Why are there NO politicians talking about GAS PRICES?

[Dawgs]

This is a huge issue for everyone. Am I missing something, or is this a problem that can't be fixed or addressed?

[Rude Horner]

1. Especially since...

...a lot of these same GOP politicians were having a hernia when gas topped $2/gallon during Clinton's presidency.

But NOW....que the cricket noise <<chirp chirp>>

[Miss Chybil]

2. Write your congressman and ask him/her about it.

When we start bitching they will, too.

On edit: I just wrote Senator McCain. I'll write the others soon.

[Guckert]

3. They ALL bought Oil stocks and are counting the tax free money coming in

They could give two shits about the common man and his/her financial problems they have created out of PURE GREED..

If I hear the Right Wing Bull Crap about the Libs are stopping off shore drilling thus creating the gas price hike, my head is going to explode.....

It's all about Oil REFINERIES. we has load of OIL no way to refine it to GAS!!!! end of story...

[Roland99]

4. The Chimp and his VP were all a gas (heh) about it in 2000

They were criticizing Clinton/Gore when gas was $1.50/gallon.

[etherealtruth]

5. I agree with "write your rep" ...

...with that said, I don't believe anything can really be done about it.

i want to know what they will do to relieve the burden from middle/low wage earners.

[ThomWV]

6. Because They Are Powerless To Do A Dam Thing About Them

Not a thing.

[Al-CIAda]

12. Dems should be SLAMMING the criminal traitors on this.

And there IS something they can do besides raping America and its citizens.

[stevebreeze]

7. I remember in the 70's when gas prices doubled congress held hearings

on the issue. Gas giant ceo's were compelled to testify why they were making record profits even though they claimed prices were a result of OPEC pricing. They looked like the crooks they were(are) and prices declined. Of course the application of energy saving policy by Carter (the most underrated president) helped greatly. Of course since Carter actually made things better the right wing dismissed him as some kind of kook. recall Reagan taking down the solar panels on the white house.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. It can be addressed, but I doubt that it can be fixed

While there may be some profiteering going on, the main problem is that China and India are industrializing rapidly at the same time as the easily accessible oil fields have already passed their peak of production ability.

There are more customers bidding for oil on the worldwide market than ever before, and that drives the price up.

The best any of us can do is to think about how WE can use less oil, because cheap oil is NEVER coming back, and anyone who tells you otherwise or blames Bush is a liar. We'd have high oil prices no matter who was president.

Figure out how you can drive less, keep your house warmer and colder, and use locally produced products whenever possible. Vote for people who advocate for alternative energy, mass transit, and intercity rail.

Politicians recall how Jimmy Carter was demonized for talking about the energy crisis. Well, Jimmy was right, whether the American people wanted to believe it or not.

If 25 years ago, we had started transitioning away from an oil-based economy, we'd be sitting pretty right now.

[all.of.me]

9. gas went up here 5 cents last week and TEN yesterday!

it's 2.69 for regular, northern new mexico. it is scary.

[Nite Owl]

10. They should be framing it as

The Bush Tax Increase but of course yet another opportunity missed.

[librechik]

11. their chauffeurs haven't complained yet n/t

[Beelzebud]

13. Saudi Arabia. The ones that attacked us on 9/11.

The elephant sitting in the middle of the room that NO ONE wants to discuss.

They control gas prices.

So as long as they control the price of energy (gas prices), they control our "leaders".

I would worship the altar of George Bush, if after 9/11 he started a massive national project to develop real alternate fuels. He had the golden chance, and totally blew it. As with everything else, he is a greedy, short-sighted, idiot that couldn't see the forest for the trees.

We are a very smart species. Oil, and gasoline are not the end-all, be-all solution for our energy needs.

If only we had real leaders instead of oil barons, and greedy prostitutes, that pretend to be politicians.

[SeattleRob]

14. Good question!

Why aren't they talking about this issue? Why are they talking about the record profits oil companies are raking in - Muiltiple billions of dollars every quarter - Check the Financial Pages and Business News.

I think there is price gouging going on. What drives me crazy is the way the news media covers this issue - and the way many people explain away the story. They use Oil Company spin points - "Because of those Nasty "Liberal" regulations, we haven't been able to build new oil refineries, which in turn makes for higher demand, blah blah blah. Meanwhile, the oil companies are raking in Billions.

[emdee]

15. A little data....

From 2000 during the campaign with Gore: http://www.issues2000.org/2004/More_George_W__Bush_Energy_+_Oil.htm
Campaigning here in the Midwest battleground where gas costs are the highest in the nation, Bush accused Gore of backing a multimillion-dollar tax break for oil companies. Bush’s claims are a direct counterattack on Gore’s recent charges that the Texas governor is too close to Big Oil, and they made Bush sound more like a Democratic populist than a conservative Republican. Bush specifically attacked a part of the Gore plan calling for the extension of a moratorium on payment of royalties to the government for natural gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. “My opponent is giving major oil companies a huge tax break. I believe the royalties moratorium ought to happen when the price declines. We ought not have moratoriums when the price is high. I look forward to hearing his explanation on why big gas producers ought to be given a big tax break.”

Bush said today that he would bring down gasoline prices by creating enough political good will with oil-producing nations that they would increase their supply of crude. “I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply. Use the capital that my administration will earn, with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, and convince them to open up the spigot.” Implicit in his comments was a criticism of the Clinton administration as failing to take advantage of the good will that the US built with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. Also implicit was that as the son of the president who built the coalition that drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait, Mr. Bush would be able to establish ties on a personal level that would persuade oil-producing nations that they owed the US something in return.


From http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-04-17-bush-gas-prices_x.htm
But Bush has not lobbied members of OPEC, the consortium of oil producers. In 1999, he criticized Vice President Gore for rising prices and said President Clinton "must jawbone OPEC members to lower prices."

From: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/03/30/bush.ad/
A new Bush ad floats the notion that Kerry would raise gas taxes, if elected.
Kerry's answer: "You have to give this administration credit because they clearly understand the connection between gas prices and the economy, because their approach to a solution of these high gas prices is just to make sure no one has a job to drive to," Kerry said at the San Francisco fundraiser.

[Kickin_Donkey]

16. Shhhhhhhhhhhh ...

Didn't you get the memo? There's a Republican oil man in office. He's a war president fighting for our share of the oil. It would be unAmerican to criticize him.

[bribri16]

17. They are making too damn much money in oil stocks! n/t

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

18. Brazil is seeking energy independence through ethanol

Brazil's government has mandated that 25% of all gasoline be made of ethanol, which is produced by the growing a sugar cane, a process that's more efficent than U.S. ethanol based on corn. Now, 40% of Brazil runs on ethanol, thanks to new vehicles that can run on pure ethanol, in addition to those that run on a mixture of ethanol and gas. Brazil promises to have NO IMPORTED OIL after 2006. I don't know if they'll be successful, but at least their government is trying.

http://www.latinpetroleum.com/printer_4369.shtml

"Brazil's ethanol effort helps nation lead to oil self-sufficiency
By The Seattle Times
Jul 11, 2005, 09:54

While Americans fume at high gasoline prices, Carolina Rossini is the essence of cool at the pump. Like tens of thousands of her fellow citizens, she is running her zippy red Fiat on pure ethanol extracted from Brazilian sugar cane. On a recent morning in Brazil's largest city, the clear liquid was selling for less than half the price of gasoline, a sweet deal for the 26-year-old lawyer.

"You save money and you don't pollute as much," said Rossini, who paid about $ 18 to fill her nearly empty tank. "And it's a good thing that the product is made here."

Three decades after the first oil shock rocked its economy, Brazil has nearly shaken its dependence on foreign oil. More vulnerable than even the United States when the 1973 Middle East oil embargo sent gas prices soaring, Brazil vowed to kick its import habit. Now the country that once relied on outsiders to supply 80% of its crude is projected to be self-sufficient within a few years. ..."

(...)

[LSK]

19. i was just thinking where is the Congressional investigation

They want to investigate steroids in baseball, but not gas prices????

[bluedog]

20. freeze them prices..............or release the reserves.............

its got to happen......

the price is costing people raise prices esp like us who are self employed...we have to raise costs......

its starting to effect groceries.all deliveries.........

it'll end up costing us more in school and property taxes..(cost of buses.police cars.ect..you name it)...

it'll cost us more than the cash we are paying at the pump in the long run........

[OneBlueSky]

21. w/ few exceptions,NO politicians are talking about ANYTHING important . .

not the illegality of the war, not the Americans and Iraqis killed, not the depleted uranium contamination of the country, not the unconstitutionality of the Patriot Act, not the war profiteering, not the corrupted election system, not the obscene concentration of wealth, not the totalitarian control of Congress by Republicans, not the devastation of the environment, not global warming, not peak oil and all that implies, not the unsustainable budget and trade deficits, etc. . .

and they're especially NOT talking about the mother of all issues, the 9/11 coverup . . . and the now undeniable evidence that our own government either let it happen, facilitated it, or made it happen . . .

though they're paid handsomely -- with OUR tax dollars, and at salaries they set for themselves -- to look after OUR interests and the nation's, they instead are totally subservient to their corporate sponsors . . . they all know what's happening, and they're all sitting on their thumbs out of sheer greed, i.e. fear of offending those who bankroll them . . .

it's disgusting . . . really, really disgusting . . .

but it cannot and will not last . . . people are finally starting to wake up, and they're pissed . . . and they're starting to demand honest answers . . . we WILL prevail, but it will likely be a bloody fight . . .

Power to the People! . . .

[kestrel91316]

22. Ok, I will tell you what the politicians are afraid to:

You MUST conserve. This is not an option, it is your duty as a citizen of Planet Earth.

As ye sow, so shall ye reap. If you waste fossil fuels then you shall be forced to pay higher prices down the road. And you will bear responsibility for making your less fortunate fellow humans pay more also.

We all share responsibility for fixing this problem. Each of us. No more blaming the politicians as the sole source of the problem. Yes, they are helping greedy corporations reap windfall profits, but we are WILLING COLLABORATORS IN OUR OWN DESTRUCTION if we continue to waste.

DUers: every one of us needs to get off our lazy rears and do the research it takes to find out where we can best cut our own personal fossil fuel consumption. And don't listen to what Unka Dick said about the American way of life not being negotiable. We had better change, and change fast.