Three Dollar Gasoline: an Opportunity, Not a Crisis

The American Thinker ^ | April 24, 2006 | Christopher Chantrill

[BooBoo1000]

It is very frustrating that the Republican Party has abdicated all of their power to the Democrats. The Republicans do not know who to run the Country, as bad as they want to they do not understand using Power.
They should be out in front, putting the blame on the Democrats at every turn, they should expose the delay and confusion caused by the Democrats. We need a leader like Newt Gingrich. Now before you start yelling, Newt knows how to get things done. He won't sit around, and let the Dems control the agenda. Arlan would be back in as a county attorney. But we need someone that is not afraid to call a spade a spade.

[Eagle Eye]

500 gallons of gasoline in bottles not intended for flammable liquid storage in an area not designed for bulk fuel storage?


Not many folks get a chance to preview their Darwin Award nomination.

And since I'm now nominating you for a Darwin Award, you may be the first.

[stylin19a]

Though the Clintons pushed it, the BTU tax was Al Gore's baby, from it's birth to it's death.
It took the WH to bring in Daniel Moynihan to tell Gore, face to face, "No Way Jose".

If Gore decides to run again,(shudder) the BTU tax will have a rebirth (double shudder)

[P-40]

Older refineries are already profitable

Expanding an existing refinery is often more profitable than building a new one too.

[Rakkasan1]

every game needs a loser. pubbies usually volunteer for this and forfeit in the name of bipartisanship or fear of offending illegal immigrants or environmentalist wackos.

[mattdono]

I have to agree with you, saganite.

On these threads, I have asked for aggressive leadership from the President in moving forward almost every idea mentioned in this article.

And, what do you know, within 2 threads, the Bush Bots come out and call you everything from a liberal democrat to a sleeper troll. Mind you, most of the time, they don't actually read the whole post.

I don't know when the Bush Bots are going to understand that the President has the golden opportunity. He doesn't seem to be doing anything...right now.

I can only hope that the new Chief of Staff and his reported plan has something to do with taking advantage of the leftist's vunerabilities on this issue.

Look, Bush didn't get us into this oil situation. Jimmah did. The leftists in Congress from late 60s to mid 90s have.

What we need is the President to speak as loudly and as often about our national energy policy as he has about the War on Terror and/or the War in Iraq.

We need the President to acknowledge that alternate fuels are part of the issue, but the bigger priority is establishing domestic oil supplies, so we N-E-V-E-R have to rely on any foreign power.

Saying that the President needs to show leadership and listing the ways in which he can do so isn't criticizing.

I suppose I'll waiting to see what happens over the next couple months. But, I don't think that I'm holding my breath.

[rlmorel]

The problem is, that the refineries we do have are operating with nearly no allowance for downtime.

When critial maintenance needs to be done, or there is an equipment failure, we immediately edge even closer to the zone where we cannot supply enough refined products for our needs.

This writer also said:"...there is nothing stopping any American with sufficient capital from building refineries right now..."

What a steaming pantload that is, because the envirowhackos have made it impossible to build. And they regard it as a victory...while they drive their hybrids and their giant SUV's.

[Reeses]

Historical gas prices adjusted for inflation. The current temporary peak is back to the 1918 average cost:

[rhombus]

Why do you include me on this reply?

[cvq3842]

sad but true

[zek157]

Z Those are my sentiments in a nutshell. It sickens me when I think of what this administration could have done with their opportunity to bury the democrats as a party. I fear for the future with the left wing of the rat party in full control. What would Reagan have done with the congress behind him?

[petercooper]

Please don't confuse people with facts. Let them whine.

[Zhang Fei]

Article: Al Gore reminds us that The Chinese expression for crisis consists of two characters:

The first is a symbol for danger

the second is a symbol for opportunity.

I'm afraid that's a made-up Chinese saying, just like that other phrase "may you live in interesting times". So where do these made-up sayings come from? There was a genre of late 19th and early 20th century Western writers who pioneered a genre of fiction involving Chinese characters saying things that sounded profound/obscure to Western ears. People who read these books may have lifted a few exotic-sounding aphorisms, thinking that they were in fact Chinese, rather that the product of an American writer's imagination.

[tpaine]

Lets hope we don't live next door to "al baby"

[sully777]

[rhombus]

And this means what to you?

[Coldwater Creek]

I hope that you do no live in an area where there is a lot of lighting!!!!!!

[untrained skeptic]

Now is the time to demand that Congress passes a decent energy bill.

A decent energy bill needs to remove bureaucratic hurdles and require "environmental" laws to automatically expire in five years after enactment and require proven benefits before they can be renewed.

Now is the chance to demand that we build some more oil refineries.

Remove the restrictions and bureaucracy so that companies can build more refineries. The government should not get involved in their construction or operation.

Now is the chance to drill for oil in ANWR.

The real point is that there is no rational reason not to drill there. The restriction is there for purely political reasons. The "environmentalists" are purposfully working to limit supply and drive up costs to limit consumption.

Now is the chance to search for oil on the continental shelf off the west and east coasts.

Remove unreasonable restrictions to allow the free market to address the problem. There does need to be appropriate safeguards to prevent spills and accountability for making sure proper measures are taken.

Now is the chance to rationalize the crazy quilt of gasolines blended for each individual city.

I agree that the different requirements for different areas are wasteful and costly for little benefit. However, the federal government should not have the authority to prohibit state and local governments from placing requirements on fuel.

The lack of interest in standardizing these requirements between states and municipalities should make it clear that those involved in setting them are not interested in a cost effective solution. It's another way that the environmental lobby works behind the scenes to drive up prices.

The only way to fight that is to make the public aware of what is going on, and what it costs them. The public then needs to pressure their state governments to work together to provide a solution that is cost effective while still working to address real issues like high ozone levels in urban areas.

The problem with our energy policy is generally one of too much government interference. Big government almost always tries to create more regulations to fix the problems they created with too many regulations.

The best thing our federal government could do as an energy policy is to significantly reduce their interference in that industry.

State interference in that industry is also a significant issue. The best solution to that is to make sure the states and municipalities bear most of the burden for their own bad decisions. State governments need to not be able to blame things on the federal government so easily and need to accept accountability for their actions.

This will not make the extreme environmentalist lobby happy. Their agenda is not widely supported by the majority of Americans, and they can only force it on enough people through a strong central government which they can concentrate on influencing.

If they have to get real widespread support, they know they will fail.

[P-40]

We need the President to acknowledge that alternate fuels are part of the issue

Lot of new refineries going up...for alternative fuels. He could perhaps...mention that. The Wall Street Journal does.

[Fury]

What we need is the President to speak as loudly and as often about our national energy policy as he has about the War on Terror and/or the War in Iraq.

Agreed 100%. Thanks for posting this...