[autumnraine]

I am like Hugo Chavez because I think oil drilled on federal land should be subject to an export tax?

Whatever dude.

[trebb]

I am like Hugo Chavez because I think oil drilled on federal land should be subject to an export tax?

No - because you can't grasp that the prices are being artificially modified due to politicians exerting controls they have no right to exert. Left to do business as a capitalist entity, unfettered by government controls and regulations designed to cripple them, oil companies would continue to serve us with affordable and abundant energy. Not only is government inflating the price of oil, but it makes more "profit" via taxes per gallon than the oil companies do.

[Smokin' Joe]

I'm not sure about elsewhere, but there has been a virtual moratorium on Federal Leasing in the Rocky Mountain States. The oil being drilled in the Bakken Formation in North Dakota and Montana is primarily NOT being drilled on Federal Land, the leases are for private mineral rights, and the development has been superb.

The market works if the Government will let it.

As an aside, I remember $.20 per gallon gasoline. Of course, those two dimes were 90% silver then, and today would be worth $5.11 (spot price today on the .2*.72 ounces of silver present in two dimes back then).

Compared to silver, the price of gasoline has gone down.

The reality which the politicians want to evade is that they have trashed the value of the dollar--the oil companies didn't do that. You may have noticed the effects of the politicians' actions at the grocery store as well, from downsized units of sale (remember 6 oz cans of tuna?) to the increased prices. While shipping costs are a factor, they don't account for all of the increases in the prices of other commodities. A devalued dollar, on the other hand, does.