Egg fight
Imagine if you will two people fighting over a raw egg. Both have a grip on it and are trying to wrest it form the other. The problem is, eventually, unless one of them yields, no one will get the egg.
Gas prices are high. That's the result of too little supply and too much demand. The bulk of our oil comes from other countries, in spite of the fact that the US has more oil under her soil than any other nation. (supposedly we're hoarding it so we can use it when the rest of the world runs out). Liberals blame "Big Oil" in spite of the fact that "Big Government" gets the lion's share of ever dollar spent of gasoline. Here are two illustrations of the political egg fight going on with gas prices.
From Fox News...
Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., spearheaded the effort. His proposal would open up U.S. waters between 50 and 200 miles off shore for drilling. The first 50 miles off shore would be left alone.
But the plan failed Wednesday on a 9-6, party-line vote in a House appropriations subcommittee, which was considering the proposal as part of an Interior Department spending package.
With record oil prices and gas prices projected to hover around the $4 mark for the rest of the summer, Republicans have ratcheted up their efforts to open up oil exploration along U.S. coastline. But the long-sought change has so far been unsuccessful.
Most offshore oil production and exploration has been banned since a federal law passed in 1981.
So the Democrats won't allow us to expand supply. What's their solution?
From the Associated Press...
The Democratic energy package would have imposed a 25 percent tax on any "unreasonable" profits of the five largest U.S. oil companies, which together made $36 billion during the first three months of the year. It also would have given the government more power to address oil market speculation, opened the way for antitrust actions against countries belonging to the OPEC oil cartel, and made energy price gouging a federal crime....
GOP opponents argued that little was to be gained by imposing new taxes on the five U.S. oil giants: Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Shell Oil Co., BP America Inc. and ConocoPhilips Co.
While these companies may be huge, they don't set world oil prices and raising their taxes would discourage domestic oil production, the Republicans said of the Democrats' plan.
The Federal government currently gets 18.4 cents on every dollar spent on gas. States get anywhere from 7.5 (Georgia) to 32.1 (Wisconsin) cents on every dollar spent on gas within their state.
A barrel of crude oil (currently at about $130) makes 42 gallons of gas. So the cost of the raw material is about $3.10 a gallon. In Oklahoma where gas is right at $4, after the cost of the oil, the Federal government's cut and the State's cut (16 cents) that leaves about 55 cents for "Big Oil" to take, but out of that they have to pay to refine it, and transport it to the gas station. So obviously blaming "Big Oil" is not the solution, expanding supply by opening up oil production in the US is, but the Democrats refuse to allow that.
So who's really to blame? Obviously the Democrats for using the suffering of American citizens as a political tool, while increasing that suffering themselves.
Posted by Danny Carlton at June 12, 2008 8:34 AM