As I understand it - and there is very little that I seem to understand about it - the world oil crisis is no longer established by supply and demand.
They lied to us back in the times of Hurricane Katrina and many other occasions.
They said it was disrupted supply - the hurricane, a damaged pipeline, a refinery shut down for maintenance - that caused the cost of gasoline to inch up a few pennies a week, from $1.99 to $2.05 and from $2.49 to $2.54 a gallon.
And every couple of months or so, the price would fall 10 or 15 cents, then temporarily level off - but never falling to the cost of six or eight months earlier - always starting its climb from a higher and higher level.
Then at some point a year or so ago, the climb started to make bigger steps, every couple of days, and it never inched down. Not even for a week. Meanwhile we haven’t heard reports of giant hurricanes in the oil countries or ruptures of critical pipelines or refineries being closed for repair and cleaning.
All those years, they’d been lying to us, from the oil fields to Congress.
Now there’s a new excuse. Speculators, they say, are driving the price of oil into the stratosphere, or higher. Supply and demand apparently aren’t a factor anymore. No matter how much less we buy, conservation is putting no downward pressure on the oil market. Producers apparently aren’t short of supply - have you heard anyone in Mexico or the United States or Canada complain about not being able to fill their tank?
Less demand and a plentiful supply hasn’t seemed to matter.
Now I’m beginning to think that domestic drilling isn’t necessarily an answer. I’m told that if ANWR is developed in the Alaskan Arctic, it will be sold at the world market price, and there’s not enough of it to affect that price. It won’t just be sold to North Americans at a lower price, it will be dumped into the world supply at the (ever increasing) world price.
Taxes aren’t the answer. High taxes in Europe have kept prices there higher than the U.S. price for decades. When gas cost $1.50 a gallon here, it was selling for nearly $5 a gallon in places like Italy.
Democrats who want to tax the oil companies in the United States will only drive our prices higher, on everything from gasoline at the pump to food on the grocery shelves.
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado (I voted for the other guy) delivered an emphatic statement last week, and the press release containing the text of that address was headlined: “We need to be honest about our energy future.”
That means, of course, that they’ve been lying to us, and now it’s time to get honest.
Thanks, Senator.
Then he goes on to note than “since 2001” the price of oil has risen more than 400 percent, and that “over the last eight years” our dependence on foreign oil has increased.
Hummm, let’s see: 2001 was the year Republican George Bush was inaugurated as president.
So, now that we’re being honest, the rapid rise in the world oil price is determined by the president of the United States - apparently a new phenomenon that went into effect in 2001, and was never before a driving factor.
Forget about OPEC. Forget about Democratic opposition to developing new producing fields and refineries over the past 40 years. Forget about nuclear power. Forget about hurricanes and broken pipelines and old refineries.
Now that we’re being honest, we can say it’s an eight-year-old problem, and it’s George Bush who actually sets the world price of oil.
Aha! Now if we just elect a Democrat president supported by a veto-proof Democrat Congress, the world price of oil will begin dropping like rock.
Oh, and the moon will turn to cheese.
OK, so now that we’re all being honest, we know the answer to the world oil crisis - elect all Democrats, who don’t have a stated plan, to Washington in 2008.
Now I understand. Thank goodness for honesty.
They lied to us back in the times of Hurricane Katrina and many other occasions.
They said it was disrupted supply - the hurricane, a damaged pipeline, a refinery shut down for maintenance - that caused the cost of gasoline to inch up a few pennies a week, from $1.99 to $2.05 and from $2.49 to $2.54 a gallon.
And every couple of months or so, the price would fall 10 or 15 cents, then temporarily level off - but never falling to the cost of six or eight months earlier - always starting its climb from a higher and higher level.
Then at some point a year or so ago, the climb started to make bigger steps, every couple of days, and it never inched down. Not even for a week. Meanwhile we haven’t heard reports of giant hurricanes in the oil countries or ruptures of critical pipelines or refineries being closed for repair and cleaning.
All those years, they’d been lying to us, from the oil fields to Congress.
Now there’s a new excuse. Speculators, they say, are driving the price of oil into the stratosphere, or higher. Supply and demand apparently aren’t a factor anymore. No matter how much less we buy, conservation is putting no downward pressure on the oil market. Producers apparently aren’t short of supply - have you heard anyone in Mexico or the United States or Canada complain about not being able to fill their tank?
Less demand and a plentiful supply hasn’t seemed to matter.
Now I’m beginning to think that domestic drilling isn’t necessarily an answer. I’m told that if ANWR is developed in the Alaskan Arctic, it will be sold at the world market price, and there’s not enough of it to affect that price. It won’t just be sold to North Americans at a lower price, it will be dumped into the world supply at the (ever increasing) world price.
Taxes aren’t the answer. High taxes in Europe have kept prices there higher than the U.S. price for decades. When gas cost $1.50 a gallon here, it was selling for nearly $5 a gallon in places like Italy.
Democrats who want to tax the oil companies in the United States will only drive our prices higher, on everything from gasoline at the pump to food on the grocery shelves.
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado (I voted for the other guy) delivered an emphatic statement last week, and the press release containing the text of that address was headlined: “We need to be honest about our energy future.”
That means, of course, that they’ve been lying to us, and now it’s time to get honest.
Thanks, Senator.
Then he goes on to note than “since 2001” the price of oil has risen more than 400 percent, and that “over the last eight years” our dependence on foreign oil has increased.
Hummm, let’s see: 2001 was the year Republican George Bush was inaugurated as president.
So, now that we’re being honest, the rapid rise in the world oil price is determined by the president of the United States - apparently a new phenomenon that went into effect in 2001, and was never before a driving factor.
Forget about OPEC. Forget about Democratic opposition to developing new producing fields and refineries over the past 40 years. Forget about nuclear power. Forget about hurricanes and broken pipelines and old refineries.
Now that we’re being honest, we can say it’s an eight-year-old problem, and it’s George Bush who actually sets the world price of oil.
Aha! Now if we just elect a Democrat president supported by a veto-proof Democrat Congress, the world price of oil will begin dropping like rock.
Oh, and the moon will turn to cheese.
OK, so now that we’re all being honest, we know the answer to the world oil crisis - elect all Democrats, who don’t have a stated plan, to Washington in 2008.
Now I understand. Thank goodness for honesty.
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