Posted on 04/24/2006 9:03:21 AM PDT by oldtimer2
Three Dollar Gasoline: an Opportunity, Not a Crisis, April 24th, 2006
Some observers think that President Bush's dismal job approval rating is not about the mess in Iraq. It is not about the shocking corruption of the Republican Congress. It is not even about President Bush's failure to prevent Hurricane Katrina. It reflects Americans' rage at $3.00 per gallon gasoline.
How can you pursue happiness in that mammoth Ford Expedition with heated leather seats if your gas bill starts competing with your mortgage payment?
Democrats have suddenly discovered that they are shocked (shocked!) by high gas prices. The New York Times reports that
Democrats running for Congress are moving quickly to use the most recent surge in oil and gasoline prices to bash Republicans over energy policy.
Oh really?
o This is the party that stopped the nation building nuclear plants.
o This is the party that toyed with carbon taxes.
o This is the party of Al Gore, now right in the middle of publicizing An Inconvenient Truth, by far the most terrifying movie you will ever see.
o This is the party that won't let oil companies prospect for oil off the left and right coasts.
o This is the party whose activists prevented the US from building new petroleum refineries.
o This is the party that filibusters against drilling for oil in an arctic wilderness that just happens to be right next to a major oil pipeline with spare capacity.
And now Democrats are bashing Republicans over energy policy?
Yes, and Republicans better get out in front of them before $3.00 gasoline and An Inconvenient Truth brew up a perfect storm and blow the nation into an eco-Marshall Plan to increase energy taxes and throw subsidies at a daunting array of environmentalist pet projects from wind farms to biodiesel.
Read Al Gore's article in Vanity Fair to understand just how terrified you should be. After reciting the usual catalog of climate changes, he warns of the 10,000 foot mound of ice on top of Greenland that would, if it melted or broken up, raise the sea level worldwide by more than 20 feet. In the face of all this, why is it that our leaders seem not to hear such clarion warnings? Maybe, Al, it because they don't just listen to eco-alarmists like you but also contrarian ideas like the theory of the University of Virginia's Bill Ruddiman that global warming from agriculture has already staved off the next ice age.
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.
He is a politician and he would know. It is when they feel danger that the people rise up and demand that the politicians "do something." For a brief window of opportunity the special interest blocking forces are weakened as the people demand that the politicians lead them to safety.
All the stars are in alignment. Americans are angry as they shovel out $80 to fill up their SUVs. The Democrats are hypocritically on the attack, threatening to get to the right of the president; the mainstream media is baying for blood, shoveling anecdotal stories of helpless consumers ruined by high gas prices.
Usually economic "crises" are bad news because they provide an excuse for the politicians to do something stupid like impose price controls or prop up failing corporations. But not this one. Not if the president and the Congressional leadership can rouse themselves from their torpor. Not if they can bestir themselves to do something more than stand foursquare against "price gouging."
o Now is the time to demand that Congress passes a decent energy bill.
o Now is the chance to demand that we build some more oil refineries.
o Now is the chance to drill for oil in ANWR.
o Now is the chance to search for oil on the continental shelf off the west and east coasts.
o Now is the chance to rationalize the crazy quilt of gasolines blended for each individual city.
Of course the Democrats are demagoguing on energy. They demagogue on everything.
Some day, in a quieter, more reflective time, there will be an opportunity to conduct a scholarly study to determine whether the Democrats of the twenty-first century actually believed in anything other than temporary partisan advantage. But this is not that time.
Now is the time to call the Democrats' bluff on energy, not to mention border security, Iraq, and taxes. Is anyone paying attention? At the White House? Mr. President? Karl Rove? On Capitol Hill? Denny Hastert?
Nothing personal, you understand. It's just that when we read in Time that the White House's five point plan to save the Bush presidency doesnft include a bullet point for high gas prices, we begin to wonder if anyone is home.
Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.
WHy is oil shale, oil, NOT flowing like a river.?..
Something don't smell right..
No I live next to a elemetary school The bottles are glass so they wont spark and the water heater is inside a little closet in the garage so that should be ok
That's a fair point, but the "20 years" (more like 30) of regulation is what has gotten us to where we are right now.
Those investments would have made an insane amount of sense, but the only thing that stood in the way: regulation.
Part of the core in demanding action is stopping the "big lie" that the envirowhackos have perpetuated so long.
Global warming being attributed to mankind is junk science.
It's a fact that marine life increases around an oil rig.
It's a fact that caribou populations have increased since the completion of the Alaskan pipelie.
Those 2 stark facts, alone, negate about 3/4th of the entire arguements of the environmentalist left.
Almost every purported fact about the dangers to the environment that oil extraction, refinement, and distribution supposedly cause is a lie.
In large part, it is this lie that needs to have the light of truth shown on it.
YOu can't be serious....storing 500 gallons of gasoline in glass bottles!!!
You have a serious situation in your garage.
Fast forward to the 6 pm news...
And we all read about some dumbass hoarding gasoline in his garage in glass bottles...
Imagine how rudely you'll be treated on this forum...and across the country.
You are on your way to being a verified case on snopes.com because no one will believe what you are doing.
Really. It is that bad of an idea. At a minimum you need to transfer the fuel to proper containers. When you do it would be a great idea to use bonding and grounding lines.
http://www.burnsurgery.org/Documents/gasoline_safety.doc
But part of me thinks that you're just saying this stuff to get a rise out of us. And it worked!
And immigration, and ports, and the CIA leaks, and taxes, and Sen. Kennedy, and the MSM, and and and and.....
No thanks. I'll take a President who puts one or two priorities front and center (the WOT is the right one) and doesn't let anyone distract him from that. He speaks on the other issues just the right amount IMO and doesn't yak off on the latest hot topic every few days like Clinton did. Good for President Bush.
crazy
Well, you know it was Big Oil that caused New Orleans to flood after Katrina, because Big Oil built roads in the wetlands to get to their evil offshore rigs in the Gulf. People in New Orleans don't need or use gasoline, so they'd just as soon everybody stop taking it out of their swamps. Dontcha know? That was probably Cheney or Rove's fault or maybe Don Evans's, certainly not GWB's. *ha*
"I have been storing gasoline in my garage in sparkletts bottles since january I bought the gas at about 2.25 a gallon I got just about 500 gallonns stored and will use it this summer when prices are high I just wish I could park in there but theres no room
"
I sincerely hope you're just joking about this. If you are not, then you need to transfer that fuel into proper containers and get it out of your garage altogether. Storing 500 gallons of gasoline is not a joke. You could burn down your entire neighborhood.
Please tell us you were writing some sort of joke.
Common courtesy. saganite replied to your post and I was adding some thoughts to saganite's point.
OK, I just didn't want to assume something incorrectly. There was a lot of that going around this morning. :-)
As I posted on another thread...
...Fifty years ago my dad bought gas for .12 cents a gallon. The lowest wage here was .25 cents an hour. Do the math. One hour's work bought two gallons of gas fifty years ago.
Today, gas is $2.78 a gallon here. The lowest paid worker here makes about $6.00 an hour. Do the math again.
One hour's work will buy you two gallons of gas today.
So quitcherbitchin!
If nothing else, he should at least punch a vent hole in the cap of each one. Hopefully, it's a joke - since he also said he lives next door to an elementary school.
Well, he is the President and it's a big job. I do think that you are getting a little carried away. I didn't mention any of those issues. And, of the items listed, immigration is about the only thing I would be interested to hear from the President directly on.
I'll take a President who puts one or two priorities front and center (the WOT is the right one) and doesn't let anyone distract him from that. He speaks on the other issues just the right amount IMO and doesn't yak off on the latest hot topic every few days like Clinton did.
I agree with you in a sense.
I find it interesting and disturbing how you are equivocating illegal immigration with some sad blubbering about some nutcase kids who brought a gun to a school and went beserker.
I don't ever want any President spending any notable amount of time (i.e., more than 1 short, 20-30 second comment) on a tragic, but obviously transient situation.
I do, however, EXPECT the President to address the major and enduring threats to our country.
So, if you would grant 1 or 2 high priorities, I would insist that there are 3, which is a very common approach to solving big problems.
The top 3 things that the President should be taking action on ALL THE TIME are:
But, he's not. Neither is the members of his team.
And, you can call it what you want, but that's a little disappointing to me.
I suppose that he has to pick his battles. But, those 3 items seems to be more than worthy of his time and aggressive effort.
Do you agree?
And let the vapors of 500 gallons of gasoline vent and accumulate? Hopefully that hot water heater he mentioned is electric without a pilot light.
If this guy isn't pulling our legs he is dangerously ignorant.
It was obviously a joke. Had to be.
Oh, I'm *assuming* he keeps it all in a well ventilated area, since that's what the law says about storing gasoline. (This from a person who is scared witless driving two blocks to carry a plastic gas can full of gas home in the car for my lawnmower.)
I wonder if he's put some stabilizer (like Sta-Bil) in each of those bottles. Otherwise he's likely to find that that gas is getting kind of stale by the time he needs it. Assuming it doesn't kill him first. Assuming that he's for real, which I doubt - could anyone be stupid enough to store that much gasoline indoors in glass bottles?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.