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Until now, Barack Obama has had some mildly good news on the economy, with weekly jobless claims sticking around the 350k-370K range and a boost in job creation in January. Unfortunately for Obama and all of us, the same problem that strangled the economy in 2008 and 2011 is about to hit the US again. NBC’s Today show reports on the significant price hikes coming in the price of gasoline:

For many months now, Newt Gingrich has been preaching "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less", in talking about developing more and more US energy resources especially oil and gas. He is pushing specifics about off-shore, Alaska, Canadian Keystone Pipeline, horizontal shale drilling, etc. With the poor jobs situation and gasoline costs climbing to $4.00 per gallon, Newt has a goal of $2.00 gasoline, which we can achieve with aggressive domestic oil development. Newt is a leader who could make $2.00 gasoline a reality by facilitating domestic supply. Again, Romney and Santorum are vague and timid about this subject.

Newt Gingrich spoke at a Los Angeles fundraiser yesterday, where the focus was 'bringing down the price of gas', always a lively topic out there in ten-lane-freeway land. Key to the market-based Gingrich energy strategy would be accelerated domestic oil exploration: 'We know how to get gasoline prices back down: produce more gas' said the Former House Speaker.  'Join us in a campaign to drill here, drill now, pay less and let’s get back to $2 a gallon gasoline with Gingrich, not $5 a gallon gasoline with Obama.' Typically, the ideas Newt puts-forth are simple and straightforward... just common-sense, really: Gingrich Energy Plan Remove...

So far, during the presidency of Barack Obama, the price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 83 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (AP Photo) During the same period, the price of ground beef has gone up 24 percent and price of bacon has gone up 22 percent. When Obama entered the White House in January 2009, the city average price for one gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $1.79, according to the BLS. (The figures are in nominal dollars: not adjusted for inflation.) Five months later in June, unleaded gasoline was $2.26 per gallon,...

Paying $4 per gallon at the gas station is painful, and analyst Patrick DeHaan has some bad news: Get used to it. "People have this expectation that they will be paying $1 or $2 per gallon again," said Mr. DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com, a fuel-price tracking website based in Minnesota. "And that's unrealistic." Mr. DeHaan's outlook for 2012 gas prices is enough to send anyone to the nearest bus stop (or even shoe store). A combination of international tensions and state regulations have analysts expecting Pennsylvania gas prices to peak this year at $4.15 per gallon by...

For the first time in six decades, the U.S. is exporting more gasoline and diesel fuel than it imports. That, if you believe the critics, shows that the Keystone XL pipeline, which would ship crude oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refiners, is an export scam. In other words, the oil that Keystone would bring in will simply be refined and shipped out again, so the whole project is nothing more than a ploy in which U.S. refiners boost profits by tapping lucrative foreign markets. Gasoline exports, though, have little to do with the Keystone pipeline and America’s long-term energy...

Gasoline prices could approach $5 a gallon by Memorial Day and stay a record levels for much of the summer, according to a forecast by GasBuddy.com. Gas prices always spike in the summer, but the 2012 Gasbuddy.com Price Outlook predicts this summer will break records. "It looks like it might be the most painful year at the pump that we have ever seen," senior analyst Patrick DeHaan said. By Memorial Day, gasoline in the Chicago area could rise to between $4.60 and $4.95 a gallon–more than a dollar above the current average. DeHaan says there are several factors that will...

<p>Maybe you'll want to start salting away money for 2012 fuel costs now. Get ready to see $4-a-gallon gasoline in various parts of the U.S. sometime this spring, according to one prediction. Another prediction says that some of the nation's biggest cities -- such as Chicago, Los Angeles and New York -- will see record Memorial Day averages of $4.55 to $4.95 for a gallon of regular gasoline.</p>

Snips from Excerpt Only Website: Senators from both sides of the aisle are warning that looming EPA regulations on gasoline could impose billions of dollars in additional costs on the industry and end up adding up to 25 cents to every gallon of gas.  Citing the nearly $3.40-a-gallon average price of gas and the state of the economy, the senators said "now is not the time for new regulations that will raise the price of fuel even further." 

Gas prices are continuing to move upward with a gallon of regular at $3.38, up 8 cents from a week ago, the Energy Department’s U.S. Energy Information Administration said today. The weekly national average increased almost 30 cents from a year ago, and rose for the third consecutive week, adding to predictions that 2012 might be an uncomfortably expensive year for drivers across the country. Last year was a record year for gas prices but 2012 is forecasted to surpass its annual average. The real annual average for a gallon of regular gas last year hit $3.56, up from $2.90...

Northeastern states are slated to lose half of their regional capacity for fuel production by midyear as financial woes push refineries there to idle, a trend likely to increase the region’s dependency on Gulf Coast supply. A Houston-to-New York pipeline is making major expansions to accommodate growing demand to transport gasoline and other fuels up north from the Gulf Coast to fill the potential supply void. The Gulf already supplies about half of the Northeast’s demand for petroleum products, said Mindi Farber-Deanda, head of the liquid fuels market team for the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But the shutdown of production...

Energy Policy: Congress let the corn-based fuel's tax credits expire when it adjourned, but continuing mandates for its use means pump prices will go even higher and the money saved will be spent elsewhere. Subsidies for ethanol expired over the weekend, ironically just days before the Iowa caucuses. In their 33 years of existence, ethanol subsidies, the original poster child for crony capitalism, with an estimated cost of at least $45 billion and an annual price tag in recent years of $6 billion, have been a political sacred cow, letting farm state politicians bring home the bacon in exchange for...

Police fired tear gas at protesters in the Nigerian capital Monday as anger mounted after the government ended fuel subsidies, more than doubling petrol prices in the poverty stricken country. The move announced Sunday in Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, saw petrol prices rocket to about 140 niara (0.66 euros, $0.96) per litre on Monday from 65 niara, where the price had been artificially held. Most Nigerians live on less than two dollars a day. Queues formed Sunday and again on Monday, a public holiday, with drivers hoping to purchase fuel before prices rise further and fearing...

see link in first post

NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time, the top export of the United States, the world's biggest gas guzzler, is — wait for it — fuel. Measured in dollars, the nation is on pace this year to ship more gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel than any other single export, according to U.S. Census data going back to 1990. It will also be the first year in more than 60 that America has been a net exporter of these fuels. Just how big of a shift is this? A decade ago, fuel wasn't even among the top 25 exports. And...

Larger shipments of gasoline and diesel from the Gulf Coast are needed to offset planned closures of three major refineries in the Northeast, according to a new federal report. Northeastern states could experience “spot shortages with price hikes” for gasoline and other fuels as the region faces the idling of three critical refineries in Pennsylvania, the U.S. Energy Information Administration concluded in a recent report. “The Gulf Coast is likely to be a significant alternate supplier,” the report notes, specifying the Colonial Pipeline as a main transport route. “Even so, pipeline capacity will still be insufficient to make up the...

...this years average cost of fuel sets a new record. For 2011, the national average price for fuel is about $3.50 a gallon. That accounts for about 8.4% of the average American family’s income, the highest percentage in 30 years. The average American household will have spent, a record, $4,155 filling up this year. Though it’s not what some Eastern Iowans wanted to hear, for many it wasn’t a surprise.

The Consumer Won't Look So Hot When Gas Prices Catch Up To Oil Prices Lance Roberts, Street Talk Live Dec. 6, 2011, 3:11 PM Yesterday I pulled into my local gas station and went through the automated motions of filling up my non-green, oil consuming, emission generating vehicle while thinking about my day of meetings ahead of me. While the pump did its job I checked my email and scrolled the web for the latest headlines out of Europe. As the pump shut off I extracted the nozzle from my car and replaced it on the pump while looking up...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The United States is awash in gasoline. So much so, in fact, that the country is exporting a record amount of it. The country exported 430,000 more barrels of gasoline a day than it imported in September, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That is about twice the amount at the start of the year, and experts and industry insiders say the trend is here to stay. The United States began exporting gas in late 2008. For decades prior, starting in 1960, the country used all the gas it produced here plus had to import...

In the week ended September 16th, the US exported more refined products than it imported. Year-over-year, the US is now exporting 714,000 barrels/day more refined products than it is importing. The largest portion of these exports is diesel fuel. Combined with the wide price spread between US WTI crude and North Sea Brent, the demand for diesel fuel is propping up pump prices for gasoline in the US even as crude prices continue to fall. The situation we’re seeing in the energy markets now is similar to the situation almost exactly three years ago. According to the US Energy Information...

An old friend and I were conversing recently and reminiscing about the world we grew up in as opposed to the world we actually live in today. It is something “old-timers” like us have been doing since the dawn of time. We were comparing the price of gasoline where he lives as opposed to the price for the same gasoline here, where I live, on the edge of a coastal resort area. We live in neighboring states, but here in NC we have one of the highest state gasoline taxes in the United States. Add to that the proximity of...

Fire Officials Conduct Safety Inspection Of Zuccotti Park, Remove Generators And Gasoline CansOctober 28, 2011 10:20 AM NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Protesters who woke up to the chill Friday morning were greeted by fire officials conducting a safety inspection of Zuccotti Park. The FDNY were looking for safety violations. At issue: Propane tanks and gas generators being used to keep the protesters warm. The inspection, involving dozens of firefighters, was overseen by Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano. Protesters turned over six generators and a dozen of gasoline cans, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. He reiterated that the protesters can stay as long...

Achieving $2 GasIt’s possible, with the right policy. Republican presidential contender Michele Bachman has said that if she is elected, gas prices will fall to $2 per gallon. Such promises have understandably been greeted with considerable skepticism. But $2 gas is exactly what America needs. The question is, how can we get it? We can’t do it just by expanded domestic drilling. In order for gasoline prices to fall to $2 per gallon, oil prices must be cut to $50 per barrel. And oil prices are set globally, with the dominating influence being the OPEC oil cartel. Since 1973, this cartel,...

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann recently promised $2/gallon gas at one of her campaign functions, and a  researcher affiliated with NASA reported that aliens may destroy humanity to save the planet.  Which statement is farther off the wall?  Let's set the stage with the facts.Last week, the Obama administration found itself in a legal battle with Exxon over the largest find in the company's history, a field of over 1 billion barrels off the coast of Louisiana.  This represents 5% of total U.S. oil reserves and there's supposed to be a lot more out there.  The Marcellus Shale field in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland contains between 160 and...

Like many of you, I am often unhappy with our political leaders. One thing that annoys me the most is that many will say or do just about anything to get elected. By now, you have surely heard the news that Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann has promised a return to $2/gallon gasoline if she is elected president: GOP candidate Michele Bachmann: I'll bring back $2 gas _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- President Michele Bachmann has a promise: $2 gas. "Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again," Bachmann told a crowd Tuesday in...

If Congress does nothing, the cost of gasoline will drop 14 cents per gallon on Sept. 30. That not only would be a boon to consumers oppressed by hefty prices at the pump but also would go a long way toward ending one of Washington’s favorite accounting gimmicks. The public is supposed to think the 18.4 cents tossed to Uncle Sam for every gallon of unleaded (24.4 cents for diesel) goes to roads and bridges. Fifty-five years ago, it was true that the 3-cent-per-gallon levy went directly into the concrete and steel that gave us the Interstate Highway System. The...

An explosion at the 5th Wheel BP gas station at the cross streets of Masters Drive and State Road 16 has sent one person to the hospital with third-degree burns and prompted an evacuation in a half-mile radius around the area. Emergency personnel continue to try to gain control of the situation. One eyewitness said that the flames are currently higher than the treetops. State Road 16 is closed in both directions. Stop lights are out at the intersections in the vicinity of the explosion.

OK, with oil now trading at just a bit over $81.00 a barrel after today, when is the bottom going to fall out of these gas prices? In New Hampshire today, I just paid $3.65/gallon today. According to NYMEX.com, the price of RBOB is $2.78/gallon. It seems to me that gas should be somewhere around $3.35/gallon, unless I am missing something. Anyone have any insight on this?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- President Michele Bachmann has a promise: $2 gas. "Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again," Bachmann told a crowd Tuesday in South Carolina. "That will happen." Sure, politicians promise all kinds of things on the campaign trail. But Bachmann, a leading contender for the 2012 Republican nomination, is wading into truly tricky territory. The price Americans pay at the pump is tied to the crude oil market -- a global system largely beyond the reach of Washington.

At a town hall meeting in Greenville, S.C., today, Michele Bachmann said if she became president gas prices would fall dramatically. “Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 per gallon again. That will happen,” Bachmann said, according to The Hill. Gas is currently averaging $3.58 a gallon, according to AAA.

Oil prices tumbled to the lowest level in more than eight months and retail gasoline prices slipped amid concerns about a double-dip recession and Standard & Poor's downgrade last week of the U.S. credit rating. The U.S. benchmark grade of crude, West Texas Intermediate, plunged $5.57 to close Monday at $81.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was its lowest close since Nov. 23. The European trading benchmark, Brent North Sea crude, dropped $5.63 to settle at $103.74 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London. Nationally, the average retail price for regular gasoline fell 3.7...

President Obama will unveil the first-ever federal fuel efficiency standards Tuesday for a range of heavy-duty trucks, a move the White House is casting as a key part of its plan to cut foreign oil imports and slash harmful air pollution. The planned announcement comes amid growing economic uncertainty and increasing jitters on Wall Street. Obama is expected to argue that the standards will result in major benefits to the ailing economy.

More than a month after the Obama administration said it would tap the country’s emergency oil reserve to try to combat supply disruptions in the Middle East, gas prices at the pump actually have risen 10 cents. President Obama had hoped the move, coming at the onset of the summer driving season, would temper the loss of supplies due to the ongoing civil war in Libya. Working with international allies, the U.S. said on June 23 that it would release 30 million barrels of oil over 30 days, while other countries with strategic reserves agreed to release another 30 million,...

In what will represent the administration’s biggest move on energy policy this year, President Obama on Friday will announce that his administration has struck a deal with the nation’s biggest automakers to ramp up vehicle fuel-economy standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, industry and congressional sources said. The higher standards could slash U.S. fossil-fuel emissions and oil consumption and drive major changes in U.S. auto manufacturing. National Journal reported earlier Wednesday that industry and congressional sources said the administration was likely to make the announcement, and White House press secretary Jay Carney confirmed in his afternoon briefing that...

Interesting map, showing what each state charges in taxes for gasoline, per gallon....

The Obama administration is considering a fleetwide average of 56.2 miles per gallon for all new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. by 2025, two people briefed on the matter said. The proposal would roughly double current fuel-economy targets, and would likely raise the price of some cars by several thousand dollars. The proposal isn't final, and could be adjusted over the next several weeks as regulators prepare a formal draft to send to White House budget officials. The administration has said previously that it is looking at requiring cars average between 47 and 62 mpg by 2025. The...

While oil has fallen sharply since May, gasoline is down just about 10 percent and it is not likely to drop below $3 any time soon.

Milford, Conn (WTNH) - Local auto shops are swamped with dozens of cars in need of repairs, all due to bad gasoline. One dealership alone has serviced fifteen cars with fuel injection problems. Other service centers in Connecticut have been responding to similar complaints. Cars are stalling, sputtering, and just not running efficiently. Delilah Rios from West Haven noticed the problem with her Scion on Thursday. "They have to change the fuel injectors, they have to change the spark plugs, they have to clean out all the tubes, the gas," Rios said. The dealership concluded that the gasoline was the...

A new report says the Obama Admin.’s proposed 62 mpg (3.8 L/100 km) fuel-economy target for 2025 could kill hundreds of thousands of jobs, put a $55,000 sticker on an ordinary family car and deliver only minor savings to consumers. The study was produced by the Ann Arbor, MI-based Center for Automotive Research, which has been a darling of the White House in recent months.

Avoid Ethanol When Possible Gasoline that has been cut with 10 or 15 percent ethanol, called E10 or E15, is an mpg killer. Why? Gasoline stores more energy than ethanol (119,000 Btu per gallon vs 80,000). So it takes more ethanol than gasoline to go the same distance.

Dan Akerson, CEO of General Motors, suggested that Congress raise gasoline taxes by at least $1 per gallon in order to encourage more people to buy more fuel-efficient cars. “The Chevy Volt is a real dog as far as sales go,” Akerson complained. “Even with government subsidies we are having a hard time moving these $40,000 cars off the dealers’ lots. We figure that the higher the price of gasoline goes the better the Volt will sell. We’re getting some help from a shortage in fuel supplies thanks to President Obama’s drilling ban, but it’s not enough.” “Of course, in...

They don’t call it Government Motors for nothing, you know: General Motors Co. CEO Dan Akerson wants the federal gas tax boosted as much as $1 a gallon to nudge consumers toward more fuel-efficient cars, and he’s confident the government will soon shed its remaining 26 percent stake in the once-bankrupt automaker. …And while he is eager to say goodbye to the government as a part owner of GM, Akerson would like to see it step up to the challenge of setting a higher gas tax, as part of a comprehensive energy policy.A government-imposed tax hike, Akerson believes, will prompt...

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson said his company and his industry would be helped, not hurt, if consumers paid higher gas taxes. In an interview published in Tuesday's Detroit News, Akerson floated the idea of a $1 a gallon increase in the gas tax as a way to encourage buyers to purchase smaller, more fuel efficient cars. Greg Martin, spokesman for GM's Washington office, confirmed that the quotes reflect Akerson's and GM's view. Akerson said he would support a jump in the gas tax if it came instead of tighter fuel economy regulations that GM (GM, Fortune 500) and other...

OPEC . Oil companies . Refineries . Speculators . Drivers of gas-guzzling vehicles . The government .

Increasing the federal gas tax should be considered to pay for a new transportation bill, a key Democrat said Tuesday. Rep. Nick Rahall (W.Va.), the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said President Obama should be more specific about how he plans to fund a long-term transportation spending bill, and that raising the gas tax should be one of the options. "We've not had an increase in the gas tax since 1993," Rahall said Tuesday during a speech at the Transportation Construction Coalition's 10th annual Washington fly-in. "Cars are more efficient," Rahall said. "They get better mileage."...

When it comes to energy policy, congressional Democrats and Republicans agree on a lot: High gasoline prices are bad. They pose a serious threat to our fragile economic recovery. And there’s too much demagoguery – and far too little problem-solving – going on in Washington. They also agree, nearly every podium-hugging, media-blitzing chance they get, that the other side is to blame. “As is so frequently the case, Congress seems more interested in partisan squabbling than in problem-solving,” says Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. “We have been talking about these issues since the Carter administration;...

ExxonMobil's Rex Tillerson, 59, and General Electric's Jeffrey Immelt, 55, are about the same age. They both head iconic U.S. companies. Last year, the two chief executive officers made about the same amount of money, with Tillerson at $21 million and Immelt $19.6 million. Both men are leading figures in the energy business. That's obvious in Tillerson's case, but Immelt's GE is a major player in the oilfield services sector. In addition, GE controls about 40 percent of the global market for gas turbines. Overall, more than a quarter of GE's revenues now come from what the company calls "energy...

Ethanol is Not About Energy Independence Have you figured out that the federal ethanol program is not about becoming energy independent, but about putting Midwest corn farmers on the government dole? If not, keep reading. If so, are you ready to help end it? That's in here, too. If you think ethanol lowers fuel prices, then I guess you don't know that each gallon of ethanol is subsidized 47.5 cents per gallon by our tax dollars. In fact, Brazil exports ethanol, but we put a 54 cents per gallon import tax on Brazilian ethanol and then limit its import to...

Americans are fed up with high gas prices, and some U.S. senators are getting disgusted enough to act. Appearing in front of an Exxon gas station last week, Charles Schumer and several other senators called for the elimination of tax deductions oil companies use in their business of finding, refining, and marketing the precious energy we use. It is time we are outraged by blatant greed at the gas pump, they implored. Some of us agree, but for different reasons. Let's have the courage to name those who are getting the biggest cut from our gasoline dollars, and put a...

Attempts by the Federal Reserve Board and the Obama administration to head off an economic collapse in 2008 have resulted in a jump in gasoline pump prices of 56 cents per gallon, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, said today. Brady, the top House Republican on the congressional Joint Economic Committee, released a study that looked at the economic costs to average Americans of the massive infusion of dollars into the U.S. economy by the Fed designed to stimulate the economy and stave of a national economic catastrophe as the U.S. financial system teetered on the brink of collapse. “Americans are...