Tag: Oil Industry

A Great Fracking Story!

By now we all have heard the oil boom going on in North and South Dakota….that is has created many, many jobs and the economy is well past the recession in these areas……most of this windfall oil boom comes from oil sands and that means FRACKING!

Is this really the feel good story for the economy that the media and oil companies want?  I mean so far it has been fairly incident free….or has it?

(Newser) – Oil spills usually make for big news—except in North Dakota, where officials have kept mum about hundreds of leaks involving thousands of barrels of oil, Grist reports. About 750 “oil field incidents” have occurred there since January of last year, according to records obtained by the AP, and one massive 20,600-barrel spill was hushed up for nearly two weeks in September. “That’s news to us,” said the head of a pro-environment group in North Dakota. “The public should really know about these”

Like other oil-producing states, North Dakota isn’t legally obliged to tell people about oil spills. But the state produces millions of barrels a day and approved some 2,500 miles of new pipelines last year, so spills may be an increasing risk to farmland and water. Now exposed, state officials are contemplating a website that will inform the public of at least some spills. But a wheat farmer said he also wants to see oil companies and regulators held accountable: “Right now, you don’t know if there is a spill unless you find it yourself,” he said.

Oh boy…..yes we have a problem today….just no one wants the rest of the country to know just how bad it is…….just Fracking great, right?  It seems the more transparent the technique becomes the more problems we see……Fracking is NOT the answer, my friends!

You Are Fracking Kidding Me?

We hear so much these days about the oil extraction technique, Fracking, is a common term…….Depending on what news outlet you are a fan of…..we NEVER get both sides of the controversy at the same time….instead we get one side or the other and NO one actually works off the same data to make their points….instead they pay some think tank to come up with a position that supports whichever side you fall down on……

To make an informed decision on whether to support or oppose the issue we need info…..

(Newser) – For as big a role as fracking plays in US energy production, the national conversation about it is sadly lacking, writes Gretchen Goldman at LiveScience. For that, blame the companies involved in the hunt for natural gas—along with inept government agencies, writes Goldman, an environmental engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists. Companies have “fended off citizens with silence,” she writes. “They say little about the technological practices they use, including information about the chemicals they inject into the earth and the wastewater that comes back.”

Meanwhile, state and federal agencies “have been asleep at the switch,” unable to keep up with industry advances and proper regulations. All this is not to say that fracking is evil—some communities might be perfectly willing to accept higher risks for the payoff. But the point is that the entire debate needs to get better so people can make informed choices, writes Goldman. “Science is like a trusty flashlight in these contentious debates,” she writes. “Let’s let it illuminate our path, no matter which road we take.” Click for her full column, or for a “toolkit” of information for citizens from the UCS.

To me it sounds like a great way to separate the oil from the sand……but it also sounds like there are more problems with the system that solutions for our oil consumption.  Until we have a meeting of both sides and hear both sides using the same data…there is NO way that an informed opinioon can be made….all we are doing is regurgitating talking points and slogans…..not the truth.

Enough With Weiner’s Weiner!

If you have had enough gossip and BS…like Weiner’s weiner….or perhaps you are fretting over what name will be given to the pampered royal larva……while all that “news” was being reported….there was something happening in the Gulf…..yes once again……..

This is an upodate on a post I did earlier about the leaking gas well…..thanx to the AP for the  update……..

An out-of-control natural gas well off the Louisiana coast has caught fire, hours after a blowout that prompted the evacuation of 44 workers.

Meanwhile, officials stressed that Tuesday’s blowout wouldn’t be close to as damaging as the 2010 BP oil spill, in which an oil rig, the Deepwater Horizon, exploded off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers and eventually spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

No injuries were reported as a result of Tuesday night’s fire, Eileen Angelico, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, told The Associated Press.

She said it wasn’t known what caused the gas to ignite. It also wasn’t clear early Wednesday how and when crews would attempt to extinguish the blaze. BSEE said earlier Tuesday that a firefighting vessel with water and foam capabilities had been dispatched to the scene.

Wild Well Control Inc. was hired to try to bring the well under control. Angelico said Wild Well personnel approached the well earlier Tuesday night, before the fire, but they determined it was unsafe to get closer when they were about 200 feet away from it.

The gas blowout was reported Tuesday morning.

Tuesday’s blowout occurred near an unmanned offshore gas platform that was not currently producing natural gas, said Angelico. The workers were aboard a portable drilling rig known as a jackup rig, owned by Hercules Offshore Inc., which was a contractor for exploration and production company Walter Oil & Gas Corp.

Walter Oil & Gas reported to the BSEE that the rig was completing a “sidetrack well” — a means of re-entering the original well bore, Angelico said.

The purpose of the sidetrack well in this instance was not immediately clear. A spokesman for the corporation did not have the information Tuesday night. Industry websites say sidetrack wells are sometimes drilled to remedy a problem with the existing well bore.

Just more environmental damage to an already fragile ecosystem……..may not mean much to some but I live here and it could effect so many different sectors……..how many times must a story like this come to light and people still cannot see pass their moronic slogans?

Drill Baby Drill (Will It Ever Cease?)

Before the prez made his much maligned African trip he gave a climate speech….which touched on coal fired plants, Keystone, emissions, and a partridge in a pear tree…..and after he was finished his laundry list the GOP was gearing up for their retort to his speech……and vasically, it was the same tried old dog whistle that they have been using for decades….Drill Baby drill.

The GOP response……

……….. less than a month after it was introduced, the House passed H.R. 2231, the Offshore Energy and Jobs Act, by a vote of 235 to 186. The bill reads like Big Oil’s Christmas list. It would open virtually all of the U.S. Atlantic coast, the Pacific coast off Southern California, and much of Alaska’s offshore space to new drilling; require the Obama administration to create a new Five-Year Plan for offshore operations; and generally perpetuate an energy agenda driven by climate deniers.

The Committee website describes the legislation as “a contrast to President Obama’s no-new-drilling, no-new-jobs plan.” But the truth in this statement ends with the word “contrast.” In fact, earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal described the offshore oil and gas industry under President Obama as “booming.”

Almost from the first day of this blog I have been writing about Drill Baby Drill…..and still NO one is listening……let me talk slowly so that the issue gets firmly implanted……

Drill Baby Drill is a dog whistle….it will NOT….let me say that again for those that are slower than others…….will NOT bring the price of gas down in any significant way…..

Let me ask the question for you so that no one hurts themselves trying to figure it out…….why not?

First…..NOW Pay Attention!  Oil is drilled on a lease…..the oil that comes out of the ground belongs to the company that drills it…..NOT the country.  Am I moving too fast for you?  The oil is then sold on the spot market by the company, not the country, and sold at whatever price the going rate is on that day.  If you think that the oil company will significantly lessen their profits because the oil is drilled in the US then you have moved beyond dense to stupid!

Second…..the Keystone…now here is a good one……what benefit will the pipeline do for the country…..the jobs created will be temporary with the exception of a few full time after completion.  The oil will belong to Canada, not the US and Canada will sell it to whoever they want and at the going rate…once again NO significant drop in the price of oil or gas……

But I see that the DLC has its mouthpiece out and pushing for the passing of the pipeline…….Harold Ford, Jr…….this from his piece in the Wall Street journal…..

… The president has announced that he will open more of U.S. federal land and offshore areas to oil exploration and development. This is an important step, but he needs to do more—specifically, he should reconsider his Keystone pipeline decision.

Despite several years of study and a favorable State Department analysis, the administration has rejected Keystone XL’s application for a construction permit. This pipeline could bring an additional 500,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada to the U.S. Instead, the project is in limbo.  (The oil will be owned by the oil companies not the country)

Mr. Obama should also work with our leading energy companies instead of fighting them. Domestic energy companies contribute to our economy, support millions of American jobs and retirement accounts, and some, like Exxon Mobil, are investing in the energy solutions of tomorrow like fuel from algae. Yet the president continues to use them as his rhetorical foil. Calling for higher taxes may bring applause at partisan political events. But it won’t lower energy prices.  (DLC sole purpose is to see the corporate America gets more breaks and less taxes while average Americans suffer)

We can’t wave a magic wand to bring gasoline prices down. But increasing domestic crude oil development will reduce our reliance on energy from unstable parts of the world. That, and a healthy petroleum refining sector, will help mitigate price spikes that hurt our economy.  (More crap!  All oil will be sold on the spot market…prices are controlled there not by a healthy refining industry)

This from a guy that is on the payroll of large banking firms……..this is a guy who is part of the outrageous bonus program…where would you think his loyalties would lie?

This is typical of the bullshit spread by Clintonians and the DLC……..these twats are nothing by Repubs in Dem clothing……there biggest concern is the creation of wealth not the preservation of the “American Dream”……

Third…..you want cheaper gas?  NO! Really!  Is that what you want?

There is only ONE way for that to occur.  And none of the Right wing “Experts” will like the answer.  If you pea brains really want cheaper gas then I suggest that you consider the alternative.  Your dog whistle slogans will do nothing to achieve the one thing that we all desire.

As my grandfather use to say…..”wish in one hand and shit in the other and let me know which one fills up first”.

Is It Happening Again?

Remember a couple of years ago and the BP oil rig disaster?  Well, guess what?  Off the coast of Louisiana there is another situation that could be a disaster in the making……..

Crews worked Wednesday to seal an old oil and gas well off the Louisiana coast that began leaking during work to plug it permanently.

Eileen Angelico, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said the bureau is reviewing plans to seal the well. She said it’s most likely that drilling mud will be pumped in to stop the small flow.

The well and production platform, in the Gulf of Mexico about 75 miles southwest of the oil depot at Port Fourchon, are owned by a subsidiary of Houston-based Talos Energy LLC. The company said the well had not been producing for years.

Talos President Timothy S. Duncan said saltwater and small amounts of natural gas and the light oil-and-water mixture called condensate escaped the well. A light sheen is expected to evaporate.

Duncan said Wild Well Control Inc. has been brought in to seal the leak.

The well did not blow out, and there was no explosion or fire on the platform, Coast Guard Lt. Lily Zepeda said.

The well is one of three on a platform in water 144 feet deep. Production from the other two wells has been shut down.

Talos acquired the platform and wells in its February 2013 acquisition of Energy Resources Technology GOM, which also is based in Houston.

But we still will have the whack-a-doodles yelling “drill baby drill” (a post to come) and no t one of them will pay any attention to the possible problems there support could cause……but what do you expect from clowns owned by the banking clan?  They are trained animals that do as they are instructed like any good beat down animal…….good boys!

Wanna Talk XL—Again?

Any day now I expect the Prez to approve the Keystone XL deal.  Do you know why it is called Keystone XL?  (Pause here for the Google search)………there is already a Keystone pipeline…….the XL is for the expansion to make it LARGER.  As a matter of fact the existing Keystone is in the news as I type………

Newser) – Ten surviving “oiled ducks” and two dead ones have turned up following a pipeline leak in Arkansas, Exxon Mobil says. “I’m an animal lover, a wildlife lover, as probably most of the people here are,” says a local judge. “We don’t like to see that.” The air around the town of Mayflower smells like oil, the AP reports, and two front lawns have been soaked by the stuff. An Exxon rep says there’s “no indication” of health dangers, but the spill’s cause remains a mystery as Exxon workers clean up.

The company was fined in 2010 for a failure to inspect another part of the Pegasus oil line often enough, Reuters notes. As of yesterday, the company still hadn’t dug up the ground around the leak. Meanwhile, the disruption of the line, which runs from Patoka, Illinois, to Nederland, Texas, continued to fuel debate over the Keystone XL pipeline. The Pegasus line transported oil similar to what the Keystone pipeline would carry, Bloomberg notes, and there’s controversy over whether this diluted bitumen is more corrosive than regular crude. Last year saw 364 US pipeline spills totaling 54,000 barrels. National Geographic has more photos of the latest spill.

That’s right, sports fans….the disaster occurring in Arkansas is part of the existing Keystone pipeline…….it is oil from the sands of Alberta that is polluting central Arkansas……got that?

The pipeline will hire many construction workers, if approved……but once finished those jobs will be gone.  The oil flowing through the completed pipeline does NOT belong to the US…..it is Canadian oil…..and the Canadians will sell it to the highest bidder….it will NOT make the US independent.

The political line is that the US will be the number one oil producing country in the world by 2020……the truth is that the oil companies will be the producers not the country…….it is a political game to claim otherwise…it is disingenuous…..

Then we have people like Pickens that is pushing nat gas……and is saying that this will make us more independent…….the truth there is that nat gas will fluctuate in price like oil and the will be no cheaper than any other form of fossil fuel……again the country will not be producing the gas…….companies will and companies will trade it, like oil, in the spot markets…..

As always…..there is only one way for the country to profit from oil production…..and NO one likes it……but if you want cheaper oil then there is only one way to achieve the price decrease…….

It Is Energy–Again

Hopefully you will remember all the hoopla about domestic oil……that prices will go down, it is in the national interests, we will be more secure…..blah, blah, blah………in the last election (2012) Gingrich promised if elected gas would be $3 a gallon…..or was it $2 a gallon?  ……and all the peasants danced!

And now wonder boy has issued his newest budget proposal…..same as the old budget proposal……..and as usual the GOP returns to the same lie that domestic oil drilling will make us more secure and oil independent……I have written on this many times and many times NO one is listening……drill baby drill is a slogan….NOT an energy policy!

And the Prez is talking energy and domestic oil….to fund alt energy research…..just how soon will it be before the Repubs bring up Solendra again?  About the only attack they have………How many times must I cover this before it sinks into thick skulls?

I have had enough of the simplistic crap!

One more time for good measure……..conservs want to be allowed to drill on public land and this will make us independent of foreign oil……that is bunk!  All it will do is give oil companies cheap leases….and gas prices will remain the same……

Then there is the support for the XL Pipeline which will take Canadian oil from Canada to Houston area refineries…….that will not make oil cheaper…..why?  It is Canada’s oil and they will sell to whoever they want…….the pipeline will create construction jobs but once finished will employ few workers……this will not makes us independent!

Even offshore oil will not be cheaper oil…….why?  Oil is old on the spot market and speculation will drive prices NO matter where the stuff is drilled……do you understand that?  Oil futures drive the price not the location of the rig!  Futures markets control price!  Does that compute?

Let us be honest……most of our oil comes from Mexico, Canada and Nigeria….very little comes from the Middles East…..if makes you feel better then by all means believe the slogans and the hyperbole…..but reality will eventually set in…..

Does anyone think that Exxon or Shell or BP will sell gas cheaper because it is drilled on US soil?  (that is a rhetorical question but it does warrant some thought)…..

You want cheaper oil?  If so, there is only one answer……an answer that few will like…..and it involves the “N” word!  As it is today….NOTHING will give you cheaper gas!  No amount of promises or vague policies will lessen the price.

How many times must I go over this issue before people remove their heads from the sand and realize that there will be NO cheap oil!

My Take On ‘Drill Baby Drill’

Gas prices are on the rise and the president will be taking hits from his political opponents…..and as predictable as the sun will rise is the bumper sticker attacks and answers….like Drill Baby Drill…….before one can use the bumper sticker solutions they need to be aware of what is involved with the politics of oil……

First, let us look at the tax incentives for oil companies that the GOP is trying hard to protect….

Theodore Seto, a professor of tax law and policy at Loyola Law School Los Angeles, notes the distortion in the tax code toward investment in oil exploration with “the U.S. tax rate on profits from petroleum and natural gas structures … the lowest imposed on any type of corporate capital asset”:

Why Oil Companies Don’t Drill, Understanding Tax: U.S. oil companies are pushing hard to get Congress to allow the current Administration to issue more oil leases before its term expires. In response, skeptics have noted that three-quarters of the 90 million-plus acres of federal land already leased for oil drilling are not being worked. Oil companies deny this. Regardless of who is right, the number of operating oil rigs in North America declined across the course of 2007.

In the meantime, OPEC has raised its quotas by only 20% since 1998 – a measly 2% per year. World GDP grew by about 85% over the same period. The International Energy Agency reports that non-OPEC oil countries are also underproducing and predicts that they will continue to do so.

Everyone seems to be holding back. … So what to do?

On the tax side, Congress has done almost all it can do to stimulate U.S. production.

A 2005 Congressional Budget Office study concluded that the effective 2002 U.S. tax rate on profits from petroleum and natural gas structures was the lowest imposed on any type of corporate capital asset: 9.2%. Profits from computers, by contrast, were taxed at an effective rate of 36.9%.

A 2000 study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy concluded that in 1998, of all U.S. industries, petroleum and pipeline companies were taxed at the lowest effective rates: 5.7%. Health care companies, by contrast, were taxed at an effective rate of 32%.

If tax incentives were going to induce U.S. oil companies to drill, they probably would have done so by now. Interestingly, Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama both propose to eliminate oil production tax incentives. After all, if oil companies are not responding by increasing production, those breaks are just gifts from you and me to Exxon. …

Remember that prices are a measure of value. If oil prices are going to be much higher 10 years from now, that means oil will be more valuable then than it is now. Valuable to us.

If so, should it really be our policy to drain U.S. reserves as quickly as possible? Or should our policy be to save at least some of those reserves for the day when gas is $10/gallon?

More domestic drilling will lower gas prices here in the US…….is that true?  From CNN Money…….

The problem is this: While increased oil and gas drilling in the United States may create good-paying jobs, reduce reliance on foreign oil and lower the trade deficit, it will have hardly any impact on gas and oil prices.

That’s because the amount of extra oil that could be produced from more drilling in this country is tiny compared to what the world consumes.

Plus, any extra oil the country did produce would likely be quickly offset by a cut in OPEC production.

“This drill drill drill thing is tired,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, which calculates gas prices for the motorist organization AAA. “It’s a simplistic way of looking for a solution that doesn’t exist.”

After OPEC got done adjusting its production to reflect the increased American output, gas prices might drop a whopping 3 cents a gallon, the study said.

“More production from anywhere would tend to lower prices,” said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank. “But the amount that we’re talking about domestically, it wouldn’t move gas prices from $4 a gallon to $3.”

In fact, more domestic oil is just what we’ve been seeing and gasoline prices are still going up.

The next talking point that the GOP and its spokespeople use is that most of the domestic oil production in the US is on private land and the oil companies want public lands open to drilling……why?

My thought is that it would be more expensive for the oil companies on private land and that they could have their friends n Congress see that they get a free ride while drilling on public land….but could this be the case, really?

The magazine, Economist is reporting……

The main problem is that Congress obviously doesn’t want to be handing out royalty-free drilling leases on sites that would be commercially attractive even at the going rate. That’s just handing out taxpayer money to a few corporations for no good reason; among other things, it’s not fair to other drillers who have to pay for their leases. And when the price of crude goes above a certain level, those tough-to-develop deepwater wells become commercially attractive even without the free leases. So Congress sensibly instructed the Minerals Management Service (MMS) to award these free leases only when the price of oil was at a level low enough that they wouldn’t otherwise be profitable to exploit.Whoops! We all remember the MMS, right? So apparently, in 1998-99, the folks at the MMS were too busy flirting with each other, or accepting private-jet rides to college football games, or whatever, to notice that the price of oil had gotten pretty high and they shouldn’t be handing out free leases anymore. As a result, 24 companies got free leases they shouldn’t have gotten. And ever since, they’ve been making extra money that they really ought to be returning in the form of leases on public property to the American taxpayer. As of 2008, the bill came to $1.3 billion; this year, the losses will be $1.5 billion. Over the decades-long lifetime of the wells it’ll add up to a lot more. According to the Government Accountability Office it’ll come to $53 billion over the next 25 years. Last week, representative Ed Markey and a few other Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee offered an amendment to the Republican budget bill to make those oil producers pay the standard amount in the future on the royalty-free leases they mistakenly received due to bureaucratic error. The amendment was voted down, 251-174

Oh, one more thing. Some years back, Shell, BP, and two other oil companies that also mistakenly received royalty-free leases signed agreements with the federal government to voluntarily pay the normal lease on their wells from that date on. They probably did so less out of any concern for fairness to the American taxpayer than out of a desire to avoid the possibility that the government would try to retroactively recover leases for prior years. Nonetheless, voluntarily agreeing to pay the royalties going forward was the right thing to do. So, in the spirit of encouraging good behaviour: Shell and BP, good show. Chevron and the other guys, you need to go sit in the corner for a while and think about what behaviour this situation calls for.

It now is making more sense!  Public land drilling would make the companies more profits with less overhead….and that is what capitalism is all about, right?  Keeping capitalism in mind….would the price of gas come down?  My guess would be ….NO!

I hope this post will help those that think ‘Drill Baby Drill’ is the answer to all our oil and gas problems…..the solutions that are used in these political times will only benefit the oil companies and you and your Hummer will still be using and buying high price gas.

If you really want lower gas prices then focus on…..speculation…..control that and you can somewhat control prices.

Drill Baby Drill is a slogan, a bumper sticker not a viable policy….

Pain At The Pump

We all have heard the rhetoric about the price of gas….it is Obama’s fault…..we need to drill more…..American oil will bring the prices down…sorry, sports fans but NONE of that is true!  At best it is just electioneering bumper stickers….but the American people are always falling for bullsh*t and why would this be any different, if anything it will get more traction because it effects most Americans daily…….

Let’s look at a few facts…….by 2006, the US was the 3rd leading oil producer in the world…..we are drilling so much that we have become an oil exporter for the first time since 1949 and oil production is up 10% since Obama is been the president….and NONE of that has brought the cost of gas down…..and now they want me to believe that more drilling will do that which it has not done in at least 5 years…..sorry asshats… I am NOT that gullible!

Gasomics 101:  Drilling does not affect gas prices at the pump despite rhetoric
Gas prices are not a function of how much oil is drilled in the US versus how much is drilled in the world. Oil prices are set on a global level. Gas prices are the result of three factors:  global price of a barrel of oil, state and federal taxes, and gas supplies coming out of refineries.
Impact of the price of crude oil
Since the US imports over 64% of its oil, the amount of oil produced domestically would have to double to the levels of 1970 which was1.2 million BPD to make any difference at all. It took nearly 40 years to decline to the levels under Bush. If it were even possible to produce that much oil in the US again, it would take years to ramp up production.
The cost of extracting a barrel of oil today according to the CEO of Exxon, the nation’s largest oil company, is about $60-$70 dollars a barrel or $0.65 cents a gallon. Oil is trading on the markets at over $100 a barrel—a 30% to 35% gross markup.  Oil companies make a profit of 2-3 cents a gallon. Where does the rest go? A large portion goes to Wall Street oil speculators.  Industry experts have estimated oil speculators increase the cost of gasoline by $0.75 a gallon.
Sometimes the price of crude oil increases due to production levels set by OPEC. Other times, it is affected by a disruption in oil supply. That was the case with the spikes in the 70’s. Neither of these are the case with this current increase.  The Arab spring uprisings were the excuse for speculators driving up prices, but no disruption in oil production or shipping has actually occurred. This is an artificial increase in gas prices designed to put profits in speculator’s pockets.
Impact of gas taxes and taxes on oil companies

The federal excise tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents a gallon—the same as under George Bush. States add taxes ranging from a low of 8 cents a gallon in Alaska to 31.9 cents a gallon in New York.  Gas taxes do not move with the price of oil or the price of gas.
Oil companies and their apologists blame taxes for high prices. Truth is, oil companies have so many write offs and subsidies, they actually pay almost no federal tax.
Impact of refineries

A very large portion of the cost difference between crude oil, and price of gas is the cost of refining it. Previous increases were the result of a reduction in refining capacity. Hurricane Katrina damaged oil refineries in the gulf reducing capacity. Fires at refineries also cut capacity.  None of that is occurring now.  Gas supplies are normal.

Are the President’s policies to blame for current gas prices?
The actual answer is that gasoline prices are not really affected by any policy of the Obama administration.  Domestic production is increasing, not decreasing.
After a short moratorium on drilling in the Gulf after the BP disaster, permits for new deep water oil wells are being issued. The recent Exxon discovery was from a well permitted after the BP moratorium was lifted. The President announced a week ago new policies to speed up domestic oil production even more.
It is an election year, and Americans are hurting from high gas prices. It creates a convenient opportunity to blame the public’s misery on the President to win votes. The facts do not support this rhetoric, but in political speeches, facts seldom come into play. Production declined under every Republican President and Republican Congress since Nixon.
Speculation, my friends!  There is your culprit, not anything any president has done or said.  But by all means, vote for the biggest liar and your gas will be $2.50 a gallon as soon as he/she is elected……..and by the way, as long as you are buying bullsh*t…..I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you……
You want to spend less on gas?  Here is an idea……..STOP buying and driving gas guzzling monstrosities just to impress your neighbors….mindless consumerism is just as guilty of raising gas prices as anything…..

What About Those Gas Prices?

The GOP is reeling from the mass of bad PR they have gotten from the candidates unrealistic stances on contraception….so how do you change the subject?  GAS PRICES!

Gas prices are going up and up and of course it is election time and the opposition will make it all the president’s fault…..Mitt has promised two dollar a gallon gas when he is elected president….now sports fans….HE IS LYING!

For one, the president has little control over then price of gas……think Exxon at this point……will they give up profit to make Mitt happy?  And then there is the promise of more drilling domestically….good plan and it will take at least 5 years for that to take effect and there is NO guarantee that it will lessen the price of gas at US pumps……now at this point think Chevron……will they give up profits because the oil came from the US soil?

Let us not forget about speculation which has more to do with the price of oil than who is president….or who promises something they could NEVER deliver short of nationalization….now there is something to think about….

Could the price of gas come down?  Sure when the price of oil does.

But with all that in your head think about something else…..from USAToday:

Looking at your heating bills or gas prices, you may find it surprising that the United States is enjoying a mini oil boom. It’s producing more crude oil and, for the first time in decades, has become a net exporter of petroleum products such as jet fuel, heating oil and gasoline.

The U.S. exported more oil-based fuels than it imported in the first nine months of this year, making it likely that 2011 will be the first time since 1949 that the nation is a net exporter of such goods, primarily diesel.

That’s not all. The U.S. has reversed another decades-long trend. It began producing more crude oil in 2008 than the year before and accelerated that upswing 3% in the first nine months of this year compared with the same period in 2010. That production has helped reduce U.S. imports of crude oil by about 10% since 2006.

Read it!  The US has exported more oil than it imported!  Could that exported oil be used here in the good old US of A to keep the price of gas down?  At this point think Texaco…….profits are the common denominator……profits will lead the way and as long as that is the motivation there will be NO way to bring the price of gas down…..