High Gas Prices Driving America into the Ditch
While many economists predicted four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline by this summer, anyone filling up their tank this past week has already experienced the pain of four dollar gas pretty much across the nation. Now we dreadfully await the five-dollar-a-gallon-gasoline that many predict is on the way this summer. I watched on TV as a lady in Baltimore was shown pumping $100 worth of gasoline into the gas tank of her Honda Accord. She went on to explain that while it is good to have her tank filled up to go somewhere, she will be left with very little spending money when she gets to her destination. This is a direct reflection on how our economy will suffer under the crushing weight of high gas prices. Not too long ago she could have filled up that very same car for $50.00 and had an extra $50.00 to spend shopping for life’s little extras, such as new curtains, furniture, clothes, cooking utensils, etc.
Pic courtesy of digitaljournal.com.
Today, due to the high price of gasoline, all the merchants selling those items will be hurt indirectly. The customer is left with less money to spend in the merchants stores due to high gasoline prices, period. This is often referred to as trickle down economics. High fuel prices also drive up the cost of every single item we need to purchase on a daily basis, such as food, electricity, and anything that has to be transported from point A to point B to be available for purchase. When it costs the transportation companies double the amount of money to fuel up their trucks, ships, airplanes and boats, they simply have to raise their shipping and transportation costs so they can stay in business. That makes the price of every item we purchase increase, which then makes your paycheck able to buy less’ as an end result. This is the double whammy that is now hitting every single American, whether they realise it yet or not. So what is causing the soaring gasoline prices that we see today? In trying to answer that question, I will try a more common sense approach to exploring the possible causes of rising gas prices, as we have already heard from all the self-appointed experts about their theories on it.
First of all, like it or not, politics plays a huge part in gasoline prices. From over-regulation by our government, to the moratorium on the drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico and other huge oil deposits in the U.S., to OPEC’s manipulation of oil reserve numbers, to the upcoming 2012 elections, they all play a part in increasing oil prices. When it comes to the politics of skyrocketing gasoline prices in America, I see another possible reason for why this problem is not being addressed. The current President is a disciple of the Alinsky model of creating a crisis, then using it to further empower themselves over the people . Obama is pushing for a green energy plan that has been proven to be a huge failure across the globe, yet continues to hamper our very own domestic oil production. That puts us at the mercy of OPEC, along with the big oil-producing nations of the middle east that basically hate America. This also creates a crisis of high gasoline prices that the Alinsky-student Obama could step up and offer a “solution” for. We probably wouldn’t have four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline today if there hadn’t been a moratoriam on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, coupled with the expanded denial of permitting in our midwest for the past two years. It takes years to find the oil deposits and extract them from the ground, and I feel we are just now seeing the beginning of the damage the Gulf drilling moritoriam has done in interrupting our demestic oil production in the near future. This could explain why many experts are predicting five, and even six dollar a gallon gasoline by the end of this year.
I would imagine it would be a huge plus for Obama’s reelection chances if he could continue to allow the jacking up of the price of gasoline to over five dollars a gallon this year, let everyone feel that pain at the pump, and then come up with a savior-like lowering of gasoline prices by the summer of 2012, just in time to sway public opinion of him. The manipulation of our economy for political gains has been done before, many times. Super high gasoline prices would also help Obama sway people to accept his currently dysfunctional green energy plan, and also continue his wealth redistribution agenda through green energy companies, many of which have already proven to be a huge failure here in America. We have pumped billions of tax dollars into green energy companies with very little to show for it today. Super high gas prices will also allow Obama to continue the theft of tax dollars for his favored redistribution of wealth to unproven, dysfunctional green energy companies, further driving up our massive debt problem. This follows the pattern of continued government spending with nothing to show for it in return that we have seen from the Obama regime since day one in office. Understanding the politics behind the current gasoline prices, and possible motives behind continued high gasoline prices is crucial to the 2012 elections, in helping people to understand just what four more years of proven dysfunctional Obamanomics will mean to America and her economy.
Another reason behind high oil prices can be found in the connection between the big oil companies, wall street and Opec. With the current economy still struggling along at a snails pace, why in the world is the stock market still rocking and rolling at record high levels ? I found a pretty good explanation over at investorplace.com :
Big Oil Needs Expensive Gas to Survive: According to industry experts, the “easy” oil in the Middle East and Africa can be pumped for as little as $5 a barrel from simple surface well. Costs vary greatly for unconventional projects such as deepwater drilling and tar sands, but can easily be $40 a barrel or higher for tough to access supplies of oil. With fierce global competiton and state-run monopolies in Venezuela and China squeezing out Western energy giants, the bottom line is that cheap oil – and subsequently cheap gasoline – just doesn’t work out on the balance sheets of big oil. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but considering that Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), BP plc (NYSE: BP), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) and Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) have a collective market value well over $1 trillion, it’s hard to imagine all that financial clout simply sitting by and letting oil slump back to $50 or $60 bucks a barrel where high-tech, high-cost extraction leaves them little or no profit margin.
OPEC Wants Expensive Oil: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, has made it clear that $100 oil isn’t a sign of alarm but rather a decent equilibrium. The group has gone on the record saying oil prices above $100 a barrel are no reason for an emergency session. “If oil prices increase to $100 or more, it is not worrying and does not justify holding an extraordinary meeting by OPEC,” Iranian oil minister Masoud Mirkazemi was quoted as saying by the ministry’s news agency Shana. Is not worrying to whom, Mr. Mirkazemi? I think motorists and crude-dependent industries would have a different point of view.
In the first paragraph there we see the mention of the state-run monopolies in Venezuela and China, I feel that another state-run monopoly deserves mention here in the name of Brazil, where Obama currently met with the new president, who also happens to be a former leftist, Marxist guerrilla revolutionary who did time in prison. Obama also handed Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras, a permit to for oil storage and to drill for oil in the deepest part of OUR Gulf waters recently. I find this to be a glaring example of Obama’s hypocrisy working against America and her own oil production. Recently, many Congressmen and Senators have demanded an explanation for this action from the President, but to no avail. So much for the most honest and open administration in U.S. history that Obama promised in 2008. Are these the actions that the American people will be duped into voting for again in 2012 ?
As a final note, we now see former big oil tycoon- turned green energy investor, T. Boone Pickens smiling all the way to the bank once again due to his ” predicted ” skyrocketing oil prices. He has been calling on legislators to mandate the switch to wind energy for the past several years, and in which he is now heavily invested. For all the green energy believers and common sense deniers out there , I will leave you with a great example of how green energy could not even give 87 people on a small island off the coast of Scotland enough power to heat a teakettle here. That’s right, a small island of 87 citizens have windmills, solar panels, and hydro-electric turbines, yet had to rely on their own noisy gas fired generators to function on a daily basis. Remember Mr. Obama’s famous words uttered in 2008. ” Under my plan electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket. ” That is no different then my thoughts when filling up the gas tank this week, ” After two years of Obama rule, we are now paying almost $100.00 to fill up the gas tank on a Honda Civic. Can hard working Americans afford another four years of Obama’s ” fundamental transformation of America” ?