Regulatory Commissars: Gas-price blame
June 13, 2008
Today’s issue of the Patriot Post has an eye-opening article on why gas prices continue to rise. Read the article here. We have asked this question before, but why after only 2 years of Democratic controlled house and senate are the gas prices suddenly out of control as are crude oil futures?
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
Regulatory Commissars: Gas-price blame
Finally, Republicans in the House have gone on the offensive and attempted to place blame for the skyrocketing price of gasoline where it belongs—on the misguided policies of congressional Democrats. Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner blasted what he called a “Do-Nothing Democratic Congress” and pointed out, “On their watch, gas prices have soared to new heights, and by refusing to schedule a vote on a plan to increase American-made energy to help lower gas prices, congressional Democrats are complicit in this unprecedented surge in fuel costs.”
While congressional Democrats deride the GOP proposals as a “drill and veto” energy policy, the fact is that Democrats have brought us both the mandate for ethanol that has increased food prices with little (good) impact at the pump, and the environmental policies that have placed a majority of the nation’s oil- and natural gas-producing potential out of bounds to exploration. Instead, Democrats propose measures such as a 25-percent tax on the “windfall profits” of oil companies, while repealing the current tax breaks. Fortunately, Republican senators blocked that effort this week.
In related news, Republicans will be trying to sell their newly released economic agenda. The GOP campaign strategy includes market-based energy solutions, stops the tax hike pushed by Democrats, advocates free trade with countries such as Colombia and cracks down on pork. Furthermore, the plan calls for a two-tier flat tax and the elimination of the insidious Alternative Minimum Tax. As good as all this sounds, it will be a difficult sell because even when the White House and both houses of Congress were in their control, the GOP behaved like Democrats. After that performance, especially during George W. Bush’s second term, their promises ring hollow. Still, it’s a start.
Our reply to Democrats would be, how would taxing oil companies who have already proven to them that there has been no price gouging or “windfall profits”, so what good would a tax on them (that don’t exist) do??? Inquiring minds want to know!
Glenn Beck names names!
June 13, 2008
Yesterday’s Glenn Beck e-mail alert names the people who are holding up drilling and thus driving up gasoline prices! His report beings:
So why IS gas so darn expensive? There are a lot of reasons, but somehow the biggest problem (as usual) points directly to Washington DC. Democrats yesterday in a subcommittee voted basically to kill going to the outer continental shelf to drill for oil because there are ‘other things we can do’. Glenn would like to introduce you to the people who are preventing us from drilling here at home, because, as Glenn says, these people should be famous. When the pitchforks and torches start coming out—we’d like to help clarify who was for or against us. Read the transcript.
Feinstein says domestic drilling won’t bring down gas prices
June 13, 2008
…Yeah, right. I e-mailed our California representatives about Pete Domenici’s (R-NM) bill about opening up drilling domestically in the United States. True to form I received an e-mail response typical to those I get from her, (to paraphrase, ”though we disagree on this issue, I appreciate your comments and concerns”) on just about any topic. But this one was surprisingly ignorant. She said:
Thank you for writing to me to express your support for the “American Energy Production Act.” I appreciate hearing your thoughts on this legislation, and I welcome the opportunity to respond.
On May 2, 2008, Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) introduced the “American Energy Production Act” (S. 2973), which would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Outer Continental Shelf to oil and gas exploration. This bill would also mandate that U.S. consumers use coal-to-liquid transportation fuel, starting with a requirement of 750 million gallons in 2015. The requirement would increase to six billion gallons by 2022. As you may know, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) offered S. 2973 as an amendment to the “Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act” (S. 2284). On May 13, 2008, the Senate voted 56 to 42 to defeat the McConnell amendment.
I understand that you support increasing domestic oil and gas production and expanding our refinery capacity. I agree that it is important for the United States to continue to develop its oil and gas resources in concert with our efforts to reduce our demand for oil, but I do not believe that we can drill our way out of the current record energy prices. Instead of initiating oil exploration in environmentally sensitive places such as ANWR, I believe that we must take steps to reduce our demand for fossil fuels and make a permanent shift towards clean, renewable energy and energy efficient technologies.
Imagine the arrogant it takes to think that an elected representative would say something like this and expect that the reader would actually believe this flawed logic. So let’s think this through together.
- 1) If we drill domestically, won’t our oil companies have to pay less to bring the oil here than it would from another country? The transportation costs would certainly cost less because it wouldn’t have to travel so far.
- True, we get most of our oil from Canada right now, but where are they getting it? Are they drilling domestically or are they just brokers, buying it from other countries like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela?
- If we get our own oil, will we not be independent from OPEC who has held us hostage for years?
- Is Ms. Feinstein actually telling us that having more of something will not bring the prices down?
- Won’t opening up domestic drilling create more jobs in the US? So would opening up refineries. These representatives always talk about helping the little guy while they send our jobs overseas because of high taxes and regulations.
There is all this alarm about the potenial pollution these activites would cause. When hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, not one of the many oil derricks sprung a leak. Of course, that was never mentioned in any of the news stories. However, imagine if they had; what a story that would have been!
We should be past Republican and Democrat on this issue. However, which one do you think would side more with the environmentalists that would curtail our efforts to bring in our own oil? Can you think of any other reason that we would not be drilling other than it being an environmental issue?
In summary, all automobiles at the time of this writing use gasoline, even the hybrids. Until we come up with another type of engine, we’re going to need more and more gasoline as the population continues to increase. Say we all switch to the Smart Cars tomorrow. In ten years we will be back to this same situation and have to make the same decisions we should make today. Had Clinton decided to drill in ANWR ten years ago, we would have that oil today and possibly lower gas prices. Thank about it.
Video: Update on ‘Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.’
June 12, 2008
Video: American Solutions asks America: “Gas Prices”
June 12, 2008
We need your help!
June 11, 2008
We need your help to get this site up and running. Are you tired of high gas prices and don’t know where to turn or who to blame? We are not Democrats. We are not Republicans. We are not Independents. We are US citizens who are tired of a failed energy policy, no matter whose fault it is. Join with us now to get the tide turned. We are Americans. We can do anything if we put our mind to it. And NOW is the time!
