uhhh
Why would Britain with gas at $12 a gallon release “strategic reserves” to get US gas below $4 a gallon?
Is $4 a gallon US gas a strategic crisis to Britain?
Or is obama’s reelection a strategic crisis to both the socialist dupe and the marxist clown? and thus worth pissing off our NATIONAL STRATEGIC oil reserves ....
This is a complex problem. Of course it is political, but it also may scare speculators out of the oil futures market somewhat which is part of what is causing the price rise in gasoline. Several decades ago, end users comprised 70% of the futures market in oil. Now speculators/investors comprise 70% of that market. Most of the oil used on the east and gulf coasts is Brent Crude which is $10 to $20 per barrel more than West Texas Intermediate. Cushing, OK storage tanks are stuffed, and Obama has finally approved the portion of the XL pipeline between Cushing and the gulf refineries.
Another interesting fact is that we are apparently now EXPORTING about 2% of our oil, and if the entire XL pipeline is built will export even more. Should we regulate the Oil Companies to not export oil and refine more and lower our gas prices? If we are exporting oil, then added drilling seems irrelevant. Chinese and Indian demand is driving the market and speculator enthusiasm. The Oil Companies will all play these factors to their best advantage. I also read that the Oil Companies have shut down around 19% of refinery capacity for periodic maintainance. If the Oil Companies start refining more oil and can get the cheaper oil from Cushing, this should help more than just scaring the speculators. Then again the oil companies may keep production low to keep prices high and/or to help Republicans (politics goes both ways). In other words when the elephants fight we mice should head for the trees.
Cameron is a Conservative on an austerity kick with taxes that are pushing up the price of gas in Britain. I am not sure how this makes him a socialist dupe. Please explain.
The wholesale gasoline price in Great Britain is pretty much exactly the same price as it is in the US. The retail price in Britain is considerably higher because they tax it at about $8 a gallon.
Socialist countries do not like people driving about on their own. They want everyone in cattle cars so that they can go where the government wants them to go and when the government allows them to go.
Obama would just love it if gasoline were $12 a gallon here in the US. That would force Americans out of their cars and into the buses and trains that are run by the government.
$4 a gallon US gas IS a strategic crisis for Britain, but more importantly $8 a gallon British gas is a strategic crisis for Britain. They fear that rising gas prices will affect everything else in the economy, as the cost of just about everything else is dependent on gas prices, somewhere along the line. Flooding the market with gas from the strategic reserve should reduce its price, and therefore prevent economic problems. Presumably the option of simply lowering the tax they place on oil didn't occur to them.
I think its probably unfair to suggest this is being done solely to help re-elect Obama, but let's just say the needs of the economy and of Obama's re-election campaign dovetail very nicely here. Of course, its a very bad way of going about things. The problem with releasing the strategic reserve is that it is a finite commodity. Once gone, it cant be used again, and prices will rise. Skyrocket actually, as the producer nations know we have no option but to buy it. I would hope most people will see through this ploy, but given the current level of political consciousness in both Britain and the US I very much doubt they will. Most people will be only too happy to take the slightly reduced price at the pumps and shower Obama with credit for it.