Comments on: WHO’S TO BLAME FOR HIGH GAS PRICES? LOOK IN THE MIRROR, AMERICA

By: Kenny W

Kenny W — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:07:41 +0000

Who’s to Blame for High Gas Prices?

For several decades, the Democratic Party has pursued policies designed to drive up the cost of petroleum, and therefore gas at the pump. Remarkably, the Democrats don’t seem to have taken much of a political hit from the current spike in gas prices. Probably that’s because most people don’t realize how different the two parties’ energy policies have been.

Congressman Roy Blunt put together these data to highlight the differences between House Republicans and House Democrats on energy policy:

ANWR Exploration House Republicans: 91% Supported House Democrats: 86% Opposed
Coal-to-Liquid
House Republicans: 97% Supported
House Democrats: 78% Opposed

Oil Shale Exploration
House Republicans: 90% Supported
House Democrats: 86% Opposed

Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Exploration
House Republicans: 81% Supported
House Democrats: 83% Opposed

Refinery Increased Capacity
House Republicans: 97% Supported
House Democrats: 96% Opposed

SUMMARY

91% of House Republicans have historically voted to increase the production of American-made oil and gas.

86% of House Democrats have historically voted against increasing the production of American-made oil and gas.

PAUL adds: It’s useful to keep this sort of thing in mind when we hear (on something like a daily basis these days) that the Republicans have run out of ideas or that Republican ideas didn’t work. The truth is that most major Republican ideas weren’t tried because the Democrats blocked them. Increasing the domestic production of oil and gas (a move so obvious it barely meets the standard for being an idea) is hardly the only example. Social security reform and school choice also come quickly to mind. Republican-backed policies for increasing the number of Americans with health insurance were also blocked by Democrats. And so forth.

By: David Bekman

David Bekman — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:45:53 +0000

Who cares who’s is to blame. What are we going to do about it. From my viewpoint, there are 2 or 3 options. Sell your car, buy a bike and take mass transit. Drive less or buy an electric car or a car powered by hydrogen. And option 3 is buy a pair of comfortable Nike’s and get ready for some walking. Since all of these options are out of the question for me, I decided to try and do something about it. While looking around, I stumbled across GasBankUSA, located at http://www.gasbankusa.com. The site talks about fixed price gasoline and locking in at a fixed price. An interesting concept and a little better than my magic 8 ball which continually tells me “try again later” everytime I ask it where are gas prices going OR will gas prices continue to rise. Looking through this site, it looks like a way to take control over something we had no control over in the past.

By: Bookworm Room » Wonderful stuff to read from the Watcher’s Council

Bookworm Room » Wonderful stuff to read from the Watcher’s Council — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:40:35 +0000

[...] Who’s To Blame For High Gas Prices? Look in the Mirror, America Right Wing Nut House [...]

By: DoorHold

DoorHold — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:32:02 +0000

Have to agree that drilling, now, is part of the answer. All the set-asides were done for good (enough) reasons at the time. This is not THAT time. Allowing refining capacity to fall, largely as a result of the NIMBY syndrome*, is also something we can no longer afford (literally and figuratively). More domestic drilling and building up refinery capacity isn’t going to help short-term however.

—–
* On the other hand, I have a friend who lives by a refinery and, in addition to the weather-warning sirens that many of us are familiar with, she has to listen for the refinery fire/explosion sirens (and deal with the light pollution, noise and noxious fumes that permeate the area 24/7). I wouldn’t want one nearby.

By: Scott Martin

Scott Martin — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:01:16 +0000

Rick -

I couldn’t disagree more with you on this issue. I think it’s abundantly clear which ideological side has endorsed the policies that you agree led us to where we are today. To lay that at the feet of “we the voters” is to let “they the liberals” off the hook. I posted extensively on it here:

http://www.conservatismtoday.com/my_weblog/2008/06/assigning-blame.html

I’ve never disagreed with you so strongly. Normally I think you’re dead-on. Keep up the good work.

By: Conservatism Today

Conservatism Today — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:55:00 +0000

Assigning Blame (Correctly) for High Oil Prices…

Rick Moran at Right Wing Nuthouse is one of my favorite political analysts. I have his website bookmarked in a category that I call thinkers, because he is one of the very few bloggers who consistently make in-depth, thought provoking…

By: Thomas Jackson

Thomas Jackson — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:30:59 +0000

To blame Americans for the actions of special interest lobbies, misguided politicians and zealots is really, really laughable. Most Americans disagree with Roe vs Wade yet it stands. Most Americans supported the death penalty yet for a period the death penalty was ruled verboten. Do you actually believe that most Americans support the Supreme Court’s Gitmo decision?

Americans have little ability to influence many factors because of the corrupting influence of money, special interest groups and above all self serving politicians.

No politician should serve more than four years. We wouldn’t be in this fix if we didn’t have a professional political class devoted to their own self interests rather than doing whats best for the country.

By: Simpleman61

Simpleman61 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:32:30 +0000

We are irresponsibly running up deficits and obligations for social programs that our children will one day have to pay for. Our children just became obligated to pay back a debt for a stimulus check of $700 each. This, from income they don’t yet know how to earn. It seems somehow just that we suffer a bit while leaving vast wealth in the ground, untapped.

One day WHEN the oil reserves run low in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela, those untapped reserves may be available for my children’s generation to use.

At that time, who will be funding the terrorist cells and Hamas? Maybe without huge sums of oil money to spend, the Middle East will be a more peaceful place.

We are leaving a world of economic desolation for our children… small price to pay to leave them a bit of our untapped natural resources.

We need to focus our attention on solving the problems at hand weather we drill now or later. Our energy policy needs to be MUCH more comprehensive than simply extracting our energy reserves. If that’s all we can figure out to do, then I say leave the reserves untapped.

By: Bill Arnold

Bill Arnold — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:02:36 +0000

Two items of blame were left unsaid. (I don’t disagree with the others, though please give efficiency more credit.)
(1) The weak dollar, which has to compete with strong Euros for oil, is to some degree an effect of the Republican borrow-and-spend fiscal policies of the last 7 years. We borrowed and continue to borrow to (a) pay for a war (and now occupation) of choice in Iraq and (b) to pay for tax cuts which mostly went to the very well-off (and pick your (c),(d), etc according to ideology - the deficit is however very real).
(2) There is a mostly-unstated speculation premium related to talk about war with Iran. The bet is that a war with (or large strike on) Iran will result in disrupted world oil supplies and a very large oil price spike, to $250+ per barrel. (e.g. at 25 percent odds of war-related supply disruption during the remainder of the GWBush administration.) Oil shot up $6 dollars per barrel when some Israeli official recently simply mentioned the possibility of a strike. Some of the price we see at the pump, and on fuel-oil delivery bills, is due to war talk. IMO.

By: BadLiberal

BadLiberal — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:01:40 +0000

Mike — to your point, I think it’s fair to point out that they may not have the inventory period. I have read that the Saudis are opening up some last ditch fields, and that the official figures of proven reserves haven’t changed for twenty odd years now. In other words, they may not be ramping up production because they physically can’t do it.