Posted on 11/24/2007 6:30:04 PM PST by mdittmar
Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards will outline a plan Sunday to provide immediate relief to families struggling with high heating oil bills and to ensure affordable prices in the future.
Noting that home heating oil prices in New Hampshire have surpassed $3 a gallon, the former North Carolina senator is calling on Congress to release some of the nation's home heating oil and crude oil reserves as a way to bring down prices by increasing supply. He also is urging Congress to fully fund the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, according to a copy of his plan provided to The Associated Press.
Earlier this month, President Bush vetoed a Democratic health and education spending bill that included $2.4 billion for heating subsidies for the poor, $480 million more than Bush requested.
"American families are facing skyrocketing home heating oil and gasoline prices, while big oil companies earn massive profits," Edwards said in remarks prepared for delivery Sunday afternoon in Rochester. "We need to stand up to the oil companies, increase the use of renewable energy and create affordable choices for regular families."
Edwards said he would double the budget of a program that helps people weatherize their homes to $500 million a year. Upgrading home furnaces, ducts, windows and insulation can cut energy bills by about 30 percent, he said, but the program reaches only about 100,000 of the 28 million homes that could be eligible.
He also proposes helping states and nonprofit groups administer low- or no-interest emergency loans to people struggling to pay their heating bills.
His plan for longer-term relief from high home heating prices involves asking the Justice Department to investigate the massive mergers of oil companies in recent decades and modernizing antitrust laws to target oil and gas companies that take unilateral action to withhold supplies in order to raise prices. Under current law, companies can't be charged for those actions unless they are working with other companies, Edwards said.
Edwards also proposes repealing tax breaks for the oil industry and reinvesting the savings in renewable energy projects.
Style over substance for the pony that couldn’t even hold onto his senate seat... Any release from strategic reserves will have little impact on the immediate price of heating oil, and will simply make it that much more likely for the dollar to fall further.
Hey Government...get the hell out of the way. The market will take care of it. It doesn’t need your interference.
“The market will take care of it. It doesn’t need your interference.”
From Arizona, eh? I trust the “market” will take care of all of you when you Arizonans are illegals in Greater Mexico.
How about tearing down his mansion and giving away the pieces to the poor for firewood?
Heating oil would not be so expensive if we did not have to import so much of it. Just wait until the new ‘carbon plans’ come about.
Democrats should have thought about this when they voted down drilling in ANWR.
“Heating oil would not be so expensive if we did not have to import so much of it.”
Maybe, but given that petroleum trades in a global market as things stand right now, I doubt it would make much difference.
“Just wait until the new ‘carbon plans’ come about.”
Billions will be made by the same globalist/one world capitalists who are making billions right now. And we’ll all get screwed.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
If more of our energy sources were obtained right here at home, for both the transportation and the electrical sectors, it would certainly remove a lot of the speculation that drives the markets. I’m afraid it is going to take another ‘embargo’ to wake Americans up to that fact though.
Facts are facts..... Average unleaded prices on Thanksgiving of 2001 (Gw's first Thanksgiving in office) was $1.19/gallon. Today, six years later, the average price of unleaded is $3.15/gallon?
I hardly think that GW's free-market policies, related to oil, have been beneficial to the US masses......
“If more of our energy sources were obtained right here at home, for both the transportation and the electrical sectors, it would certainly remove a lot of the speculation that drives the markets”
Why do you believe this? The market for petroleum is international and not even remotely regulated. The price will be whatever an unregulated, supra-national market says it will be. Whether it comes out of the ground and is refined here or not won’t make any difference there, unless of course we decide that our petroleum is a vital national resource and forbid international trading or selling of it except in regulated markets of some sort.
P-40, do you think that a crowd which has handed our sovereignty over to business interests will for one minute really interfere in unrestrained global speculation in petroleum? Of course they won’t. In fact, they will continue to subsidize it with your money and mine!
he could just ask his buddy chavez.
Yes, those are facts. But, you can arbitrarily assign meaning to them.
A free market is based on a willing buyer purchasing from a willing seller - it is not set up to be beneficial to the masses. Now if you want to argue that the market is being dramatically influenced by 3rd world tyrants, stupid US politicians, OPEC and especially commodity speculators, I might agree with you.
Right now we have diesel and heating fuel stored in Houston for sale strictly on speculation. The products are of Russian origin and will be on it's way to China in less than a week. Needless to say, the diesel and heating oil are going for a premium ($2.90/gal).
On the one hand we are supposed to have warm winters. On the other hand, heating oil prices......
As one of the heaviest consumers of petroleum products, we drive a lot of speculation in the markets. Any suspected disruption in those markets will cause prices to rise just on the U.S. response alone.
A lot of those same business interests are working to create some degree of energy independence here at home...so I don’t think we have been entirely sold down the river yet.
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