The Gas Prices We Deserve

The Washington Post ^ | June 5, 2008 | George F. Will

[TheDon]

...

97 senators recently voted to increase the supply of oil on the market by stopping the flow of oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which protects against major physical interruptions. Seventy-one of the 97 senators who voted to stop filling the reserve also oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

One million barrels is what might today be flowing from ANWR if in 1995 President Bill Clinton had not vetoed legislation to permit drilling there. One million barrels produce 27 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel. Seventy-two of today's senators -- including Schumer, of course, and 38 other Democrats, including Barack Obama, and 33 Republicans, including John McCain -- have voted to keep ANWR's estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil off the market.

So Schumer, according to Schumer, is complicit in taking $10 away from every American who buys 20 gallons of gasoline. "Democracy," said H.L. Mencken, "is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."

Also disqualified from complaining are all voters who sent to Washington senators and representatives who have voted to keep ANWR's oil in the ground and who voted to put 85 percent of America's offshore territory off-limits to drilling. The U.S. Minerals Management Service says that restricted area contains perhaps 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas -- 10 times as much oil and 20 times as much natural gas as Americans use in a year.

Drilling is underway 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.

...

[TheDon]

Think of the Rats every time you fill up at the pump! And remember, it's an election year. Show them how much you love them!

[Dominnae]

$56 to fill up a Camry today..

*sigh*

We’re getting it good and hard, alright..
Next time, I want a big kiss first.

[bray]

If you like $4/gal, Thank Congress

Pray for W and Our Troops

[ASA Vet]

Prices + Deserve

[martin_fierro]

Drilling is underway 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.

[irv]

America says to foreign producers: We prefer not to pump our oil, so please pump more of yours, thereby lowering its value, for our benefit.

This is the liberal way: Demand sacrifice from others while generously offering to allow them to feel good about it.

I'm sure that will work this time.

[MrCFdovnh]

Got my eye on the rat, Sununu, here in NH over the cap and trade abomination.

[RepublitarianRoger2]

So by my quick calculations:

86 billion barrels + 10.4 billion = 96.4 billion

Americans use roughly 20 million barrels / day

That’s a little over 13 years worth of oil that’s just sitting there waiting to be tapped.

[crz]

They failed to mention the over ONE TRILLION barrels trapped in oil shale deposits in the Rockies. Or the HUGE deposits under the Dakotas which is supposed to be the 5th largest deposit on earth.

There is only one thing more plentiful on earth than oil-water.

And stupidity is more plentiful than both in CONgress.

Time to get to DC and start hanging them one at a time.

[RepublitarianRoger2]

You got that right.

[proudCArepublican]

$41.00 to fill up 1/2 a tank today in the AM was $4.39 tonight it is $4.41

[djsherin]

Are there really estimated to be over a trillion barrels in the rockies? Where’d you find that out? I’m not questioning you, I’m just curious and if that’s true it’s absolutely outrageous that Congress won’t act.

[endthematrix]

EIA.GOV and I found a breakdoun from Heritage Foundation:

How large is this resource? In the Piceance Basin, an area of 1,100 square miles, the oil shale is over 1 million barrels per acre, or roughly 750 billion barrels of recoverable oil. If you extend outward to Wyoming and to Utah, it is 1.3 trillion. This is why you hear shale next to trillions, not billions or millions, of barrels.

Senate panel retains oil-shale moratorium
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/15/panel-defeats-attempt-end-oil-shale-moratorium/

[endthematrix]

DOE Oil Shale Fact Sheet:
http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/npr/Oil_Shale_Resource_Fact_Sheet.pdf

[Eye of Unk]

Half a tank for my Silverado dually is about $80 at $4.16 a gal reg.

[djsherin]

Thanks. This is really insane...

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Last Thursday, near Nashville, I filled up my 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 PU tank. The price then was $3.79 per gallon. The total was $116.69. I had to run the debit card three times as the pump has an automatic cut-off at $50.

[Gaffer]

I saw an EMS truck driver filling his ambulance (diesel). I asked him how much it held ......45 Gallons....he said it was
at least twice a day he filled up......each time at over $200 a pop......

[djf]

For a very long time, Americans haven’t complained about the price of a gallon of gas.
They haven’t complained about the price of a gallon of milk, or a pound of salt, or of a $600 pair of shoes.

They complained about the price of an I-Pod, but that’s about it.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Thank god, George Will reads FR! His column is pretty much a compilation of everything we've been saying on this board for the past two years about how Clinton and the Rats (with recent help from RINOS) have locked up our own abundant oil and natural gas supplies and thrown away the key.

I hope Will's piece here finally gets somebody's attention in Washington since I think the general public is really tired of hearing about caribou, polar bears, whales, and "pristine wilderness" as excuses for not drilling.