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Pelosi's Cartoonish Comments on Gas Prices
Townhall.com ^ | February 26, 2012 | Chris Edwards

Posted on 02/26/2012 5:17:15 AM PST by Kaslin

The congresswomen’s comments are so cartoonish, I don’t even have to comment on them. But I thought Cato readers would like to know what the minority leader of the U.S. House is saying about rising gas prices. From a Nancy Pelosi press release today:

Independent reports confirm that speculators are driving up the cost of oil, hurting consumers and potentially damaging the economic recovery. Wall Street profiteering, not oil shortages, is the cause of the price spike.

We need to take strong action to protect consumers from this speculation. Unfortunately, Republicans have chosen to protect the interests of Wall Street speculators and oil companies instead of the interests of working Americans by obstructing the agencies with the responsibility of enforcing consumer protection laws.

We call on the Republican leadership to act on behalf of American consumers and join our efforts to crack down on speculators who care more about their profits than the price at the pump even if these spikes harm the American consumer and our economy.

For a rational discussion on energy policy, see Downsizing the Department of Energy.

Department of Energy



The Department of Energy oversees nuclear weapons sites and subsidizes conventional and alternative fuels. The department has a history of fiscal and environmental mismanagement. Further, misguided energy regulations have caused large loses to consumers and the economy over the decades.

The department will spend about $45 billion in 2011, or about $380 for every U.S. household. It employs about 17,000 workers directly and oversees 100,000 contract workers at 21 national laboratories and other facilities across the nation. The department operates 37 different subsidy programs.


Recent Blog Posts on Energy

Timeline of Government Growth

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"All Americans are involved in making energy policy. When individual choices are made with a maximum of personal understanding and a minimum of government restraints, the result is the most appropriate energy policy."

- Reagan administration energy plan, 1981



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
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To: Former Proud Canadian

What good is letting every oil company drill where and when they want if they are only going to sell it to other countries? North Dakota has been producing a lot of oil, but we are shipping it elsewhere!

So we let them tap our oil for what? China to buy it up?


21 posted on 02/26/2012 8:15:33 AM PST by autumnraine (America how long will you be so deaf and dumb to the tumbril wheels carrying you to the guillotine?)
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To: Savage Beast

Hard to imagine what people are like who would vote for Pelosi? Watch the movie “Serial” starring Martin Mull and you will see. It is a funny and accurate picture of the type, including marriage in a meadow talking about “I-ness” “You-ness”, “Us-ness” and “We-ness”. The movie is many years old, but holds up surprisingly well.


22 posted on 02/26/2012 8:19:13 AM PST by Anima Mundi
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To: Kaslin

I did not attack Freepers. I simply asked three questions and gave the answers. Just trying to point out how simple the math is.


23 posted on 02/26/2012 8:20:41 AM PST by Former Proud Canadian (Obamanomics-We don't need your stinking tar sands oil, we'll just grow algae.)
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To: Kaslin
Additionally. Speculators are buying oil contracts because they believe the spot price will go up. They think the spot price will go up because Obama is doing everything he can to drive the price up. Speculators are behaving rationally. Do you blame them?

Some believe the increase in oil prices is more reflective of the fall in the value of the dollar than anything else. Bernacke has been printing dollars for years, the supply of dollars has increased dramatically. The supply of oil has remained basically static. More dollars chasing the same amount of oil is a prescription for an increase in the price of oil. It is Obama's stated policy to drive up the cost of energy. His actions reflect that policy. Don't blame "speculators" for acting on these facts. The US government could easily get energy prices down tomorrow. To wit:

1. Ok the Keystone XL project.

2. Open the Gulf for drilling and production.

3. Open public lands in CONUS and Alaska for exploration and production.

4. End "boutique blending" of gasoline.

These four steps alone would kill speculation and drive the price down. "Speculators" would liquidate their long positions and might even start selling contracts short, which would accelerate the downward pressure on spot prices. Speculators react to market conditions, they don't create them.

24 posted on 02/26/2012 8:29:38 AM PST by Former Proud Canadian (Obamanomics-We don't need your stinking tar sands oil, we'll just grow algae.)
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To: Former Proud Canadian

And we never hear anyone talking about speculators when the price of oil goes down. Why is this?


25 posted on 02/26/2012 8:46:56 AM PST by Henry Hnyellar
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To: autumnraine
Not sure where to start, but here it goes.

Check out this map: http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx

You will note that the lowest prices are occurring in the upper midwest and the western states. North Dakota production is actually not being shipped elsewhere. It, along with Canadian oil, is helping to create a glut in the midwest and the west, which are enjoying lower prices as a result.

Even though politicians will try to ignore them, the laws of supply and demand are immutable and undeniable. Oil lifted out of the ground in the US will be sold to the highest bidder. If that process means that oil lifted in Texas and refined in Houston is sold and exported as gasoline to a foreign buyer what is wrong with that? It actually earns foreign exchange for the US which can then use that money to buy oil or cheap Chinese imports.

I think, however, that you are way off base on your premise. The US net imports of petroleum products is around 9 million barrels/day. In other words, if you produced another 9 million b/d your net imports would be zero. Here is the reference: http://www.eia.gov/energy_in_brief/foreign_oil_dependence.cfm

The oil market, unlike government, operates on a rational basis.

26 posted on 02/26/2012 8:47:43 AM PST by Former Proud Canadian (Obamanomics-We don't need your stinking tar sands oil, we'll just grow algae.)
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To: Henry Hnyellar

Lots of reasons, but I’m going to assume you are asking a rhetorical question and not expecting a response.


27 posted on 02/26/2012 8:49:21 AM PST by Former Proud Canadian (Obamanomics-We don't need your stinking tar sands oil, we'll just grow algae.)
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To: Kaslin

EPA pulls permits for two Texas City refineries

Published July 1, 2010

TEXAS CITY The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday rejected the air quality permits for 122 industrial facilities in Texas, including the BP and Valero refineries in Texas City.

The pulling of the flexible air permits that are issued by the state under EPA authority means the facilities do not have legal operating permits.

EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz said none of the facilities will be required to shut down but all will be required to obtain new permits under stricter guidelines.

Earlier this year, the agency pulled more than 200 permits, citing what it said were deficiencies in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality flexible air permitting process.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/160182


28 posted on 02/26/2012 8:53:55 AM PST by kcvl
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To: Kaslin

All that plastic used to shore up her old ugly face has seeped into her brain.


29 posted on 02/26/2012 8:53:55 AM PST by chiefqc
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To: Kaslin

All that plastic used to shore up her old ugly face has seeped into her brain.


30 posted on 02/26/2012 8:54:37 AM PST by chiefqc
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To: Kaslin

“I believe speculators are responsible in some way driving up the price of oil”

And yet — when Bush was President, Pelosi and the DemocRATS said the high gas prices were ALL HIS FAULT!


31 posted on 02/26/2012 8:56:37 AM PST by Polyxene (Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice.)
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To: Kaslin
She is a total economic ignoramus spouting populist drivel. Short excerpt from a good article below...

Oil Speculators: Bad or Good

By Robert Murphy
August 4, 2008
Library of Economics and Liberty
http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2008/Murphyspeculators.html

...First, all speculators perform the vital service of speeding price adjustments and reducing volatility. After all, a speculator buys low and sells high (or short sells high and buys back low). Over the entire cycle of the commodity's price, speculation actually reduces volatility because buying (when the price is low) pushes up prices, and selling (when high) pushes them down. Thus, the true speculator—i.e., one who is not connected with the commodity and is truly just betting on the price move—profits to the extent that he accurately anticipates the future and is penalized in exact proportion to how poorly he forecasts. In an oil market plagued by a possible Israeli or U.S. airstrike on Iran, saboteurs in Iraq and Nigeria, sputtering economies that may restrict demand, and political wrangling over offshore drilling, speculators ensure that expert knowledge in all of these fields gets reflected in the market prices very quickly.


32 posted on 02/26/2012 9:14:31 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Kaslin

A day before Christmas Eve, the Environmental Protection Agency quietly announced plans to implement new regulations that would have the same impact as the job-killing cap-and-trade policy that Congress rejected last year. Implementation of these regulations would have devastating economic consequences and could jeopardize American jobs as our nation faces 9.4 percent unemployment. This is the wrong policy at the worst time, and I plan to fight against overbearing regulations that slow our economic recovery.

Texas would suffer a double blow. Not only is our state the top consumer of domestic energy, we are also the leading producer. Texas remains the nation’s largest producer of oil and gas and refining operations, accounting for more than one-fourth of total U.S. refining capacity. The energy sector of Texas employs nearly 400,000 people in high-paying jobs. This means that Texas’ energy work force would be more susceptible to job loss and financial hardship brought on by the new regulations.

http://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/EPA-regulations-on-refineries-will-kill-jobs-in-1691128.php


33 posted on 02/26/2012 9:14:44 AM PST by kcvl
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To: autumnraine
Here is an example of your government's insane "energy policy" and how it drives up prices. No speculators involved here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2851586/posts

34 posted on 02/26/2012 9:22:02 AM PST by Former Proud Canadian (Obamanomics-We don't need your stinking tar sands oil, we'll just grow algae.)
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To: duckworth
Uh...yeah...

I used to live there.

I got the hell outta that horrible place--sterilized my clothes--scrubbed myself for a coupla months--and did my best to forget the whole squalid garbage dump. As you can see, I've done a pretty good job.

BTW, a childhood friend who has lived in Europe since college, emailed me that his son and the son's girlfried, both Europeans, had driven up the California Coast to San Francisco.

I asked him if they liked San Francisco.

I replied: "Hell no!"

35 posted on 02/26/2012 11:42:41 AM PST by Savage Beast ("Improving" on truth is contempt for truth: hubris and denial--the stuff of tragedy.)
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Comment #36 Removed by Moderator

To: duckworth
Uh...yeah...

I used to live there.

I got the hell outta that horrible place--sterilized my clothes--scrubbed myself for a coupla months--and did my best to forget the whole squalid garbage dump. As you can see, I've done a pretty good job.

BTW, a childhood friend who has lived in Europe since college, emailed me that his son and the son's girlfried, both Europeans, had driven up the California Coast to San Francisco.

I asked him if they liked San Francisco.

He replied: "Hell no!"

37 posted on 02/26/2012 11:43:01 AM PST by Savage Beast ("Improving" on truth is contempt for truth: hubris and denial--the stuff of tragedy.)
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To: bigbob
But ALL of it created more dependency on the DoE for continuing the handouts. You may as well call it “food stamps for PhDs”...

I love how you put that!



Where there's a shell, there's a way.

25 years ago, we had Ronald Reagan, Johnny Cash, and Bob Hope.
Today we have Obama, no cash, and no hope!

If you can't appreciate the pure beauty of the violin after hearing this, something's wrong with your ears.

Or you can get raw with these strings.

How about this gamechanger from America's Got Talent (which they SHOULD have won).

And finally, this, dedicated to the one and only rdb2, whose eyes are growing dim.

Either way, the violin is sweet yet LETHAL.

Do it!

38 posted on 02/26/2012 12:47:35 PM PST by rdb3 (><>The mouth is the exhaust pipe of the heart. (BEWARE OF THE LAMB!))
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To: Kaslin

How high will gas have to go before the gov’t goes to the natl’l petroleum reserve fo some relief? $10/gal. 30 bucks for a gal,one hundred bucks per gal.?


39 posted on 02/26/2012 12:59:48 PM PST by Waco (Nominate Palin or forget 2012 you lost)
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To: Former Proud Canadian

Yes, the midwest gets oil from Canada while we ship US oil elsewhere.

http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/US_Oil_Exports_Reach_Record_Highs__Thats_Right__Exports_110905

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, American exports of crude oil and refined petroleum products are higher than they’ve ever been. In April of this year, oil companies sold nearly three million barrels overseas—which was double the amount sold four years earlier (April 2007).


40 posted on 02/26/2012 2:05:33 PM PST by autumnraine (America how long will you be so deaf and dumb to the tumbril wheels carrying you to the guillotine?)
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