Bush Seemingly Resigned to High Gas Prices-(more of these articles to follow)

President Bush Takes Note of High Gas Prices but Offers Little in the Way of Relief

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- As oil prices hit a record, drivers worried about $3-a-gallon gas and politicians feared the impact on elections, President Bush on Friday acknowledged the pain but seemed resigned to being able to do little about it.

"I know the folks here are suffering at the gas pump," the president said while promoting his competitiveness initiative at the Silicon Valley headquarters of Internet networking company Cisco Systems Inc. "Rising gasoline prices is like taking a -- is like a tax, particularly on the working people and the small-business people."

But to address the immediate problem, Bush offered only a pledge that "if we find any price gouging it will be dealt with firmly."

Bush said that lowering America's dependance on foreign oil imports will help reduce the country's vulnerability to global oil price fluctuations. On Saturday, the president was pushing his proposals to boost spending to develop alternative energy sources, particularly hydrogen-fueled cars.

Critics say Bush's ideas are too modest and focus on solutions that are far from being a reality in the marketplace.

Crude-oil prices broke through $75 a barrel Friday amid concerns about the standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions, rebel disruptions of oil production in Nigeria, and tight U.S. gasoline supplies. Analysts say they are likely to climb even higher.

Prices at the gas pump also kept rising and were not considered at their peak, with the average price of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline at $2.855. That's 3 cents higher than a day earlier and more than 60 cents higher than a year ago, according to AAA's daily fuel gauge report.

Democratic efforts to score political points by focusing on gas prices have Republicans worried that their majority in Congress could be at risk in the fall midterm elections.

High gas prices were hardly the only problem facing Bush's White House as he embarked on a four-day swing to California and Las Vegas. He was traveling with new chief of staff Joshua Bolten, charged with reinvigorating a White House rocked by public discontent with the Iraq war and a series of missteps ranging from an ill-fated Supreme Court nomination to a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.

Bush's poll ratings are at their lowest point. Hundreds of protesters called for his resignation near the Cisco compound where he spoke.

Even his trip put the president squarely in the middle of a federal-state dustup.

Bush decided not to grant the pre-emptive federal disaster declaration sought for California's fragile levees by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who faces a tough re-election fight and has had a chilly relationship with Bush. Instead, the president is allowing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help speed repairs at the state's expense.

When Bush turned the microphone at Cisco over to Schwarzenegger, the governor said, "First of all, I want to say congratulations."

The governor, who had discussed the levee issue during a limousine ride with Bush, replied that he was glad to see the president "really paying attention" to the competitiveness issue.

Afterward, Bush talked privately with scholars from Stanford University's Hoover Institution, including former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, a Hoover fellow and early defender of the use of pre-emptive force to deal with Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

Plans to hold the meeting at the Hoover Institution were scuttled when protesters blocked Bush's motorcade from going through the only entrance. Shultz, who was already hosting a private dinner for Bush later at his Palo Alto home, had the session moved to his two-story, gray-shingled house.

One reason for a weekend trip with a lot of downtime in beautiful places became clear even before Bush boarded Air Force One to leave Washington. Crew were seen loading two shiny mountain bikes -- one a red-white-and-blue Trek adorned with the presidential seal and "United States of America." With stays scheduled in picturesque Napa Valley and the Palm Springs area, the bikes weren't likely to remain clean for long.

"Tomorrow I'm going to be riding my bike in Napa Valley. I can't wait," Bush told his Cisco audience.

Before returning to Washington Monday night, Bush was making stops to raise money for the national Republican Party, visit with Marines and Navy sailors, and press Congress to break a logjam over the immigration legislation he wants.

[If GWB or anyone in Government announced tomorrow that the SEC was going to seriously investigate the energies futures markets you'd see the price fall like a damned rock.]

Baloney.

Nobody's doing anything illegal by buying oil futures. When investors drive up the price of oil this way they're only responding to what they know about the balance of the world supply of and demand for oil.

The price per barrel right now represents nothing more than the accelerating demand for energy from nearly every area of the world resulting from the increasing prosperity taking place worldwide. Growing pains are tough but eventually we'll grow out of them when we develop more efficient and cost effective renewable sources of energy and rely less on fossil fuels in the decades to come.

Well, whackos won't let him drill.

Crude is getting scarce because other countries - China, India and others - have increased their demands.

We've conserved about all we are willing to do, are driving light weight vehicles (we never had cracked windshields back in the day and in my case my family lived on a gravel road!) - the only way left is to increase the supply by drilling, exploring etc. But NOOO-OOO, dims won't hear of that so what's Bush supposed to do?

And I'm all for alternative energy but that ain't happenin' yet.

"This is where leadership on the part of government officials would be helpful, to fend off the wackos and declare that it is in the interest of our national security to move forward on domestic energy production and infrastructure, and tell the obstructionists and wackos to stuff it."

Unfortunately, the leadership comes from the people. And we the people (in general not in particular) are ignorant when it comes to energy. I like you am amazed what the environmental groups have done to the domestic energy business. The east coast is short transportation capacity like you said. Natural gas can shoot up easily to $50/dth. Then there is much whining, pointing of fingers and political threats but nothing is done to solve the problem. It is interesting that the international LNG market is going to be based on Henry Hub pricing which in turn reflects east coast supply and transportation shortages, i.e. volatility that makes speculators so very happy.

Florida refuses to allow production. But Castro will be drilling happily right off the coast. (LOL, isn’t that a kicker?) We have natural coal gas in eastern Wyoming that is bogged down by environmentalists. Western Wyoming gas can only get to California and Texas due to bottlenecks. But take heart producers and pipelines are coming together trying to build at least one west to east natural gas pipeline. It will get as far as Ohio. After that it hits the banana (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anybody) republics.

The nation is short refining capacity (haven’t built a new refinery in decades and it takes seven years just to get a permit) yet each state legislates its own boutique blend. We the people elect our state politicians who write these ridiculous laws. Can't wait until May 5th when gas prices will shoot up again due to the enactment of an environmental policy. Independent gas stations are disappearing left and right, again mainly due to environmental policies, yet no one seems to notice. Funny how both state and national politicians haven’t volunteered to lessen the EPA standards this summer despite the oil shock?

Still we have pandering idiots like O'Reilly mouthing off on energy policy and BIG BAD OIL COMPANIES. It would be funny if it weren't so costly. The general population thinks building a pipeline from Alaska to Chicago would take just a year or so. They don't take into account the environmental studies, then the environmental lawsuits, then the political lawsuits on behalf of the "Native People", then the permitting, etc. Very few people take into account the purchase of the steel piping. They don’t realize that steel mills are at max capacity and that these pipes need special grade steel that has to be ordered in advance. Most people don't understand the risk the Big Bad Oil Companies take when building production and transport facilities. It costs tens of billions of dollars BEFORE any money is made. Sad to say the risk is as high as is the ignorance of the average Congressman. Here is another interesting fact. Oil companies make about $0.09/gallon of gas where as the governments make on average $0.45/gallon.

Intervenors and special interest groups have learned to game the system by obstruction and delays. They know that any project, be it a power plant, refinery, airport, transmission line, whatever, can be killed if you stretch out the completion time to the point where it becomes economically non-viable. This is where we have to change the system. Streamline the process. Give people their say at some point but then say that's it, no more unreasonable obstruction and delay. This business of filing endless lawsuits and legal challenges has got to stop. We're cutting our own throats if we don't stop it.

I see no reason why Castro can drill for oil 90 miles from the Florida coast yet we have idiots in this country who want to stop our own people from exploring our own resources 200 miles from the coast. That makes absolutely no sense to me. We're favoring our enemies over our own people.

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It was Bush's fault !