When Gasoline Reaches $5.00 per Gallon Thank Liberals!
By JB Williams (05/01/08)
Financial Times reports "OPEC says oil could hit $200," up from the record $120 a barrel today. If and when that happens, predicted to be this summer, the $3.50 to $4.00 prices you see at the pumps today will top $5.00 per gallon and you can thank liberal environmentalists for that!
When Bill Clinton took office in January 1993, the average retail price of gasoline was $1.06 per gallon. By the time Clinton ran for re-election in 1996, that average per gallon price had become $1.25 per gallon, a 17.9% increase in less than four years.
By the time George W. Bush took office in January 2001, the price of a gallon of gas had become $1.45 – a 36.8% increase in gasoline prices during the first Clinton era. Yet Hillary Clinton says she can solve this problem… and I hope she can, but let’s consider the facts.
2001-2006
During the first six Bush years, gasoline prices rose to $2.22 per gallon, a 53.1% increase over six years, during which time the flow of Iraqi oil had stopped after 9/11. Hillary Clinton was a leading US Senator. Can we find any of her senate initiatives to increase domestic exploration, production or refining, which would result in lower prices at the pumps and reduce America’s dependence on foreign crude?
2006-Present
American’s blamed Bush and elected Democrats to turn the tide and from January 2006 to March 2008, the price of gas shot up to $3.25 per gallon, a price now dwarfed by the $3.49 per gallon a month later, in April 2008.
In the 14 months since Democrats took control of congress, the price of gasoline has shot up a whopping $1.26 per gallon, marking a record 56.8% increase in just 14 months. So much for turning that rising tide…
Liberal Ideas at Work in the European Union
Democrats have no original thoughts of their own, so they simply adopt the liberal ideas of their friends over in the European Union. However, the European Union is the one place on earth in worse shape than America in terms of energy.
European Union Gas Prices Today
Netherlands* $8.95
Germany* $8.63
France* $8.34
United Kingdom* $8.18
Denmark* $8.14
Finland* $7.98
Belgium* $7.64
Sweden* $7.42
Italy* $7.30
Romania* $6.32
If we want what they have, we simply need to follow their lead and institute the same insane levels of government regulation and taxation that these countries have. That’s exactly the prescription being offered by American leftists who are far better aligned with EU thinking than American ideals. Remember the Kyoto Treaty the EU thought we should sign? That treaty would likely our gas prices more in line with European gas prices.
For a closer glimpse into that future, take a good look at California, which enjoys the most extreme environmental laws, highest taxation and highest energy prices in the U.S., not to mention its “fair share” of energy shortages.
Exploration, Production and Refining
A steady flow of production is required to meet a rising demand for energy. At present, the United States consumes a reported 25.9% of the world’s oil production. But we only produce 10.7% of the world’s oil supply. As a result, we are dependent upon foreign energy productivity, consuming approximately twice the oil we are allowed by law to produce and therefore importing the energy we need to keep the lights on.
Environmentalists have all but shut down domestic oil exploration and production for almost 40 years now. They have also outlawed the expansion of refining capacity for the same period, ever since Jimmy Carter was president.
Our refineries are running at 98% capacity at all times. Even if we could buy crude at a lower rate, we do not have the refining capacity to meet demand for refined products and deliver a cheaper retail prices at the pumps.
Despite cutting off America’s ability to explore, produce and refine oil products for 40 years, our current $3.49 price per gallon is still well below that of any member of the European Union. But it won’t be for much longer because the liberal environmentalist energy policies of the last 40 years are coming home to roost.
Alternative Energy?
With old elitist arrogance, but an entirely new level of hypocrisy, the answer to the following question really sets the stage for why America is energy dependent as a result of its own gross ignorance…
The QUESTION: Guess which house belongs to the Nobel Prize winning global leader of the secular socialist environmental whacko movement?
HOUSE # 1:
A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern "snow belt," either. It's in the South.
HOUSE # 2:
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.
HOUSE # 1 - (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.
HOUSE # 2 - (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.
Wacko’s in the Hen House!
Guess who doesn’t like wind energy because birds fly into the windmills and die?
Guess who doesn’t like ethanol because it’s burning food supplies while the world is headed towards a food crisis resulting from high energy costs?
Guess who doesn’t like hydro-energy because it disturbs the fish and frogs?
Guess who doesn’t like the cleanest, cheapest energy known to mankind, nuclear energy, because it’s “dangerous,” which can be said of all energy sources?
Right! - The exact same wackos who have spent the last 40 years blocking U.S. oil exploration, production and refining, forcing America to its knees and leaving the nation completely dependent upon foreign energy sources…
Now, - guess who America is dependent upon for the energy needs it cannot fill on its own?
He with the Gold – Makes the Rules!
Meet the top ten oil producers in the world – (excluding #2 America)
Saudi Arabia
Russia
Iran
Mexico
Norway
China
European Union
Venezuela
Canada
United Arab Emirates
These are the nations with the power to hold America hostage over an oil barrel. And you ask why we play ball with such anti-American regimes… Because we have to!
Blame the “rich” and “greedy” Oil Companies?
According to leftist press reports stumping for liberal political campaigns, yes. It’s the “rich” and “greedy” oil companies who are responsible for these prices and they are getting even “richer” on the backs of poor Americans who will soon be riding their bicycles to work!
BP and Shell just reported a combined $17 Billion in 1st Quarter profits. It must be their fault!
Of course, no liberal member of the press was reporting the billions in losses oil companies were reporting a couple years ago. Over extended operating periods, it takes a lot of profits to cover up the red ink of the past and invest in the future.
But most importantly, the left does NOT want you to know how the price of every gallon of gas breaks down… But I’ll tell you!
Based upon our current $3.49 per gallon national average
* 68% or $2.37 per gallon belongs to the crude producing company (most of them foreign)
* 13% or $.45 per gallon goes to TAXES
* 11% or $.38 per gallon pays for the cost of distribution and delivery
* 8% or $.28 per gallon pays the cost of refining (for those “greedy” U.S. oil companies)
Now, since gasoline is usually a “loss leader” for the retailer that prays you will walk into their market and buy something at a profit while your gas tank is filling, and the vast majority of oil consumed in this nation is not produced in this nation, American oil companies make most of their earnings from refining.
$.28 cents per gallon is not how much they make refining. It represents the TOTAL attributed to the cost of refining, which means, their billions in profits are only a portion of that $.28 per gallon.
Since U.S. oil companies, which are owned by U.S. citizens hoping to retire via their 401k and stock investments someday, are taking the smallest cut from the price of a gallon of gasoline, how in the world can it be their fault that the price of gasoline is higher than we like?
If they charged nothing at all for refining and therefore, went out of business by making nothing at all, it would only reduce the price at the pump by $.28 per gallon, at least until we ran out of refined product altogether.
The ONLY Solution
Balance domestic supply with domestic demand. Explore, produce and refine more domestically… while lifting the wacko environmentalist blocks against all other alternative energy sources and encouraging investment in all the above.
Talk to your neighborhood environmental wacko about that soon, would ya!
Meanwhile, Barack Obama says eliminating the $.45 per gallon in taxes won’t help you. Send this freshman to Europe to study the problem more closely!
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