Differing Plans For Reducing Gas Prices

[TrainTrac]

I saw this on line today and found it interesting. Neither plan would result in overnight relief, but it sure seems that one would help in the long term.

Republican whip Roy Blunt put together this chart showing the practical effects of Democratic vs. Republican policies on the price of gasoline at the pump:

[Broken External Image]:

Blunt's office adds this footnote:



Methodology: Retail gasoline prices are the result of literally hundreds of factors including crude oil supply, global demand, refinery capacity, regulation, taxes, weather, the value of the dollar, etc. Therefore it is impossible to say with certainty what one individual action will do to the overall price. However, based on what we know about the impact of crude oil supply and prices it is possible to develop some potential ranges of impact on gasoline prices for certain policy changes. For example, using the methodology employed by Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats that suspending shipments into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (between 40-77,000 barrels of oil a day) would reduce gas prices by at least 5 cents, bringing ANWR online (at least one million barrels of oil a day) could impact gasoline prices by between 70 cents and $1.60.

 

[Tom Schindler]

Neither plan would work. When there is more money to be made by selling the oil to other lands, the price will not come down. The only real way to lower gas prices is to eliminate China and India.



As long as we build economies in other countries, we will continue to pump money into the hands of the competition that buys the same commodies as we do.



We only have ourselves to blame.





Tom

 

[Mark Stadnicki]

We to take care of "us" first. All this money we are pumping into other countries, what's it getting us? Further into debt. Our dollars are worth crap overseas. We will continue to buy gas regardless of the price. We'll sacrifice other needs to drive our big gas guzzling cars/SUVs. I've seen it, people use food stamps to buy food and then jump into thier Escalade to go there house in forclosure.... Sad..

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen says:

The only real way to lower gas prices is to eliminate China and India.

So we should not allow China and India to grow, to better themselves?



You know, there would be more money for us all to spend, and more gas to buy, more cheaply if we stopped supporting blacks in this country too! We should stop hiring them. We should stop allowing them to buy things. We should simply give them back that ticket to Africa in return for the one-way ticket we gave their great-great-great grandfathers.



Of course, that last paragraph was sarcastic. I don't really think that way.



But there are those that do, and they aren't that far removed from those that would want to keep emerging countries down as well.



It's called "scarcity" thinking. The idea behind it is that when someone else does better it can only happen by me doing worse, as if there is a finite, scarce amount of prosperity in the world. It doesn't HAVE to be that way.



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

So we should not allow China and India to grow, to better themselves?

That is exactly what I am saying. We also should not allow people with the initials of T, J, and R to post messages.



Seriously though.



Why are gas prices so high? Chinda and India. Do high gas prices affect me? Hardly at all. Am I pissed about it? No.



I do recognise that the reason China and India are able to buy oil is because of the money we are giving them. We want to buy everything we can for a little as possible.



It is not a one way street. When I give someone money, they will spend it. They may end up trying to buy something I wanted, but for more than I was willing to pay. Should I be pissed at them or should I be pissed at myself for giving them that money to spend?



We want cheap products but are we willing to pay the price to get them.



The rising fuel and building costs are the price we must pay. We dug our hole, it is time to accept the fact that we are to blame and deal with it.





Tom



p.s. you have confirmed my suspitions that when I say this line abover, you get all riled up.:lol:

 

[Todd Cloutier]

I'll bet he's pulling those numbers out of his rear end. Any of those solutions will take several years to have any meaningful effect on the oil supply. It's not like we can just turn on the tap, and refineries take a lot of time to build.



How about re-regulating the commodities futures market so that the speculators are unable to manipulate the price of oil. Why is it that when some analyst says that oil will be $150 by July, the price of oil suddenly jumps $15 per bbl? The supply didn't suddenly drop. Congress passed laws that deregulated the market and removed oversight which enabled Enron to play their games and allows hedge funds and other speculators to do the same with the oil market.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen said:

Why are gas prices so high? Chinda and India.

That's simply not true, and I have posted reports indicating the fact in the past.



America uses more fuel than either of those two put together, and our increase in usage the past few years has been greater than China's increase during the same period.



The handwriting related to the end of cheap gas has been on the wall for decades. China is just a good scapegoat right now for those little thinkers that need that sort of thing. Seriously though.



P.S. related to getting me "all riled up", I get all riled up by those people that don't point the blame where it belongs...this countries longtime dependence on cheap fuel for it's growth. We can't continue to grow, economically, assuming that cheap fuel will be around forever. It worked for about 75 years, but that was it. Time to move on to the next big thing...



TJR

 

[Fudged Undies]

Agree with Todd C. Not really sure why people are so intent on drilling in protected areas. Assuming we did, and nothing changed in terms of prices, what would be the solution then?

 

[Todd Cloutier]

Right now, oil is in demand as an investment article. A futures trader can buy a contract for oil, wait a couple of days, and sell it for a gain. Back around year 2000, the big market was in tech stocks. After that market collapsed, the investors moved into real estate, which has since collapsed. Now they're playing in the oil and other commodity markets. The question is, will the commodity market collapse at some point, or will the run up in prices be sustainable?

 

[Tom Schindler]

TJR,



Your point is moot. You havent proved a thing. Moot, moot, moot.





Tom

 

[Richard L]

I think everyone has captured a part of the problem.



There is no one single thing that will lower oil/gas prices and even if we implemented all the factors it would take years to see the effect in lowering the price of oil.



The think there can be protected areas where drilling is prohibited, but I don't think the US should be restricted from drilling off the coast of the USA while China can drill there?? That's just stupid!



Saying we need more refineries is one thing but as soon an oil company wants to build a refinery, everyone in that area says "No, Not in my backyard !". If we build new refineries, they are going to have to be in someone's backyard. while the oil campanies are not able to build more refineries they are expanding some refineries in the south east Texas area. I know because the corporation I work for has the contracts to supply the ready mix concrete for thos project....I can safely say that billions $$$ are being in the Houston/Beaumont Texas area to increase the capacity of several refineries in the next few years. That does not mean that will be enough to eliminate the current crisis or low gas prices anytime soon.



The real problem with the oil prices are the speculators who the ones wanting to keep the market unstable so that they can make their profits. We here a lot about the oil companies obscene profits, but nobody is saying anything about the profits made by these oil comodity tradors. They here about an arab farting and they start a panic on the oil trading market and the prices go through the roof so they can sell their oil futures at a handsome profit. All the stock and commodities experts claim that it's unlikely tha t anyone can manipulate the market, but I think it can and is being done, and more and more people are getting in on the act. I would not be surprised if there are actually some governments purposely manipulating stories to cause an turbulance in the oil market, and they are not even OPEC countries.



...Rich