Gas Prices Are Seen Rising Even Higher [Whatever happened to Bush's Energy Plan?]

The New York Times ^ | 3/18/2004 | SIMON ROMERO

[Publius6961]

Gas prices is one of the current important DNC-progressive talking points, and a key element in the political strategy to defeat President Bush.
I can't help wondering why anybody would post this type of article without an explanation less lame than asking a throwaway question. Political moron or something more sinister?

Personally, I believe that there are more serious questions to ponder than gas prices right now. I will not now or ever play the "let's be nice to terrorists and their financers because the price of gas is too high and they are in total control" game. Nor will I have a whole lot of respect for anyone, Freeper or not, who plays that game, even by implication.

[FITZ]

Threaten to cut off immigration --- or really do it --- and they know their oligarchy is going to be overthrown. The Villistas are reorganizing and ready to oust them at the drop of a hat. We're propping the oligarchs up just like Aristide was propped up by Clinton.

[Principled]

No, we're experiencing the democrat's energy plan. Bush's plan has been blocked 3 years running. We are being prevented from experiencing Bush's energy plan cuz the dems are more interested in trying to get elected than in trying to help America....nothing new there.

[Publius6961]

If, for whatever reason, the water at these depths warms enough so the stability of the Methane Hydrate is destroyed,...

I love these doomsday scenarios that always begin with the word "if".
If frogs had wings...

Makes for entertaining movie scripts but are worth zero as a basis for energy policy. Some people really believe they sound profound...

[Principled]

The only thing that's changed politically since we've had lower energy (not only gasoline but all energy) prices is...the Presidency

Convenient of you to exclude the small details like 9/11 and the war on terror. Why would you exclude these obvious factors of change???

[Ditto]

Earlier in the month, the agency, part of the federal Department of Energy, warned that gasoline prices might rise to a nationwide average of $1.83 a gallon in April, well past the previous record — not adjusted for inflation — of $1.747 a gallon in August 2003.

Nice trick, not "adjusting for inflation". Adjusted for inflation, I was paying about $4 a gallon back in the 70s. I wonder if the NY Slimes doesn't adjust for inflation when they set their advertising rates?

And if we go back exactly one year, or exactly two years, or exactly 3 years, we will find the exact same stories in the Times. Gas prices always jump in the spring when refineries need to start batching multiple custom blends for different regions because of the crazy EPA regulations. Those multiple blends drive the refining and distribution costs through the roof.

[alloysteel]

Now I really don't believe that the oceans will warm sufficiently for a huge burp of Methane Hydrate will gasify and come to the surface. But the policymakers have to be apprised of some calamity if they DON'T act, that is at least as compelling as the hoopla that surrounds the Kyoto Protocol. This way, the weapon the enviro-whackos use so freely, shouting some doomsday scenario, may be played into taking some pre-emptive action (sucking the Methane Hydrate up off the ocean floor) BEFORE we a) run out of all options for cheap energy recovery, or b) a compelling rationalization AGAINST tapping this source may be composed by the poets of junk science.

A couple hundred years ago there were places where "rock oil" just seeped out of hillsides and ruined watering holes, while people lighted their houses with whale oil.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Anyone who has not been shocked by the rapid climb in retail gasoline prices, to record levels in some cities, may want to prepare for what is to come.

Where I live gas is down to $1.67 a gallon from a high of $2.20 under clinton/algore. This article doesn't make any sense.

It's just like GDP being higher during Bush's term than clinton/algore's GDP but the 90's had a better economy.

[alloysteel]

That is how gas wells are formed. The sediment that drifts down over these Methane Hydrate accumulations eventually solidifies into rock layers, and there is a strata of trapped methane. Methane, CH4, is the simplest unit of an organic compound that can exist. There is reason to believe that under sufficient heat and pressure, methane could form higher organic compounds, forming longer and longer carbon chains, but that leaves the problem of what happens to the excess hydrogen generated. If any nitrogen is present, it may be formed into ammonia, also found in gas wells. A lot of the chemistry in deep petroleum pockets is only poorly understood.

[kittymyrib]

Yes, all those "Oil for Blood" protesters ought to have to walk to collect their welfare checks pretty soon. The states of OK, TX, LA, and AK ought to have kept their oil for themselves instead of sending it to states like CA and FL that want to keep oil drilling out of their waters. And the oil producing states surely should have cut off the northeast long ago. Let them bike to work since they admire the Chinese Communist lifestyle so much. Too bad citizens of the oil states have to pay the same high prices that these oil-hating states pay.

[mewzilla]

The sales of gas guzzlers were still up last I checked. Price of gas can't be too high, can it?

[Recovering_Democrat]

DEMOCRATS WANT US DEPENDENT ON MIDDLE EAST OIL!
Open ANWR today.

[RightWhale]

Alaska=oil

There is natural gas, enough to power Chicago for 20 years; North Slope natural gas is still iffy in terms of cost versus price. Alaska oil is already peaked. Don't bother to invoke ANWR or Caspian: neither is more than a blip in the oil supply.

[CyberAnt]

Yep! Give the guy a break .. he needs to have some issue to run on .. and maybe nobody will notice he's one of those in the Senate holding up the Energy Bill ..?? /sarcasm

[raloxk]

"Which is exactly what we are doing to Fox and the Mexican government but we never ask for or get anything in return."

There is no comparison between Fox and Chavez. It is really irresponsible to make a comparison. It is nativitism at its worst to make a comparison.

[raloxk]

If 1/2 the population just carpooled for 2-3 days nearly 10m barrels of gasoline would be saved causing inventories to rise dramatically above the 5 year average. Prices would fall

[COEXERJ145]

I see the usual Bush bashing trolls are out in force in this thread.

[lewislynn]

If 1/2 the population just carpooled for 2-3 days nearly 10m barrels of gasoline would be saved causing inventories to rise dramatically above the 5 year average. Prices would fall

Or we could just ride bicycles...

[lewislynn]

No, we're experiencing the democrat's energy plan. Bush's plan has been blocked 3 years running.

Silly me. I thought we had a Republican majority...Besides where is it written "the Bush energy plan" (no one seems to know what that is except for drilling in Alaska) would be the end all to our energy woes?