The real reason for the high cost of fuel.

[BE200Driver]

Yeah, that's it. It's all George Bush. Kind of like how the Dems bash the Bush admin. for the poor equipment and safety of our military. I agree that more needs to done but lets not forget the eight years of cutting by that guy....what's his name....oh yeah, Bill. When have you ever heard a lefty calling the Clinton admin. out on that issue as it seems to be a high priority to the Dems?

I'm more concerned for the safety of our troops than over the cost of gas. By the way, isn't this high priced gas the same stuff all you lefties we basisng Bush's decision to go into Iraq on. "Its all about the oil!!!" Where is that argument nowadays? Guess it didn't work the way you had hoped.

Someday we'll learn that it works both ways and stop this "us against them" attitude. Voting has become a great means to determine the lesser of two evils.

 

[Geronimo4497]

I think yall are giving Mr. Bush way too much credit. What makes you think he, or his oil buddies, could orchestrate such a jump in oil prices? This is still a free market economy last time I checked. Now that we don't have the Joe Kennedys of the world overseeing the financial markets, there ARE actually some independent oversights (i.e. the recent mutual fund scandals). Are energy companies and anyone who owns their stocks making money off of this recent surge in prices? Of course. This is just another swing in the economic pendulum, albeit a bit severe. Will prices come down? Of course.


I think the days of $1 a gallon gas are gone, however. This country, if it wants to maintain its superiority in the world, does need to reinvest in its oil/energy infrastructure. Recently here in Massholechusetts some 'genius' in the US congress managed to stop a new LNG station being build by attaching an amendment to the new highway bill by preventing some old worn out bridge that isn't even used anymore from EVER being torn down, EVER and FOREVER. This bridge was in the way of the proposed LNG site, and Poof, no more station, EVER. Talk about shooting ourselves in the foot. When the price of Natural Gas goes through the roof this winter, this will partially be to blame. Futures traders don't look at the current energy reserve state, they look at, you guessed it, the FUTURE prospects. With no new stations/refineries going online and older ones being shut down or used at less capacity, what do you think is going to happen to prices? Increased demand with less production, hmmm, whatever will happen?


It would be nice if one group of people could control all of the factors that affect price fluctuations, let alone the president. Way too much credit being given here. We all need to stop letting our personal feeling about individuals and parties blind us. The FACTS speak volumes to our current situation. Oh yeah, OPEC is evil, but smart. If you were making ungodly amounts of money of the US’s own stupidity of not reinvesting capital in new oil/gas sites, would you lower the price? I think not.



I sure wish the common citizen could really see the sorry state of our country’s energy infrastructure. Just 1 billon of the 75 billion spent in Iraq would make a huge difference. It is just a matter of getting enough support behind the right leaders to do so. We’ll see what happens.

 

[JimNtexas]

... The oil barons from all over the world know this and see their future on oil going down unless they start now to stock pile their financial security...

The last the "oil barons" want is prices so high as to drive people into small cars and alternative energy sources.

It's important to remember that prices were significantly higher during the Carter Administration (~$80/barrel adjusted for inflation) and they came down.

They'll come down again precisely because the oil producers don't want to price themselves out of the market.

Net/net the high prices are a good thing. There is no need to panic, you're seeing the invisible hand doing its job for the betterment of all.

 

[ackattacker]

The last the "oil barons" want is prices so high as to drive people into small cars and alternative energy sources.

It's important to remember that prices were significantly higher during the Carter Administration (~$80/barrel adjusted for inflation) and they came down.

They'll come down again precisely because the oil producers don't want to price themselves out of the market.

Net/net the high prices are a good thing. There is no need to panic, you're seeing the invisible hand doing its job for the betterment of all.

There is a fundamental difference between the current oil crisis and the one in the 70's. In the 70's, OPEC intentionally dropped output as a political tool, but actual capacity was still there.

Numerous industry insiders report that the current oil crisis is due to demand rising so much that supply is actually near capacity. The "oil barons" are not setting prices, the free market is. And new sources of oil are getting harder and more expensive to find, witness the multi-billion dollar pumping platforms to get oil out of increasingly remote areas.

Oil companies are not stupid... they see the current crisis for what it is and they are trying to position themselves to take advantage of the coming rise of alternative energy sources. That's most of the big players don't even call themselves oil companies any more... they're "energy" companies.

Get ready to start pumping biofuel instead of kerosene.

 

[JimNtexas]

Prices have peaked for this year.

Supply isn't limiting, refining capacity is. The big problem is that there are too many Hillary type lawyers in the goverment, and not enough energy industry professionals.

The best thing we could do as a country is replace half the lawyers in congress and the executive branch with petroleum and nuclear engineers.

 

[Benhuntn]

The latest news from OMB is the national debt has been reduced by 30 billion dollars this yr from increased tax revenue. This is a direct result of the tax cuts and more people going to work as a result of the growing economy. If you pull your head out long enough to take a breath of fresh air you will see that Bush's tax breaks are not hurting but helping the economy, that the other party said was in ruins. While I do believe the spending is out of control it is being driven by both parties.

 

[Geronimo4497]

The latest news from OMB is the national debt has been reduced by 30 billion dollars this yr from increased tax revenue. This is a direct result of the tax cuts and more people going to work as a result of the growing economy. If you pull your head out long enough to take a breath of fresh air you will see that Bush's tax breaks are not hurting but helping the economy, that the other party said was in ruins. While I do believe the spending is out of control it is being driven by both parties.

Dang, Skippy! Right on.

 

[ackattacker]

The latest news from OMB is the national debt has been reduced by 30 billion dollars this yr from increased tax revenue. This is a direct result of the tax cuts and more people going to work as a result of the growing economy. If you pull your head out long enough to take a breath of fresh air you will see that Bush's tax breaks are not hurting but helping the economy, that the other party said was in ruins. While I do believe the spending is out of control it is being driven by both parties.

This is completely incorrect.

What has happened is that the OMB has revised it's estimate of the deficit this year by 30 billion dollars. They are still predicting a deficit of $333 billion. This is not a reduction in the national debt, its an increase in the national debt. The "good news" is that this number will be less than last year, when the deficit was a staggering $412 billion, the largest ever. A $333 billion deficit is still larger than any other year prior to Bush's presidency.

Cynics claim that the OMB initially released such a high deficit estimate in order to later revise it downward for cheap political gain.

Incidentally, every man woman and child in the U.S. would now have to pay out about $26,000 to erase the national debt.

 

[EMB170Pilot]

Anyway, I am pretty sure the economy and our national debt would be much better off with another "party" in power....fuel prices would be trending downward also. Just my 2 cents.

If I remember correctly, the stock market jumped over 100 points (if memory serves) when Bush got re-elected for Pres.

And FYI Pres Bush has done an AMAZING job getting this economy back on track during a recession, 9/11, & war on terror. Put that in your pipehole and smoke it

 

[Vector4fun]

The real reason is the lefty environmental wacko's. Thank them and the tree they are hugging. Because of them we haven't built a new refinery in 30 years, can't drill for oil in the US, can't build nuclear power plants

Ya know, I'd be all for some new nuclear power plants that were wll engineered, but you apparently have never lived near a refinery. I used to work near one, and if you were within 5 miles during an inversion, you'd have thought the air in a cheap bar on free cigar night was clean by comparison. That doesn't mean we shouldn't build more, but if they were building in my neighborhood, I'd be protesting like mad.

It's also true that there's still lots of oil available in the ground. However there's damn little $20/bbl oil left in the ground. What's left is getting harder and costlier to produce as the years go by. I know lots of wells in TX were shut down because they just didn't make money anymore at $20-30/bbl. They didn't pay the electricity and maint to keep them pumping. At $60-80/bbl, a lot of them may come back on line. They still won't produce like they did back in the '60s when they were originally drilled, but they might make somewhere between 3-10 bbls a day for a few more years. But don't count on anyone finding any more huge, untapped fields of cheap oil. Ain't gonna happen. Not even in Alaska. The "easy" oil is about gone, and the oil that's left is gonna cost more, and we'll have to compete with China/India/Japan/Europe to buy it.