30 posts and no Bush's fault...
Posted on 02/23/2013 8:22:15 AM PST by Kaslin
Given a two-day plunge in crude futures, gasoline prices may have hit a temporary peak.
Nonetheless, consumers feel the pinch as pump prices have risen 34 straight days. For only the fifth time in history Gas prices topped $4 a gallon in District of Columbia.
Nationwide, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline climbed to $3.78 a gallon, up 47 cents in the past month, the AAA said.
In parts of California, Gasoline Prices Topped $5.00 on February 5. CNN Money has an interactive Gas Price map to check prices in your state.
Republicans Cry Foul
Yahoo!News reports Politicians Cry Foul Over High Gas Prices, Urge Action on Keystone XL
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., posted a "Keystone Clock " on his House Energy Committee's website Wednesday. The chairman states more than 1,615 days have passed since TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline proposal sought approval. Joining Upton's call to build the pipeline is Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio. Executives at TransCanada have tried a different tactic to try to get approval from the Obama administration by claiming the pipeline won't affect global warming.
The tug of war between economics and environmentalism is escalating thanks to 34 straight days of rising gasoline prices.
Boehner posted a "Running on Empty " graphic Tuesday. The Speaker of the House complains gas prices have "soared $0.43 since Jan. 17" before remarking with his own Keystone clock, "How long will Americans have to wait?"
Boehner cites several sources, including nine Democratic senators, who want Obama to approve the project quickly. The pipeline may not see a decision until mid-June. Around 20,000 jobs and nearly a million barrels of oil a day are at stake for American oil companies.Speculators to Blame?
The Salt Lake Tribune reports Spike in gasoline prices points to speculators
"Like locusts ravaging fertile crops, gasoline prices are soaring again and eating away at the purchasing power of ordinary Americans. And again, financial speculators appear to be a big part of the story."
Refinery Closures
In Recovery Killer? Gas Prices Barrel Toward $4 a Gallon CNN notes refinery closures.
Five dollar a gallon gas "is a real possibility" said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York. "This is partly being driven by the lost refinery capacity of about one million barrels per day...that's a lot."
Kilduff cited Hess's (HES) closure of a key refinery hub in Port Reading, New Jersey in January as a major factor that has sent gas on a tear. "Prices haven't looked back since," he said.
"It's one of about eight refineries that have announced closure. Now the East Coast is heavily reliant on [gas] imports when it used to be self-sufficient," Kilduff stated. Speculation Nonsense
Refinery closures are one part of the puzzle. If speculators have driven up the price of oil (and that is debatable) it's not the speculators who are to blame, but rather the Fed.
By providing massive liquidity and negative real interest rates, the Fed encouraged speculation in the stock market, in junk bonds, and in commodities.
I believe there is a bubble in all of those areas. The Fed's intent was not to foster bubbles per se, but rather to stimulate housing and spur job creation. On the job creation front, the fed failed miserably, and bloated its balance sheet to over $3 trillion dollars in doing so.
Fed policies have destroyed those on fixed income for the benefit of the banks and wealthy, as I wrote on Wednesday in Reader Asks Me to Prove "Inflation Benefits the Wealthy" (At the Expense of Everyone Else).
The Bernanke Fed is so out of line that the House Subcommittee on Economic Growth Demands Answers From Bernanke on Fed's Exit Strategy; Fed Must Reply by March 5
Yet the media blames those evil speculators. Get real.
Mix it all up, and you have rising gas prices.
There are no fewer than 28 “boutique blends” across the states, not including the ethanol blends.
If the refinery capacity we have, was allowed to produce a single national blend, the prices would drop.
This also means we stop the ethanol scam, which is not cost effective to produce.
The attempt to blame speculators is this administration’s refusal to acknowledge the impact of their failed energy policy.
Wrong!
See post #22.
So have those same speculators driven the price of nat gas from 12 bucks to 3.50?
As I said elsewhere on this thread, speculators can only function in this manner when there is a tight supply margin.
You cited one valid (but artificial and foolish) variable cost imposed by the feds that substantially inflates consumer gasoline prices. You ought to know there are many other variable costs which put upward pressure on retail pricing. Again, not quite so simple as we wish it were.
No, I cited about 87 of the variables.
1- too many fuel blends
2 through 87 - this administration’s failed energy policy.
Drill everything...I am sick and tired of politicians standing in the way of energy independence.
If speculators cause high prices do they also get the credit when prices drop? After all traders can make money no matter which way a market moves as long as they are on the right side of the move. Also, it takes two parties to make a trade. If speculators are on the winning side of a trade aren’t the losers also speculators?
i wonder if in dc barry has put little bush faces on the pumps with “It’s His fault!” on them.
seriously. the libtard media is silent bashing the president about this very quick and sharp gas price spike, no poor people filling up complaining thepresident needs to do something, they can’t afford to fill up their cars, bla bla bla...
30 posts and no Bush's fault...
You could go and speculate on septic tanks, fancy cancer drugs, and even car batteries. There’s no limit to it. The best speculation of all time? When the inside guys of 1928 got the DOW all heated up, and in 1929....walked out to sell and destroyed Wall Street in just a couple of hours. They made millions.
But other factors are in play rather we readily recognize them or not. For starters consider the global energy market and all their cost structures which contribute to (ours,the topic at hand) retail pricing. Study domestic P&L statements to further your understanding of the costs/inputs as I do.
Start with energy producers investor relations knowledge bases. Your best bet. You are not incorrect in your assertions here, just not encompassing. Gotta go, now. Maybe later.
Yes, Oil is traded in dollars. As the dollar weakens the price of gas goes up. As the dollar strenghtens the price of gas goes down. That and the fact that we do not have enough refineries to refine the oil into gas are the problems.
You are correct, but you cannot ignore the other factors and it is difficult or impossible to assign blame by percentages for high gas prices.
Commodity speculation, geopolitical concerns (world price pressures), government regulation, agricultural ethanol, and government taxation also play a major role in the price of a gallon of gasoline. There are even some states that demand their own environmental blends that further strain limited refineries by complicating the supply process.
Approving the Keystone XL pipeline would likely drive down oil prices. Speculators look at the US as the largest market for oil and giving the US a non OPEC source of oil and improving the access of the North Dakota oil fields to refineries would lessen the US demand for OPEC oil. I would see that as driving oil prices down. The number of jobs the pipeline would create would also be a significant boost to the US economy. However, Obama will pander to the environmentalist whackos and either continue to study the pipeline or tie if approval to an economically devastating carbon tax.
“30 posts and no Bush’s fault...”
It’s Cheney’s fault.
I was hungry at an autoparts store and I bought a bag of peanuts, it cost $3.75.
Fuel prices are what they are because on a super-weak american dollar. The dollar is super-weal because our goverment is in a huge $16.5 trillion dollar debt. 50% of the debt was made in the last 4 years under a 1/2 kenyan that also is causing crazy inflation.
To blame anything other than our countrys loss of its industrial base and manufacturing output over the last 80-90 quarters for the drop in the American dollars value is crazy. The half kenyan is pissed of too, he knows how much more money he could spend if it was 1992 instead of 2012....All african leaders in africa do this, spend all they can and take trips and go shopping and hang out with famous athletes....It is their nature, look at Edi Amin or Motoboko Konsekie, in the end you get what you pay for and deserve.
Every time the price of gas goes up the Bolshies cry speculation, but, to my knowledge they have never been able to find any. They need to look at their own policies.
Soros may a billion dollars speculating on the Yen, they should investigate that. But, that would deprive the Bolshecrats of their funding.
If it was actually only a supply and demand thing i don’t think we’d see this daily changes.
Exactly, energy should be bought and sold by suppliers and users only.
LOL...
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