Bloggin on down the Rogue

Gasoline and Diesel Prices... Do you feel like you've been raped?

Do you have a choice? Can you just park your car and walk to work, or take public transportation? Most of us can NOT!

Pundits like Rush Limbaugh and others pooh-pooh the idea that speculators are driving the price of gas at the pump.

I just did a quick drive around my local area to see what the posted prices for regular gas are. Within a couple miles of where I am typing this from, the low price was $4.22 and the high price is $4.25. A couple weeks ago we had at some of these stations selling it for $4.12 so there has not been a huge amount of movement, but it has been upward regardless.

But have you noticed how prices shoot up overnight at the slightest hint of anything affecting oil, not just the supply? Speculation? Who is speculating?

When oil prices go down, gas prices stay up with hints that the overnight increased (gouge) price may slowly fall over the coming weeks.

Gas prices follow (and even anticipate) oil prices upward movement but not when they fall, so you figure out, is there gouging going on, and who is gouging who. Follow the money... who is making "record prifits" while the country suffers? It is not like we have a choice.

One thing is certain, our high gasoline prices are pleasing to the Democrat controlled congress. 10 years ago Der Schlickmeister vetoed oil exploration in ANWR and off the continental shelf when we could have been drilling and producing now. Now they say that we can't drill our way out of the current crisis. Yes we can but with the Democrats, everything is a crisis and it is pleasing to them They are happiest when the country is suffering.

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An excerpt from:
http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/pweyrich/2008/pmw_07091.shtml

A Time To Drill
By Paul M. Weyrich
July 9, 2008

Liberals have come up with two mantras which we hear on every talk show, in every press conference and in every speech addressing the high cost of gasoline.

[1] The first mantra is that it will take at least 10, maybe 30 years before we see a drop of oil coming from the ground at the aforementioned sites.

On the first point, correspondent Ken Wood pointed out that Larry Kudlow recently featured on his television show James T. Hackett, President and CEO of Anadarko Petroleum Company. Whereas some liberals are saying it could take 30 years for the oil to be available, Hackett said it would take two or three years, depending upon where the oil was drilled. Indeed, I saw one oil exploration expert on Fox News Channel who said that if the right equipment were available it would take only one year to get the first oil since the oil companies know exactly where the oil is located in the outer Continental Shelf. One oil shale expert told proponents of drilling in the House of Representatives that the first 800 million barrels of oil from shale could be available in two or three years. The remaining estimated two trillion barrels of oil from shale would take longer to have ready because they would be more difficult to extricate. But the initial 800 million barrels would help the U.S. economy.

[2] The second mantra is that greedy oil companies already have 86 million acres of leases provided by the Federal Government. They only want more leases to satisfy their greed.

On the second point, I received two different answers. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who used to be in the oil business, said the reason oil companies are not drilling on the 86 million acres is that there is no substantial oil available on those lands to make drilling economically viable. He said the government only permits exploration on those leased lands, so oil companies have explored them and found that they would produce little. The second answer came from Hackett. He said the federal government is, in effect, guilty of fraud. They accept the lease money and the annual rents but have refused to grant permission to drill there. He implied that some oil had been found that would be worthwhile to extract but since they cannot drill the consumer sees no benefits. Either way, to accuse oil companies of greed is an unfounded assertion.

Technorati Tags:gas prices, gouging, speculation, politics
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Posted by James Foley at 4:36 PM EDT
Edited on: Friday, July 25, 2008 11:27 AM EDT
Categories: 2008 election info, Cross Posts (Yahoo, VDare, etc.), Democrat Wackiness and Hypocrisy, Random Thoughts and Comments


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