# The Gas prices we deserve



## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

Read this its interesting

June 05, 2008 
The Gas Prices We Deserve
By George Will

WASHINGTON -- Rising in the Senate on May 13, Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat, explained: "I rise to discuss rising energy prices." The president was heading to Saudi Arabia to seek an increase in its oil production, and Schumer's gorge was rising.

Saudi Arabia, he said, "holds the key to reducing gasoline prices at home in the short term." Therefore arms sales to that kingdom should be blocked unless it "increases its oil production by one million barrels per day," which would cause the price of gasoline to fall "50 cents a gallon almost immediately."

Can a senator, with so many things on his mind, know so precisely how the price of gasoline would respond to that increase in the oil supply? Schumer does know that if you increase the supply of something, the price of it probably will fall. That is why he and 96 other senators recently voted to increase the supply of oil on the market by stopping the flow of oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which protects against major physical interruptions. Seventy-one of the 97 senators who voted to stop filling the SPR also oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge :eyeroll: .

*One million barrels is what might today be flowing from ANWR if in 1995 President Clinton had not vetoed legislation to permit drilling there.*

One million barrels produce 27 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel. Seventy-two of today's senators -- including Schumer, of course, and 38 other Democrats, including Barack Obama, and 33 Republicans, including John McCain -- have voted to keep ANWR's estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil off the market.

So Schumer, according to Schumer, is complicit in taking $10 away from every American who buys 20 gallons of gasoline. "Democracy," said H.L. Mencken, "is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." The common people of New York want Schumer to be their senator, so they should pipe down about gasoline prices, which are a predictable consequence of their political choice.

Also disqualified from complaining are all voters who sent to Washington senators and representatives who have voted to keep ANWR's oil in the ground, and who voted to put 85 percent of America's offshore territory off-limits to drilling. The U.S. Minerals Management Service says that restricted area contains perhaps 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas -- 10 times the oil and 20 times the natural gas Americans use in a year.

*Drilling is under way 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.*

*ANWR is larger than the combined areas of five states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware) and drilling along its coastal plain would be confined to a space one-sixth the size of Washington's Dulles Airport.*

Offshore? 
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed or damaged hundreds of drilling rigs without causing a large spill. There has not been a significant spill from an offshore U.S. well since 1969. Of the more than 7 billion barrels of oil pumped offshore in the past 25 years, 0.001 percent -- that is one-thousandth of 1 percent -- has been spilled. Louisiana has more than 3,200 rigs offshore -- and a thriving commercial fishing industry.

In his "Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of 'Energy Independence,'" Robert Bryce says Brazil's energy success has little to do with its much-discussed ethanol production and much to do with its increased oil production, the vast majority of which comes from off Brazil's shore. Investor's Business Daily reports that Brazil, "which recently made a major oil discovery almost in sight of Rio's beaches," has leased most of the world's deep-sea drilling rigs.

In September 2006, two U.S. companies announced that their "Jack No. 2" well, in the Gulf 270 miles southwest of New Orleans, had tapped a field with perhaps 15 billion barrels of oil, which would increase America's proven reserves by 50 percent. Just probing four miles below the Gulf's floor costs $100 million. Congress' response to such expenditures is to propose increasing the oil companies' tax burdens.

America says to foreign producers: We prefer not to pump our oil, so please pump more of yours, thereby lowering its value, for our benefit.

*Let it not be said that America has no energy policy.* :******:

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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

> The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.


Oh, does that *&^% me off. Are our congressmen a couple fries short of a happy meal or what? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the stupidity here.



> would be confined to a space one-sixth the size of Washington's Dulles Airport.


It isn't for environmental reasons that liberals block the drilling, they just hate anyone who might make a penny profit. Free enterprise doesn't fit into their socialist agenda.



> Congress' response to such expenditures is to propose increasing the oil companies' tax burdens.


They couldn't do more do destroy the economy if they tried. If we get a democrat president will the democrats stop trying to damage the economy for political advantage?


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

Ya know what the very worst part of all this is that unless we change how we do business concerning energy our children and our children's children will have an even bigger mess to work with. Are we a beaten dog without resistance or what?

I honestly think in about 40 years there will be a major disruption in this country. The signs are in the kids of today, they are for the most part Godless and remorse truly without compassion.


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## cwoparson (Aug 23, 2007)

Not only are the Chines doing what is know as slant drilling off the coast of Cuba which pulls oil from American reserves, they have reopened an old Russian oil refinery in Cuba and are producing gasoline to be shipped to Freeport in the Bahamas, where the Chinese, through front company Hutchison-Whampoa, has developed a massive port facility and airfield. Meanwhile with our thumbs firmly planted up our butts we sit and watch.


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## hunter9494 (Jan 21, 2007)

The price of a barrel of oil increased by $9 today, setting a new record in the process - $137! The hike was apparently driven by worries over a weaker dollar and by supply concerns. However, Reuters also reports:

Comments from Israel's transport minister that an attack on Iranian nuclear sites looked "unavoidable" given the apparent failure of sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential also helped drive prices higher.

This was the most explicit threat yet against Iran from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government.

Of course, a premature U.S. departure from Iraq as advocated by liberal luminaries ranging from Harry Reid to Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi would make such an attack more likely because it would strengthen Iran. As the Wall Street Journal points out today:

A secure and pro-American Iraq would be crucial to expanding U.S. influence in the Arab heart of the Middle East, and especially to containing Iran. A democratic Iraq can serve as an alternative pole of Shiite power in the region, as well as an alternative political model to theocratic, radical Tehran.

All of this depends, however, on securing the progress of the last 18 months, and this means not departing too soon.

If Reid, Obama, Pelosi and the rest think oil prices are too high now, what do they will happen if we leave Iraq and Iran becomes the primary power in the region?


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## dosch (May 20, 2003)




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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

Who cares how they feel this is business and when you sign an agreement as the Middle East Oil Producing Countries have it did not contain a feelings clause. 

They are betting the Christian in us will let them do anything they want. Not happening... entirely anyhow.


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## g/o (Jul 13, 2004)

This is fitting



> Congressman Roy Blunt put together these data to highlight the differences between House Republicans and House Democrats on energy policy:
> 
> ANWR Exploration:
> House Republicans: 91% Supported
> ...


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

hunter9494....not sure where you got your numbers from,but oil went up $10.75 on Friday,not today.Today it went down $2.39 from what I've seen.

Hopefully it will drop now that Memorial Day has gone by.


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## hunter9494 (Jan 21, 2007)

post dated article Ken, of course the numbers are fluctuating daily.


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## Matt Jones (Mar 6, 2002)

Drilling in ANWR would do nothing to influence oil and gas prices.

There isn't an oil shortage, and the prices are not being determined by supply and demand. They are being driven by speculation and the trading of futures. With the dollar's value sharply eroding investors are purchasing oil to protect themselves against losses.

If we want lower oil prices we need to do something about the trading of oil as a commodity.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

> If we want lower oil prices we need to do something about the trading of oil as a commodity.


Can we control one commodity without controlling another? If we cap oil, then don't we have to cap corn and wheat? Where does free enterprise end, and socialistic government control begin?

I don't like the oil prices any better than others, but messing with the American system makes me nervous.

Matt, would you like government holding down your salary to please those who make less than you?

Who makes more from oil:
A. The oil company
B. The stock holders
C. The U. S. Government

Who's profit should we control?


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## g/o (Jul 13, 2004)

C. The U. S. Government , and the states do also


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## cwoparson (Aug 23, 2007)

> Can we control one commodity without controlling another?


Yes you can. Prior to Carter oil could only be traded, bought and sold by the end users or transporters. Carter thought it a good idea to allow speculators who would never see the oil buy and sell. It's not that the government would be controlling anything but simply limiting who would control a commodity as important as oil. The system worked very well prior to Carty messing with the system.


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## hunter9494 (Jan 21, 2007)

this is true to some degree, as most of the traders, especially in oil, never take delivery of the contract, is is simply bought and sold (traded) as a hedge against inflation.....and it is part of what is killing us and driving the price.........$136.67 close today......that and the libs who don't want to drill offshore or in the ANWR.......*all the while the Chinese are slant drilling off the coast of Cuba, right into our own reserves.....what the hell is wrong with our leaders in this country!!* :******:


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

> what the hell is wrong with our leaders in this country!!


I'll tell you what is wrong. The Washington liberals will drive America into the dirt if they have to to regaining power. If they can make the economy bad enough and blame Bush then they have a chance in November. I seriously believe that they would risk destroying this nation to regain power. They are mad with power. They believe this nation belongs to them, and can not get over loosing to Bush. They hate his guts and will do everything in their power to destroy him even after he leaves office.


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