Posted on 05/15/2008 3:41:41 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Worried about gas prices hitting $4 a gallon and beyond? Imagine if they were $6, $7 or even $8 a gallon. Those levels are a certain possibility should Congress pass cap-and-trade legislation, which could face a vote in early June.
Oil is trading at record levels, in excess of $120 a barrel. Leading Republican Sens. James Inhofe (Okla.) and Jeff Sessions (Ala.) both told the Business & Media Institute (BMI) energy prices would drastically increase if the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 2191) is signed into law.
“The studies show it would be directly affected, would be a $1.50 a gallon, in addition to what it is today,” Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said to (BMI).
Inhofe spoke at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on May 15 to introduce the “We Get It!” campaign – a program founded by evangelical Christians that question the merits of global warming alarmism. According to Inhofe, the bill will make it to the floor of the Senate on June 2.
“So now I think we need to concentrate on what it will cost the American people,” he said during the press conference. “To try to put it in a perspective people understand, if we had ratified, according to the Wharton School of Economics, the Kyoto Treaty, back five years ago, it would have cost about – between $300 and $330 billion – that was the range they had. This bill that’s up today is $471 billion – far more than that. And the question is, what do you get for it?”
Sessions, a member of the Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, went a step further. He cited sources that suggest the increase could be as much as $5 a gallon.
“[L]et me tell you what’s heading down the tracks,” Sessions said to BMI on May 14. “In a few weeks, we expect that the cap-and-trade legislation that’s been voted out of Sen. Barbara Boxer’s (D-Calif.) Environment and Public Works Committee will be on the floor and according to the Environmental Protection Agency it will increase gas prices by $1.50. The National Association of Manufacturers says it will increase it as much as $5 per gallon.”
Sessions proposed that money should be spent on energy investment versus a regulatory bureaucracy to enforce the provisions of the Lieberman-Warner bill.
“So instead of actually coming forward with any idea about what to do about rising prices, we’ll soon be voting on a bill that has already passed committee, has some Republican support, that would surge the price of energy, create a bureaucracy – and I just don’t think is the right thing to do,” Sessions said. “I’d rather spend our money in investing in the new the technologies, helping get nuclear power online, improving batteries, researching cellulosic ethanol. Let’s spend our money on that without creating cap-and-trade bureaucracies that have not worked in Europe.”
According to the Energy Information Administration, the average price of a gallon of gas in Europe ranges from $8 to $9 a gallon.
Gas prices have been one of the most reported news stories of the past several years. Reporters have repeatedly warned of prices approaching the levels Inhofe and Sessions warned about. However, journalists have consistently complained about oil company profits, not taxes, making gas prices higher.
On NBC’s May 15 “Today,” host Matt Lauer interviewed ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) CEO Rex Tillerson. Lauer quizzed Tillerson on oil companies’ profit margins and higher gas prices, but Lauer didn’t ask Tillerson about the potential impact Lieberman-Warner would have on the price of gasoline.
“Well, the problem we have right now, and fortunately we have several months before the election, to make sure the American people know that this is a supply problem that is causing the gas prices to go up,” Inhofe said to BMI. “You know the Democrats, right down party lines – they do not want to drill in ANWR, they do not want to drill offshore. They don’t want the tar sands. They don’t want more energy. And they don’t want refinery capacity.”
The Senate defeated a measure to drill in ANWR on May 13. The vote, an amendment to another bill, was killed by a vote of 42-56, largely along party lines. Only one Democrat voted for the amendment, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), and five Republicans voting against it.
Inhofe blamed Democratic policies going as far back as the Clinton administration.
"The Democrats are the reason we have high prices at the pumps, and we’re not going to be able to alleviate that until we start producing again in America,” Inhofe added. “And I knew this was happening way back, well 10 years ago, when President Clinton vetoed the bill that would have allowed us to drill in ANWR. I said on the Senate floor that day 10 years ago that in 10 years we would regret this. It’s now 10 years later.”
I sometimes think that is their purpose in regulating the industry to death. Hamstring corporations so severely that the government has reason to just take over.
He’s up for reelection this year and the DNC Has targeted him for defeat. I hope he doesn’t fall prey to “McCain apathy/antipathy” as other conservatives have this year.
I am going to get flamed for this but I don't give a &%_+ . So much of America already look like the cast of characters in the movie, between the hair, piercings, and tattoos. We are already 1/2 way their....
” “But it’s for the good of our children’s future”
That’s what we’re going to hear in response to any complaints about the negative effects of the so called global warming solutions. I brought a lot of cons to the attention of some envirowhackos on another forum and they just gave me the above.
These people, if they aren’t among the groups who see the global warming scare as a way to gain political power, are total fanatics. They don’t care how these “solutions” negatively affects us. To them, the ends don’t just justify the means, the ends are all that matter.”
I am the child of a WW War Vet. So I know what was done for the children....
It certainly wasn’t to make our country what it is today.
More of us need to stand up and shout down this “ for the children” crap.....
Take notice that todays “ child generation” is about as spoiled as you can get, and they are worried about the “ children”
Cut me a break.....
You’ll ride your bike to work and you’ll like it! :-)
The Democratic Party wants to turn the United States into Western Europe.
We’re going to get a bunch of excuses and the finger is going to be pointed at different people.
Remember the Cold War? While the Soviets were still powerful, the RATs kept saying they would win and we should just throw in the towel. After it ended, the RATs turned around and said there never was a Cold War and blamed the Republicans for exagerating the threat.
These retards will never admit to any wrong doing.
I’ll set this election out.
Please don’t set it out. Make a statement, write in a conservative like Duncan Hunter (if they will let us). If they won’t, vote for the Constitution Party candidate.
And we do what they expect and THAT is what has to change -- immediately IMHO. That should not be allowed to keep their jobs. Revolt at the polls first. If that doesn't get the results we need, further revolt plans are necessary.
“Let pull a Chavez and nationalize all facets of the oil industry...”
Whats’ gas cost in his country?
I sit here in Europe and pay basically $9 a gallon for gas currently. The vast majority of that is tax. The price of gas in general...has gone up a $1 in the past six months. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be paying $12 a gallon within two years. What you learn along the way with this mess...is that you simply quit driving. I’m putting half the mileage on the car that I would normally have done ten years ago. I go nowhere unless its important. I make one massive shopping trip per week. The kid is 17 and rides a bus...no car. You start changing alot of habits...and I’m pretty sure this summer...you will start to notice how folks don’t visit the relatives as much or drive to a ballgame that much.
I can remember folks in my hometown leaving early in the day and driving to Atlanta to see a Braves game that afternoon. At $4 a gallon...the odds are against anyone doing that today....driving 250 miles to see a game and paying almost $80 just for fuel...not even counting the ridiculous cost of entry tickets and food at the stadium. I can also remember guys jumping in their car and driving 300 miles on a Friday to see a girlfriend one state over for the weekend...and I seriously doubt if many guys do that today.
Face it...at $5 a gallon...you are going to make a significant change in our life. You have no choice.
Unfortunately, the US does not have the extensive public transportation system that alot of Europe has.
Hang in there, hope you have a good pair of walking shoes.
Unfortunately, the US does not have the extensive public transportation system that alot of Europe has.
Hang in there, hope you have a good pair of walking shoes.
Sorry about the second posting..
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