Posted on 10/19/2012 7:47:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
In the Hofstra presidential debate, President Obama said: "when I took office, the price of gasoline was $1.80. Why is that? Because the economy was on the verge of collapse." Wrong. Prices collapsed because we signaled to the world that we were finally moving forward with developing America's massive offshore oil and gas resources - and they shot back up when Obama reimposed the offshore ban.
Obama's ridiculous story that the doubling of gasoline prices under his watch is a result of economic recovery doesn't fit the facts. According the National Bureau of Economic Research, responsible for officially designating when recessions start, the recession began in December of 2007. The average price for a gallon of gasoline that month, according the Energy Information Administration, was $3.02. The price rose for the next seven months with the country in recession. The price peaked in July of 2008 at $4.06 a gallon, more than half a year into recession, exacerbating economic pain and spurring the national protest movement that gave us "Drill Here, Drill Now" and "Drill, Baby, Drill."
That July 2008 peak coincided with a critical policy change. On July 14, 2008, President Bush lifted the executive branch moratorium on offshore drilling that his father had put in place. That indicated a consolidation of support for offshore drilling that stalled the run-up in prices at the pump. In the next two months, the average price dropped more than thirty cents to $3.70.
Grassroots activists pressed even harder, demanding Congress lift the remaining barrier to offshore drilling, the appropriations rider that had been in place since 1981. The pressure on Obama was so intense that he even reversed his opposition, claiming on August 1, 2008, that he would support offshore drilling under some circumstances.
Meanwhile, activists ratcheted up pressure on Congress and the White House, urging Congress to let the ban expire. Facing organized opposition in Congress, a Bush veto threat, and overwhelming public opinion in favor of drilling, Nancy Pelosi caved. After 27 years, the ban on offshore drilling was officially lifted on October 1, 2008.
With the moratorium lifted, markets anticipated future production of the estimated 19.1 billion barrels of oil (equal to 30 years of imports from Saudi Arabia) in the Outer Continental Shelf. Market psychology abruptly reversed, and the price at the pump dropped sharply.
It reached a low of $1.79 in January 2009, the month of Obama's inauguration. That's no coincidence.
The first order of business for Ken Salazar, Obama's new secretary of the Interior, was to stop the pending opening of the former moratorium waters - supposedly temporarily. That announcement was made on February 10, 2009. By April, prices were back over two dollars. By June, when the recession officially ended, the price was $2.63 - up more than 80 cents from when Obama took office while the economy was still in recession.
Prices spiked up again starting in May of 2010, which is when Obama and Salazar imposed an illegal moratorium (literally; Salazar was held in contempt of court because the moratorium was based on a politically corrupted report) in the Gulf of Mexico as an overreaction to the BP spill.
By December of 2010, Obama had fully and permanently reimposed the old moratorium that Bush and Congress had lifted in 2008. So now we're back where we were in summer of 2008, with prices around four dollars and vast offshore American energy resources locked up by politicians. The facts are clear - the pain at the pump is not, as Obama suggested, a result of a supposedly strong economy. It is a result of his own disastrous policy.
Yep, no way was oblamer going to let the crisis of the BP oil spill go to waste. Too good an excuse to both tighten up the oil supply and destroy off shore jobs.
Gas prices are up because the last six years of terabuck federal deficits have weakened the USD so much that it takes twice as many of them to buy the same amount of oil.
GReat Leader has increased our chocolate rations from 300 grams to 250!
Untapped oil flowes out of the ocean floor off California and a new refinery sits unused on the California Coast at Carpenteria that was completed 40 years ago!
On shore and offshore California has more than 400 years of supply for the United States and the envioros stop us from using it!
After the Santa Barbara oil spill, California banned offshore drilling, so no way can we get at those resources now.
Untapped oil flowes out of the ocean floor off California and a new refinery sits unused on the California Coast at Carpenteria that was completed 40 years ago!
Y’all remember the Jack Bauer “24” episode, the last episode I think from the second to last season, where he finally is able to locate his girlfriend, the Secretary of defense’s daughter?
When Jack asked his groggy, dazed girlfriend where the bad guys were, and she was able to muster up enough strength to whisper “Bloomfield”, my whole family let out a big shout, because we knew exactly what she was talking about.
To the point that delreed makes about lack of refining capacity, about 1 mile from where we used to live, there is this property in Santa Fe Springs, CA, that used to house a gasoline refinery, Powerine Co. right on a vast lot bounded the streets Florence Avenue and Bloomfield Avenue. The refinery has been in the process of being dismantled piece by piece for the past 20 years or so.
The series “24” had filmed at least a couple of episodes there.
I remember back around ‘89, one morning, the ground shook with a jolt (still just a bit skittish coming off the ‘87 Whittier Narrows Quake). I looked outside to see a column of fire and smoke. Yup, another problem at the Powerine refinery. Got out my video camera.
Why hasn’t Salazar been charged with & gone to trial on Contempt of Court charges?
Very good, quick run down of the history of gas prices with respect to the economic situation.
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