Bush Says Little Can Be Done About High Gas Prices

Sierra Times ^ | 4/22/2006 | AP Staff

[Cold Heat]

This stinks.

The context for the statement was "what can be done in the short term to alleviate the problem today"!

It will take years to develop new oil fields and bring them on line. Even when and if we do that, new refineries must be constructed.

These are long term fixes that must start now.

As for today, there is no way to lower the price, unless and until demand slows by 1.5% and then the price will fall.

[Coldwater Creek]

Have you noticed at the grocery store, that people are still filling up their baskets with all kinds of convenience foods that cost twice or more that do it your self stuff?

[rollo tomasi]

How can markets be free if industries have thousands of government regulations and restrictions placed on it?

The politicians are too busy enjoying their perks rather than looking to fortify the future for Americans.

So all the sudden China and India sneak up on us? BS, we should have been drilling more and producing refineries decades ago due to the obvious factors that these two highly populated nations were progressing and would demand more oil.

No nukes, no drilling in certain potential high volume areas, no new refineries, hypocritical stance on alternative energy=bad planning.

Way to go DC, years of staring this problem in the face but would rather place even more restrictions on the "free market".[End of rant, back to work]

[new cruelty]

That's how you end up with the typical case of a medical doctor who calls on government price controls of gasoline because gasoline "costs too much," and a gas station owner who calls for nationalized health care because his medical insurance "costs too much."

Or the citizen who calls for a reduction in taxes and an ease in the production of gasoline additives because gas "costs too much".

[Cold Heat]

If it is a diesel, he is just doing the normal things you do with a diesel.

[Coldwater Creek]

At least you are not going in the hole.

[snowrip]

I want the President to grab the mike, lay out the problem, and put the blame where it belongs in an open, truthful manner.

Amen.

I'm NOT for government control over gas prices. I AM for the pursuit of the obvious solutions to our petroleum woes... and for smoking the democrats in the process.

[OB1kNOb]

Gas Price Heat Map from Gas Buddy

[Alberta's Child]

We voted for someone who claimed to be a leader. What we got instead was a politician.

Correction -- YOU voted for someone you thought would be a leader. Democratic governments don't have leaders -- especially in countries like ours where nanny-state attitudes prevail among the vast majority of the voters.

I knew George W. Bush would be an improvement over Clinton and would certainly be better for this country than Gore or Kerry, but let's not kid ourselves. George H.W. Bush was the last president this country will ever have from the WW2 generation, so we'd better get used to the mediocre adolescents from the Baby Boomer generation who are going to occupy the White House for a few decades.

[capitalist229]

Futures manipulation is the main thing contributing to high gas prices

Big corporations like airlines hedge their energy costs with futures contracts.

Hedging has become big business because risk of high energy prices is perceived as a threat to the bottom line.

BUMP

[Alberta's Child]

Oil was so cheap back then because so many of the Asian currencies collapsed, resulting in a huge drop-off in Asian demand for just about every raw material.

[Coldwater Creek]

Well I guess that the alternative would have been better.

Blame Bush instead of finding out just what the real problems are.

If Bush had not been elected you would be trying to learn to speak and spit at the same time and your wife would be wearing a Burka. Or, you just might not even be alive or have a job if we had been attacked again.

Stop whining.

[alarm rider]

"Bush, Hastert and Frist have completely squandered the opportunity the voters handed to them on a hard-earned silver platter. We've been had."

Sad for me to say, but I think you are right here. Where is a leader who says, "Whoa, hold it, this America, we can do anything we find the will to do. We are Americans
, we are problem solvers. Here is where we start..."

To hear the President say we can do nothing is way too....French for me and I am starting to get irritated.

[linda_22003]

Aside from waste, think of the smell! Why does he do it? Why do you let him?

[Alberta's Child]

I hate to break this to you, but reducing fuel taxes won't do a damn thing to reduce the price of gasoline.

If you are willing to pay $3 for a gallon of gasoline today, then you are going to be willing to pay the same $3 even after the taxes have been eliminated.

[from occupied ga]

Have you noticed at the grocery store, that people are still filling up their baskets with all kinds of convenience foods that cost twice or more that do it your self stuff?

Yep - especially those who pay with food stamps.

[Holicheese]

Remember during the last election, Kerry and Edwards said they were getting Ford Escape Hybrids. Do you think they ever took delivery?

[Coldwater Creek]

High gas prices just might get some of the rift raft off of the streets.

Stop being so negative and look for the silver lining, because there always is one, or two or three.

[CertainInalienableRights]

From ConocoPhillips site: (http://www.conocophillips.com/newsroom/other_resources/energyanswers/gasoline.htm#Refinery_produce_more_gas)

"Primarily because U.S. refining capacity hasn't grown as rapidly as gasoline demand, the shortfall has been made up with increased gasoline imports from Caribbean, Canadian and European refineries. Imported gasoline now accounts for about one out of every 10 gallons of gasoline sold in the United States. In the last 10 years, gasoline imports have risen by more than 60 percent."

From http://www.gravmag.com/oil.html:

"In addition to all the crude imported, the U.S. must import about 66 million gallons of refined gasoline because our refineries can't make enough "

( I was just doing some personal research over the weekend and was familiar with the info. )

[new cruelty]

I live in NJ where, for now, there is no tax on clothing. If I pay $10 for a shirt in NJ, that same $10.00 shirt cost $10.00 plus tax in a neighboring state.