Posted on 03/20/2005 5:09:02 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
**Exclusive**
President Bush's inner circle has become preoccupied with soaring gas prices and its toll on the economy, a well-placed White House source said over the weekend.
Bush has quitely asked for a review of any and all economic fallout on the nation if gas prices continuing racing up and over the psychological line of $3 a gallon, as they have in recent weeks in some locations, the source explains.
Bush's top economic advisers have conveyed to the president that a "nightmare" scenario of $4 a gallon is extremely unlikely in the short term.
"The seasonal run-up of gas prices has been tough this year, but like every year in the past two decades, we expect we will will see some easing," the source claims from Washington.
Developing...
Eh, we could still have our toys. This would be all about fun and being hardcore. Let's go for a ride.
they all have stops under their positions. to break a bubble, you have to introduce some "unexpected" external event into the market to get the price headed down, even a little bit. if we can force some of them to abandon their positions and sell into that decline, the price will quickly unravel back towards $40-45. That's why I say - use the SPR, and use our "special relationship" with Iraq - its all we've got.
Yeah, the darn snow is kind of a problem. Cross-country skis!!
It better be true to some extent, or else the Bush administration would be negligent. The question is whether the degree of alarm is overhyped.
One thing maybe you're not considering...All of the independant oil companies have been bought off...There are now just a handfull of multi-national oil companies left...And they don't compete with each other...
Would seem to me it's a violation of anti-trust and monopoly laws but some say it's not...
In my view, if all crude oil was American produced, we would still pay the producers the world price...I don't know but I imagine the American producers charge the same rate per barrel as OPEC to American consumers...
And the president, the vice president and the majority of congress own or are stockholders in oil companies...
We won't see any new refineries or laws to curb prices EXCEPT where there may be some political fallout...
Besides gas lines, that moron also gave us the all-time highest, inflation adjusted prices.
I'd guess at $6/gallon people might begin to notice. Gasoline is $5 in Europe and they still buy plenty of Range Rovers and Mercedes GL55 AMGs. I do NOT expect $6, not with everybody and his mother pumping their oil fields at capacity and the Caribbean refineries operating 24/7.
Yes, with their dropping market share and pension costs, GM is not in good shape. It's interesting that they recently scrapped their electric cars. I bet folks in Southern Kalifornia would have bought them even if they weren't perfect.
Bush as usual is not being political enough. He has to start directly blaming the Democrats. Say that they have blocked for over 20 years anything that would enable increased domestic energy production.
There are a half-dozen alternatives out there for adoption within two to five years, IF there is assurance of high and steady prices.
1. Oil shale - there is a break-even level at about $50/barrel, and Utah has a wealth of it on or near the surface.
2. Wells that are now capped in the "oil-patch" country of Oklahoma and Texas, that will still yield, but the recovery costs make exploitation economically feasible at prices below $50-$60/barrel.
3. Offshore petroleum and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as huge amounts of Methane Hydrate which may be recovered with no need of drilling at all, but require specialized recovery techniques, much like vacuuming it up off the ocean floor. High initial investment, but the plentiful supplies and the relative ease of recovery should assure relatively low costs, especially for natural gas.
4. Invade Mexico, and take their oil in exchange for all the support we provide for the undocumented Mexican nationals they insist on dumping on us. Priceless.
5. Turn our coal production regions into coal gasification plants, and use the gas produced (H2 and Carbon Monoxide) as a substitute for natural gas, or separate the Carbon Monoxide from the H2, and use it directly in fuel cell systems. Wave of the future, doncha know.
6. Start building nuclear power plants using 21st Century techniques, with modified fast breeder reactors and recycling "spent" nuclear fuel rods. Even plutonium will yield up its energy content if kept in confinement and its emissions are trapped for their heat generation capabilities. Sets the greenies screaming, with all that cheap electricity available.
We have the means, we have the incentive, and very soon, it will be economically feasible.
Dollar for dollar this is by far the cheapest and cleanest way to go unless there is a problem.
I own a Suzuki DRZ400S dual purpose bike, and use it as my 'urban assault' transportation.
For city driving, back roads, and off road - it's more than adequate. It sucks on the freeway.
I routinely get 50 mpg.
/jasper
Producers and manufacturers will use the excuse of fuel price increases to raise prices futher...serious inflation is in the near future.
I am not in favor of these little spider web scenerios developed at the CIA. I prefer that we be self-sufficient.If the U.S were ever able to pull out of any oil deals from other countries and meet our demands here, OPEC would be finished. Instead we are in a very dangerous position.
There is really quite a lot Bush could do. We also have refinery capacity problems. One of our biggest problems is all these differnt gasoline formulations. All we need is two; summer and winter formulations. Bush could order compromises on all the formulations to just two. He could relax regs that hamper new refinery capacity and US drilling & production.
How do you figure this? According to the enviros - with the problem of global warming, we will only need the summer formula. /sarcasm off
For both national security and interstate commerce reasons, no state should be able to manipulate the nation's oil and gas prices by imposing environmental restrictions that make it cost prohibitive to use our country's natural resources, both in extraction and processing. Whackos on both coasts, legislative and judicial, are culpable.
Removing subject matter jurisdiction from both federal and state courts reduces the role of government, preventing activist judges from writing environmental law on the bench in favor of Greenpeace, Sierra Club et al.
The free market can work instead. If it makes economic sense to drill or build a refinery, the private sector will be able to do it without government interference.
If you have a better solution, I'd like to see it.
If gas reaches 3 bucks a gallon, there'll be people wondering how fast we can find a way to turn caribou into oil.
I heard a guy at a Chevron Station saying that 4.00 within 4 months is possibility.
I once worked with a government group that had has it's motto..."Don't just do something, stand there!"
No smog, but the BO will kill ya!
M1030 M1 Diesel Kawasaki motorcycle approved by the US Military... The 584cc water cooled engine puts out 24hp. and can get up to 120 MPG. http://motorcyclecity.com/Military-bikes/M1030Diesel-Kawasaki.htm
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