only a small percentage -- 649,000 barrels per day in 2009 -- of the oil it consumes. But that makes Brazil the 19th-highest oil-importing country in the world. Its economy relies heavily on oil that is domestically produced and consumed. Brazil is the seventh-largest consumer of oil in the world and the ninth-largest producer. Its famous -- and heavily government-subsidized -- sugar cane-based ethanol fuel is actually a blend that uses approximately 75 percent gasoline.
As for U.S. ethanol, which is made from corn, Nobel laureate environmentalist Al Gore recently called it a bad deal: "It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for first-generation ethanol. First-generation ethanol, I think, was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small. ... The size, the percentage of corn particularly, which is now being (used for) first-generation ethanol definitely has an impact on food prices. The competition with food prices is real." Why did he once support ethanol? He admitted that he'd wanted to help farmers in Iowa, site of the nation's first caucus, since he "was about to run for president."
The silence over the recent price run-up is yet the latest example of left-wing hypocrisy. It was always about bludgeoning Bush rather than a sincere conviction that Big Oil was cheating. How else to explain the absence of demands for investigations?
America could achieve "energy independence" if producers were allowed to drill in Alaska, the lower 48 and offshore, where substantial amounts of untapped oil remain off-limits. Obama, who currently squanders hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars by "investing" in alternative energy, possesses no more control over the law of supply-and-demand than did "evil" Oilman Bush.
Well, if you don’t have a job and don’t have to go to work, it doesn’t really matter. </s>
True,but what’s it worth to work for gas and taxes and have nothing left after your clock is cleaned if you are a young F&B worker?5.00USD gas prices will destroy the US economy.
Yes it will. The thought alone makes me sick.
“5.00USD gas prices will destroy the US economy.”
I’m in real estate. We are already there.
Currently, the minimum margin requirements (MMR) for trading in commodities futures is 5%. Raise that to 15% and watch the price of almost every commodity nosedive as much as 25% because even a 10% change will drive the vast majority of speculators out of the market.
bump
Around here in my Alabama area it is now near or at $3.00. Steady up, up, up every time I go by a gas station near here. One station has actually quit selling. The guy said he is going to go out of business because he is tired of it. He wears himself out going out and changing prices all the time!
“Well, if you don’t have a job and don’t have to go to work, it doesn’t really matter.”
Well, that’s right.
I have not bought ANY gas since Jan. 2005 ;)
The Bas***ds at the EPA closed another mine today. Interesting. Friends tell me that gas wells ahve been closed in Colorado last year.
LOL.
Here too. I swear they change the sign twice a day.
My son is suffering the gasoline blues. $5 gas will keep him home. A lot. Help me Lord. :)
“5.00USD gas prices will destroy the US economy.”
Doesn’t matter if the economy is destroyed, as long as the country is ‘fair’. (s)
Sales of electronically controlled price signs should be booming.
Zero is set to destroy America. How do we set out to destroy him and his czars?
Email, phone calls, peaceful demonstrations do nothing. it's old fashioned. We don't have time to wait for 2012. Too much damage will be done by then. They're terrorizing us and we're just bowing down to them. They don't listen, they don't care.
There has to be an untraditional way we can get them where it hurts. Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting violence.
Prayer changes things, but one must act also in order for God create His miracle.
We should hang 100% of this on the Rats.....Set out on them Tea Party and any Republican worth a crap. This is another issue you can not loose, it’s just sitting there for the taking.
Gas last week was $3.25. Since the skiing season has begun, I dread driving into town to see the newest price. It’s probably $3.50 now.
If it’s $5 gas, I think even Cheney could beat Obama.
As of this writing the equivalent cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gas in Greater London is $4.70. France and Germany pay slightly higher, $4.93 per gallon of regular unleaded.
First, Bush will be blamed and Cheney will be vilified.
This Progressive eurocentric Obama administration will then explain that America has long enjoyed the lowest gas prices on the planet at the expense of the rest of the world and that it would only be fair if America paid an appropriate price.
Ahhh yes, the Obama presidency. Its the Jimmy Peanut presidency in slow motion. Zero is shaking up his cabinet just like Peanut Boy did when he sensed the end of his relevancy. Obama has been blaming Americans and America for its troubles. Surely a “malaise” speech is in B. Hussein’s near future. Out went Jimmuh, in went Reagan. Out goes Imam Obama, in goes Sarah Palin. Hey Zero, Yes She Can!
Watch closley when the prices change, or make the biggest jump. Generally on Thursdays. Why? Friday is payday & the driving weekend. Then, Sunday thru Thursday, it starts sliding back until it gets within a nickle of where it was, & it’s time to jump it another twelve cents.
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