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Who Is To Blame For Soaring Gas Prices?


Whose Hot Air Causes Pricey Gas?  

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  1. 1. Who is to blame for soaring gas prices?

    • Republican White House
      17
    • Democratic Congress
      16


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McCain, Obama Equally Ignorant on Solving Gas Price CrisisIn an interview last week on National Public Radio, Barack Obama was asked about his proposal for a "windfall profits" profits tax on oil companies. To her credit, the interviewer prefaced her question by noting that nearly all economists from across the political spectrum oppose the idea. Taxing oil company profits won't make gas any cheaper — it'll likely make it more expensive in the long run by discouraging exploration — and it won't speed the development of alternative energy sources. Obama's answer was pure demagoguery, pitting senior citizens and working class families against oil companies, who he says are reaping profits "hand over fist."Obama's opponent John McCain has smartly opposed a tax on oil company profits — and Obama has promptly attacked him for it.But McCain isn't much better. McCain has proposed an equally ridiculous "gas tax holiday," which will also do almost nothing to provide relief at the pump. Obama has smartly opposed the idea — and McCain has promptly attacked him for it.Economic ignorance is nothing new in politics. Neither is the idea that a candidate would perpetuate economic idiocy he knows to be false because it plays into the narrative he's pitching to the voters. But no issue seems to prompt more jaw-dropping sophistry and anti-capitalist demagoguery than gas prices.Both candidates have promised to crack down on so-called "oil speculators," who are really only commodities traders wagering on whether the price of oil will go up or down. Speculators are an important part of the market process because they're generally knowledgeable about what they're trading and their collective wisdom sends important signals about supply and demand. "Cracking down" on speculators is silly. In the first place, it isn't possible. Oil futures are traded all over the world, well outside of U.S. jurisdiction. In the second place, if you own a 401(k), you're likely an indirect "speculator" yourself.We Americans seem to think we have a right to cheap gas. There is no such right. Like anything else sold on the free market, the gas at the station pump belongs to someone else, at least until it falls into your tank and you swipe your credit card. From extraction, to processing and refining, to retail sale, someone owned the oil in your car at every step of its manufacture. And each owner was free to put whatever price on the stuff he pleased. You have no more right to cheap gas than you have to cheap bananas, or a cheap iPhone. This notion that cheap gas is part of our national heritage has been both nurtured and exploited by politicians, despite the fact that there's little they can do — or should do — to make it so.For years now, our political leaders have told us that we need to wean ourselves off of oil and gas and find cleaner, more renewable energy sources. McCain and Obama are no exception. But there's no surer way to change our behavior when it comes gas consumption than high prices at the pump.In fact, that's exactly what's happening. We're driving billions fewer miles per month than we drove last year. We're biking more, walking more, and more often opting for public transportation. Sales of sport utility vehicles have plummeted, while quaint gas-sippers like the Geo and the Mini-Cooper are all the rage. The big car companies have all but stopped production of gas-guzzlers and can't churn out hybrids fast enough to meet demand.We're changing our habits. We're driving less and driving more fuel-efficient cars when we do. The market is working. High gas prices are altering behavior and nudging us toward a more conservation-oriented economy.So why are our politicians tripping over themselves to keep prices low?The easy answer is to win votes. The better answer is that they can't handle not having control. Letting market forces dictate our energy habits isn't satisfactory for our all-knowing leaders in Washington because our all-knowing leaders in Washington want their hands on all of the economy's levers all of the time. Instead of letting supply and demand alter consumption patterns and drive the market to come up with better sources of energy, they'd rather keep gas prices low through government fiat, while at the same time promoting their own favored forms of alternative energy through subsidies, tax breaks, corporate welfare, and research and development boondoggles. It's waste piled upon waste, and a massive strain on taxpayers. But we let go on.This process obviously does nothing to ensure that the cleanest, most efficient, or most innovative ways of harnessing energy will win market share. On the contrary. The winners in this system are the energy suppliers with the most political clout in Washington — a lesson you'd think we'd have learned from the ethanol debacle.Unfortunately, this isn't likely to end anytime soon. Pandering to voters by making impossible promises and vilifying faceless speculators is quite a bit easier than explaining to the American people that sometimes, sometimes, they're going to face problems that can't — and shouldn't — be fixed by politicians.
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Everyone seems to think it's about gas at the pump. But you all do realize that most plastics are also petroleum based as well. Maybe we need to think about not buying the latest plastic toys for our kids and grandkids. Especially since most come from China anyway, who doesn't have a great record regarding pollution, lead contamination or human rights. I'd actually like to see one of the candidates enlist the American public with lessening our dependence on foreign oil and foreign petroleum based products. Especially those that aren't necessities anyway.

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The oil will not be gone.Not in our lifetime, not in our children's lifetime. There are oilfields they thought were dry, that are producing again.It is renewable energy source and for some reason everyone still believes that it is a fossil fuel.
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The oil will not be gone.Not in our lifetime, not in our children's lifetime. There are oilfields they thought were dry, that are producing again.It is renewable energy source and for some reason everyone still believes that it is a fossil fuel.
I hate to be a stickler, but isn't it a fossil fuel by definition? I don't think the term "fossil fuel" has anything to do with how long it will last. And it's objectively non-renewable (or rather the renew ability cycle lasts hundreds of millions of years).
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I hate to be a stickler, but isn't it a fossil fuel by definition? I don't think the term "fossil fuel" has anything to do with how long it will last. And it's objectively non-renewable (or rather the renew ability cycle lasts hundreds of millions of years).
I think it was a level.
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I hate to be a stickler, but isn't it a fossil fuel by definition? I don't think the term "fossil fuel" has anything to do with how long it will last. And it's objectively non-renewable (or rather the renew ability cycle lasts hundreds of millions of years).
I think it was a level.
Nope. I have seen a lot of research come out that debunks the old argument that oil is created from decaying plant and dinosaurs. Basically oil is produced from pressure in the earth and is created deeper than organic material has ever been found or could survive. This is why they have had wells they thought were dry for 40 years, that have filled back up. Some was published by NASA and some by some scientific periodicals. They are saying that oil is abiotic not biological.
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Nope. I have seen a lot of research come out that debunks the old argument that oil is created from decaying plant and dinosaurs. Basically oil is produced from pressure in the earth and is created deeper than organic material has ever been found or could survive. This is why they have had wells they thought were dry for 40 years, that have filled back up. Some was published by NASA and some by some scientific periodicals. They are saying that oil is abiotic not biological.
learn something new every day! links? nm, found some. Im far from convinced.Oil in the surrounding area can easily percolate into wells that were pumped dry to add some recoverable oil. I couldnt find any instances where large amounts were subsequently recovered indicating a more or less continuous source of oil The NASA information is about the production of methane gas on Titan and theorizes about similar abiotic oil production, but isnt an explicit agreement with abiotic oil theory.It also doesnt help that abiotic oil is being pushed by truthers.
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learn something new every day! links?
http://www.rense.com/general67/oils.htmhttp://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47675http://freeenergynews.com/Directory/Theory/SustainableOil/http://www.amlibpub.com/liberty_blog/2006/...ossil-fuel.htmlThis is just some quick stuff I found, someone linked me to some better stuff from I think scientific weekly (is that a mag?)I am not saying that this means we should not find alternatives to Oil, or that it is not polluting the air we breathe, I just think that this is relevant to the argument that we are going to run out of oil in 25 years.
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I am not saying that this means we should not find alternatives to Oil, or that it is not polluting the air we breathe, I just think that this is relevant to the argument that we are going to run out of oil in 25 years.
While supplies of traditional "oil" are extremely limited and most likely will be tapped before the end of the century, there will be things that we can dig out of the earth and burn for feul for hundreds if not thousands of years. The strongest example is methane hydrates, which are a form of highly condensed natural gas. The estimated reserves of methane hydrates could last us hundreds of years.
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While supplies of traditional "oil" are extremely limited and most likely will be tapped before the end of the century, there will be things that we can dig out of the earth and burn for feul for hundreds if not thousands of years. The strongest example is methane hydrates, which are a form of highly condensed natural gas. The estimated reserves of methane hydrates could last us hundreds of years.
And yet we are running out of helium :club: Where's the justice?
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  • 2 weeks later...

I got this e mailed to me today. Any thoughts from people scientifically smarter than me. LLY/Henry...BLACK-GOLD BLUESDiscovery backs theory oil not 'fossil fuel'New evidence supports premise that Earth produces endless supply--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Posted: February 01, 20081:00 am EasternBy Jerome R. Corsi© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com A study published in Science Magazine today presents new evidence supporting the abiotic theory for the origin of oil, which asserts oil is a natural product the Earth generates constantly rather than a "fossil fuel" derived from decaying ancient forests and dead dinosaurs.The lead scientist on the study ? Giora Proskurowski of the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington in Seattle ? says the hydrogen-rich fluids venting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in the Lost City Hydrothermal Field were produced by the abiotic synthesis of hydrocarbons in the mantle of the earth.The abiotic theory of the origin of oil directly challenges the conventional scientific theory that hydrocarbons are organic in nature, created by the deterioration of biological material deposited millions of years ago in sedimentary rock and converted to hydrocarbons under intense heat and pressure.While organic theorists have posited that the material required to produce hydrocarbons in sedimentary rock came from dinosaurs and ancient forests, more recent argument have suggested living organisms as small as plankton may have been the origin.(Story continues below) The abiotic theory argues, in contrast, that hydrocarbons are naturally produced on a continual basis throughout the solar system, including within the mantle of the earth. The advocates believe the oil seeps up through bedrock cracks to deposit in sedimentary rock. Traditional petro-geologists, they say, have confused the rock as the originator rather than the depository of the hydrocarbons.Giora Proskurowski Lost City is a hypothermal field some 2,100 feet below sea level that sits along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at the center of the Atlantic Ocean, noted for strange 90 to 200 foot white towers on the sea bottom.In 2003 and again in 2005, Proskurowski and his team descended in a scientific submarine to collect liquid bubbling up from Lost City sea vents.Proskurowski found hydrocarbons containing carbon-13 isotopes that appeared to be formed from the mantle of the Earth, rather than from biological material settled on the ocean floor.Carbon 13 is the carbon isotope scientists associate with abiotic origin, compared to Carbon 12 that scientists typically associate with biological origin.Lost City Vents Proskurowski argued that the hydrocarbons found in the natural hydrothermal fluids coming out of the Lost City sea vents is attributable to abiotic production by Fischer-Tropsch, or FTT, reactions.The Fischer-Tropsch equations were first developed by Nazi scientists who created methodologies for producing synthetic oil from coal."Our findings illustrate that the abiotic synthesis of hydrocarbons in nature may occur in the presence of ultramafic rocks, water and moderate amounts of heat," Proskurowski wrote.The study also confirmed a major argument of Cornell University physicist Thomas Gold, who argued in his book "The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels" that micro-organisms found in oil might have come from the mantle of the earth where, absent photosynthesis, the micro-organisms feed on hydrocarbons arising from the earth's mantle in the dark depths of the ocean floors.Affirming this point, Proskurowski concluded the article by noting, "Hydrocarbon production by FTT could be a common means for producing precursors of life-essential building blocks in ocean-floor environments or wherever warm ultramafic rocks are in contact with water."Finding abiotic hydrocarbons in the Lost City sea vent fluids is the second discovery in recent years adding weight to the abiotic theory of the origin of oil.As WND reported in 2005, a NASA probe to Titan, the giant moon of Saturn, discovered abundant Carbon-13 methane that the agency declared to be abiotic in origin.

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I got this e mailed to me today. Any thoughts from people scientifically smarter than me. LLY/Henry/BG...BLACK-GOLD BLUESblah blah blah
Fixed you're post
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If carbon-13 is highly suggestive of abiotic origin and carbon-12 biological, isnt it easy to test the oil that is most abundant right now to determine its likely origin?That doesnt say there arent other fuels that will be available in the future, perhaps of abiotic origin, but it lends credence to the depletion of our most common current sources if it is predominantly carbon-12. Or are they questioning that relationship (12 implies organic) as well?

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Any thoughts from people scientifically smarter than me. LLY/Henry...
It's a theory that's been floating around for a while. It's one of those theories that is hard to prove definitively, but the consensus seems to be that so far the evidence indicates most oil has biotic origins. Everyone agrees there is some of each kind around, but it's very difficult to determine the exact ratio, but so far traditional theories are winning.Summary: it's not a kook theory, but it has a long way to go to be generally accepted.
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  • 2 months later...
Just saw gas @ $1.95/GalOil below $61 a barrel
Where are the Congressional hearing!!!???!!! How dare those oil companies price their product so low? They're just trying to get us buy SUVs again so they can raise the price back up. Oil companies should be FORCED to charge more, and the executives jailed.
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What I'm really afraid of is that Americans will go back to their old ways and start driving more and using their SUV's again. It's a problem that once the crisis seems to be over that we forget about it until the next crisis emerges. And we DO need to stop our dependence on foreign oil. After that we need to find ways to stop our dependence on oil period. But obviously the oil-producing countries don't want us to do that so they're playing the siren song of cheap oil again just to suck us back in. Don't fall for it America. It's a trap.

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What I'm really afraid of is that Americans will go back to their old ways and start driving more and using their SUV's again. It's a problem that once the crisis seems to be over that we forget about it until the next crisis emerges. And we DO need to stop our dependence on foreign oil. After that we need to find ways to stop our dependence on oil period. But obviously the oil-producing countries don't want us to do that so they're playing the siren song of cheap oil again just to suck us back in. Don't fall for it America. It's a trap.
Of course they will, but just like during the oil embargo, it spawned more efficient vehicles. We were flooded with four cylinder Japanese cars that got 20-30 mpg. That was the start of the demise of the U.S. auto industry, because they did not follow suit. Hybrids will continue to be made, hopefully they will get cheaper as mass production allows for bigger purchases of the battery materials at lower costs.
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I think the important thing to remember is that just because the media declares something a crisis, that doesn't make it a crisis. This was a jump in gas prices due to various market pressures and fluctuations. Producers and users adjusted, and prices came back down. It's very likely they will overshoot (if they haven't already), and they will go back up. Oil is like every other product. It's competing with other suppliers, but also with other products. When it was $4 per gallon, it was competing with alternative energy. At $2, it's not. Eventually, oil will become harder to find and more expensive to extract. This won't happen overnight, we'll have decades to adjust. As that happens, prices will go up and alternatives will become financially competitive again. People will make more efficient choices in their lives, like not living 100 miles from their job. The new technology, whether solar, or hydrogen, or super-efficient batteries, will become even more competitive as the incentive to dump research dollars into them grows and market share grows.This is not really new. This is the history of economics since the first trade was made between two farmers in ancient Sumeria (or wherever it started). The only thing new about this cycle is that we have 24-hour news stations who need to fill air time and keep viewers interested. The best way to do that is to claim the sky is falling every time the wind changes direction.

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What I'm really afraid of is that Americans will go back to their old ways and start driving more and using their SUV's again. It's a problem that once the crisis seems to be over that we forget about it until the next crisis emerges. And we DO need to stop our dependence on foreign oil. After that we need to find ways to stop our dependence on oil period. But obviously the oil-producing countries don't want us to do that so they're playing the siren song of cheap oil again just to suck us back in. Don't fall for it America. It's a trap.
Hi. I'm reality, nice to meet you.Tell me genius, how do you propose to stop our dependence on foreign oil?
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Reality is that we're beholden to foreign oil until we get our heads out of our asses with regard to alternative energy. That most likely won't happen until we run out entirely or oil becomes so expensive that it makes the alternatives more attractive. But what you will see happen is economic crisis' just like this one whenever the oil gets expensive. So I guess it really depends on how much Americans want a porpoising economy for the next however many years until we do stop being dependant on foreign oil. Take a look at the auto industry however as your model. If you can't keep up then you're history unless the government decides that you're too big to fail. So the government does keep rewarding mediocrity and lack of vision. So until that stops you're right - reality is that people will use up the oil before they figure out they need to do things differently. Just hope we have a livable planet by the time that happens.

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Reality is that we're beholden to foreign oil until we get our heads out of our asses with regard to alternative energy.
And they are beholden to us buying it. It's called commerce.
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