Saturday, May 10, 2008

My Take On Gas Prices

Ok here is my take (some of you might think it is a little weird, but what the heck) on the gas prices in this country. Mainly dealing with why Politicians and the government as a whole stands by and basically refuses to act on the high fuel prices.

I believe that government refuses to act on the fuel price crisis because when the fuel prices are this high, people will start to reduce the travel. They will reduce travel because their finances will begin to suffer. So while they reduce their travel they will in fact still have to travel to work. So in order to maintain their lifestyle they will start to cut back on their driving to work, and start using mass transit more. Now who controls the mass transit systems through out this country? If you guessed the government you would be correct. So you will start to take advantage of another government program, thus making you dependent on the government even more than you have been. Thus taking more of your money (you will pay taxes that runs the service and then you will pay toll fees for using the service).

So if you do not have a mass transit system in your town, I'm sure the government will be enacting one shortly.

Lets demand for a true solution to this situation. Not the governments idiotic solution that will be another abysmal failure that will do nothing but take more of your money.

Viva Liberty!

1 comment:

George Dorunda - The Mega-Star Retired said...

Keep in mind that government is, by and large, responsible for high fuel prices.

According to federal government estimates, there is an abundance of oil in the domestic areas, Gulf of Mexico, off the coasts and Alaska, 112 billion barrels that we are currently aware of. That would be enough to power more than 60 million cars for 60 years, but we have eco-radical moratoriums on drilling for our oil. The Outer Continental Shelf in the United States contains over 44 billion barrels of oil, and 232 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Eighty-five percent of the outer continental shelf is off limits to domestic exploration due to more eco-radical moratoriums. Yet we have the usual whining and complaining about dependence on foreign oil, and the resulting price increase. In the Gulf of Mexico, there is enough natural gas to heat 60 million homes for 160 years. You can't get the natural gas if you don't get the oil. It's a by-product.

First a study on how gas prices work.

http://money.howstuffworks.com/gas-price.htm

We need to focus on the main problem, government. Get the eco-radicals in our government to stop requiring numerous various blends of gasoline for each state and to permit us to drill for our own oil in Alaska and off the coast of Florida.

Many of the political hacks who are jumping up and down about the price of gas will also do nothing to bring down its price. The enviro-wackos and hypocrites complain about the high cost, but won't allow us to decrease our dependence on foreign oil by drilling for our own. Nor will they allow us to build more refineries. They want it both ways.

Your governments, local, state and federal, are stealing money from you every single day to fund vote-buying programs. Your elected officials are ripping you off to support programs to study the mating habits of Austrian zlotnika pigs and other similar pork projects, pun intended. How do you think they feel when they see you griping about gas prices? They LOVE it!

The price of gasoline is artificially high. Not because oil companies are conspiring to jack up the price, but because government is doing everything in its power to keep the price of gas high. And, there are some political hacks out there who want to add more taxes to a gallon of gasoline.

The government already takes five times as much out of the proceeds of the sale of a gallon of gas as do the gas stations that sell the stuff. Five times! Now they're talking about taking even more! Every penny that these oil companies pay in taxes ends up reflected in the cost at the pump.

For instance, we could drill for more oil. More oil domestically produced would reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy. But the leftist enviro-crazies won't allow that. Drilling in ANWR? Forget it. Then you have the issue of refining the oil into gasoline. Not one single refinery has been built in the last 30 years.

The result: the refineries we do have are running at full capacity. They can't produce enough gasoline to keep up with demand, so the price shoots up in the summer. It also doesn't help that those refineries have to produce several different blends to appease the environmentalists around the country.

Then there are taxes. People don't notice because it's rolled into the price of a gallon of gas, but between federal, state and local taxes, the government is taking 40-50 cents a gallon. So just remember as you fill up your SUV this summer and pay $3.50 a gallon, the silent hand of government is what is causing the price to be so high. No other reason.

Crude oil prices went up by 454% over a period of seven years. How much did gas prices go up during the same period? Try 162%. Looks to me like things could be worse.

Did the oil companies go out there and set the crude oil prices that high? Do you think the oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia might have had anything to do with it? Is it possible that the ever-increasing worldwide demand for crude oil was a factor? How about the fact that oil exploration slowed several years ago when crude was selling for under $20 a barrel? Now that the price is so much higher many more companies are getting into the exploration business, but it takes somewhere around 5 years from discovery of an oil deposit to actual production. The price of oil didn't start its uphill swing until about 2004. Do the math.

It's supply and demand, that simple. Add that to the environmental whack-jobs who will most assuredly stand in the way of any further exploration in this country, or the construction of any new refineries, and you add to the problem. If you want a government solution, tell the government to stop paying so much attention to the anti-capitalist faction of the environmental movement. Start drilling in ANWR. Start exploring off the Atlantic and Florida Gulf coast. Start constructing those nuclear plants. Then get out of the way and let the free market solve this problem as only the free market can.

http://www.dorunda.com/