Free Republic

Has this been a trying decade for the average American, or what? It's bad enough that we've have had to cope with stagnant wages and tax increases at just about every level. But in the months ahead, we may have to deal with yet another nightmare: surging gasoline prices. Factors are lining up that could end up pushing gas prices back over $4 per gallon sometime next year. If you're already exasperated about prices at the pump, you're not the only one. Gasoline demand in 2009 has been comparatively low -- take 7.6 million Americans out of the workforce through...

The oil platforms provide an unusual artificial reef for advanced divers.

Domestic oil refiners kept up their attack of climate legislation, saying a Senate bill under consideration could increase gas prices. Domestic oil refiners kept up their attack Wednesday of climate legislation, saying a Senate bill under consideration could increase gas prices. The group, among the fiercest critics of the measure, said the proposal could add 77 cents a gallon, or around 30 percent above today’s prices. Democrats on a key Senate panel shot back, saying the industry’s estimate is based on an inflated projection of the price of permits companies will have to hold to cover their carbon emissions. A...

Greenpeace is running rampant across Alberta’s oil sands. In the past few weeks, 37 activists have been arrested in a spate of incidents targeting North America’s most important energy resource. The most recent occurred on Oct. 5 when 19 activists stormed an upgrader in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. They tied themselves to equipment which is used to transform heavy oil into gasoline. The protesters unfurled banners reading “Climate Crime” and “Climate SOS” to draw attention to an industry they say is killing the planet. In September, two-dozen Greenpeace commandoes kayaked down the Athabasca River to intercept a Suncor bridge where conveyor...

U.S. consumers turned decidedly more pessimistic in October, according to a report released Tuesday, with households increasingly worried about job prospects. The Conference Board, a private research group, said its monthly Consumer Confidence Index fell to 47.7 this month, from a revised 53.4 in September, which was originally reported as 53.1. The current month's reading was well below economists' projections of 53.2, according to a survey conducted by Dow Jones Newswires. The downturn in consumer confidence at this stage of the recovery is to be expected, as it has occurred in previous recoveries (please see chart below), and does not...

HA NOI — Three Vietnamese banks will jointly provide a loan of up to US$51 million to the PetroVietnam Exploration and Production Corporation (PVEP) to exploit oil and gas in the Ca Ngu Vang (Gold Tuna) oilfield. Under a credit agreement signed in Ha Noi on Thursday with the Viet Nam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB), Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) and the Sai Gon-Ha Noi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB), the PVEP would use the five-year loan to pay for the development and exploitation of oil and gas at the oilfield, located southeast of Viet Nam’s continental...

There's something the Democratic lawmakers who are pushing cap-and-trade legislation don't want the public to know. The controversial climate-change legislation winding its way through Congress will impose a massive new national gas tax on the American people. We discovered this by analyzing what the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill would do to gas prices and what Americans spend on gasoline, diesel and jet fuels. We found that cap-and-trade legislation will levy a $3.6 trillion gas-tax increase that will impact every American and important segments of our economy. Americans travel more than 200 million vehicle miles each month, and annually we spend nearly...

Twice an Exxon Valdez spill worth of oil seeps into the Gulf of Mexico every year, according to a new study that will be presented January 27 at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. But the oil isn't destroying habitats or wiping out ocean life. The ooze is a natural phenomena that's been going on for many thousands of years, according to Roger Mitchell, Vice President of Program Development at the Earth Satellite Corporation (EarthSat) in Rockville Md. "The wildlife have adapted and evolved and have no problem dealing with the oil," he said. Oil that finds its...

Oil enters the marine environment from human activity and natural seeps. A National Academy of Science study recently estimated that about 47 percent of the oil entering the marine environment is a result of natural seepage from subsurface reservoirs. The Gulf of Mexico is an area where such natural seepage occurs at a very high rate. Of the 200,000 metric tons of oil seepage that is thought to occur each year, about 150,000 metric tons escapes from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico.

Crude-oil futures rose Monday for an eighth straight session, ending at a new one-year high near $80 a barrel as a weaker dollar and rising U.S. stocks stirred more bullish sentiment among energy traders. Crude for November delivery gained $1.08, or 1.4%, to $79.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange,

Since taking office as the President of the United States, President Obama has encountered crisis after crisis. His next major crisis will be oil prices. Read full article... http://newsflavor.com/politics/international-relations/next-major-obama-crisis/

The government is, increasingly, the enemy. Imagine the jobs, the wealth, the independence, and cutting the jihad snake off at the head. There is no downside. We could easily extract that oil with minimum impact to the trees. ..... For decades, Democrats have blocked efforts to responsibly develop this nation's energy resources, transforming vast areas of opportunity into "The No Zone." (hat tip Jim)

A call to drill for oil and natural gas in the narrow strip of Florida-controlled waters in the Gulf of Mexico will be the subject of a forum late this month at Florida State University. Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, wants the Legislature to lift the ban on offshore rigs in state waters and give the Cabinet authority to consider drilling applications. Cannon’s proposal came as a surprise earlier this year -- it died in the waning days of the legislative session -- and he’s now waging a campaign to win support for a drilling bill he plans to file...

The Subprime home mortgage collapse...a Primer. It's ALL about the CRA of 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 - This required banks to offer credit throughout their entire market area for “underserved” populations and small businesses. The CRA gave incentives to help low income borrowers become “home owners”. Liberals call this group “low income borrowers”. Conservatives call them a RISK!The CRA was passed by the Carter administration. In 1995 the Clinton administration authorized subprime loans under the CRA. Democrats added these provisions for the securitization of subprime loans and then ENFORCED the lending to high risk individuals. By 2000,...

California's gasoline taxes are 43 percent higher than the national average, according to a recent study by University of California and California State University economists. Since 1997, Californians have paid up to 60 cents more per gallon of gas than residents of other states. That is simply unacceptable. Major fuel consumers and employers in this state, like United Airlines, who rely heavily on affordable fuel prices, are being hit hard by these California-only fuel polices. What causes this disparity in fuel prices? It's simple: California prices are increasingly inflated by the state's policies, taxes and fees. These California-specific rules and...

Senators Tom Coburn, M.D. and John McCain released a report on $78 billion from the Highway Trust Fund not being spent on bridges or roads. “Out of Gas: Congress Raids the Highway Trust Fund for Pet Projects While Bridges and Roads Crumble� includes an analysis of a newly published GAO study the two Senators requested to determine how Congress is spending Highway Trust Fund receipts.

Energy Policy: A new study shows that Waxman-Markey will increase prices at the pump, deepen our dependence on foreign oil and shred our ability to turn crude into gasoline. Even fuel-efficient cars will still need fuel.Oil may bubble up out of the ground, but gasoline does not. It's made in those ugly little NIMBY places called refineries we are loath to build anymore because we're too busy trying to save the Earth rather than our economy and American jobs. When Hurricane Katrina shut down 20% of our refining capacity in a single day and raised gas prices in a single...

Cap-And-Trade: The administration likes to defend bad policies with analogies to the post office. New studies from a business group and the administration itself confirm that cap-and-trade belongs in the dead-letter bin.Along with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Rep. Ed Markey likens the cost of the Waxman-Markey cap-and trade bill to "about a postage stamp a day," based on estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office and the EPA. But as we and others have shown, they arrive at this magical number in part by ignoring the hit on gross domestic product and employment that will occur. As Garret Vaughan, economist...

asoline prices are up since the start of the year, but the summer of 2009 has thus far been a bargain at the pump compared to a year ago when prices exceeded $4 a gallon. However, the respite from sky-high prices is likely temporary. A return to $4 a gallon gas--or higher--will be made even more certain if Congress and the President succeed in enacting a host of proposals to crack down on domestic energy supplies. Instead, the federal government should support several pending pro-domestic energy measures that would help meet the nation's growing demand in the years ahead.

It is estimated that there are anywhere from 18-95 BILLION Barrels of oil underneath our continental shelf. There are almost 7 TRILLION Barrels of Oil in the shale under the Rocky Mountains (to be fair, with present technology we can only get to around 800 billion barrels of it). Today America Consumes about 20 Million Barrels/day approximately 7.5 million of which we get domestically. My math tells me, using the minimum numbers (18+800 Billion) divided by 20 million, divided by 365 days, the US has an import free Oil reserves of at least 112 YEARS. Drilling would be a true...

Imagine the post-oil apocalypse, with modern American society heading into a direction with no Disney vacations, no airlines – a world devoid of one-stop convenient big retailers. Sounds like a desolate place, but that’s an ideal society according to Forbes magazine Christopher Steiner. Steiner appeared on NBC’s July 24 “Today” and described a world with gas headed to $20 a gallon, but according to him it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. ...more (w/video)...

Retail gas prices are increasing around the country even though U.S. supplies have swelled for six weeks in a row. Pump prices rose the final three days this week, including a half cent Friday, to a new national average of $2.47 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of gas is still more than 20 cents cheaper than it was a month ago, and it's priced at a major discount to last year, when the national average was above $4.02. But with so much unused gasoline in storage, analysts said prices...

As you're filling up your tank this weekend, it'll be hard not to think about the cost. Back when gas was $4/gallon, many of us made seemingly radical changes to our lifestyle, cutting back how much we went out to eat, riding the subway more, even moving closer to work. But $4 gas was only the tip of the iceberg, says Chris Steiner, author of the new book "$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better" (Hachette Book Group, June 2009). According to Steiner, a staff writer at Forbes...

WASHINGTON – Higher energy prices rippled through the economy in June, helping to drive a bigger-than-expected gain in retail sales. The sharp rise in wholesale prices — as well as "core" prices that exclude food and energy — could fan investors' fears about inflation. Economists viewed the energy cost hikes as temporary and not the beginning of a dangerous bout of spiraling prices, but said consumers likely will remain cautious as the unemployment rates ticks up. The 1.8 percent jump in the Producer Price Index, which tracks the costs of goods before they reach store shelves, came after wholesale prices...

Gas prices rose last week by the smallest weekly increment since the beginning of May, according to AAA Auto Club South. The national average price of a gallon of gas was up by just three cents compared to the previous week. However, in Florida it was up by five cents a gallon to $2.71. Just a month ago the average price of a gallon of regular in Florida was $2.40. The average price was $2.77 in both Fort Lauderdale and Miami. In West Palm Beach, a gallon of regular unleaded is going for $2.80. The good news is that gasoline...

Unnoticed in the recent upheaval surrounding the fallout from the Iranian elections earlier this month has been how it could affect the price of oil, and therefore the price of gas. And according to Fox Business Network "Happy Hour" co-host Eric Bolling, the longer this goes, the more likely you'll see it at the gas pump. Bolling appeared on the Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on June 19 and explained how events in Iran, the world's fourth largest oil-producing nation, would have a lagging impact on the price at the pump. "Now think of this - it...

Gasoline markets exhibited the first signs that an extended rally in pump prices is nearing an end after 52 straight days on the rise. Gasoline futures started falling midweek after a government report showed a huge surplus. Already, wholesale gasoline prices in key markets like the Gulf Coast and Chicago had begun to fade. Should prices continue to fall on the New York Mercantile Exchange, cheaper gas may be on the way for motorists.

Congress is debating a bill that would open up oil and natural gas platforms just ten miles from portions of Florida's Gulf and Atlantic coasts. It's putting pressure on state lawmakers to decide how close is too close to search for new energy sources. As it stands, oil and natural gas exploration is limited to dozens of miles away from Florida's beaches and some in the state worry that allowing access just ten miles away, in Federal waters, puts Florida at risk environmentally without any of the financial windfalls.

"Demand has not picked up," says CEO Rex Tillerson. Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson says a weakened dollar, not an increase in demand is the reason for the sharp run up in the price of oil. “When you look at just fundamentals, there’s not a lot to support the kind of price movement we have seen, let’s say, in the last six weeks,” Tillerson, head of the world’s biggest oil company, said after a speech today at a gas conference in Groningen, Netherlands. Concerns about a weakening dollar and inflation had led some investors to bet on an economic recovery and...

“I’m a free-market guy, but the government must step in to stop the speculators!” ~ Bill O’Reilly, The O’Reilly Factor Crude oil prices have now doubled this year to over $70 a barrel, and gasoline prices are moving back up quickly, and have even hit $3.00 a gallon in California. American consumers are getting restless again, worried that gas prices might return to $4 or more in the near future, and all this is happening at a time when Americans can least afford it. Why would gas prices rise in the midst of a deep recession and high unemployment? It...

There are several studies that prove this. UCSB's study is rather bold right up front in it's findings: Next time you step on a glob of tar on a beach in Santa Barbara County, you can thank the oil companies that it isn't a bigger glob. That's pretty clear, isn't it? There's a study out there from the US Government which has taken note of seepages and compared them with leaks that happen from offshore oil rigs and notes that rigs leak less than the ocean floor does. The Brits have also noticed the positive benefits of offshore riggery, though...

This week (June 8-12) I was interviewed by several media sources regarding my thoughts on oil and the direction of gas prices at the pump. These are a few of the questions I was asked and how I responded. Question: What happened in the last month that's prompted this increase in gas price -- and oil price for that matter?

2009-Jan 01/05 173.7 01/12 183.5 01/19 189.8 01/26 189.0 2009-Feb 02/02 194.4 02/09 197.8 02/16 201.6 02/23 196.3 2009-Mar 03/02 198.8 03/09 199.3 03/16 196.4 03/23 201.4 2009-Apr 04/06 209.0 04/13 210.4 04/20 211.2 04/27 210.2 2009-May 05/04 212.9 05/11 229.0 05/18 236.0 05/25 248.5 2009-Jun 06/01 257.2 06/08 267.3 sourceYou may notice that the average retail price of gas that President Obama inherited was around $1.89. Five months into the Obama presidency, the price has increased by 41%. The price spikes of 2008 brought calls for nationalization of the oil industry by a handful of Democrats, but at...

Predictions of $250 a barrel on fears for oil reserves, hopes of economic recovery and hedging against weak dollar The price of oil burst through the $71 a barrel mark today amid revelations that proven reserves had fallen for the first time in 10 years and predictions that the price could eventually hit $250. The latest high – from lows of $30 only four months ago – came on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where the cost of July deliveries rose by $1.35 to $71.36. This comes on top of a $2 rise the day before as investors rushed into...

But "as oil prices rise, so will big oil companies' profits, creating more importance to pass the legislation," said Daniel J. Weiss, director of climate strategy at the liberal Center for America Progress. Mr. Weiss added that higher oil and gas prices will soon return to the forefront of the climate and energy debate, helping to push legislation through the House. At the same time, higher oil and gas prices are likely to slow the economy's eventual revival. Energy Secretary Steven Chu warned last week that gasoline prices in the $3-a-gallon range could require the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries...

HOUSTON — After just a few months of relief at the pump, cheap gasoline is disappearing. Gas prices have risen 41 days in a row, to a national average of almost $2.62 a gallon. That is sharp increase from the low of $1.62 a gallon that prevailed at end of last year. Refinery problems are producing especially high prices in the Midwest, a region that was already reeling from the economic crisis. Michigan, the state with highest unemployment rate, at 12.9 percent, is now paying the highest gasoline prices, averaging $2.93 a gallon. The national jump in prices, far larger...

Potholes? Faded road stripes? Downed signs or faulty traffic lights? Too bad; take a number, and drive carefully. Among Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposals for closing the state's $24 billion budget deficit is to redirect gas-tax away from cities and counties to pay debt service on state highway bonds — draining $744 million from local government coffers in the next fiscal year and $745 million in the year after that. "It'll have a devastating effect here," said Alameda County's Public Works Director Daniel Woldesenbet. "This isn't just a public works issue, but a public safety issue." Woldesenbet said his agency stands...

Oil prices broke through the $70 per-barrel barrier Friday and more forecasters are broadening expectations for an upward swing in crude. Benchmark crude for July delivery lost 37 cents to settle at $68.44 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, finishing the week with a gain of nearly $2 a barrel. Earlier in the day oil jumped as high as $70.32 per barrel, the highest since October. Oil prices have been soaring for months despite a massive surplus of petroleum and natural gas. A large amount of speculative money has flowed into the markets, according to government reports, potentially taking advantage...

NEW YORK -- Oil prices rose above $65 per barrel Thursday as OPEC maintained crude production levels as expected and a pair of economic reports suggested an economic rebound may push energy prices higher. Benchmark crude for July delivery added $1.56 to reach $65.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a six-month high. In London, Brent prices gained $1.80 to $64.30 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Retail gas prices have shadowed oil prices, ticking higher every day this month. Gas prices are not only rising because of crude. Refiners, stung by falling demand for gasoline, have...

Crude rises as U.S. inventories fall unexpectedly By Moming Zhou & Nick Godt, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures were slightly higher Wednesday, with gains capped as investors looked past a surprising decline in last week's U.S. crude inventories and focused instead on weak demand and lower refinery production levels. The decline in crude inventories was not driven by higher demand but by lower imports, Energy Information Administration data showed. Meanwhile, the decline in gasoline inventories was driven by lower production, with refineries reducing their utilization level to the lowest since September. Total petroleum consumption was still markedly lower...

If you want to know when the economy is making a comeback, keep a watchful eye on the frequency of high oil and gas price reports in the news. Throughout 2007 and the first half of 2008, viewers were inundated with high gas and oil price reports on cable and broadcast news. But since hitting $147 back in July 2008, oil prices have plummeted into the low-$40 range mid-January and so has the frequency of doom-and-gloom oil warnings. However, crude has since rallied into the upper-$50s. And, as crude has rallied, predictions of oil hitting unfathomable heights appear to be...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The Obama administration is sticking with a plan to raise about $5 billion over 10 years through a new excise tax on oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico out of its proposed fiscal 2010 budget, a senior administration official said Thursday. The comment came after the White House released new details of a budget that showed it is also sticking with other plans to eliminate $26 billion in tax breaks for oil and gas companies. Half of that would come from eliminating a tax break for domestic oil and gas production. Companies say the tax...

ON EARTH DAY last week, Consumer Reports offered recommendations to motorists looking for ways to make "greener automotive choices." At the top of its list: "drive a more fuel-efficient car or SUV." Consumer Reports wasn't the only one making that suggestion. In an Earth Day proclamation, President Obama advised Americans to "drive fuel-efficient cars" and stressed his own commitment "to increasing fuel economy standards" as part of a campaign to "reduce greenhouse gases" and "lessen our dependence on foreign oil." The editors of National Geographic, fielding questions online, heard from one reader troubled by the fact that "transportation is our...

OPEC wants to see oil prices rising to more than 70 dollars a barrel, the oil cartel's secretary general Abdalla El-Badri said Sunday. "The price of 50 dollars is not enough to cover investment costs for the future," El-Badri told reporters in Algiers. "The price which allows reasonable and acceptable revenues is more than 70 dollars a barrel," he added.

TESTIFYING before the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week, Energy Secretary Steven Chu was asked about something he said in September. "Somehow," the Nobel laureate had told The Wall Street Journal, "we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe." At the time, gasoline in Europe was going for around $8 a gallon. Did the secretary, Florida Representative Cliff Stearns inquired, still want to see US gas prices rise that high? "In today's economic climate," Chu quickly replied, "it would be completely unwise to want to increase the price of gasoline....

In recent months, oil prices plunged as consumers curtailed fuel use around the world, with some analysts predicting that the dire economic situation would cause oil to fall to $20 a barrel or less. But in a twist, oil prices have stabilized at close to $50 a barrel. While prices may have fallen by two-thirds since their peak last summer, oil remains expensive by historical standards. The resilience shown by the oil markets is not because of any improvement in the global economy or rise in oil consumption. Global demand remains on course for its steepest drop since the early...

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens on Monday reiterated his prediction that crude oil prices would hit $75 a barrel this year as producers scale back production. Pickens said about OPEC producers: "They told you they want $75 by the end of the year, I would count on that, I believe them."

KING: We're back with Donald Trump. His book, "Think Like a Champion," ... TRUP: When the economy starts getting better, you will have an OPEC problem. They'll just start raising the price of oil again and destroy the economy... I also happen to think that $150 oil destroyed the world economically. And as soon as the world comes back, OPEC will raise its ugly head and destroy it again. So somebody better sit -- and I hope it's our president -- somebody better sit down with OPEC right now and say, "Listen, we're going to straighten this mess out, but...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the Bush administration did not properly study the environmental impact of expanding oil and gas drilling off the Alaska coast and canceled a program to find new reserves. A three-judge panel in Washington found that the Bush-era Interior Department failed to consider the effect on the environment and marine life before it began the process in August 2005 to expand an oil and gas leasing program in the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi seas. The appeals court ordered the department, now run by President Barack Obama's appointee Ken Salazar, to analyze...

WASHINGTON – Gasoline prices are expected to be relatively low this summer, so motorists might want to take to the road despite the dismal economy if the federal government projections hold. The Energy Information Administration said regular-grade gasoline is expected to average $2.23 a gallon during the April-through-September driving season, although it will likely fluctuate and could jump to more than $2.30 a gallon during the peak driving period in late summer. But that's still a bargain compared with last summer, when gasoline cost an average of $3.81 a gallon. Much lower crude oil prices, which are projected to averaged...