High Oil Prices - Blame The Government You Elected!

[Terri]

By Thomas D. Segel
April 29, 2008

Yesterday I topped off my tank at $3.49.9 a gallon. But, I am lucky. My home is in one of the lowest cost-of-living regions of the country. In California, for example, my brother filled up his tank again at $3.89.9 a gallon and he shops for "cheap" gas. The high price of gasoline is on the lips of everyone you meet these days. Also, everyone has his or her own idea about whom we should blame for our latest economic woes.

Those of us who dabble in writing politically oriented commentary expect to have our views challenged. However, reflecting back on my multiple years of journalistic ranting, I can remember no article that generated more comment than last week's "A Gallon of Oil and the Ethanol Hoax". While the majority of readers corresponding with me agreed with my attack on the liberal left and the environmental loonies who have caused most of our problems, there were still ample emails telling me I had no clue about the reality of our current plight.

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[fouroaks93]

My heart just bleeds for those poor unfortunate souls who have to pay a gastly $3.50 a gallon for gas. In my little area of extremely northern CA, we have been paying $4.10 for a couple of weeks and in my home town, the gas has been $4.20 for about 3 weeks. Yesterday it was raised another 6 cents. No one seems to know that we exist up here in Humboldt County, except when it comes to taking away more of our livelyhood, but I got really mad last night when I heard that yesterday San Francisco became the first city in CA to raise their gas prices to $4.00. Well, hello!!!!! Get used to the higher prices until we get our heads out of the sand and start drilling for our own oil....

[FlaJim]

Known oil reserves in the US exceed what we need to be self sufficient for over 100 years. Within that period of time, we will surely develop other economical energy sources or technology that makes current needs for fossil fuel unnecessary.

Look at the vast changes we've undergone in just the past 50 years that were unimaginable at the time. The only roadblock are Democrats, RINOs, and Republicans who desperately want to make friends with the wrong sort of people.

[greg]

Makes sense. Who's stopping the petroleum industry from drilling and refining, oil shales and tar sands, coal liquefaction and gasification? The hireling Congress Critters that we Americans have aggregately hired (from each Congressional District and State).

So who will start making us a bit more energy independent from the suppliers who don't particularly like the fact of our existence? Us voting Americans.

So how many $/gallon would it take for us to lay into Congress, overtopping the socialist environmentalists to allow additional drilling and refining, along with as much conservation that we can do?

[astromc3]

If the oil were to start flowing tomorrow, and the gasoline from the refined oil the next day from Anwar, the CA Coast, and the Florida Coast, I do not believe that we will see a reduction in the price of oil nor gasoline. Oil is far past the day when the rules of supply vs. demand worked. No, I believe that the new supply will be bid at the same price we currently see. Why would it not? If you were offering a new fuel supply, would you introduce it at the price derived by the usual method of cost plus 50%, or 75%, or whatever? I doubt it. I believe that you, as a producer of a much-needed commodity, would introduce it at a price you feel the "market" would accept. In fact, the bidders for your new fuel would drive the cost right up to the current cost of the competing fuel, rationalizing its price by saying that "Yes, but we're helping to lower our dependence on foreign oil". If the oil companies producing oil from new-found areas, and Americans would demand a much lower price than we're currently seeing, do you really think they would sell to us? Of course not! They would sell & ship it to Europe, where gasoline is going for over $10.00 per gallon.

We need a fuel whose price cannot be controlled by some huge conglomerate, one that is readily available to all Americans. That fuel is Hydrogen, which is available in many different forms, the first being water--sea water; another not so obvious is Borax (remember Boraxo soap--yep, it contained Hydrogen). Hydrogen is plentiful, and internal combustion engines can run on it directly, with more efficiency than gasoline, and it doesn't pollute! It's only by-product is--water!

We have long-since lost the battle of oil following the old principles of supply and demand. Its price is now controlled by the highest bidder, over whom we have no control. The 9-11 terrorists now have a new weapon to destroy our economy, and the world's in the process. And they can do it without flying a single airplane into a Twin Tower.

[Amawalk John]

If the oil companies producing oil from new-found areas, and Americans would demand a much lower price than we're currently seeing, do you really think they would sell to us? Of course not! They would sell & ship it to Europe, where gasoline is going for over $10.00 per gallon.

Au contraire.

Gasoline sells in Europe at higher prices because of taxes, just as retail gasoline goes for higher prices in New York than in Massachusetts. Gasoline is a commodity, which, apart from transportation and a few other costs, has a prices established by a "market", not by oil companies.

Taxes and regulation account for most of the difference in retail prices. The oil people I've spoken with say they'd prefer to sell at marginally lower prices in markets where taxes and regulations and general government meddling is minimal.



If your argument were true, no one would sell any gasoline anywhere but Europe.

Nice try, though.

[LTB]

Our solution has always been in hand. The Democrats are the ones who have failed to shape our energy policy effectively and when real solutions have been presented they are the ones who sabatoge the government incentives to produce appropriately. Big oil has found they can "purchase" our representative in Congress and have done so effectively for 35 years.
Two solutions come to mind to break OPEC.
Place our country on the same "war-time focus and action" seen in WWII to converting our organic waste into fuels, and seriously consider converting food shipped to OPEC and tag-a-long foriegn producers into fuels thus depriving them of what it takes to live, FOOD! If they can experience the 35 years of high priced food as we have the over priced oil, greed, hate, terrorism, and wasteful indulgence, then reasonableness will prevail. True we do nee to look at alternatives anyway and to conserve.
Kits to convert existing vehicles to hydraulic drive systems are more reasonable expenditure for people stuck in car debt they cannot get out of anytime soon. This technology has been exhibited since the 60's and in the last contrived gas shortage and price run-up in 1975. So lets get our focus and efforts going.
But make sure we have control of our destiny by having the the ability to convert food staples to fuel should OPEC and greedy tag-a-longs not see the error of their ways. Otherwise let us use cellulosic conversion of our enormous amounts of organic waste, convert our coal, process our oil sands, and strive to find the hydrogen fuel path forward. Let the nuclear power plants produce our electricity, not consume our oil, natural gas, and coal. Make our new homes and existing homes energy efficient and hopefully stand-a-lone near zero utility consumption habitats for our future homes. Then we will truly control our own energy destiny individually, collectively and as a free nation. Our economy will resume reasonable stability and grow for the future as the external energy blackmail will have been eliminated.