$3-a-gallon gas: Blame Washington, not Big Oil

[NoAmericanTaliban]

What's driving up gas prices? It's not just higher crude costs; it's new regulations.

(FORTUNE Magazine) - With gas prices roaring past $3 a gallon and consumer fury rising even faster, Congress and the White House are engaged in a Kabuki-like ritual: pointing fingers at each other over who's to blame, while furiously attacking Big Oil for reaping gargantuan profits - as drivers get hosed at the pump.

If the politicians really want to figure out who's responsible for the latest round of price increases, though, they'd be better off looking in the mirror. That's because the rise isn't only due to higher crude costs. It's also fallout from some little-noticed provisions in the energy bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush last summer.

Buried in the 551-page energy bill - which was supposed to ease energy shortages, not worsen them - were new regulations governing what additives go into gasoline and how it's refined. Corn-based ethanol is replacing the petroleum-derived additive MTBE, but Congress timed this logistically tricky switchover to occur just as demand for gasoline peaked ahead of the summer driving season - right about now.....

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/05/15/8376854/index.htm

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This was a GOP movement to help subsidize the corn growing Agri-Business & now we are all paying the price. Another clear demonstration of the GOP selling America out for the Corporations.
The engergy crisis is clearly their fault & that needs to be a major talking point.
Let's throw the bums out.

[BooScout]

1. Then why is petrol going up here in the UK as well? n/t

[otohara]

2. Bush's War -

even though Poodle Tony went along. Instability in ME because of iraq and threats to iran

[One_Life_To_Give]

20. Crude up 21%, Gas up 37%

How much is gas up in the UK?

There are multiple reasons why the price of fuel is up. Forcing the refineries to retool is one. Deciding every unfriendly foreign power is a Nail would be another. And last I checked our fuel consumption is still increasing.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. There is enough blame to go around. They all had a hand in it.

[gatorboy]

4. Do they use ethanol in regular diesel as well?

Because from what one gas station owner said, diesel is also going to go through the roof.

[bullimiami]

5. thats bullshit. the cost of gas follows the price of crude.

and crude is at 74.00 / barrel.

Its Bush and his insane wars and world threatening posture.

[MadHound]

6. Big Oil, the government, it all a smokescreen to disguise the fact

That we're running out of cheap, easily drilled oil.

Think about it. We're now considering Canadian oil sands to be the next Saudi Arabia?:wtf: That stuff is energy and monetarily expensive to extract. And even with oil running at $75/bbl, we still haven't opened up the caps on our domestic well because gee, they were drilled dry during the seventies and eighties, and what's left is fiscally prohibitive to bring up. And last week there was a new oil strike in Kuwait that was touted around the Western world as being a big strike, our oil worries are over. Well, that's a pretty sad statement to make, considering that they're stating this new strike only has 13 billion barrels, about two years worth of consumption at current US rates.

The signs are all around if you look, we're running out of cheap, easily available crude. Time for us to switch over to a fuel that is clean, renewable, and can supply all of our fuel needs, biodiesel. Otherwise, we're just going to go right on over that cliff.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. If that's true

what's with Big Oil making record profits?

[Hubert Flottz]

12. VERY good question.

Why are the board members who contributed to the GOP, getting rich off of this????

[MacDuff]

18. Pretty simple

When big oil drilled most of the wells that are currently being pumped - Oil was at like $10-15/barrel - that was their cost of finding, developing, pumping, shipping etc. but VERY quickly oil has increased to today's #'s - which leaves some nice fat profit in between

Gold, silver and copper have all soared in price - is anybody accusing mineral companies of making unreasonable profits?

when you sink a well, you are pouring enormous amounts of money into the ground, hoping for a future payoff - now that they are getting that payoff, everybody is angry...

we SHOULD be angry with our Government and Big Oil for one or two things - #1 being they KNEW Peak Oil was coming and not only did they not tell us about it and help the US prepare - they LIED about it and still are!

[Deja Q]

19. It's been suggested Carter tried...

It helped cost him the 1980 election too.

:(

[spag68]

8. Gas prices

I would like to make two points. One, they knew long before last summer that ethanol was going to replace MTBE. Also according to one of the big saudi princes,they are pumping 2 million barrels a day more then needed and are having to put it in storage. So trying to figure this out is like hitting oneself in the head with a hammer.

[spag68]

10. oil

I've said this before, but in 1975 I worked at a pilot coal to gas plant, and even then the plant was non polluting and price competitive. Until the oil company money men can figure how to get their greedy hands on the coal it just won't happen. I'm waiting for a tax on the sun to put solar out of business.

[MacDuff]

15. actually....

Saudi output since 2004 is basically flat

the world's largest field (Gawhar -in SA) is probably in serious decline (they are pumping sea-water into it VERY fast - something you do to keep pressure up, but in the long-run it ruins the field)

I would be VERY skeptical of ANYTHING the Saudi's claim about reserves - all the OPEC nations at once overstated their reserves some years ago in order to secure large OPEC quotas - and have refused any subsequent attempts at accurate reporting

with 3 of the 4 largest oil fields in the world in serious decline (and that missing one is Gawhar- which we don't know) - expect to see declines in world output very quickly

Kuwait for example had to recently admit that their reserves were nowhere near what they had claimed

If SA has so much oil, why when prices are at all-time highs, aren't they pumping any more?

[MacDuff]

9. B.S.

The ethanol/MTBE switchover (which in the long-run is a VERY good idea - MTBE is seriously nasty cancer-causing stuff) is only slightly to blame for the rise in gasoline prices - and at that, mostly on the East Coast and Texas - more effecting shortages than price

The basic problem is quite simple - global supply of oil is for all meaningful discussions - FLAT - meaning no increases at all - but DEMAND is up all over the world (China & India in particular are increasing demand at an astonishing rate)

With oil prices at an all-time high, of course gasoline will be selling at an all-time high...

all of the finger pointing at Oil Companies, at taxes on gas, at additive switchover and yes, even at Middle East tensions (which are helping to drive oil prices higher) ignore the basic problem - we have reached the era of Peak Oil (where demand exceeds supply) - and now the sky is the limit as we face 30-40 years of rising demand and flat or declining supply

get used to these prices - you may see very small drops in price (if for example Nigeria's rebels decide to allow full production again - or if Venezuela hires some competant oil workers and managers - Chavez purged the oil workers some years ago) but the basic equation will not likely change - the world wants more oil then the world can produce, so prices will increase

[spag68]

13. Oil demand

We should get used to it by laying a heavy tax on it and putting all the money collected to use solar paneling everyones house. In a very short time we would be have nearly as many gas problems. Chance are slim to none and slim left town.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

21. Welcome to DU

Those are some good points you made.

[Initech]

11. We have two shills from the oil industry in charge of the White House.

That's who you blame for the high gas prices.

[spag68]

14. Whitehouse shills

I don't disagree with you, but it started back with nixon allowing the Shaw of Iran to double the price of crude and going off the gold standard.

[dogday]

16. Heck I blame them both for this

mess... The oil companies for being greedy and the government for being cowards.....

[SeattleRob]

17. not quite

The current government in Washington DC and Big oil are two sides of the same coin.

It is simple - follow the money. What candidates have big oil companies bankrolled? Who is writing the energy policy? Remember Cheney's early 2001 meeting, that he's fought to keep secret? Isn't it strange that it was attended by big oil and they happen to have a map of Iraq with all the oil fields designated for the same big oil companies?

From there, we get this horrible war, obscene profits for big oil companies, and a new move towards Iran.