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Gas prices are spiking. That's great news, right? We have to wean ourselves off the stuff. At least that's what we've been hearing for years. Oil is dirty. We import it from nations that hate our guts (like Canada!). And moreover, we're running out. Oil is "finite." Finite much in the way water is finite.
So why aren't Democrats making the case that the spike in prices is a good thing? Isn't this basically our energy policy these days? How we "win the future"? If high energy prices were to damage President Barack Obama's re-election prospects, it would be ironic, considering the left has been telling us to set aside our "dependency" -- or, as our most recent Republican president put it, "addiction" -- for a long time.
If Democrats had their way, after all, we would be enjoying the economic results of cap-and-trade policy these days -- a program designed to increase the cost of energy by creating false demand in a fabricated market. As the theory goes, if you inflate the price of fossil fuels, the barbarians might finally start putting thought into how peat moss might be able to power a toaster.
In 2008, Steven Chu, Obama's (and, sadly, our own) future secretary of energy (sic) lamented, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe." The president, when asked whether he thought $4-a-gallon gas prices were good for the American economy, said, "I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment."
How gradual? Like, what, four years? Or is it eight?
Part of "figuring it out" surely had something to do with the recent decision by Obama to nix the Canadian Keystone XL pipeline project that would have pumped 700,000 barrels of oil per day into the United States. More oil just means more excessive, immoral, ugly energy use.
Well, get used to it. You can't take three steps without stepping over some potential 10-billion barrel reserve of dead organisms.
According to the Institute for Energy Research, there is enough natural gas in the U.S. to meet electricity demand for 575 years at current fuel demand, enough to fuel homes heated by natural gas for 857 years and more gas in the U.S. than there is in Russia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and some place called Turkmenistan combined. Oil? The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the United States could soon overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's top oil producer. There are tens of billions of easily accessible barrels of offshore oil here at home -- and much more oil around the world.
Yes, gas prices have spiked an average of 14 cents a gallon in the past month and about 30 cents a gallon since last November, according to AAA. Oil prices jumped to a nine-month high -- more than $105 a barrel -- after the Iranians shut down their own energy exports to Britain and France so they could start a much-needed nuclear program, which is, no doubt, for wholly peaceful purposes.
Given the fungibility of commodities and the track record of civilization in the Middle East, we'll likely always have to deal with occasionally painful fluctuations in the price of energy, regardless of what we do at home -- drilling and new pipelines included. Still, fluctuations have a lot better track record than price controls.
Subsidizing quixotic green companies or creating carbon credits won't stop the rules of basic economics. If the gas crunch starts hitting the economy, it's doubtless that we will get an earful of populist hand-wringing and that we'll hear the administration once again blame wealthy speculators and nasty oil companies.
Yet in the end, high gas prices are part of the plan. This is what the administration wants.
---
David Harsanyi is a columnist at The Blaze. Follow him on Twitter @davidharsanyi.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
February 22, 2012 @ 8:46 am
Obama’s pathological stubbornness to push his green agenda down the throats of America via non-efficient clean energy electric cars just serves to drive up the cost of energy and make America non-competitive economically in the world market of manufacturing who is abandoning America in legions to relocate overseas.
This socialist pre-determinator of American economic personal success via social experimentation with human lives, is a prime example of what happens when you allow deluded self-important secular Socialist to run your Country and economy. They borrow trillions in debt to finance a $40/week 2% cut in your withholding taxes (Before the Election) which will cost your retirement fund tens of thousands in lost benefits 25 years down the line, then they shut down pipelines and Gulf drilling which doubles the price of your fuel at the pump by $40/week? It is the double whammy, just for the privilege of living the delusion and immediate gratification the their socialist policies offer, always to be followed by the cost of the poor investment of placing you fund into the hands of fools to spend, not invest.
Why do they do this????,,,,,,because their distorted Liberally infected Socialist brain tells them their infallible Self-God secular omnipotence is wiser than the last 3000 years of what history has economically and morally taught us by trail and error to be true. It doesn’t hurt their campaign war chest one bit either when the taxpayer funnels a half a billion to Solyndra, knowing up front the company is going bankrupt, but never fear, the democrat party will glean their 10% kickback in Democrat campaign fund contributions, bought, paid for and redistributed from the American taxpayer to the Democrats before Solyndra goes broke.
How fitting that the very energy issue that drives Obama’s pathology, will be the very thing that brings him down in the end. America sits on staggering amounts of energy wealth, more than enough to finance the next American explosion of wealth and prosperity while Obama stands between us and this wealth barring the door. Does he really think when given a real choice that it will be him that we choose? It takes a real pathological ego to think he can pull this one off much longer.
February 22, 2012 @ 10:41 am
American oil production has increased each year under Obama and the number of wells are all time high. Last year, the largest export from America was gasoline (including diesel and jet fuel). Not wheat, airplanes, or software, but refined gasoline. So if US refiners are taking oil pumped from American wells and selling the refined gas to foriegn countries, how do you think the price at the pump has anything to do with US Energy policy?
It is a global market, and if our gasoline prices go lower than the price it can be exported at a better price, it gets shipped out to Latin America. Welcome to free markets and the ability of capitalism to find the consumers willing to pay the highest price. Drill Baby Drill is what they say south of the border. In the mean time, we subsidize corn for ethanol production which increases our cost of food, especially meat products.
February 22, 2012 @ 11:05 am
Just when was the last time an American company was given the right to build a new Oil refinery. DO your research. We can import and pump all the oil out of the ground we can, but with the environmentalists barring the door to refinery distorting the real laws of supply and demand we will continue to lose the battle. We continue to burn heating oil which should be refined for portable automotive use while trillions in clean burning natural gas go undeveloped and unused in our furnaces and Electrical producing plants because Obama has turned his back on the Gas industry with no sane energy policy for America. He touts his electric cars but who just what fuel is going to be used to produce the electricity, Bovine exhaust? Democrats speech exhalations?
American oil is too noble a product to be wasted fueling stationary energy use in power plants and home furnaces but should be restricted to mobile consumption in cars/trucks to help the middle class Americans once again enjoy cheap gasoline, get to work and renewed American prosperity.
February 22, 2012 @ 11:17 am
superg1 – You need to do a little research on your own rather than taking the word of the mainstream media. Obama has STOPPED the drilling in the Gulf, he has tried to STOP the Keystone Pipeline, and the drilling that we have in North Dakota and Pennsylvania is on private property and he CAN’T stop that….yet. The point is that he is responsible for the higher gas prices and he is responsible for ALL the job losses that have accompanied the end of drilling in the Gulf. There are so many regulations in place from this administration that there have been very, very few (if any) permits given to the oil companies. Instead, our money is being wasted on worthless cars that run 17 miles on a battery charge, the batteries last for three years and then go to a toxic waste dump. Is that really the direction we should be headed??
February 22, 2012 @ 11:28 am
superg1, Oil production is not at an all time high. The all time high was in 1970. It was ten million barrels of crud a day. That is far more than now. We currently produce less than six million barrels of crude a day. We have a long way to go to get where we should be.
As for the number of oil wells increasing. There two factors causing that. The higher price of crude makes it affordable to pump lesser grade crude oil. Second most of the permits were issued and wells started before Obama took office. How many times have the Democrats claimed it would take ten years to develop oil at ANWR. It may take 18 months or longer to drill a well and even longer for the exploratory wells before you actually develop an oil field.
IMPEACH OBAMA NOW! ! ! ! ! ! !
February 22, 2012 @ 6:27 pm
superg1, It might also be enlightening to know that the US taxpayer subsidizes the blending of alcohol with gas at the rate of 10 cents per gallon. This fuel is not required to be sold in the US and is exactly the product that european and south american countries are looking for. What you and others need to realize is that our government does so many things that are not authorized by the Constitution (this includes most of the republicans as well) that it is unable to perform the duties expressly inumerated in the Constitution, like defending our border.
When the Dept of Energy was formed, to get us off of foreign oil, we imported less than 30% of our needs. According to the latest lie coming out of the Obama administration we are now at 50% but most likely closer to 70%. Bottom line the government should stay out of business and business should stay out of the government.
February 23, 2012 @ 6:28 pm
Chu the biggest receiver of PORK in 2011? So it is said!Guess we have to pay for it as no one will bring PORK to an end.
We have plenty of oil and gas on our own ground if the government would do two things..quit selling it to China or elsewhere and then their re selling it back to us and get rid of the speculators. If not for the latter, our gas would be at least 50cents less a gallon…
February 23, 2012 @ 6:30 pm
Yep and the big strike in N. Dakota…he is trying to shut it down also… just as he is trying with our coal mining. IT is time to tell him where he can go and what he can do when he gets there! Civil disobedience is Constitutional and we need to implement it every chance we get.
February 25, 2012 @ 9:27 am
So of there is not enough refineries, how the heck did gasoline become the largest US export last year. All that excess supply would had drove down pump prices here, but instead they are allowed to control how much the release into the domestic market (controlling prices) and then sell off the excess they keep from US consumers to foriegn markets.
February 22, 2012 @ 9:53 am
The truth is Obama is trying to destroy our Nation every way he can. He knows that what he is doing is causing high gas prices. This absolutely makes his day. he cares nothing about the hardships of the working class. This purely about power and control of the people.
Obama killed drilling in the Gulf using junk science and manipulated real science to do so. He stopped the Keystone pipe line the same way. I don’t want to here the lie this wont benefit Americans. Regardless of who gets the oil after it is refined the price of oil will go down. it’s called supply and demand. The larder the supply the lower the price.
Obama continues to waste taxpayer dollars on “Green Technology” that is not cost affective. Look how many “Green Companies that taxpayer money and have gone belly up. We are getting robed by Obama-Hood and his merry band of thieves and tax cheats.
IMPEACH OBAMA NOW! ! ! ! !
February 22, 2012 @ 2:47 pm
onewildman,
No matter how much oil we pump out of the ground and offshore, it won’t matter, much, if Obummer and his band of Commies won’t issue permits for building additional refineries, to process the crude oil, into fuel.
All this screaming about more drilling, Anwar, Canada pipe line, offshore etc, is for naught, regarding in country (American) supply of refined fuel if all this crude can’t be refined.
In reality, all of this future production will be stored and then shipped out to foreign customers, who will then, refine it themselves.
Obummer’s real secret weapon against domestic oil production, is refusing to grant permits for expanded refining capacity.
Running our existing, aging refineries at full capacity, all the time, will just cause more breakdowns and interruptions in production.
We need new refineries, NOW!
February 23, 2012 @ 6:34 pm
35,000 postal jobs ending and the post service does make a profit…they use the profits elsewhere..maybe for PORK! With high gas prices people will have to quit their jobs if they have to commute too far…another feather is his fleabag cap. This freaking Squatter and our darn judges say he is legal…he is not by his own admission…yet…the judge in GA should be thrown from the bench as they all should that do this kind of thing…absolutely frustrating and illegal!
February 23, 2012 @ 6:35 pm
Surely we could find some investors that would help build one or two along the way…
February 24, 2012 @ 9:53 am
Buzz, the post office has been on a downward spiral since it unionized. They are directly responsible for the decline. It has been down hill since 1970.
Their starting pay is more than double that of privet in the military. They have to worry about bullets not dogs. It will take many years of service and promotions just reach the same pay level as a first year postal carrier.
IMPEACH OBAMA NOW! ! ! ! ! !
February 22, 2012 @ 10:03 am
How many groups and individuals does Obama have left to alienate? To date he seems to have angered the Jews, the Catholics, the Evangelicals hate him, Christians don’t like him much either some polls (for what they are worth, not much) say that Independents are “disaffected”, no conservative would ever vote for Obama and the people who once stridently defended him have mostly grown silent. They have nothing left to defend.
Polls are all skewed to reflect for the most part, what the MSM wants them to reflect, no one believes them.
I took great comfort when I heard a report that when Reagan ran for office, at this point in his campaign, polls had him down 20 points to Mr. Peanut and we all know how that came out.
I am waiting for some real honesty in the polls (big problem is that many people have given up their land line phones) and just a glimmer of truth from the MSM…………I do value my life so I will NOT be holding my breath on either of those issues.
February 22, 2012 @ 11:19 am
And how can he possibly get elected on that record? He couldn’t, so the left will rig the vote. We need to be very watchful.
February 23, 2012 @ 6:37 pm
Unions, welfare, welfare and more welfare, illegals that are legal by his corruption.
February 22, 2012 @ 10:15 am
Unfortunately, accurate or not accurate, polls do affect how some people vote. They are the sheep, the followers, people who don’t think for themselves. When the news readers on the alphabet television networks tell them Obama is preferred by more than half the people “polled,” they don’t think any farther, they simply decide the majority must be right–and vote that way.
February 23, 2012 @ 6:39 pm
79% of Americans are sheeple…and that is another reason he will be returned to office..Newt and/or Paul can beat him.
February 22, 2012 @ 10:19 am
“Part of “figuring it out” surely had something to do with the recent decision by Obama to nix the Canadian Keystone XL pipeline project”
Now, the White House is saying the Republicans stopped that project, not Obama. Fortunately, the “mainstream media” will no doubt expose that one. Don’t hold your breath.
February 22, 2012 @ 10:32 am
The White House from the beginning said the GOP was at fault when they tried to force Obama to make a decision within 60 days. He said that wasn’t enough time, even though there had already been several levels of approval and three years of evaluations on the pipeline.
February 22, 2012 @ 10:20 am
One has to understand the grand scheme behind all of this. Obama and the Democrats want absolute power. ….”power corrupts, absolute power absolutely…” observed Lord Acton. You have a totally corrupt president acting on behalf of a totally corrupt political party and supported by totally corrupt politicians and abject fools whose lust for power would rival that of Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler and countless other autocrats. The control of energy helps these marxist parasites consolidate power! This is the name of the game friends, POWER. Obama is nothing more than a dressed up version of the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. He will do whatever is necessary to perpetuate himself in power along with his gang of creatures (who remind me of the Orcs from Lord of the Rings) and will stop at nothing to achieve it!
February 23, 2012 @ 11:48 am
You have a totally corrupt president acting on behalf of . . . the most malicious, manipulating, greediest, POWER MONGERING people on the planet, George Soros . . . other plutocrats and, the SIEU and other unions.
The corrupt and power mongering politicians from the US Congress down to the local town council are all now flagrantly competing for rest of the ‘power payoff pie’.
February 22, 2012 @ 10:21 am
I’m pretty sure Obama said he wanted higher gas prices way back when. He wanted to promote his green energy. American people will buy into this when it is perfected and cheap and not until. Obama will probably lose because Americans like their cars and their religion.
And if Obama is so concerned about conserving, why is in on Air Force l constantly. He gets plenty of free tV acess time.
He would not even have to travel.
February 22, 2012 @ 11:21 am
You are remembering correctly. Electricity would necessarily have to skyrocket and gas prices would need to go up to $10/gallon like Europe. Not word for word, but those were his promises.
February 23, 2012 @ 6:50 pm
Ethanol…one of the biggest rip-offs in a myriad of ways..
We subsidize it by $1.78 a gallon…add that to the price at the pumps; it takes 2x the coal to produce 7/8 of a gallon, 2x to 3x the amount of water; vehicles get 2 to 6 miles less per gallon (drives up the price of driving), ruins engines..like how would you, if a farmer or rancher, like to lose an engine due to Ethanol that is in a 80,000 tractor or similar machine? To make things worse, it kills forests, that means our trees which makes it bad because what the tree does for our environment is the air that we breathe..then Chemtrails that poison us a little each day as well as all we eat…the Squatter and Holdren are hell bent on killing us a little at a time for a massive death of millions in ten years or less. Take and do your research on both..you will see that creatures in Brazil are losing thier homes daily and when that happens they disappear..trees are dying and deforestation is occuring here and there in masses – where does that leave the creatures as well as you and I?
February 22, 2012 @ 10:22 am
At this rate, there will still be 300-500 years of untapped energy left after America is Dead and Buried (or gone completely Socialistic).
February 23, 2012 @ 6:53 pm
Technically we are gone! We have been sold out to China in some ways..the interest on all the money this slimebag borrowed through coercion and a stupid HOUSE! WalMart helps China as 98% of what they handle is from there or another Asian country; there are thousands of acres around the coasts of America that have been given or sold off to China..ooops did you see that he gave away five of our island without consulting anyone and Boehner does nothing and there are thousands training in Baja..need I say more..the Chinese flag will fly if we get Romney in or Obama back in but with sheeple we have no one to blame but the sheeple.
February 22, 2012 @ 10:35 am
Right now, we, The People, enjoy the fruits of our OWN, natural resource, that of Natural Gas. Why? Because it is not easily dumped into the WORLD market pool. For now. David does not tell you this. Why?
Oil, fuel, on the other hand, has been transformed into a commodity that can be readily shipped around the World, and traded as such. What does this mean? That we, here in The United States, do NOT have a real hold, or say, on our own OIL & fuels. From the high price gasoline nation, US of A, we are now EXPORTING diesel and gasoline. So, here, we, the American Sheeple, do not see much of a correlation of the sacred, much talked about, supply & demand. We do get David Harsanyi, to beguile us into our proper holding pens.
ANWAR, now here is some huge oil! Tap it, and it will simply float on price with the Global Oil supply. The Crazed Rat House, The Middle East, can go full DEFCON insane, (hard to tell from day to day) and oil prices will skyrocket, even with ANWAR, and anything else. Should we tap it? Sure, but do so fully awake and knowing that it will go into the World Pool, not our own pool.
Right now, OUR, Natural Gas, is largely shielded from, pork belly World Trading. The lies of the past, that we were running out, humbug! And really, the same with oil. There is a great deal of it, but it is being handedly controlled. Even the Saudi’s, admitted that there was an over abundance of oil in the market right now.
Obama’s manipulations per the Keystone Pipeline, was designed to help his buddy, George Sorus, and his South American energy toys. Not discussed by David??? Why? It is a deliberate, manipulative act, this Keystone thing, that seems like treason. But hey Buckaroos, no biggie, the very fact that Mystery Man Obama is even in the White House, having passed muster in BOTH Parties, says, Treason is cool, if it is done on the correct side or done correctly.
One further point. Unlike pork bellies, orange juice, gold…, things that I, we, do NOT HAVE TO BUY, if we choose not to, OIL, gasoline, diesel, we have no choice but to buy, no selection in the matter. Pay up or sit in your static car or truck, and pretend to drive like you did when you were 2 years old. What a neat market, to drain us Sheeple with. What a swell, scam.
February 22, 2012 @ 4:13 pm
lwesson,
you took the post right away from me. Good show. Now if we can get the sheeple out there to understand, much as you described, how the dynamics of this oil/gas system works, we might get some place.
Deep down in my heart of hearts, I don’t think the oil industry would push real hard for new refineries. Even if all the drilling permits they requested, were granted, I think the oil companies and especially the speculators, will want all that surplus crude production to float in the so called pork matket.
As I see it, the only way out of this cycle is to first, remove Obummer and his band of scuts from the equation.
Then, a new administration would immediately grant drilling permits for both gas and oil production,with the strict proviso, that oil refinery construction begin at at least two additional sites, and that when completed, they be run at at least seventy percent capacity for DOMESTIC consumption.
Tax incentives would have to be given to encourage the domestic production and taxes raised on speculators to curb exportation.
You must play the system the way the system works.
February 23, 2012 @ 9:15 am
Good advice, TRUTHTELLER, and thank you.
Dad first worked deeply in the Natural Gas system. Later, he was pulled in by Clay D. Williams, and worked in contracts in both oil & gas. Oil was a whole different animal since it eventually had became a World trade commodity.
There was once, some kind of natural gas, so called crisis. He said, “Bull”. An artificial price bubble was created. It collapsed. The wack job doom and gloom people, “don’t know what they are talking about. There is lots of gas out there.”
Per oil, he pretty much had the same opinion, except that the Players, were huge global gamesters, and lots of money could be made if you gamed the system just right.
Again, good ideas!
February 25, 2012 @ 11:54 am
TRUTHTELLER: I caught O’Reilly talking to Krauthammer last night Feb. 24th, pontificating in his usual smug style, all about this very subject. Guess what? One of O’Reilly’s hired Writer Troll Monkeys lifted my comment and your suggestion, for O’Reilly to use!
Thats nice. Being a writer, is another unique way to starve, while others feast on your work, but seeing it all on National News, well…
Krauthammer was defending the status quo, and was rather taken aback, with this non status quo explanation, i.e., O’Reilly was not being a “TEAM” player. A friend called to tell me about it, astonished. I await to be hired.
PS: Not the first time either that this has happened…
February 22, 2012 @ 10:51 am
Th oil companies are refining oil in the USA and shipping it to other countries. There is plenty of oil, it’s the greed of the oil companies and speculaters that’s driving up the price.
February 22, 2012 @ 11:22 am
Perhaps the regulations for selling here in the United States might also explain this,not just Greed.
February 22, 2012 @ 11:23 am
Right…so the gubment has nothing to do with it? The EPA isn’t at all crushing the industry? So, Obama’s decisions don’t at all affect the price?
Get your head out of the sand.
My only hope is that the “independent” voters open their eyes this November and see the truth. Either that, or vote with their bank account in mind.
February 22, 2012 @ 10:54 am
Obama, like the Scarecrow in “The Wizard Of Oz,” truly needs a brain, which he currently lacks. Then, he needs to be taught how to use it!
February 22, 2012 @ 11:44 am
At least he has a good singing voice…
February 22, 2012 @ 3:23 pm
godsgirl -
That is a matter of opinion. If he wants to have a singing career he needs to resign as president. I find his “singing” as much of an embarassment as clinton’s saxaphone playing. Inappropriate.
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February 22, 2012 @ 11:44 am
During the 2008 campaign all we heard was how we needed to wean ourselves off of our addiction to oil we import from countries “that don’t like us much”. So, if there is a glut of oil on the world market at large now, there probably was in 2008, so what has changed? If there is a glut of oil, then why is the price of a barrel of oil going up and the price of a gallon of gas almost double what it was when Obama was elected? And why are the refiners selling gasoline to foreign customers when this could be driving the cost of gasoline in th USA to unprecedented levels? Something doesn’t square in the dynamics of this issue.
In my mind, there are a couple of obvious things the government should be doing but are not:
1. Do what it takes to stop buying oil from any other country except those that support our policies like Canada and Mexico. And step up our own exploration and production to make up the difference of stopping the purchases from countries lke Iran, Libya, Venezuela, etc. There is no reason this cannot be done and it does not require the country to go overboard on cutting back on gasoline usage and drive around in tin cans for the rest of their lives. The government just needs to step up and change their policies to move in this direction instead of doing just the opposite, which is what Obama has been doing. Drill baby drill, should be the popular motto.
2. We know that when the cost of fuel goes up, the cost of everything goes up because it affects transportation first, which then affects everything from the cost of food to everything we buy to live. The federal government can protect us from skyrocketing price increases by putting in government regulations requiring refiners to allocate a certain percentage of production to domestic needs based on specific economic factors that adjust this allocation appropriately. Something like this has to be done because as the economy in countries like China continues to grow, the cost of gasoline on the world market will go up which pulls up the cost of gasoline in this country. We also know that when consumers have to put more of their money in their gas tanks, it means less money spent on other products that would help stimulate the economy.
With our economy in the dumper and, has basically been stuck there for over three years keeping millions out of work, the federal government needs to take steps to stimulate the economy and keep the cost of living stable until the unemployment rate drops significantly. The Obama administration continues to make moves that are actually inhibiting the economic recovery of the country and refuses to change from these failed policies. The cost of fuel is one of the most obvious examples of a factor that is hurting all of us during this major economic recession.
February 23, 2012 @ 6:59 pm
During either Clinton or Bush we had so much oil on the coasts that the decision was made to send it across the ponds! There was enough there to support America for ten years! Then, in 2010, my fiance’ ran into a ship captain out on the west coast. In visiting, he learned that the ship was docked for two weeks before it could be unloaded because of no room for his load..yep, you guess it..oil..that tells me that we have plenty of oil…it also tells me the government continues to make fools of we Americans.
February 22, 2012 @ 11:48 am
For some unknown reason the Democratic Party has been opposed to American energy independence since the days of President Carter and his cancellation of joint contracts between Exxon and government for Colorado oil shale production. We currently export some oil to Asia because our refineries aren’t set up to refine oil with certain impurities (e.g. high sulfur), but we are currently importing about 9 billion barrels of crude of the 12 billion we normally use each year. In addition, we are importing about half our natural gas and refined product. All told our government’s policies now cost about or over a trillion a year and most of our nation’s natural gas is on federal lease land that no one has been able to lease and drill for about 30 years.
Remember Appalachia and all the coal miners thrown out of work by the environmentalist’s message that coal is bad. We are as wealthy in energy from coal as Saudi Arabia is in oil, but with a few bucks from OPEC donated to the right politicians we can be convinced it harms our environment. The same groups are now trying to block fracking and the recovery of oil from tight, but fractured shales.
The cost of energy determines the cost of all the other products in the economy of an industrialized nation, and both the first and second world wars were fought over the coal-iron based industrial complexes of Europe. Even our own Revolutionary War was in part fought over King George’s 1763 gift of the potential industrial areas of western Pennsylvania and western Alabama to the tribes. The purpose of this gift was the same one followed by the allies at Versailles in 1918 when there was an attempt to turn Germany and Austria in agrarian nations with no industrial potential. Remember the Ruhr and the Sudetenland industrial complexes were reoccupied by Hitler in 1936 and 1938 and then the welding together of Austria and Hungary in 1938.
Without President Carter’s policies on discouraging domestic energy production we probably wouldn’t be having the problems in the Middle East and been required to have fought two wars to keep oil flowing to Europe and the Far East.
February 23, 2012 @ 7:01 pm
I saw some research in 2011 that showed Dems are not as smart as Republicans/Independents, etc; that fewer attend college or graduate and that the majority on welfare are DEMS…does this tell us anything? Well, I know of one smart Dem and that is Randall Terry.
February 22, 2012 @ 12:32 pm
Amazing how much hand-wringing O’Bomba and the dems did over extension of the $40/month payroll tax “holiday,” yet they don’t give a rat’s rear end about an increase in gas prices that make me pay another $14 bucks every time I fill my tank.
btw, I’m self employed, so I don’t get a benefit from the $40 per month “holiday”
February 22, 2012 @ 12:56 pm
How much of the rise in gas prices is simply caused by inflation? The Fed has effectively dumped trillions of dollars into the economy over the last few years causing the dollar to be worth less and less. The price of food is creeping up, just like the price of gas. But we don’t consider them when calculating inflation, do we?
Obama’s anti-fossil fuel policies are certainly not helping the situation, but they aren’t the root cause. A worthless dollar is more to blame. Track oil prices and gold prices and you see that oil isn’t really any more expensive than it was two or three years ago when priced against something that can’t be created out of thin air.
And if/when we get to a point that the world no longer accepts the dollar as the reserve currency- look out! $4 a gallon will seem a bargain. $6 a gallon may be cheap.
Obama has implicity stated that he wants to destroy the value of the dollar. How else can he double exports, as he stated in his SOTU speech two years ago? What better way to steal from the American public than through the stealth of destroying the currency? Lenin knew that the way to control people is to debase the currency. And Bernanke, the biggest mistake Bush ever made, is a willing accomplice. $4 a gallon gas is just the beginning, folks.
February 22, 2012 @ 1:03 pm
It makes me very unhappy to know that the underground coal field is still burning in Penn. What a waste! Hasn’t anyone ever tried to put the fire out? Can someone give me an answer on this?
February 22, 2012 @ 1:22 pm
An underground coal fire is nearly impossible to control as such fires have raged for decades –and are still raging in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Wyoming. The world’s worst are thought to be in China, India, and Indonesia, but they’re endemic wherever coal stores are found. No one has ever been able to find a way to control these underground coal fires that some say have been burning since 1962.
February 22, 2012 @ 1:33 pm
In the Big Picture, what is happening in the world today ,whether you want to hear or believe it, is ALL in Bible Prophesy for the end times before Christ returns. Its sad to see this happen to this great country but its comforting and thrilling to know (if your a Believer) what lies ahead!
February 23, 2012 @ 7:05 pm
I am no Bible scholar but I am a believer and a growing Christian..at least trying!
Near as I can see the black horse in Revelations is here and has been for sometime as the scale of justice is not balanced and that is what this horse brings..how long this will rage is anyone’s guess or how long it has been raging..however, there is a pale horse to contend with and that is not going to be easy..we will have to have a strong faith to come forth through this and onward to the next part of the coming of Christ…each phase is going to get harder…so we need to get stronger in our faith…
February 22, 2012 @ 1:36 pm
Just one point of information.
When the 8th AirForce started bombing Nazi Germany, the immediate targets were manufacturing facilities for U-boats and aircraft. That proved to be rather ineffective. We then learned that the truly critical target was their fuel production and supply. At the Battle of the Bulge, their tanks were stopped dead for lack of fuel. The Luftwaffe was grounded for lack of fuel. Training of replacement Luftwaffe pilots was stopped, again lack of fuel.
The US Navy’s primary target was the Japanese fuel lines. First priority, sink the tankers, for Japan does not have even a single oil well. Every drop had to be shipped in.
If you want to bring America to its knees, just remember that our lifeblood also is fuel. Hello Obama.
February 23, 2012 @ 7:07 pm
Wyoming used to think that it was safer than most states from attacks or any sort…wrong…we produce and heavily so, methane, oil and gas.
February 22, 2012 @ 2:05 pm
The big problem is our exportation of American energy. There is no shortage of energy in the U.S. but our consumption is diminished because the energy that is left after exportation and is left for our own consumption is much smaller and much higher priced.
So even if we extract much more energy from our vast reserves it will get exported and we will still have higher and higher fuel costs.
Point is Obama has scrood it up again. High fuel cost will impede the recovery of the economy. Either you push the Green Agenda or you try to get the economy back on track. Another classic dichotomy where the Libs want it both ways.
February 22, 2012 @ 2:44 pm
This problem will continue as both Political Parties have been involved in gaming the system for power. Too much money is at stake, to be made, to have America’s energy resources, remain at the use of Americans. The push to ship out our Natural Gas, is underway. Thankfully, the scam of Carbon Trading, looks dead.
But the game of telling Americans that all we need to do is… will, and does continue, like in today’s article.
What worries those in industry, and in government, that have a huge degree of control over what we have to buy, is that the more rampant and in your face the cost of energy is, the more there will be those who will look for alternatives.
The technological Genie is out of the bottle. From what I read and follow, there will come a time, fairly soon, that I will not be forced to simply depend on Energy Overlords, to fuel my transportation. Fine with me. Chevron never sent me a Christmas card, for the thousands and thousands that my Wife and I are forced to spend on fuel.
What is interesting, is that there are many here, that are stuck on dependence. Any mention of the coming waves of electric cars, results in a kind of 19th Century, angry crazed argument that the horse is preferable over those new fangled, dangerous, expensive machines, emerges. I like horses. Have ridden hundreds of miles on them. Very dangerous but lovely. I pick, the motorcar.
But again, it has been and is still now, an issue of control and money. The amazing amounts of oil… will be under a sure grip to insure the best flow of cash. Cheap gas is not in the equation. Throw in an alternative source of energy for transportation, that is not easily controlled, and then the prices will plummet, and we will not be giving trillions of dollars worldwide to traders, the Middle East, dictators… .
February 22, 2012 @ 4:39 pm
Insightful lwesson
It’s actually a win-win for those who provide energy. They get to provide energy, at high prices, to other countries and
also provide energy to America at high prices. That’s not going to change and there’s nobody I’ve heard of that can
change that.
February 22, 2012 @ 3:02 pm
regarding debate on Rising fuel costs , Oil and Commodities speculators are vital in keeping price pressure focus on the need for future supply expansion , you won’t get this from a Government controlled market because ….. they will say whatever sounds good while Running everyone out of supply . Research the Bolsheviks era to get a glimpse of what happened when Government runs everything supply-side . Free thinking Free market speculation is a Futures fortune telling service that will always signal supply shortages early enough in the supply shortages game to give time to alter a epic crisis , thats the whole point of Free market Speculation versus Government Nationalized markets , which become entangled in Politics and will always end up failing society as a whole because Politics plays favors .
February 23, 2012 @ 7:10 pm
Like one prof said, the speculators have to drive it up to keep the stockmarket and stockholders happy….
February 22, 2012 @ 3:04 pm
Re: Coal fires.
Couldn’t we just dump a few tons of dry ice down the holes to choke the flames?
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February 22, 2012 @ 5:51 pm
“Oil is ‘finite’. Finite in much the same way that water is ‘finite’.” This comment is doubly misleading. It is intended to get people worried about getting to work or being able to afford basic needs all worked up to follow blindly where the writer wants them to go without looking for the “pig in a poke” that’s hiding behind the headline. Every side of these arguments, especially the press and political ones, have that hidden pig we aren’t supposed to check out before we buy it.
While there may be tens of billions of barrels of oil under the crust of the U.S. portion of the earth, only a small portion of that is in places that can be economically and/or safely reached. Just exactly where are all these “billions of barrels” located? Some of them are in oil shale — which no one has yet found a way to exploit in a cost-effective manner. Some are located in places where drilling is very expensive or where a spill will ruin something else we value — like crop land or the water to farm or run our cities, or the fishing grounds just off-shore. Did we learn nothing from the BP spill? That clean-up has barely concluded and the effects are not yet past, yet now some pundit would have us believe that every drop of oil or gas is ours for the wanting. And many conservatives say that believing in magic is evil! Careful, you might go to hell for consorting with the devil.
The second big fallacy in this half-based story (there’s another phrase my dad would use; I’m trying to be polite) is the implication that water supplies are infinite. If we do not exercise care, we will be like the shipwreck victim in the middle of the Pacific without provisions or radio: “Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.”
LOOK AROUND and pay attention. California, Arizona, and much of the desert west regularly pumps water from the deep aquifers so that the suburbs of Phoenix, for just one example, can house hundreds of thousands of people with green golf courses and lush lawns of northern grass where sand and cactus are the main natives. As they do that, and as the other parts of the country that feed those aquifers experience severe drought, the water that replenishes them comes in from the ocean. Communities are now finding that their drinking water is too salty to be healthy or fit to drink. Trendiness is not the only reason so many in California use bottled drinking water rather than the stuff coming out of the tap.
In other places, the rivers and lakes produce fish and other aquatic life that is unsafe to eat because a factory or huge hog operation or some other industrial source(s) dump their effluent upstream. Ask Boston dwellers about the Charles a decade or two back.
I am not a “tree-hugger” and I am not willingly a “liberal” — although the way the definitions of “liberal” and “conservative” are going, I may end up in that camp just by maintaining the same views I’ve held for thirty years. Nature is meant to be here for people to use. It would be nice if my grandkids can still find some of it fit to occupy by the time they’re old enough to go fishing and boating. I believe markets should be left to settle themselves — although current prices bounce all over the map at the slightest hint of a rumor. If you think water is infinite, try moving to West Texas (and even into Central Texas or spend a summer in North Texas). See how infinite the water is when a full 90 days and more pass at over 100 degrees and zero rain. When the drought can kill the oak trees, (which it is starting to do) you will know that usable water is NOT infinite.
I also believe that we should be at least as smart as our dogs. Even the dumbest dog knows better than to poop in its bed and its food dish. Quit letting ridiculous articles like this one push us into stupid decisions.
February 22, 2012 @ 11:45 pm
You are definitely a “tree hugger” and have bought into the whole mother earth and environmental extremist mindset that is attempting to bring our country down, or if you had your way, take us back to the horse and buggy days. By the way, do you know where countries like Israel and Saudi Arabia get their water? When push comes to shove, desalizination technology can provide necessary water unless the oceans totally dry up. You also probably drive a Prius with Obama stickers on the bumpers.
I live in Santa Barbara and we put in a desal plant when we were experiencing a drought several years ago, but the rains came and the water supplies were refilled and our liberal government smartees have been selling off parts of the desal plant to pay for public service union salaries and pensions. Also, we really cannot walk on the beaches here without getting tar deposits on our feet because the natural seepage of oil out of the ocean bottom is still happening even though the offshore oil wells are reducing the natural pressure of the underground oil reserves.
The point being is that there is a balance between human needs and desires and what the planet can tolerate and this country has been doing more then it’s share of protecting our environment over the years as compared to the rest of the world’s industrialized countries. This obsession of environmentalists to stop the use of fossil fuels for our energy needs is too extreme nd unwarranted but it is almost like a religious following where logic no longer matters and a reasonable balance is not an option. It is like giving an inch but taking a mile because you can, and that attitude will notbstandvthe test of time.
Maybe your holy grail should be to control the population of humans on this earth and once you set an allowable level of population for the world at large, you can negotiate how many are allowed in each country, and focus your efforts there. Once you get the population under control, everything else will fall in place in terms of the production and usage of everything needed to sustain our human population.
February 23, 2012 @ 9:33 am
I agree with JDZ. i would like to add that their is just as much water on earth as there was 250,000,000,000 years. it has not disappeared and will not. Kathy, the only thing you know about the environment comes from propaganda Eco-nuts. there is tens of billions of grant dollars to study global warming. It is proven that the global warming nuts lie. Why would they lie? It’s simple they are getting rich and don’t want the gravy train to stop. They have lied constantly about it being warmer now than it ever has been. It is a proven fact that in earths history the more CO2 the faster plants grow and produce oxygen. They also grow larger.
IMPEACH OBAMA NOW! ! ! ! !
February 22, 2012 @ 7:59 pm
When gas prices hit $5.00 a gallon Americans will be hurting so bad they will accept any crack pot scheme Obama comes up with. Nothing like a good crises to rake in money and increase the scope of government. All you have to do is throw a few billion dollars at it, mix in some crafty government controls and presto Obama has some new friends. I think with a few billion we can get some Obama supporters to reopen Solyndra. What do you think?