Since the beginning of the Obama presidency the price of oil has nearly tripled from slightly over $30 in February 2009 to over $90 on the New York Mercantile Exchange this day. To date the president has barely dealt with this malignancy threatening to destabilize the feeble economic recovery he has sponsored to date. Yet during the presidential campaign candidate Obama presented himself as resolute on the issue of oil prices and their impact on the nations' well being.
In August 2008 much to dismay of the oil companies and most especially the oil speculators, which included many of the major bank holding companies such as Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase,Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, presidential candidate Obama proposed releasing 70 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (STP).
Just the idea that there was someone on the political horizon willing to deal with the issue of oil prices with potential access to the White House had an immediate impact on the price of oil, especially after the shameful oil coddling policies of the Bush administration. On August 4, 2008 after Obama aired his proposal the price of oil fell by some $4 a barrel.
Immediately the talking heads went into action. No, it wasn't the candidate's suggestion that was cause for the price of oil to fall but rather the then gathering Hurricane Edouard's change in trajectory which was now meant to bypass the Gulf of Mexico production rigs. Anything to put the concept of using the STP to combat excessive oil prices back into the box. No mention what the specter of releasing millions of barrels oil would do to a market riven with speculation. And of course, what could a mere 70 million barrels accomplish. Hardly a mention that releasing one or two million barrels a day over a one or two month period would wreck havoc on oil trading futures and probably bring down the price of oil by $20/bbl or more by chasing scores of speculators out of the market. And probably more so now than ever before, given that commercial oil inventories are virtually at their all time highs and the SPR is bulging with some 750 million barrels in storage.
For those who take solace in high oil/gasoline prices because it reduces demand mitigating global warming please understand it is madness to reduce consumption by lining the pockets of oil producers both here and abroad through ever higher oil prices. It is long past due that our government take this issue in hand and acts forcefully to reduce oil consumption by fiat, not by transferring billions upon billions to the oiligopoly. We did it once before. It was called World War II.
AUDIT THE FED!
http://deadfed.com/
(the power of ideas, the truth is out there)
Obama will have plenty of support from Israel who will be happy to stand behind him.
The ratings (and advertising rates) for all the mainstream media will go through the roof with all the new war coverage.
What's not to like about this plan? It worked before when Dick Cheney invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.
when oil prices go up the President is to blame for not having done more? Obama is the first
President in thirty years to work toward getting us off oil. Due to geological constraints we are
unlikely to ever see dramatic increases in oil production ever again. By some accounts we may
never see an increase ever again.
If you heat with oil switch to a heat pump with in ground heat sink and add solar panels to your home. If you frequently commute 20-30 miles by car get an electric car and charge it off solar.
If you've got money to invest, invest in solar plants. If your in a dense area work for more public
transit, preferably electric.
Oil is not high due to speculation, there is only so much storage available, speculators cannot
keep prices high for long periods. This is supply and demand.
Why is no one discussing the skyrocketing price of home heating oil?
The unemployed in the Northeast cannot pay their home heating oil bills. Here in CT, the fund to help homeowners has run out of money. As a former Energy Editor of Business Week, (1989-90), I have a standing google alert on "home heating oil." Most recent posts were from the UK.
Is Obama's energy secretary so focused on pie-in-the-sky energy solutions he is blind to the sufferings of frozen, unemployed people on the Northeast?
Where is the outrage about these unjustifiable prices?
devaluation of the dollar combined with no drilling will have lasting affects on american pocketbooks. then, when drillers get tired of waiting and we decide to drill there wont be any rigs to drill with. 3 years later we can build rigs to replace the ones that the government is about to drive away and 180+ oil will have arrived.
They laughed at him, publicly.
$90/bbl with our dignity intact doesn't seem so bad.
Besides, if the president releases from the STP the conservatives will scream he is creating uncertainty in the markets and give corporations an excuse to hoard MORE on my bailout tax dollars.
A few heavy freight locomotives using natural gas would probably have more effect on the oil based component of the trade deficit than all the US yuppies who opted for a prius.
The largest US rail freight company (union pacific) is perennially the largest buyer of diesel - 2B gallons+.
The US and the globe is awash with natural gas. Come peak oil, we will deeply regret not converting heavy users sooner.
The next easy target is road freight.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-28/pickens-home-depot-beat-wind-turbine-makers-in-u-s-energy-legislation.html
My thoughts
Up to $50k (only 6x subsidy for one Volt) subsidy for filling stations doesnt sound enough, given there will be few gas sales for years as there are no gas vehicles & there are no vehicles as there are no filling stations. If I were the station owner, i would place my order to be installed just before the deadline unless it were a no lose proposition. Its not his job to provide seed capital for the national interest.
There is nothing technically radical in the above. All major engine manufacturers have natural gas products. All that is lacking is refueling infrastructure. It should be so easy, the US is laced with gas pipelines. It doesnt even have to be transported.
Its a very doable stimulus project with a real trickle down effect - lower cost of living and energy security.
Oil - barrells > litres or gallons. Wheat/corn - bushels(wtf) > kilos/lbs. Gas - BTU/tonnes > litres (for LPG autos), kilojoules/BTU for utilities - Kg/Lbs for gas bottles. Dont even try with pork bellies.
Answer - to disguise their markups to the max.
Maybe a good hobby horse for the Huff.
I can recommend it.
Similarly, the term "gas" can be ambiguous. Petrol isnt much longer a word.
Except for OPEC and Russia.
Remind your representatives of the Senate's 94-0 vote in 2008 to allow debate on a Bill to crack down on oil speculators. There was not a single dissenting vote - no Republican Senator dared to dissent at the time. Of course the Bill finally died a slow death because of stonewalling by Republican leaders, McConnell and Kyle. They effectively eliminated any chance of the Bill seeing the light of day by insisting that Republicans be able to add 28 amendments to the final bill, which was logistically impossible with just two weeks remaining before the summer recess.
Does this scenario sound familiar, Republicans insisting on delay, delay, delay until an important bill meets a slow death? Then again, the Democrats and Obama did absolutely nothing since then to revive the bill. But then again, the American people became typically apathetic, failing to insist on action.
I sent a reminder (as I've done periodically since 2008) to my Representatives a couple of weeks ago: "Demand for Oil is down, oil imports to the US are down, carbon emissions are down worldwide for the first time in decades due to diminished use of oil, yet gasoline prices keep going up!
Whatever happened to wildly popular, bipartisan legislation to combat speculators' influence on the price of oil?"