Free Republic

Lost in the discussion of how we solve the financial crisis and the ongoing recession is the effect that Oil prices have had in its creation. It is true that sub prime mortgages were an issue way before gas prices hit $4.50/gallon, but things didn't start falling apart until gas prices cleared the $4.00 mark. Now that prices are are falling its almost as if the economy is receiving a ONE BILLION dollar a day stimulus plan. That is the difference between what America was paying per day for gas when it was $4.50 and what we are paying today:

It’s official! OPEC will cut oil production by 2.2m Bbl/day in real terms. So far, this hasn’t re-inflated the price of oil. In fact, the current price on a Bbl of Light Sweet Crude has reached $40.06. Thus, despite a reduction in global production from the cartel controlling 40% of the world’s proven reserves, the price of oil fell 8%. This would remind Sherlock Holmes of the dog that wouldn’t bark. This drop in oil prices particularly baffles in the face of a collapse of value in the US dollar. Economist John Kemp offers his prognosis on the current health...

Not everyone likes seeing oil prices plunge. This decade's historic high prices for oil and natural gas have stoked the rise of renewable power and alternative fuels. As fossil fuel prices smashed record after record, options like ethanol, hybrid electric cars, solar power and wind looked better and better. Now oil costs less than half what it did this summer. Ditto natural gas. If prices keep dropping and stay down, future fuels like cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel will have a harder time competing. So will solar and wind power projects, which compete against power plants that burn natural gas. Public...

CARACAS, Venezuela — They line up early, before sunrise, beside a massive metal fence to wait for a government grocery store named for a 1960s Venezuelan revolutionary to open. "The government pays for the subsidies, and that's why we elected the president, and that's why we love him," said Medarda Romero , 66, setting down a black garbage bag full of food. "He cares about the poor. Previous presidents didn't." Venezuela's government gets 50 percent of its income from oil revenues, however, and now falling oil prices threaten to force Chavez to scale back the food subsidies and other government...

I apologize to all readers for a stupid and inappropriate posting. It got my privileges revoked for a week. It will not happen again. Now, my thought. I watched most of the debate on Wednesday, until it frankly got boring. McCain seems to understand the anger and frustration. Bob Scheiffer almost got it when he asked about cutting spending and reducing the deficit. Neither McCain nor Obama gave a convincing answer. What we need - before Election Day - is an "I'm p!$$ed off" Day. Everybody is p!$$ed off about something or another. Let's channel it into a no work,...

LONDON (AFP) — World oil prices dipped briefly beneath 90 dollars a barrel Tuesday on growing economic gloom that was likely to further dampen demand for energy in the months ahead, traders said. * * * The price of crude oil has now plunged by almost 40 percent since striking record highs above 147 dollars per barrel in July. * * * Elsewhere on Tuesday, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, dived 2.79 dollars to 92.92 dollars a barrel. Deepening worries about a slowdown in energy demand "are likely to haunt energy markets in the near...

LONDON (AFP) - Oil prices fell on Wednesday after a sharp spike the previous day as the market reacted to a much larger-than-expected increase in US crude reserves, traders said. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery, dropped 1.22 dollars to 113.31 dollars a barrel. London's Brent North Sea crude for October shed 95 cents to 112.30 dollars. The US government's Department of Energy said Wednesday that US crude oil stockpiles climbed 9.4 million barrels in the week ending August 15 -- analysts had forecast a much smaller gain of 800,000 barrels. The DoE said US gasoline...

A list and way to track number of economic issues and problems associated with Russia and its financial system: Main Google news search including "RTS" Russia Becomes Worst 3rd-Quarter Stock Market on Oil (Update3) - Bloomberg - good read! Investment Week, UK... a near 30% decline in the RTS index in recent months Lukoil cuts sale price of diesel, jet fuel, fuel oil in August - from Polish source Europe Grapples with Russia-Georgia Woes"With energy supplies at risk, the recent conflict in the Caspian region might spur the West to seek other gas and oil sources""The very fact of the...

BREAKING NEWS: Georgian troops are preparing to defend the town of Gori against the advancing Russian army.

GORI, Georgia — The conflict between Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia moved toward full-scale war on Saturday, as Russia sent warships to land ground troops in the disputed territory of Abkhazia and broadened its bombing campaign across Georgia. The fighting that had sharply escalated when Georgian forces tried to retake the capital of South Ossetia, a pro-Russian region that won de facto autonomy from Georgia in the early 1990s, appeared to be developing into the worst clashes between Russia and a foreign military since the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Shortly before dawn on Sunday, Georgia’s Interior...

1,500 Reported Killed in Georgia Battle August 9, 2008 GORI, Georgia — Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia veered closer to all-out war on Saturday as Russia moved parts of its Black Sea fleet toward Georgia’s coast and intensified air attacks on Georgia, striking two apartment buildings in the city of Gori and clogging roads out of the area with fleeing refugees. Russia acknowledged that Georgian forces had shot down two Russian warplanes, while a senior Georgian official said the Georgians had destroyed 10 Russian jets. Russian armored vehicles continued to stream into South Ossetia, the pro-Russian region...

(August 6, 2008)—Oil prices are falling, dropping briefly below $118 a barrel again, following a government report of bigger-than-expected jumps in supplies of crude oil and distillates, suggesting high energy prices are still eating into demand. The price of crude has recovered some now, but fell $2.03 to $117.14 a barrel in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest since May 2. Oil prices are now down about $30 from their record high of $147.27, reached July 11th. Falling crude kept weighing on retail gas prices. Filling stations hungry for business reduced the price-per-gallon of regular on...

Sparks fly as ExxonMobil profit tops 10 billion dollars Jul 27 12:38 PM US/Eastern Surging oil prices helped drive quarterly profits for US energy giant ExxonMobil to 10.36 billion dollars, the latest in a string of mammoth profit reports that have drawn fire for the industry. The second-quarter profit was up 36 percent from a year ago and approached the company's all-time record profit of 10.71 billion dollars that was believed to be one of the biggest for any company. Stoked by skyrocketing crude-oil prices, ExxonMobil's net profit in the quarter to June came to 1.72 dollars per share. That...

Last update: 2:06 p.m. EDT July 30, 2008 WASHINGTON, July 30, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today in response to remarks by President Bush on energy this morning at the White House: "The President knows, as his own Administration has stated, that the impact of any new drilling will be insignificant - promising savings of only pennies per gallon many years down the road. Americans know that thanks to the two oilmen in the White House, consumers are now paying $4 a gallon for gas. But what Americans should realize is that what...

The average American voter understands no more about the contributing factors of the current price of gasoline, than they do the falling value of their national currency. That makes them easy targets for political manipulation in a very important election year. Simple Supply and Demand Economics Most Americans kind of get this one, though they are often misled about the ups and downs of natural free market cycles and how much impact government has, or should have, on the matter. In short, the cost for one gallon of gas (or one loaf of bread) is dramatically increased when there is...

Since President Bush announced an end to federal ban on offshore drilling, the price of oil has dropped over $20 a barrel, the stock market is ticking back up and the dollar has strengthened. And all this because, why? Well, because the markets can be almost totally assured that supply will increase with new drilling offshore. In other words, Republicans are/were right: More drilling = more oil = lower prices. Overseas stock markets were higher and Wall Street index futures pointed to a solid open as the cost of oil retreated further and traders turned a bit more hopeful about...

Gasoline is at over $4 a gallon in late summer of an election year. Once upon a time, incumbent congressmen and senators would have reacted to this about as well as Dracula to sunlight and crucifixes. And they would have rushed to get prices lower by the first Tuesday in November, so as to best protect their precious re-elections. But not this year. Democrats have stopped all attempts to increase domestic drilling with the ruthless efficiency of The Terminator. On its face, this would seem to be an insane and suicidal move. Even with a biased mainstream media giving them...

Drilling in the Offshore Unleashing the oil companies. By Mark Hemingway After trading at a record high of $147 a barrel Friday, the price of oil saw its largest one-day drop since the 2003 beginning of the Iraq war on Tuesday, falling $6.44 a barrel. Wednesday, it fell another $3.71, to $135.03, and at one point was trading as low as $132. So what happened? As is usually the case with markets, a variety of factors caused this dramatic drop. According to the Associated Press, the Energy Information Administration announced that U.S. crude-oil supplies rose by 3 million barrels; beleaguered...

The domed ones on Capitol Hill have insisted that loosening up on those bans to drill offshore wouldn't make any difference for years and years and years. So how come the price of crude (futures) went down $10 the very day that Bush signed an executive order repealing the ban that his father had put in place when he was in the White House. Just imagine what the price of crude would fall to if congress did its part in repealing the ban that they put into place to appease the environmentalists! And further, I heard somewhere yesterday that the...

Bill Phillips spent nearly 50 years in the US oil and gas industry; most of his career was with the Phillips Petroleum Company. Bill is a descendant of Frank Phillips. Frank Phillips, along with his brother Lee Eldas (L.E.) Phillips, Sr., founded the original Phillips Petroleum Company in 1917 in Bartlesville, OK. Do you remember Phillips 66 gas stations? Phillips Petroleum Company merged with Conoco, Inc. in 2002 to form the current ConocoPhillips oil company. As you prepare to cast your crucial ballots this Fall, please think long and hard about the far-reaching, cumulative effects of the US political philosophies,...

...Senator Reid and House Speaker Pelosi have both stated that they will not allow drilling legislation to proceed, although they are both aware that the legislation now has enough support to pass both houses. Senator Reid yesterday acknowledged that only 80% of the Senatorial Democratic Caucus opposed lifting the moratorium. If that were the case, then that would mean that the legislation would have close to the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster. The argument of Reid, Pelosi, Obama and several other congressional leaders has shifted in the past few weeks from an attitude that we cannot drill to...

"Their proposals have been the legislative equivalent of a flyswatter when the American people are clamoring for the heavy artillery."U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday regarding the need for a serious and balanced approach to lowering the price at the pump:“As we stand here, Americans are suffering from the most dramatic oil shock in memory.  A single barrel of crude oil costs almost three times today what it did a year and a half ago. This is a crisis that demands our full attention. “Yet, until now, Democrats on Capitol...

Congressman Ron Klein is disappointed that President Bush has been "short-sighted" in lifting the executive ban on off-shore drilling. We are disappointed with Congressman Klein. With a complete lack of initiative or imagination, he continues to give us the Nancy Pelosi/far left talking-point response— the truly short-sighted policy. If we had not listened to every administration since Jimmy Carter, America could have been energy independent long ago. And yes, if we develop our own natural resources—ALL of them— the speculators will see that events in the Middle East will have little effect on our supply, which will then be reflected...

Democratic Senator Richard Durbinof Illinois declared, “We can’tdrill our way to lower prices.”When it comes to domestic oil production, the Democrats and their Green/Left supporters are all singing from the same deranged hymnal. In May, one of the choir leaders, Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois declared, “We can’t drill our way to lower prices.” Never mind that 85 percent of America’s Outer Continental Shelf is off-limits to oil and gas exploration. Forget that the offshore areas that John McCain and George W. Bush want to open to exploitation might contain 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion...

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 07/15/2008 Pelosi on Gas Prices: ‘It’s the Economy, Mr. President’ Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders today held a news conference with economic experts following an economic forum this morning. At the forum, five national economic experts endorsed Democrats’ call for the President to immediately release a small amount of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce energy prices for American consumers. Below are selected comments by the Speaker on energy: “The President said today that he would not support the release of the oil...

To the U.S. Congress: Make Gas Cheaper NOW by: Increasing American oil production -- Drill here, drill now Building and expanding U.S. refineries

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, back from the Fourth of July break, last week delivered a typical harangue on Republican obstructionism and Democratic virtue that included a promise: By week's end, he would show Republicans his proposal to deal with "this speculation thing" that he calls the root cause of $4-a-gallon gasoline. It would attempt "to end speculation on the oil markets." By week's end Friday, Republicans had seen nothing of Reid's plan because of internal Democratic disagreement on details. But plenty of other Democratic legislative proposals floated around Capitol Hill claiming to resolve the nation's gasoline woes...

No combination of solar, wind, ethanol, biodiesel, or anything else will allow us independence in the foreseeable future. We are in a hole—and still digging. We have oil at a catastrophic $140 a barrel yet no sign of a bipartisan energy policy assured of passage—let alone the forceful execution needed to expand domestic supplies and restrict domestic consumption. Instead, we have the blame game about greedy speculators, careless consumers, and cowardly politicians, inevitable maybe in an election year but a betrayal of the promise of America. In the meantime, as gasoline soars over $4 a gallon, the availability of credit...

You would think that this story is right out of science fiction. But the facts appear to be that the US Democrat-controlled Congress intends to destroy the Republican middle class with $11 per gallon gasoline. The Democrats’ base -- wealthy white “limousine liberals”, and very poor people -- won’t be harmed, but the families who live in suburbia will be devastated. The multi-millionaires like billionaire Senators John Kerry & Jay Rockefeller, financial speculator George Soros, filmmaker Michael Moore, and actors George Clooney & Meg Ryan can easily pay for their auto and private jet fuel. Poor people are forced to...

SOURCE Video, charts, audio, and text at the site.

VW's 282 MPG Super Fuel Efficient Car The 1-Liter car has been around in prototype form since 2002 and greens everywhere have been drooling at its 282 miles per gallon fuel economy (or 1 liter of gasoline per 100 kilometers, hence the name). VW has finally decided to make more and sell them, and a limited edition (estimated in the thousands) should start selling in 2010. 1-Liter Car Technical Specs The One-Liter car (or 1-Litre, over in Europe) weights only 660 pounds. The body is made from carbon composites and it is shaped to be extremely slippery, giving it a...

"I want you to think about this," Barack Obama said in Las Vegas last week. "The oil companies have already been given 68 million acres of federal land, both onshore and offshore, to drill. They're allowed to drill it, and yet they haven't touched it – 68 million acres that have the potential to nearly double America's total oil production." Wow, how come the oil companies didn't think of that? Perhaps because the notion is obviously false – at least to anyone who knows how oil and gas exploration actually works. Predictably, however, Mr. Obama's claim is also the mantra...

A recent Consumer Reports survey as reported on the Fox News Channel indicated that 77 percent of Americans blame Congress for our oil price crisis. This implies that the Democrats’ attempt to shift the blame to oil executives, OPEC and oil speculators did not work. Seventy-four percent of likely voters, according to a recent Zogby poll, support oil drilling in U.S. coastal waters. And yet the Democrats blocked legislation in the Senate and the House several times within the last few weeks. Congressman Lynn Westmoreland has gotten 183 of his congressional colleagues to sign a simple petition that says, “I...

WASHINGTON — Almost all the economists studying today’s high oil prices think that financial speculators are helping drive up those prices, but hard data is lacking as to whether they’re a factor, and if so, how big. Michael Greenberger said speculation is a major factor, and he knows a lot about the complex global oil market. He directed trading and markets for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 1997 to 1999. That body regulates the trading of contracts for future deliveries of commodities, including crude oil. The contracts, called futures, drive oil prices. Greenberger, a law professor at the University...

In recent days I have set before the American people an energy plan, the Lexington Project named for the town where Americans asserted their independence once before. And let it begin today with this commitment: In a world of hostile and unstable suppliers of oil, this nation will achieve strategic independence by 2025. This pledge is addressed to all concerned -- to those abroad whose power flows from an accident of geology, and to you, my fellow Americans, whose strength proceeds from unity of purpose. Together, we will break the power of OPEC over the United States. And never again...

Here we are with a new week and another round of posturing, politicking, and punditry regarding the price of petroleum. As happens when folks do a lot of talking, very little is said. I hang around educated and talented people. Each individual has at least one university degree. Most read, watch, or listen to more than one news source every day. They span generations with ages ranging from the 20s to the 70s. Yet, not a single person among them knew the answers to some basic questions pertinent to the growing discourse regarding the rising price of oil. A few...

This week I want to do something a little different. Although my Winning the Future message has always been directed at all Americans, whether they consider themselves Republicans, Democrats, or independents, today I am directing my message specifically to Democrats. And my message is this:The American people have spoken. Are your leaders listening?Over 1.1 Million Americans Call on Congress to "Drill Here, Drill Now" We really had no idea, just 35 days ago when we first posted the "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" petition here, that we would provide the spark that has ignited a fire among frustrated, struggling...

Environmentalists have contended for decades that if gasoline, heating oil and natural-gas prices rose high enough, Americans would clamor for energy alternatives. Well, each fuel sets a record almost daily, and Americans are clamoring — for more gasoline, heating oil and natural gas. A new Rasmussen poll finds two-thirds of Americans favor more offshore drilling, as opposed to just 18 percent who oppose it. Drilling is backed by 57 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of unaffiliated voters. Even liberals think environmental concerns must take a backseat to more plentiful, less expensive fossil fuels, 46 percent to 37 percent. Last...

A bill introduced in Congress this week would "compel" oil and natural gas companies to produce from federal lands they are leasing. If only it were that easy to find and produce oil. Imagine, an act of Congress that could do what geology could not. These lawmakers ask why oil and gas companies want more access to federal lands to drill if they aren't using all of the 68 million acres they already have? Anyone with even the most basic understanding of how oil and natural gas are produced – and this should include many members of Congress – knows...

----snip---- The reason oil prices are skyrocketing is not because there isn’t enough oil to satisfy demand right now but because the market expects that significantly more supply is going to be needed in the future to make up for new demand coming online from the developing world. These new oil supplies cannot be economically produced without significantly higher oil prices to make production economical and higher oil prices are also needed for consumers to cut back on their own consumption of oil. Another important factor is that the production in many oil-exporting nations has been in decline due to...

Wow! Not just a hell-freezes-over-moment. Let's call it–in honor of Chinese Olympic diving which made the NY Times today–a a triple-twisting forward three-and-a-half flying pig, pike position. An MSM reporter has condemned socialist big-government programs, adding a pitch for unrestrained free-market forces. Check the end of this item for a factoid making the moment even more remarkable. CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera made the stunning statement on Morning Joe today while reporting on a change in Chinese policy that should lower the price of crude oil world-wide. View video here.

Many in the wacko wing of the anti-war movement - which includes a few Congress critters - have claimed that the Iraq war was all about Bush’s oil buddies.Well, I’m glad to at least see that part is working out: Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power. American involvement in rebuilding Iraq’s oil inustry is good news for both countries - the U.S. companies now have a replacement for lost markets...

You must have seen or heard it. It's been repeated ad nauseum by Democrats on floors of both houses of Congress, before TV cameras and radio microphones and at recent campaign events. "We can't drill our way out of this." The donkey party's latest mantra has been hammered home by the usual suspects from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to Barack Obama. Like most Democrat talking points, it's a falsehood. Yes we CAN drill our way out of this. Just the announcement of our intention to drill in any one of the Big Three Forbidden Zones (off the Continental Shelf,...

Will $4 Gasoline Trump a 27-Year-Old Ban?SHERYL GAY STOLBERG Published June 19, 2008 WASHINGTON — One was an oilman from Texas, the other a high-paid energy executive. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, for seven years George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have been unable to persuade Congress and the public that domestic oil drilling is an answer to America’s energy needs. With the clock running down on his presidency, Mr. Bush made one last push Wednesday by calling on Congress to end the 27-year moratorium on most offshore drilling. With oil at more than $130 a barrel, gasoline...

Fox news alert that the House Democrats are calling to have all US refineries nationalized!!

June 18, 2008 Reid: Bush And McCain Still Don't Get It - We Cannot Drill Our Way Out Of This Energy Crisis Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made the following statement today in response to President Bush’s proposal to drill offshore for oil: “This week’s flip-flop on offshore oil drilling by President Bush and Senator John McCain is nothing more than a cynical campaign ploy that will do nothing to lower energy prices and represents another big giveaway to oil companies already making billions in profits. “The facts are clear: Oil companies have already had ample opportunity to increase...

OK ... so this is rambling ... but someone needs to really start calling this Obama character, and his fawning followers, out. I just love hearing The Messiah slamming McCain for "flip-flopping" on the issue of offshore drilling. I seem to remember that a few months ago Barack Obama was talking about almost doubling the capital gains tax. He wanted to take it up to 28%. Suddenly that changed. Apparently some advisors who are smarter than him had a little sit-down, and the idea went away. Flip-flopping? The people of this country, even people who call themselves liberal, want us...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Soaring gas prices at the pump means more drivers are going to have a bumpier ride no matter where they go because economic pressure is forcing states to cut back on repaving projects. Americans drove fewer vehicle miles this year than last year, which means that states have less state and federal gasoline excise tax money to pay for the soaring cost of asphalt to repave roads. Asphalt is made from a combination of rocks and sand mixed with liquid asphalt, made of crude oil, to hold it all together. Soaring oil prices have caused asphalt...

As both the Right and Left engage in their favorite pastime - The Blame Game - when it comes to assigning responsibility for the mess we're in with gas prices, I've been doing a slow burn about both sides' singular avoidance of placing blame on the one group who truly deserves it. Every red blooded American who has voted over the past 30 years - Republican and Democrat - for federal lawmakers who promised, in effect, that this day would come bears the primary responsibility for high gas prices.

The United States has as much as 8 times as much oil in the form of "shale oil" as all of Saudi Arabia's oil. America could end all imports of foreign oil if these shale oil resources were developed. The Wall Street Journal editorial page then picked up the theme of accessing America's shale oil resources, shortly after publication in the New Media Journal. America's vast supplies of shale oil has not been tapped because it was too expensive when oil was trading at $19 per barrel. And no one has taken action now that oil has exceeded $137 per...