Posted on 06/26/2008 5:14:27 AM PDT by thackney
By some estimates, oil prices could hit 200-dollars a barrel. If you do the math, that translates to $6.64 a gallon for gas! Meanwhile, Congress can't agree on a course of action. Democrats are looking at new regulations on speculators, while others -- like Woodlands Republican Kevin Brady -- want to increase drilling:
"...And while Congress is eager to place the blame elsewhere, whether it's OPEC or Big Oil or Big Autos, the fact of the matter is we ought to take a square look in the mirror. We need more American-made energy, and this Congress has resisted it."
Oil economist Karr Ingham disagrees with other analysts who see prices continuing to spiral out of control. He says rather than penalize the speculators, the free market should be left alone: "That's the economic system under which we operate. And ultimately, it's market forces that solve our problems for us."
Ingham says it's because of the current market that we're using more ethanol, and expanding research into other areas: "We would not be embarking on any of this if crude oil were still 20-dollars a barrel. So, it's rising prices for crude oil - relative to other sources of energy - that are going to spark the development of alternative energy."
Ingham says the current economic environment is actually more favorable to a drop in oil prices, which would bring prices down.
I am not going to lay all the blame at the Republicans feet. The majority the Republicans had was still not enough of a majority to get things done without the help of the demorats. The rats offered no help and do not deserve to be where they are today. It was not because of the merits of the demorats that they were voted into office.
And you can be assured the rats see no benefit to their party to help lower gas prices right now.
Hello folks... mandating the use of so many gallons of corn-based ethanol is neither free market nor innovative.
The math is not that simple because a lot of oil companies have long term contracts that still have years until they expire. They also have their own production. Thus, their weighted average cost per barrel is far below the often quoted spot price.
By November jobs may be disappearing at an alarming rate, the cost of goods and services may well have become astronomical, many food products may be in short supply, and inflation will be out of sight.
Melodramatic? I don't know, but we shall see.
I do know that we are about to see our Republic go the way of Europe.
Actually I’m thinking of people buying vehicles they can no longer afford, houses they can no longer afford, credit cards they can no longer afford.
Have fun blaming it all on the Dems., but some day you might need to get back in touch with reality if you hope to ever really address the prolem.
1. GHWB signed into effect restrictions or moratoriums on offshore drilling.
2. Hey, this is not year one of W’s administration. He continued those restrictions on offshore drilling. Heard any big initiatives to open up more offshore drilling from W until very, very recently?
3. All W has done is try to open ANWR for drilling. That’s something, but hardly a president who’s been trying to avoid this crisis since day one of his administration.
4. W and Jeb got together scarcely two years ago to insure that NO OFFSHORE DRILLING WOULD BE ALLOWED OFF FLORIDA!
5. Sorry, this crisis is the fault of both parties. The Dems. are more at fault, but the Republicans are far from blameless for this mess. I think Republicans, and some Freepers, felt very clever putting forth the “let’s use all THEIR oil up first, and then we’ll still have ours for the future.” Still look like a good strategy?
7. We can now blame the Dems. for refusing to help open new areas for exploration and drilling NOW. But as far as getting us into this mess, the Republicans are only slightly less to blame.
I can't imagine needing to take out a loan just to heat your house, but that time is fast coming.
Personally, I think that these prices are self-correcting and will eventually come down. Not sure if it'll be fast enough to help this winter, though.
Kinda like the Soviet Union trying to starve us by eating up all our wheat? Or waiting for the heavy yoke of capitalism to break the free enterprise spirit.
This is relevant:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucac/20080625/cm_ucac/youcantfuelallofthepeopleallofthetime
Where are they going to put it? Most people I know are buying as little as possible and looking for ways to use less.
Think about it, its $135/bbl now. Say the critters open up the land and say the oil companies work double time to get oil down to say $50/bbl, which to me would be self-destructive. At $50/bbl it may not be worthwhile to do much of anything, except import.
A Vespa is a great idea. I had one in college and have been thinking the same thing recently. I just got back from Italy where I was paying roughly $8.50 per gallon for diesel for my rented van. Every one was either driving diesel vehicles or some type of motorcycle or scooter. Human powered bikes were also popular. I think I was looking at our future.
“Think about it, its $135/bbl now. Say the critters open up the land and say the oil companies work double time to get oil down to say $50/bbl, which to me would be self-destructive. At $50/bbl it may not be worthwhile to do much of anything, except import.”
And that’s the whole problem, and the reason the so called free market will never solve the problem of US dependency on foreign oil. What’s the incentive when the price will go down with significantly greater production, which we must have to become less dependent on imports?
If the American people and their government desire lower prices and greater independence from imported oil, then we must open up all areas for exploration and drilling, and our government must REQUIRE in the new leases that companies bring new finds on line for production until we reach some goal of producing ____ barrels per day, or a % of our requirements.
Sorry pretend free marketers, that’s the only thing that will both decrease prices in the long run and also decrease our dependence on imports.
We are precisely where we were in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, except it’s worse this time. We should have set a goal to bring ____ capacity for domestic production then, but Reagan (sorry, again) decided the magic of the free market would solve it all.
It didn’t. And it won’t now, either.
We have to treat this as a matter of national security, and explore and drill and put new well in production until we can produce some target amount of our needs.
It can’t all be left up to the oil companies and the fantasy free market that isn’t all that free for energy production.
The American economy, driven by the confidence and buying habits of the public, is now and will continue to reflect the will of an alarmed and wary consumer. Americans are patient to a fault, but when crude oil prices took another jump from $30 to $32 per barrel, they saw retail gasoline dealers immediately post prices of $1.599 or more for regular unleaded. As March began, John Q. Public rebelled.from
Blame can readily be pinned on a failed foreign and domestic policy in which the Clinton administration and Congress have looked at election-year politics, while ignoring the effect of rapid-rising crude oil prices for the past 12 months.Read the whole article at the link. It will cause a chuckle in light of the current state of affairs.
For example, in southwest Florida, surrounded by water, ports and hoping to keep oil rigs at bay in the Gulf, a gallon of unleaded regular was $ .899 in February 1999. Now, at $1.599, the price increase is $ .70 per gallon or an astronomical 78 percent in the past 12 months.
I believe you are mistaken if you believe the old plants taken out of service in the 1980's mostly exist, let alone be operable. Most were scavenged of useful equipment, many chopped up and sold either overseas, for other processes or for scrap.
No modernization of the smaller sites
Not economic. It is far better return on the dollar invested to upgrade and expand the bigger refineries with modern processes.
Keep in mind billions of dollars are being spent expanding and upgrading those existing plants. Some of the expansions are bigger than the average refinery. Also, expansions and upgrades have been going on for decades, just not at the current pace. The result is in the 1990's and past 8 years, the total cumulative output capacity in the creation of fuels has risen approximately equal to one new refinery per year including the refineries that were shut down.
Last-minute feeble acts by the overburdened energy secretary to increase crude production, will take too long, perhaps a year.
I liked the above statement. Now, you hear the demorats say it will take ten or more years before drilling will take effect. I don't concur with that. I am also one who believes in refineries. We need more refineries along with more barrels of oil on the market.
Both parties have a responsibility to help fix this party.
I meant to say fix this problem. My bad.
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