Posted on 05/11/2011 4:21:00 PM PDT by Kaslin
Who's to blame for near-record gasoline prices? According to a new IBD/TIPP poll, it's oil companies and speculators.
That could be good news for President Obama and his Democratic colleagues who've been attacking both and bad news for Republicans hoping to expand domestic oil exploration and drilling. Whether the public is casting blame in the right direction is another question.
The IBD/TIPP poll found that 53% listed either oil companies (32%) or speculators (21%) as being most responsible for high prices. In contrast, just 19% blamed "no-drill policies" and only 9% listed the weak dollar.
The survey also found that most believe gas prices will continue to rise, with two-thirds saying they expect prices to top $4.50 a gallon within three months.
(Since the May 1-6 poll, gas prices have ticked down after flirting with $4 a gallon. Crude and gasoline futures have fallen sharply, suggesting further relief at the pump in the coming weeks.)
While Republicans blame high prices on long-standing restric tions on domestic oil production, Obama has highlighted speculators. In April, he said that "there's enough oil out there for world demand" but that speculators "bet that oil is going to go up real high. And that spikes up prices."
At the same time, Democrats and some Republicans have cast aspersions on oil companies, complaining about high profits and taxpayer subsidies. Democrats are pushing to boost taxes on Big Oil by more than $20 billion over the next decade.
"The U.S. government has given these companies billions of dollars in corporate welfare every year," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Don’t patronize me. Everyone knows Bush went to war for the oil and has it all in his back yard swimming pool. It’s supply and demand ... Halliburton!
(I seriously heard all of this stuff, in random order, from multiple deranged leftists during the past administration.)
The reason that oil has gone up, as well as other commodities like wheat and corn, is that the dollar has been inflated through quantitative easing.
Well something better bring it down or we will all be talking conspiracy. I do not see any solid reason why oil is as high as it is.
Crude stockpile was 370.3 million last week. In English, we are up to our eyeballs in the stuff. Pretty much the same with gasoline. The baloney scare stories about "tension in the Middle East driving up prices" are still being pushed on Bloomberg but the shiny is really wearing off on that. They primarily are come-ons for the traders to lure in suckers with lines about $140 to $200 bbl oil.
There is a need to get the gas sales going as refineries are running at about 81% (very low) and the crude will pile up even more. To understand this visualize a car going 48 mph on a 60 mph road. There you go.
The common mantra is oil is a global commodity. Well if we are so full of the stuff that there is no more space to put it, so is everyone else. Global commodity ya know. Just to be sure, I checked. Globally OEDC total oil stocks are climbing and are above levels from this time last year. That includes "floating."
Second mantra... falling dollar? Did the dollar gain 66 percent in 2008 over a period of just five months? Nope. Has the dollar dropped 2/3 of it's value from 2008 till today? Nope.
Other IBD/TIPP poll findings:
58% are driving less.
40% may cancel or shorten summer vacations.
27% are considering or have considered trading in for a more fuel-efficient car.
U.S. demand has and is continuing to go down, steadily and the price is going up?
Sorry, I just do not see normal supply and demand here.
Of course, we all know a globally overstocked commodity does in fact go up in price, not down, right?
On a happy note, it's gonna make it tough for the communists selling the "we need alternative energy" when there is so much crude in the supply chain the tankers start getting parked offshore again.
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Bookmark you post. You have pretty much nailed it and are calling it for what it is. Clarity.
Good points...
How do I nominate you for “Post of the Day”??
Funny how all of you out there who buy the Leftist propaganda lie about the oil companies are all pissed off that they make $.10 a gallon on gas sales but never are bothered in the lest that the State and Fed government makes a $1 on that same sale of a gallon of gas.
Maybe if some of you were not such willing drones ready to buy what ever lie the Democrat Political/media machine screams at you, we would finally get some real progress on this issue. Since the 1970s, every time Gas prices go up, the Democrats start chanting the same lies. Maybe it time to quit buying the lies and learn the facts.
It is a simple supply and demand equation. Not enough supply, price goes up. If we would quit letting crackpot 3 world thugdoms control the supply and developed our OWN resources, we would not have this problem. But no, now we even have started importing GAS as well as oil.
How long are the American people going to be so willfully blind to the facts? Want lower prices? Start more drilling and refining HERE in the USA.
Source for this claim?
Might want to find out his source for this claim before buying everything he is selling.
Now, if you are truly serious, then you missed the DU boat to Fascist Amerika, then need to get there quick, where you belong!
The World Oil Market is also, only a part of it. The biggest problem is the cost to refine and produce distilled products.
There are so many “special blends” and EPA regulations/compliance required by Congress, the EPA and the DOT that it has raised the product cost higher than it was several years ago. And it will continue to climb, in relation to the cost of a barrel of oil, or the supply/demand factor.
Refineries have their collective hands tied with all these new EPA regulations and Environmental Protection compliance measures that are way beyond reasonable overkill.
A well in North Dakota that we could drill for 1 Million Dollars 3 years ago, now costs over 5 Million today. All due to extreme EPA regulations, closed drilling systems, and HAZMAT disposal requirements that were not there when Bush was still in office.
The inventory data highlights that we have plenty of crude oil and that refineries are operating at fairly low rates, said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York. Its about time for refineries to exit maintenance and increase operating rates.
This was just last week... Refineries probably operated at 83.1 percent of capacity last week, up 0.3 percentage point from the prior week,
http://www.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mopueus2&f=m
Shows the month of Feb at 79.8
The 81% number was a Bloomberg article (I am pretty sure). It was actually 81.4 or 81.6, somthing like that.
Perhaps someone else can find it, it was on the following link yesterday
http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/
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