Democrats prove that they could care less if the price of gasoline reaches $10.00 per gallon.
This video (from CSPAN, today) shows Americans that the Democrats will not allow even a debate on the Senate floor, on our demands to allow drilling for oil on our own continental shelves, even if gasoline hits $10.00 per gallon.
Senator Mitch McConnell, (R) Senate Minority Leader, asks for unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of a Senate Bill to address drilling in the outer continental shelf…
Senator Ken Salazar, (D) Colorado: I object.
McConnell: [Renews proposed consent agreement, with the enactment date triggered when the price of gasoline reaches $4.50 at the pump.]
Salazar: I object.
And so on. Senator McConnell increments the proposed trigger, each time getting the grim response: “I Object”.
At $4.50/Gallon: Democrats: Object
At $5.00/Gallon: Democrats: Object
“What is the definition of an emergency?” At $7.50/Gallon: Democrats: Object
At $10.00/Gallon: Democrats: Object
You can see where this is going, right? Democrats now have a complete disregard of the ‘little guy’, of the average American’s woes at the pump. This is proof of the complete disregard of the working-class Americans that Democrats say they ‘favor’. Over the rich (who can afford $10.00/gallon gasoline).
We can see who Democrats ‘favor’ and are truly beholden to: the Environmentalists. And the Al Gore global warmalists who would rather see the U.S. economy slump than admit that the earth’s warming isn’t caused by…the U.S.’s economy, or even the World’s economy. And, of course, Democrats are beholden to winning at all costs, in November.
Seems that they are getting a bit carried away by their own hubris.
h/t ‘feets
Or, could it be that Democrats simply recognize additional drilling as a massive giveaway to oil companies that will put no downward pressure on gas prices? Nah, that couldn’t be it.
I know you’re allergic to facts, but the fact is this: if oil companies are allowed to drill absolutely everywhere they want to drill, they’d hit peak production in 20 years, and that “peak production” would meet approximately 5% of US demand. You read that right, five percent. How much price pressure do you really think that’s going to create?
If lack of domestic production is the problem, then why are we currently exporting about 13% of what we produce today? (Hint: it’s more profitable to do so. OK, that wasn’t a hint, it was the answer.) That’s right, we whine about $4 a gallon, but that’s among the lowest gas price in the developed world, except in places like Venezuela where they subsidize the crap out of it. So we sell our oil to Australia and Japan, where they’ll pay more for it, and buy the “cheap” stuff from Canada and the Middle East.
It’s really basic market economics. The oil companies are currently selling every single drop they can produce, as fast as they can produce it, at a little over $4/gallon, on average. So where’s the incentive to charge less?
(All this sets aside the 68 million acres where the oil companies already have drilling rights, but choose not to exploit them because they’d in many cases have to pay royalties to the landowners…)
Who has set US energy policy for the past 8 yrs behind closed doors with big oil to dictate the rules? You got it - Bush/Cheney. Gas was what $1.50 when Bush took office?
Admit nothing
Deny everything
Blame the Democrats
It’s sort of like invading Mexico because of Pearl Harbor, eh?
Funny. A recurring theme!
.
Captn,
What do you make of this?
Can you imagine how good the energy situation might be under President Gore right now? With Exxon making record profits and only spending a mere 1% on investment into alternative energy research, can you imagine what could have been done by an administration with a responsible, intelligent and innovative energy policy? If American greatness and innovation could put a man on the moon during the infancy of the computer age, just imagine what could have been the past 8 yrs instead of the greed, war, and arrogance we’ve endured.
It’s a neat idea, but the big problem is storage of hydrogen gas. It doesn’t take much to cause a reaction to give a burn-off, and driving around with pressurized gas canisters isn’t a good idea in general. It might be more interesting as a stationary fuel source.
There’s plenty of advances in electric cars that are very interesting, and some scientists have been looking at cellulose wastes to make paraffin to deliver hydrocarbons, which is now economically feasible with oil at $120 a barrel.
There’s a lot of new energy research out there that’s really quite exciting. I’m looking forward to the next 10 years. I think we’ll see a huge drop in internal-combustion engine cars once the kinks are ironed out.
or declaring war on Germany after Pearl Harbor . . . d’oh!
It’s really basic market economics. The oil companies are currently selling every single drop they can produce, as fast as they can produce it, at a little over $4/gallon, on average. So where’s the incentive to charge less?
Surely it matters that a cartel is setting the price of oil.
But is it “gouging” to charge Americans four dollars a gallon for gas when they’ll pay more for it in Australia? And whose “job” or responsibility is it to come up with alternatives to petroleum?
Gore as president? Yeah, maybe he could have jacked the price of petroleum artificially so as to get us all motivated to do his Ecohysterical bidding?
But thankfully Obama will be president soon (it’s in the bag) and he can solve all these problems!!
Another vexing display of ignorance.
Germany declared war on the U.S.
Obama may not be able to control gas prices, but he can end U.S. state sponsored torture and other terrorism.
He says he’ll do it, and Americans are going to give him the chance.
Ned, you would have felt right at home in Germany, circa 1930-33.
Godwin.
Gee, that’s all you’ve got?
“Why, that comment invokes the Godwin rule of the innertubes, therefore there could not possibly be any truth to it.”
Actually, the Bush administration is copying the methods of German national socialists, and many other totalitarian regimes to the letter.
Newsflash: this ain’t Godwin, its tyranny in the making.
You are a natural slave.
[…] Meanwhile, by that time, Nancy was on her private jet, spewing ozone-depleting (sorry, that was last year’s cause) carbon-based global-warming pollutants into the atmosphere. Nevermind that the gasoline prices at the pumps are a great pain to the majority of Americans. The little people are hurting, Nancy, and you cut ‘n run! […]
Sorry, should have said, “Going to war with Germany” (like Iraq which has been at war with us for decades . . . but I was tempted to mirror JP’s verbiage for full sarcastic effect, you know?)
Right, we have always been at war with Iraq.
War is peace. Slavery is freedom. Ignorance is strength. 2+2=5.
Anything else you wanna add?
Sorry, should have said, “Going to war with Germany” (like Iraq which has been at war with us for decades . . . but I was tempted to mirror JP’s verbiage for full sarcastic effect, you know?)
Full display of historical ignorance, perhaps. Yeah, the German army, navy and air forces were all contained within German borders, impotent except for an occasional fist-shaking rant at the U.S. and its allies.
.
Yeah, and we had those crazy little Jihadist camel jockeying clowns under our thumb, too.
Anything else you wanna add?
Nope, I guess I could reiterate that Germany wasn’t who attacked us at Pearl Harbor, though we ended up getting into a fight with them afterwards. Anything else you’d recommend that I point out?
Surely it matters that a cartel is setting the price of oil.
It would matter if more drilling here had any ability to change that. But it doesn’t. So remind me how that’s relevant. The simple fact is that as long as we’re dependent upon oil, we’re going to be dependent upon foreign oil, period. Nothing we can do to change that, other than to stop depending on oil (easier said than done). And as long as we’re dependent on foreign oil, we’re essentially at the whim of the Middle East, where the oil is exponentially more plentiful and exponentially easier to get at than anywhere else in the world.
These are the cold, hard facts that we should be hearing about whenever the subjects of high gas prices, additional drilling, foreign oil dependence, etc., come up, but we rarely do. The media’s too busy playing the “he said, she said” game rather than actually doing their job and reporting verifiable facts.
But thankfully Obama will be president soon (it’s in the bag) and he can solve all these problems!!
Neither President Obama nor President McCain would do anything significant to impact gas prices. About the only advantage to the former, with respect to that, is that he makes it less likely that we continue to delay the inevitable. Delaying the inevitable only serves to increase the cost when we finally do get around to tackling it. (Well, another benefit to an Obama presidency is that there’s less risk of an environmental catastrophe that comes as a result of chasing after a red herring.)
Yeah, and we had those crazy little Jihadist camel jockeying clowns under our thumb, too.
I don’t even know what that means. But it’s still worth pointing out that Iraq’s involvement in anti-US terrorism was approximately zero.
Nope, I guess I could reiterate that Germany wasn’t who attacked us at Pearl Harbor, though we ended up getting into a fight with them afterwards.
At the risk of prolonging a threadjack, why is there such widespread ignorance of history? Here’s how it went down:
- Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec 1941
- In response, the US declared war on Japan on 8 Dec 1941
- Because of Axis alliances, Italy and Germany responded to our declaration of war against Japan by declaring war on us on 11 Dec 1941 — i.e., they started it
- In response to their declaration of war on us, the US reciprocated later on 11 Dec 1941
So no, Germany didn’t attack us, but they did declare war on us first.
Now maybe Iraq officially declared war on us some time between 2001 and 2003, and I just missed it. Or maybe they attacked us sometime between 2001 and 2003, but I missed that, too.
Yeah, you did miss Iraq officially declaring war on us. Of course, dictatorships don’t exactly “declare war,” but Hussein was in armed conflict with us at least since we ran him out of Kuwait. And sorry, but you’re missing the point about Iraq and Al Qaeda and Afghanistan, etc. I may have misunderstood JP’s point (that’s glibness’ downside) but I perceived he was saying it was stupid to invade Iraq after 9/11. I was pointing out that Iraq after 9/11, like Germany after Pearl Harbor, was an enemy that needed to be confronted. I’m not sure the order in which war was “declared” is pertinent to my assertion.
impotent except for an occasional fist-shaking rant at the U.S. and its allies. 9/11 was fairly potent. And Hussein was very supportive of Terrorism and Terrorists targeting America.
I think I heard today that only 47% of our petroleum comes from outside the Western Hemisphere, and most of OPEC (the cartel to which I was referring) is almost exclusively Eastern Hemisphere. But it seems you’re failing to appreciate how increasing the supply (particularly the independent supply with respect to a cartel) will affect the price. And it is probably not true that we HAVE to depend on other sources of oil. Yes, our native supply is finite, but it is pretty large it seems. Your figures don’t seem to square with ones I have seen . . . numbers that indicate we could have 100 years worth of oil in the U.S. It has simply been to our advantage to buy it from other countries until now. What am I missing, tg?
No kidding.
Pot. Kettle. Black.