Congress blamed for rising fuel prices

OneNewsNow.com ^ | 4/25/2008 | Jim Brown

[kindred]

John Shadegg, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, believes Congress is mostly to blame for record high fuel prices in the U.S because it has been reducing and restricting access to oil and natural gas supplies.

Representative Shadegg (R-Arizona) says for politically correct reasons, Congress has locked up millions of acres of land in the western U.S., Alaska, and the Outer Continental Shelf, where there is plenty of oil to be explored. He believes Congress could suspend the gasoline tax for summer driving months, as presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain has proposed, and allow more opportunities for local exploration.

According to Shadegg, many investors who were investing in real estate two years ago are now investing in oil, which is also driving costs up. He says his Democratic colleagues who promised to implement a "common sense" plan to reduce gas prices have yet to make good on their pledge.

"They have raised the cost of our access to oil," he states bluntly. "In their pursuit of alternative fuels, they have decided that the way to do that is to increase the tax burden on all of our existing fuels -- oil, gasoline, natural gas, electricity, you name it. And if you increase the cost on the good, the price is going to go up. So it's a combination of factors -- and I think the government is at fault for many of them," Shadegg contends.

The Arizona lawmaker says the U.S. could release a quantity of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and drive the speculators out of the market. "Some of the smart investors are saying that speculation is somewhere between 20 and 40 percent of the current cost of a gallon of gasoline. Well, if it's 40 percent, that's pushing a dollar a gallon. That would make a dramatic difference for you and me and the driving public across this nation," Shadegg points out.

Congressman John Dingell (D-Michigan) recently proposed imposing a 50-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline to try to cut back on Americans' consumption.

[chris_bdba]

I believe the republicans might’ve found their issue for winning this Nov! If they bring this up at every opportunity and force the democrats into it or get them to publicly say no we win in Nov.

[MissouriConservative]

I seriously wonder how any democrat gets re-elected after their first term? Then I listen to their constituents and my answer is given to me.

[RatRipper]

“Congressman John Dingell (D-Michigan) recently proposed imposing a 50-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline to try to cut back on Americans’ consumption.”

Wait a minute! Is this a DemocRAT that actually admits that tax policy is an impediment to economic activity? This, truly, is a gaffe, a break-through moment,and a monumentally stupid thing to do on the front-end of an economic slow-down, but we need to save these words to use against the RATS when things have recovered a bit and they propose more socialist economic ideas or try to argue their position on the failure to make permanent Bush’s tax cuts.

Let’s all remember what RAT Dingell is admitting: tax increases have an adverse effect on consumption and the economy.

[Octar]

Congressman John Dingell (D-Michigan) recently proposed imposing a 50-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline to try to cut back on Americans' consumption.

From the namesake of the eponymous berries.

[maine-iac7]

Actually, people are probably less prepared today than at any time in history.

When I was growing up on my grandparents farm, 86% of the country was rural and most people had a years worth of food at any time, either in the gardens and orchards, or in gleaming jars and barrels in the cold cellar, meat, milk, butter, cheese in the barn - as it were - chicken and eggs in the coop.

They bought sugar in 10 lb bags and flour in 20. they hunted, fished, etc.

We heated with wood from our land. Kerosene lamps provided light - the mantle ones, with bright light.

Nowadays, people have less than 1-2 weeks food in the house and the supermarkets have only 2 days supply for the area they are in.

We have become a far too dependent society. A good store of foods is a great help in times of illness, loss of job, or - as may happen if they don't get this gas thing under control = the trucks stop rolling.

WE know it's contrived and will, no doubt, go down after the election. But at well over $4 a gallon - over $1,200 a fill - now for diesel, the truckers aren't going to make it that long.

[endthematrix]

The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) (IIRC 1953) established federal jurisdiction over submerged lands on the Outer Continental Shelf. That was the then three 93) nautical mile limit. The act has been amended several times (Recent 2000?) and it was Regan who extended the border to 12 miles. Now the area beyond to 200 nautical miles is the Exclusive Economic Zone and IIRC is regulated and part of OCSLA and I'll wager some other Acts.

More digging (pun intended) as we speak.

[maine-iac7]

regarding what we've been talking about - here's a piece from the WSJ this morning -

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/104914/Load-Up-the-Pantry

Load Up the Pantry

I think I'll write on this in my column this week. The more people in a given area - like the one we live in - that are prepared, the less chaos.

If the sh*t hits the fan - it won't last long as the dirty congresscritters will have to capitulate and bring the price of gas down...let' hope it's BEFORE the tipping point, when many of the truckers who have had to throw in the towel can't afford to jump back in...

All actions can have "unintended consequences" and the libRats are famous for not seeing beyond their noses to account for those possibilities

[Viking2002]

Ha - turnabout is fair play when undoing the damage done by that certain 'official' and his cronies...

[taildragger]

If the GOP didn't lose their testicular fortitude, they would propose a new Energy Contract With America.

On proposal would be 50 Nuclear Plants 1 in each State in 5 years.

Every Union Construction Worker in the U.S. would vote for the GOP and tell the Dem's to do something in their hats and pull it over their ears and call it curls.

It would be the "Hard Hat Rebellion" in the voting booth instead of th streets as it was during the time of Nixon.