Posted on 12/06/2014 12:16:40 PM PST by Kaslin
If you’re like most Americans, you haven’t been questioning the welcome drop in gasoline prices. You just fill ’er up and feel grateful that you’re spending less.
But why has this remarkable drop come about? And what can we do to help keep prices lower?
Some of it, unfortunately, is beyond our control. Worldwide demand for oil is down now. That always causes the cost of gasoline to drop.
But the other side of the equation -- the part that is under our control -- has gone largely unheralded in many media accounts: the boom in U.S. energy production. Simply put, we’re producing much more energy domestically these days, and that is, predictably enough, pushing prices downward.
Since 2008, we’ve increased our domestic supply of oil by 50 percent. Thanks to technological breakthroughs such as hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and horizontal drilling, we’re able to find and extract far more oil than we possibly could have years ago.
Oil production in states such as North Dakota, Texas and Oklahoma has doubled in the last six years. The U.S. is now the world’s number-one producer of oil and natural gas. Signs that read “No to fracking” might as well read, “Yes to higher prices.” And “no” to the more than 100,000 jobs created in the oil and gas extraction industry over the last few years.
It all comes down to supply and demand. It’s pretty simple. We can’t do much about worldwide demand, but we can do a lot about supply.
Here’s what not to do: subsidize “green” energy such as wind and solar (or any form of energy, for that matter). If green forms of energy show promise, believe me, the market will put resources behind them. The fact that wind and solar producers are so wholly dependent on government handouts (i.e., taxpayer money) is telling.
Yet the push to prop them up continues. Consider the $440 billion tax package lawmakers recently hammered out. It contains a provision that would have revived the wind tax credit that expired last year. Yet the wind industry already gets $56 in federal tax credits per energy unit produced.
So what should we do? Stop impeding markets. Here are four steps policymakers should take, courtesy of Heritage Foundation energy expert Nicolas Loris:
1. Lift the ban on crude oil exports. A recent IHS study found that removing the ban would lower gasoline prices by 8 cents per gallon, saving drivers $265 billion over 15 years and adding nearly 1 million jobs by 2018.
2. Lift the drilling bans and approve the Keystone XL pipeline. We need more exploration in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. We should also be conducting more lease sales off Alaska’s coasts. Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is another abundant source of oil, with an estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil resting beneath a few thousand acres.
3. Repeal the ethanol mandate. This rule forces refineries to blend increasing amounts of ethanol into gasoline each year, reaching 36 billion gallons in 2022. It’s already driven up fuel and food prices, according to multiple federal agency and government-backed studies.
4. Prohibit greenhouse gas regulations. The Department of the Interior has already suspended oil and gas leases because of their alleged impact on climate change. Coming greenhouse gas regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency will block and increase the cost of energy production -- and producers will pass those costs on to consumers. Yet the regulations will have no meaningful impact on the climate, the EPA has acknowledged.
Notice the one thing these steps have in common? It’s government getting out of the way. The secret to extending the streak of lower energy prices, it turns out, is no secret at all: Let markets work.
We have two vehicles on the go and I have noticed a big, positive difference in our budget.
Obama will of course claim this as his doings and the low info voters will eat it up.
Sarah Palin was right again when she said “drill baby drill”.
and the democrats think Obama is so much better and smarter than Sarah Palin. democrats live in an alternate universe
Obama is the worst thing to ever happen to the USA
” Obama is the worst thing to ever happen to the USA”
He has plenty of time left to finish us off, and he will, if not stopped.
Obama followers are crediting the One with reining in those predatory speculators in gasoline futures for the drop in oil prices.
Pic is Omahaha. UP and the (commie) Sage of Omaha territory.
Let's "subsidize" Nuke-Lee-Ear Energy through less Gov't regulation....
Regarding point 4... I believe that ethanal also lowers the energy produced thereby reducing MPG.
Ethanol is murder on small and old engines too. Too corrosive on gaskets and seals. I call it engine killer.
And institute a ban on crude oil imports? Or maybe just imports from countries that hate us, exempting Canada ...
$2.75? It’s $2.32 here.
Ethanol is a huge boondoggle enriching corn farmers and ethanol companies like Poet. Ethanol fuels will ever be dependent on government subsidies and mandates for their very existence and contribute nothing to US energy independence.
State taxes and other factors vary. I’m paying $2.59, although it may be down again tomorrow.
My dad has told me to put a product called “Sea Foam” into the tank every time I fill it up, and he says that it helps protect the engine from the killer ethanol.
$2.48 in Michigan, even with our abusive gasoline taxes.
Have you heard that they would have to plant corn on every empty spot of the United States (including farms and vacant acreage) to fuel ONE VEHICLE for one year? But the ethanol would destroy the engine, so then they’re banging their heads against the wall...or are they? Isn’t this all just a plot to wreak havoc on everyone’s vehicle to that they will end up...riding bikes like they do in China? Or maybe we could put big fans on the back of the bikes. Or ride horses and mules all over the place...naw, the manure creates greenhouse gasses, so that wouldn’t work. Or Obomination could have huge factories built like they have in his fav-rite buddy countries and have all the workers/slaves live in big bunkhouses on-site—no need for transportation then.
This article was written by someone who doesn’t have a clue about oil and what is going on in the oil market. The reason oil and gasoline prices are down is because the Saudi’s are flooding the market with oil which has brought demand for US oil down, as we cannot export crude oil. While everyone jumps for joy at low gasoline prices, the oil and gas industry will soon lay off thousands of US workers because drilling at this reduced price isn’t economic. This country was so close to being energy independent, but that dream is soon to be gone. The Saudi’s did this same thing in the early 80’s while our government did nothing. I know everyone wants low gasoline prices, but in the end this is going to add to the problems this country has with it’s debt, etc. I hope everyone remembers that the Saudi’s are not our friends.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080601165350AAk6KqL
An acre of corn will make about 450 gal of ethanol. If you drive 15,000 miles at 15 mpg and use 10% ethanol gas mixture then you use only 1000 gals of fuel or only 100 gals of ETOH.
I think it’s wrong to turn food into fuel.
**I think it’s wrong to turn food into fuel.**
So do I.
The Saudis are probably not friends of the ordinary US Citizen but you can bet your dollar savings the Saudis are friends of the Bush family.
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