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House moves on surging oil prices
AP via Yahoo! News ^ | 5/23/07 | H. JOSEF HEBERT

Posted on 05/23/2007 1:33:04 PM PDT by libertarianPA

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Well, America wanted the politicians to do "anything" about gas prices... this is anything.

Question: if the oil companies are gouging us and theirs is a commodity we truly depend on, why do they lower prices? Why not just keep them high all the time?

1 posted on 05/23/2007 1:33:06 PM PDT by libertarianPA
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To: libertarianPA

You cannot legislate lower prices. It’s been tried..........


2 posted on 05/23/2007 1:35:06 PM PDT by Red Badger (My gerund got caught in my diphthong, and now I have a dangling participle...............)
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To: libertarianPA

Oddly, gas and oil reserves have been increasing 3 of the last 4 weeks, but prices have surged. This surge happens every year before Memorial Day weekend, but this is worse than usual.


3 posted on 05/23/2007 1:37:33 PM PDT by Always Right
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To: libertarianPA
Why not just "Nationalize" the oil companies and let the "government" run things.

That'll fix everything! ;^)

4 posted on 05/23/2007 1:40:06 PM PDT by FixitGuy (By their fruits shall ye know them!)
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To: FixitGuy

hush!! Dont give them any ideas.


5 posted on 05/23/2007 1:41:37 PM PDT by chaos_5 (Is it all lost?)
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To: libertarianPA
BTW BP just announced another "oil leak in the Alaska pipeline and it will be shut down for repairs.

Isn't this the anniversary of last years Memorial weekend leak????

6 posted on 05/23/2007 1:43:11 PM PDT by FixitGuy (By their fruits shall ye know them!)
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To: libertarianPA

They gonna do something like lower taxes on it?

Didn’t think so.


7 posted on 05/23/2007 1:45:36 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (Taz Struck By Lightning Faces Battery Charge)
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To: Always Right
This surge happens every year before Memorial Day weekend, but this is worse than usual.

I don't see a Memorial Day "surge," do you?


8 posted on 05/23/2007 1:48:07 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("All the measures of the law should protect property and punish plunder." --Frederic Bastiat)
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To: Red Badger
Actually, you can ... at least from our current legal condition you can. The legislation required would be a mix of the following:

Short term:
1 standard for all gasoline blends sold in the US
Create an environmental fast track program to enable the building of new refineries
Reduce the import duties on Ethanol
Reduce the tax rate on gasoline

Long term:
Create a program where a refinery wishing to build a new plant can apply for a Federal review and bypass any state regulation for the building of the plant.
Open up ANWAR
Limit State control of offshore drilling to 2 miles
Increase funding for development of bio-diesel technology.

9 posted on 05/23/2007 1:48:32 PM PDT by taxcontrol
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To: libertarianPA

Our government is as third world corrupt as the best of them. Completely useless, and probably harmful, action to placate the ignorant.


10 posted on 05/23/2007 1:49:01 PM PDT by kenth (I got tired of my last tagline...)
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To: libertarianPA
Let's see, who is profitting from high oil prices... "Big Oil" who makes .09-.10 cents on the dollar, or "Big Government"...

11 posted on 05/23/2007 1:49:22 PM PDT by infidel29 (...but Al, if my child had a fever I wouldn't go to a bureaucrat for the diagnosis.)
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To: Always Right
Oddly, gas and oil reserves have been increasing 3 of the last 4 weeks, but prices have surged. This surge happens every year before Memorial Day weekend, but this is worse than usual.

Finding oil won't lower prices. Pumping it out, refining it and selling it on the market will lower the price. That can happen even if reserves shrink, which it often does. In fact I suspect that the price is usually low when reserves are shrinking and usually high when they grow.

12 posted on 05/23/2007 1:49:35 PM PDT by ItsTheMediaStupid
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To: libertarianPA

Price controls = shortages. All we need now is a malaise speech and some sweaters.


13 posted on 05/23/2007 1:49:50 PM PDT by M203M4 (What I wanna see is a pro-war ("kill the bastards") Ron Paul. Pacifism is suicide.)
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To: Always Right
Oddly, gas and oil reserves have been increasing 3 of the last 4 weeks, but prices have surged

Because refineries are switching from producing heating oil to gasoline.

14 posted on 05/23/2007 1:50:48 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: libertarianPA

Why don’t they just drop the federal taxes for the next four months?


15 posted on 05/23/2007 1:51:01 PM PDT by Cricket24 (ULTRA PATRIOT!!)
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To: kenth

Hey Congress, want to reduce gas prices, why don’t you suspend some of the taxes you take on every gallon of gas. I could be off slightly, but if memory serves me, taxes account for .53 on every gallon.


16 posted on 05/23/2007 1:51:18 PM PDT by VA_Gentleman (Got a knack for being wrong - Dinosaur Jr.)
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To: libertarianPA

Dems know that legislation like this will have no effect, it just gives them something to sucker the weak-minded with when election time rolls around. Ditto suing OPEC.

If they really wanted to lower the price of gas they would cut taxes, open up ANWR, expand offshore drilling, or provide tax relief for companies that invest in oil sands. But that would mean gas prices might actually go down, which means consumption would go up, which would violate their global warming orthodoxy. So the solution for Dems is to make a lot of noise and do nothing.


17 posted on 05/23/2007 1:57:31 PM PDT by KingKenrod
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Well no, not in a 27 year chart. Seasonal changes are hard to spot. But why, if the oil companies control prices, would there be such a long trough in this chart? Why didn’t they just keep it going up?


18 posted on 05/23/2007 1:57:45 PM PDT by waverna
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To: VA_Gentleman
The Federal tax is the only motor fuel excise tax over which the Regress have any control. The rest of the tax you pay at the pump is courtesy of your state's gov't, and in some cases, localities.

The Federal Motor Fuel excise tax on motor gasoline is $0.184 per gallon. As the price map in this thread shows, the majority of the tax at the pump is state and local tax, in some cases (NY and HI, to name two) hugely so.

19 posted on 05/23/2007 1:59:12 PM PDT by SAJ (debunking myths about markets and prices on FR since 2001)
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To: Paleo Conservative

True. But they do that every year at this time and prices don’t usually spike 40% in 2 months. This time they say that an unusual amount of refineries are down due to repairs, which may be true, but from what I hear they aren’t in any big hurry to get them back up and running. Price controls aren’t the answer, but more refineries and competition is. There are too few oil companies and refineries in the US.


20 posted on 05/23/2007 2:02:02 PM PDT by loreldan (Without coffee I am nothing. Romney supporter for now...)
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