Posted on 04/24/2006 12:12:45 PM PDT by Crackingham
Republican congressional leaders on Monday urged the Bush administration to investigate whether oil companies are gouging consumers at the gasoline pump and if market speculators are pushing up fuel prices. U.S. retail gasoline prices are above $3 a gallon in many parts of the country and pump costs are forecast to keep rising. Republicans fear they could lose the Senate and House of Representatives in this November's congressional elections if voters retaliate against them for the high fuel prices.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert wrote President George W. Bush and asked him to direct the U.S. Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on any potential price gouging.
"Anyone who is trying to take advantage of this situation while American families are forced into making tough choices over whether to fill up their cars or severely cut back their budgets should be investigated and prosecuted," the lawmakers said in their joint letter to Bush.
The lawmakers also want the Justice Department and the FTC to look into oil refining operations, transporting fuel by pipelines, marine vessels and trucks, storing and marketing fuel, and spot shortages of gasoline to determine if there is any manipulation of gasoline prices.
"Sweeps of retail distribution centers should be undertaken to ensure that retail price movements are in response to a change in market conditions and not price gouging," the lawmakers said.
They also asked Bush to direct the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to increase its scrutiny of trading of oil, gasoline and other energy contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange to determine if the price spike is caused by market manipulation by traders or energy firms.
"We believe that protecting American consumers in these unprecedented market conditions is of paramount importance," the lawmakers said.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said the Republicans' call for a gasoline price investigation shows they are "scrambling for political cover" because Republicans will be held accountable for "turning a blind eye" to soaring gasoline costs. The Democrats also said the Republicans' demand for action lacks credibility because Republican lawmakers "have allowed oil and gas companies to line their campaign accounts with cash when they should have been cracking down on price gouging and rising gas prices."
Someone here suggested raising the margin on oil trades, from 10 to 15 0r 20%.
Sounds like a great idea to me.
However, it will outrage both Bush the Texas Oil Man and the Dems the Finance Industry slaves.
With Republicans like these, who needs Democrats?
Are there NO Ronald Reagan Republicans left running our party?!
The only thing Bush should and will do is assure the free market system is not being unlawfully manipulated which it is not.
Amen Crosshighwayman. We, the consumer can also do our share to help reduce demand for gas. What I see when I'm out and about are many suvs and vans, seems every other vehicle is an suv. While I do drive a 6 cylinder van, i don't drive a lot, and I try to take care of all my errands once I take my son to school.
The Pres. should declare a national emergency, and authorize exploration and drilling in ANWR as well as off shore. In addition he should order a rollback of federal gas taxes.
Actually the analogy is pretty good and thanks for helping to make my point: People are complaining about the price of a product, which is deemed a necessity, even though the product is substantially less expensive -- and more costly to produce -- than many non-essential products such as bottled water, beer, wine, and soda.
You wouldn't want the government not to plunder everyone's wallet when they can place the blame on the oil companies and keep buying votes do you?
It's a lousy analogy. Cognac is more expensive than gasoline, but I don't need large amounts of it to get me to work every day--unlike gasoline! Limbaugh (who probably has large stock holdings in oil, so he has a figure-four liplock around the oil industry) uses the same analogy.
"They also asked Bush to direct the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to increase its scrutiny of trading of oil, gasoline and other energy contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange to determine if the price spike is caused by market manipulation by traders or energy firms."
The Rats might not like where that one leads. Soros anyone????? He's done it with currency. Am I right????
No, he could call for all federal mandates on differing reformulations to be suspended for 90-120 days (min). These are wrong-headed reg's that artificially increase the costs each of us are paying - Ditto that for calling for a reduction in all federal gas taxes for a 90-180 day period.
He could also look to stop putting oil into SPR and give those in the hedge fund mgr's additional reason for pause. Without a doubt there is $10-20 spec'd into a barrel of oil currently.
With that said these fools in the GOP calling for hearing son price gouging are asinine!! As others have said they are only helping set the false premise of the Democrats / MSM! - They are complete fools. This issue is made to order to turn it on the Democrats...yet this weak-kneed GOPers in the House and Senate don't have the stones to tell the facts.
It is true that environuts and their paid ho's in congress (primarily democrats but a fair number of RINOs as well) deserve a huge share of the blame for the mess we are in (blocking refineries and drilling)--BUT--why are the oil industry and its allies strangely silent on this issue; they are allowing the enviros sole use of the megaphone. After all, the oil companies are so flush with cash compared to sierra club etc. that it would be possible for the oil companies--via an agressive advertising and lobbying blitz--to sweep aside much of the enviro objection to oil exploration and refinery building--IF THE OIL INDUSTRY CHOSE TO DO SO. I suspect that that the American oil industry considers the enviros useful idiots--as it is the excuse that oil refineries cannot be built or offshore drilling take place because of environmental regs which is keeping the price of oil HIGH! If your enemy is helping you to make a big profit, why stand in his way. If you made your living selling diamonds--a scarce resource found mostly in Africa with huge markup, the last thing you would want is for some upstart to find a motherlode of diamonds in the USA. That would depress the price of diamonds big time. If some anti-diamond group was preventing that upstart from mining for domestic diamonds, you'd be all for that anti-mining group. Oil is no different. Think about it; the advertising and lobbying muscle of the oil industry (as muscular as Charles Atlas) vs the advertising and lobbying muscle of the envirowhackos (as scrawny as Woody Allen). Combine that with the best Congress money can buy. Yet the oil industry is not taking advantage of this muscle. Strange, huh?
1. Increase supply
2. Reduce demand
3. Market a useful alternative
1. We aren't drilling in US areas where we know oil exists, nor working to substantially increase the number of refineries or production capacity of existing ones. Much of the world's supply is controlled by countries that are either openly hostile (Iran/Venezuela), moderately hostile (Saudi Arabia/Mexico), or unwilling to increase their production (Canada). Overall, our overall dependence on imports is currently about 60%, and getting worse rather than better.
2. Americans are driving more, even as cars become more fuel-efficient. The real story, though, is the rapid increase in industrial consumption in China and India. The economic growth in Asia and the subcontinent is soaking up large quantities of annual petroleum consumption, while production remains essentially stagnant.
3. The use of ethanol and synthetic fuels are stretching our oil dollars, but not nearly enough. Shale oil will soon be a practical source, if it isn't already at today's oil prices, but not much is being done about it (see: supply). Hydrogen is a nice dream (pure water as a byproduct of combustion), but it's only a dream, and years away from any practical application due to extraction costs and storage limitations (hydrogen is terribly volatile and its' explosion is a rather colorful event).
So: we won't act to increase supply, we have little control over demand, and substantial alternatives are not presently available. So don't get mad at the little guy who runs the gas station on the corner and barely clears a profit. Or at those big oil companies - their profit margin is far less than most industries, although (thanks to high demand for their products) the sheer numbers are huge. So are their costs. It's an unhappy situation that won't go away soon. If it were me, I'd drill like hell, build more refineries, and start twisting a few more white-robed arms, but that's just me.
I am wondering if this is in some way related to Iran. THey don't have any significant refining capacity and import most of their gasoline. Maybe this is anattempt to harm Iran economically without firing a shot. Basically, the U.S. economy is sufficiently strong to survive high gas prices and Iran's can't take the strain.
I didn't know he could do that but if that's the case he should.
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.