Politicians and Gas Prices

[satellite66]

I think this sums up why we pay what we do for gas and what we should do to help ourselves.

POLITICIANS AND GAS PRICES

Yesterday Exxon/Mobil posted a record quarterly profit of $9.9 billion, thanks to soaring oil and gasoline prices. Shell reported a $9 billion profit yesterday. The oil business is booming...and why? Good 'ole supply and demand. But don't tell that to politicians.

Politicians like Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist see this as an opportunity to score politically with voters. Because many in the general public have been brainwashed by government schools, they do not understand the free market. Time to make a little political hay over the situation. So what exactly is going on?

As I said, supply and demand. Companies like Exxon/Mobil, Shell, BP and others explore and extract a barrel of oil out of the ground...we'll say they spend $15 doing this. But oil is now going for $70 a barrel on the open world market. So what are the big oil companies to do? Sell it to people at a discount, just because politicians say so? Nope...they are beholden to their shareholders to make as much profit as possible...so they sell it on the world market, where demand from countries like India and China are driving up the prices. Too many dollars chasing too few barrels of oil.

So what should be done? The answer is to drive up the supply, which will lower the price. Time to send the rigs to Alaska, off the shores of the United States and anywhere else we can drill for crude. There is plenty of oil in the ground....the problem is the leftist environmentalist moonbats won't let people drill for it.

The next step is to start pulling permits for oil refineries...the places where oil is turned into gasoline. There hasn't been a new one built in 30 years, thanks to the environmentalists. New refineries could also refine some of the cheaper, rougher crude...which would also bring down prices. But nobody wants a refinery in their back yard, right? Too bad.

We'll hear a lot about conservation, electric cars, and other alternative fuel sources. That's all well and good....and advances in technology do need to be pursued to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, but the bottom line is this. For the foreseeable future, cars need gasoline, trucks need diesel fuel, homes need heating oil and airplanes need jet fuel.

In the meantime, if we do nothing, the price of oil will continue to stay high, the oil companies will get richer and politicians will start talking about things like price controls, which never work and result in shortages.


http://boortz.com/nuze/index.html

[Espresso]

I agree 100%.

But considering what was said is obvious & has been said over & over again. Nothing will happen. People were saying a loooonnngg time ago $1.50 for fuel was outragous, then $2.00/gal..., something needs to be done. Now at $3.00/gal & they are saying the same thing...something needs to be done. Nothing has EVER been done to lower fuel prices. Why would they start now?
The oil companies give way to much to this "country". If they get cut back on profits, they will need to lay people off & then that means production will suffer, which means higher gas prices.
It's a loose/loose situation.
We will never drill off the coast around here because that will impact tourism. Yet, people will still continue to bitch about high fuel prices....."But don't drill off my coast". It's a double standard of sorts. They complain about high gas prices & how it is ruining their business because everything is getting expensive. Yet if we drill of the coast line, the prices will go down, but tourism will suffer, bringing in less money...ruining their business.

So a reporter asked a strip of store owner to pick one. More oil for the country? or a small mom & pop store loosing some business, for the betterment of the country? The owners said " I don't want to go out of business". That should tell you how selfish people in this country are. They want lower prices, but don't want to loose business.
Go figure.

[Retro]

I spent two weeks or more swimming off the Texas coast my entire childhood within eyesight of the rigs drilling offshore, catching crabs with my Mother and watching my Dad fish. Never bothered our tourism one little bit. Anybody ever seen an oil rig? No big environmental deal. Drill,drill,drill, refine, refine refine. Supply and demand.[xx(]

[bigdogdad]

Until something goes bad. Then all hell will break loose. Just like anything else, when it is going good, when it goes bad, watch out, here comes the bitching.

[Espresso]

quote:Originally posted by Retro

I spent two weeks or more swimming off the Texas coast my entire childhood within eyesight of the rigs.

Never bothered our tourism one little bit. [xx(]

So that means you have no clue what it would be like if they were never there & THEN built. As yo said they have been there your entire childhood.

Tourism? You don't have anything to compare before & after do you?

[thegoldpt]

I understand the "not in my backyard" thinking, i would not want my house on the door step of an oil refinery. But then again, where could we bulid them with little impact on wildlife and not around where people live, how about the northern coast of alaska? Or on old military bases? There is a big one in Alameda, CA they could use. They have one huge refinery in Richmond, CA they they could expand to produce more gas.

Also, i get tired of people complaing, especially when you are driving around your Urban Assualt Vehicle around that takes $100.00 every 3 days. So i don't want to here it okay!

[quicksilverdon]

I agree price controls are a bad idea, but price gouging controls are another thing - seems to me with all the oil co mergers, we have basically a cartel gouging us - just look at the record profits.

For refineries, I think the best location is the vacated military bases - restore some jobs lost at the same time - Alaska refineries would drive up transportation costs for all but Alaskan oil.

The energy bill just passed is worthless - incentives for oil companies to explore? They need more incentive than greed?

[Retro]

quote:Originally posted by Espresso

So that means you have no clue what it would be like if they were never there & THEN built. As yo said they have been there your entire childhood.

Tourism? You don't have anything to compare before & after do you?

Couldn't have been much better. If you want to pay the high gas prices, be my guest; I'd rather drill. It simply doesn't bother anybody. You just don't notice it. You can also think a kid is better off never learning to read. He might read Playboy someday! ( that's an ANALOGY.) And while we are at it, we could just get rid of cars. what was wrong with horses and buggies?[:I]

[Espresso]

Come to south Florida & you'd understand. It's a little more of a tourist trap than Texas is.

I personally would drill. BUT it's the business' here that are selfish little bastards. I don't mind looking at rigs in the ocean. To me that means JOBS, MORE OIL & SELF DEPENDANCY for us.

[Retro]

Oh, I've been to South Florida several times. I don't think it is much different for tourism except that the beaches and water are nicer, but it has a lot of the same things in the way of businesses. I think, if anything, they would benefit from increased people coming to work the rigs and an increased tax base. Rigs tend to attract fish, too, and might even have the bonus of attracting Scuba divers.