What Is Making Gasoline Prices Higher..................

[Richard Cranium]

The press was all over the previous President when gas prices spiked a couple of years ago, so where's the national media today?   


(Please note that the "Leader Of The Free World's" name has been redacted from this post, so as not making this about politics, as the rules state. Rather, the article below is about ineptness that we are all paying for.)


March 3rd, 2011

Yesterday, for the first time since September 2008, the price of a barrel of crude oil topped $100 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. But while the recent unrest in the Middle East has had some marginal effect on rising prices, the most significant factor has been increased oil demand worldwide. That is why, long before the recent protests even began, analysts were predicting $4 a gallon by this summer and $5 a gallon by 2012. Anyone could have predicted that the recovering world economy, coupled with the continued growth of India and China, was going to push oil prices higher. So if an Administration wanted to keep gas prices down, they could have mitigated increased oil demand by increasing domestic oil production. But that is not what this Administration has done. Instead of increasing domestic oil supplies, this Administration has cut them at every opportunity, and Americans are now suffering because of those choices.

Back in February, when the protests in Egypt were first unfolding, Energy Secretary Steven Chu was asked what the Administration could do to combat rising world oil prices. Chu responded: "The best way America can protect itself against these incidents is to decrease our dependency on foreign oil, in fact to diversify our supply." It is now one month later and the Administration has not updated its talking points. Pressed on gas prices yesterday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "We are also, as you have seen over the past two-plus years, very focused on the need precisely to develop other energy sources so that we are not as dependent on foreign oil as we have been in the past." So what are these "other energy sources" the White House has been developing? How does the White House plan to "diversify supply" to reduce gas prices? The answers are corn, wind, sun, and electric cars. And they won't help a bit.

According to Heritage analysts Nick Loris and John Ligon, this Administration's energy policy consists of: increased biofuel production, increased electric vehicle production, and increased renewable power production. These are all terrible public policies. The major source of biomass production, corn-based ethanol, produces less energy per unit volume than gasoline, contributes to food price increases, costs taxpayers $4 billion to produce 2 percent of the total gasoline supply, and has dubious environmental effects. The electric cars that this Administration has invested in are prohibitively costly, do not fit the needs of the American consumer, and are also environmentally suspect. The other sources of energy this Administration is subsidizing and promoting—wind and solar—not only make up a minuscule 1 percent of America's electricity generation but are entirely irrelevant to gasoline supply in the transportation sector.

But not only has the President failed to diversify our energy supply in any meaningful way; he has actually proactively moved to cut our own domestic energy supplies:

First, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar canceled 77 leases for oil and gas drilling in Utah in his first month in office. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management, there are 800 billion barrels (a moderate estimate) of recoverable oil from oil shale in the Green River Formation, which goes through Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. This is three times greater than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.
Then last summer, the President needlessly instituted not one but two outright drilling bans in the Gulf of Mexico. The Energy Information Administration estimates that President Obama's offshore drilling ban will cut domestic offshore oil production by 13 percent this year.
Last fall, Interior Secretary Salazar announced that the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic coast, and the Pacific coast will not be developed, effectively banning drilling in those areas for the next seven years. At least 19 billion barrels of easily recoverable oil lie off the currently restricted Pacific and Atlantic coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
The President has also failed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil lie beneath a few thousand acres that can be accessed with minimal environmental impact. Those 10 billion barrels are equivalent to 16 years' worth of imports from Saudi Arabia at the current rate.
"This Administration is repeating the mistakes of President Jimmy Carter's failed energy policies, which marred his term and stigmatized the 1970s. They are leading us straight into another national energy disaster," Steve Forbes warned in Politico yesterday. And what would that "energy disaster" cost the American people? According to The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis, an increase in the per-barrel price of imported crude oil by $10 in the first quarter of 2011 and by $20 in the second quarter would reduce gross domestic product by $20 billion, drop potential employment by nearly 100,000 jobs, and increase gasoline prices by 18 cents per gallon in 2011 alone.

Yesterday, Carney said that "the president is extremely aware of the impact that a spike in oil prices can have on gasoline prices and therefore on the wallets and pocketbooks of average Americans." If that is true, and if Energy Secretary Chu really has recanted his belief that Americans ought to be paying $8 a gallon for gas, then the President must completely reverse his entire energy policy so far by allowing Americans to develop our own natural resources, issuing permits in a timely manner, and removing regulatory and litigation delays on energy projects.

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/03/03/morning-bell-how-obama-is-making-gas-prices-higher/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

[68X426]

Yeah but we have a Council on Competitiveness. And soon high speed bullet trains to Disneyland and Disneyworld. The Chosen One said this will fix everything.

Nothing political in this response.

[chargerboy69]

Speculators.  That's it.

The Saudi's have picked up more than enough slack left by Libya.  From everything I have heard/read there is no shortage.

Of course we would not have to worry about this if we as a country drilled for our own oil, but nope.

In before the certain lock. 

[oldgold69]

 a gallon of gas will always be one gallon   when i started driving gas was 32 cent for that one gallon  now it is 3.43 for that same gallon  your dollar went from buying  3 gallons of gas  then to buy 3/10 of a gallon now     your dollar is now worth 32 cents there is plenty of oil in the usa like the bracken range  gull island  prudeowe bay and all the oil in the gulf but the government wont let them get it out

[Richard Cranium]

At $3.86 per gallon for diesel, it cost me exacty $100.00 (25.8 gallons) to fill up my wife's car yesterday. 

[stripedelete]

Sure, we have untapped oil reserves, but, not enough to supply 100% of the US demand. Therefore, if we pump more, they will pump less. The price will remain high and we will use up whatever we have left.

We could import ethanol from Brazil at the equivalent pump price of about $2.50 a gallon. Oops, no we can't , the farm lobby wouldn't like it.      

Ok. Now lock it.

[oldgold69]

the braken reserve has 4 time  the oil than saudi arabia   gull island has 4or 5 times the oil in saudi arabia     they say we would not have too import any oil if one of those were tapped

[Brock Samson]

i blame the president,..  but I'm not gonna say which one,..

OK Taft! 

[chargerboy69]

Sure, we have untapped oil reserves, but, not enough to supply 100% of the US demand. Therefore, if we pump more, they will pump less. The price will remain high and we will use up whatever we have left.

Well enough for maybe 100 to 150 years or so.  We have 800 billion barrels in the western US alone.

http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2008/July/NR_07_22_2008.html

Compare that to Saudi Arabia's 267 billion barrels.

[RallyeMike]

Sooner or later the world demand for oil will create friction and financial impacts we can only imagine now. $5/gallon is nothiing - how about $50/gallon? I always wondered if some American think tank has suggested holding off on tapping the available US supplies so that this country has the upper hand come that future.

[Mike DC]

 

We have 800 billion barrels in the western US alone.

The USA is a net oil importer out of sheer geological limitation.  
More domestic drilling would help a little bit and I wouldn't object to the idea.  But it's never gonna come close to getting us off foreign oil.  The USA has tons of oil, but not enough of it is quickly & cheaply producible.   Same with certain other countries too.    


---------------------------------

Sooner or later the world demand for oil will create friction and financial impacts we can only imagine now. $5/gallon is nothiing - how about $50/gallon? I always wondered if some American think tank has suggested holding off on tapping the available US supplies so that this country has the upper hand come that future.

I used to think prices would eventually fly up to double-digits (in 2011 dollars) but I no longer do.  I think the demand is getting destroyed long before then.  We will still feel the limitation of the oil supply but I think it will just come out in other areas of the economy.  We will be using less oil in other areas because of the price issues.  That will cost us money in areas other than the gas pump.  Gas might end up at $5/gallon or more but I doubt it ever goes to $20 or $50. 

[John_Kunkel]

Speculators.  That's it.

That's the whole story in a nutshell but to accept that those with a political agenda (like the OP) would have to face reality. Ain't gonna happen.

[NHCharger]

I'm waiting to see what the oil companies profits are for this quarter.

[Chad L. Magee]

Well, I am working on a solution to this problem.  There is already several devices out there that convert plastic to oil via microwave radiation, a rather simple process to do if you have enough energy.  Check youtube to see what I mean.  What they are missing is two parts to their system to manufacture and sell cheap gasoline in a usable form.  I am in the process of developing those two parts as a side research project (with little funding right now unfortunately, results will bring that up).  If it can be done correctly, oil can go sky high, but gas around here will become cheaper than it is currently.....

[Brock Samson]

Sooner or later the world demand for oil will create friction and financial impacts we can only imagine now. $5/gallon is nothiing - how about $50/gallon? I always wondered if some American think tank has suggested holding off on tapping the available US supplies so that this country has the upper hand come that future.

I have thought the same thing but don't even pretend to be on the same page as the NSA...

Well, I am working on a solution to this problem.  There is already several devices out there that convert plastic to oil via microwave radiation, a rather simple process to do if you have enough energy.  Check youtube to see what I mean.  What they are missing is two parts to their system to manufacture and sell cheap gasoline in a usable form.  I am in the process of developing those two parts as a side research project (with little funding right now unfortunately, results will bring that up).  If it can be done correctly, oil can go sky high, but gas around here will become cheaper than it is currently.....

very interesting, plastic as in recycled plastic?..  

BTW: Gas is $4.19 a Gal. for Reg. at the cheap station here... 

[gasoline_24]

This problem is wholly the blame of lack of regulation in the oil and natural gas markets.  We had to deregulate and this is the result.  Who benefits from deregulation?  Not the citizens, but the oil companies.  Much like most of our laws in this country they are designed for the rich and corporations.  The little man or middle class is only a means for corporations to grow.  Currently the top 1% of the US own 40% of the US.  That number is why there is no longer a middle class.

If you watch the stock market and the oil prices you will see that when the stock market rises so do the oil prices.  This is the result of speculators in the oil market.  Put back into place the regulations and this will go away.  The more interesting fuel question is why is diesel (a by product from the production of gasoline) more expensive than gasoline?

[bull]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110307/ap_on_bi_ge/us_pricing_gas

[greasyspider]

We are running out of oil, thats why.  I guess "running out" is a misuse of the term. More like unable to produce enough to satisfy our insatiable thirst for it.  Saudi Arabia's reserves are greatly overestimated.


"WikiLeaks: Saudi Arabias oil reserves exaggerated
Submitted by Mikael Höök on Thu, 2011-02-10 10:37. Headline news
The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show. The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%.

It also reported major project delays and accidents as "evidence that the Saudi Aramco is having to run harder to stay in place – to replace the decline in existing production." While fears of premature "peak oil" and Saudi production problems had been expressed before, no US official has come close to saying this in public.

Jeremy Leggett, convenor of the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security, said: "We are asleep at the wheel here: choosing to ignore a threat to the global economy that is quite as bad as the credit crunch, quite possibly worse."


  Some will argue that this is not true but, how would you explain several middle eastern countries move to offshore drilling?  This is by far the MOST expensive way to produce oil.  If they have so much in the ground, why would they spend hundreds of millions of dollars per offshore rig when an onshore rig of the same capacity can be built for under a million? 

  Oil will not suddenly run out, it will just get increasingly more expensive, causing food prices to skyrocket and generally turning the world economy upside down.
Check this site out:     http://www.oilcrisis.com/

[greasyspider]

Every resource in human history followed a bell curve.  From trees on easter island, to wholly mammoths in the last ice age.  It happens all around us.  That is why there are abandoned mines and ghost towns.  Resources are finite!  There may be alot left, but someday it will run out.  

There is something like 7 billion people in the world right now.  I read somewhere that that is more people than has ever existed.  99.9% require oil in one form or another to survive.  

Sure there is shale, tar sands, But those are very expensive ways to produce it.  It is not economically feasible to develop areas like these unless oil reaches at least $120 per barrel.
As far as biofuels go, it is really a joke.  It takes 10 calories of fuel to produce 1 calorie of bio diesel.  

Here is a chart showing global oil production since the 1920's:


[img]http://watd.wuthering-heights.co.uk/MiscImages/olduvai.gif/[img]


Oh and in case you guys think I'm a liberal tree-hugger conspiracy theorist (which I'm not) here is what Dick Cheney himself has said about the issue:


http://www.peakoil.net/Publications/Cheney_PeakOil_FCD.pdfhttp://www.peakoil.net/Publications/Cheney_PeakOil_FCD.pdf

[NHCharger]

This is an interesting video if you have 45 minutes to kill.

http://www.stopthenorthamericanunion.com/videos/LindseyWilliams.html#Title

My Dad had an interesting point. Now that NASA has nothing to do since we are flying no more shuttle missions put NASA in charge of designing a new motor. They put a man on the moon, a rover on Mars, the Hubble Telescope in orbit. Why can't they design an engine that gets 100 MPG.

[KSChrgr68]

we are just saving our oil for the day when all the rest of the worlds is gone, then we will be the cash cow nation...

[elanmars]

it's all about the corporations. citizens are not in their interests, profits are. democrats and republicans are just the puppets...that's why i don't believe in choosing team red or team blue...whoever wins, we lose. that's the reality of it. people can cry out bush imperialist! obama socialist! but it's all nonsense and derailing from what's really happening.

[greasyspider]

we are just saving our oil for the day when all the rest of the worlds is gone, then we will be the cash cow nation...

Man I hope so....

[jar1292]

and what happens when we become the cash cow? how will it help me pay for my blue collar t-shirts. will they still charge the other nations an arm and a leg for it and give it to us for free cuz we already paid our dues?

[KSChrgr68]

  o sigh... oil how we need and hate what you do to the world