Comments (26)

I don't think 4$ a gallon gas is an emergency. But in the years to come we could see 6 or 8 dollars a gallon. Would that be an emergency? To some I suppose it would be a personal emergency as such prices would slow the economy, and yet it still wouldn't be an emergency in the way a terrorist attack on an oil facility, or another Katrina would be.

Virtually all of the talk from Washington is just pandering for the election. Releasing from the SPR, or "drill here, drill now" are guaranteed to be ineffective. Bush is a lame duck, so his administration isn't going to push new policies. Effectively we have a waiting game right now until the new President is in office.

I had heard a great deal about how refiners were still processing the crude they purchased at $100-$110/barrell and had yet to even touch the $130-$145 oil. Yet the drop in crude has been accompanied by a simultaneous, significant dip in gasoline prices. Can someone explain why this is so?

Thanks.

What a poorly written piece of trash! I guess the author doesn't understand that American's are used to paying slightly less than 8% of their wages on food. That, in part due to inncreased energy costs, but even more due to the same speculators that maniuplated those energy prices upward in another Enron, have driven the cost of food up to nearly 20% of the average American's household income. Energy costs, gasoline, elecrticity, heating oil and natural gas, are rising to such an extent that they will cost another 20%. Couple this with rising medical costs and the newest ploy by private insurers to automatically deny any claim over a preset amount (and I work in medical claims and know about this first hand. Companies create a labyrinth of paperwork and Byzantine rules that the average consumer cannot possibly understand, much less actually do, in the expectation that most will simply give up or the patient will die. In the face of the certainty that universal health care will cost me my job, unless we undertake it, we are simply doomed) and other rising costs and the percentage of household income that is necessary for the basics of survival in this country simply aren't there. Like some huge dumb animal that has been shot and is dead, but on it's feet still mindlessly lumbers on for a time, we are bankrupt, we are dead, and it is largely due to the shallow analysis and globalization fantasies of writers just like this one.

The oil reserve is the only place that could quickly produce jet aircraft fuel in a world-wide emergency. Without it, the United States could not carry out military operations for more than several months if other supplies had been cut off by hostile interests, as the Iranian's threat to close the Gulf of Hormuz in coordination with Russian and Venezualan embargos intend.

There is no practical value to the US economy in the short term by introducing a few million barrels that the SUV drivers will eat up without blinking. Many people know that the US military would be reduced in capabilities by the absence of an oil reserve, especially air operations. Could it be that there are other motives for wanting to see the Reserve consumed?

emergency?
heck no. a mere inconvience.
Price Control petro to AT OR BELOW $100/Barrel and a New Deal.

petro prices are a serious, serious problem and effect Us more than anything else.

you do the math since economists cannot.

Price Controls and New Deal
Price Controls on food and energy coupled with a New Deal that protects American's from corporate greed.

We just have to wait out the Bush regime before we can start developing a real energy policy that is independent of fossile fuels. I really think we should make these conservative retards suffer the consequences of Global Warming by sending them to live in the deserts.

Oh btw, for those of you who still believe that Global Warming may be caused by mother nature, the earth had experienced warming before, but over tens of thousands of years, and never within one single century like we are seeing now.

Well, I think if not an emergency, then Bush maybe guilty of an Oil Industry tactic of avoiding preventive maintanance to cut costs. A pipeline could rupture without performing routine inspections and preventive maintanance which leads to catastrophe for the company and enviroment.

It's a misnomer that free market economies are totally "free". Like, I don't know, antitrust legislations ? Maybe it's just ole Georgie's mind, if it is a Democratic idea, then it must be a bad idea. And you know, we the peons expect too much instant gratification. So if George wants to risk a deeper and longer recession, that is on him. The balance sheet shows if One destabilizes the Middle East then One must offset that risk.

Or, maybe Rev. Pat can plead with Texans and synthetic Texans to stop sinning. Obviously they are sinners, God shoved a Hurricane their way, right ?

The Democrats saw the movie, China Syndrome, with Jane Fonda, and have voted ever since to ban nuclear energy for electricity.

In 1969, we had the Santa Barbara oil spill. Union Oil requested the U.S. Geological Survey to waive various well casing requirements. Well casing prevents oil and gas from escaping the well bore and migrating into the surrounding geological formation. The waiver was approved and the rest is history.

Due to this stupid error, off shore drilling has been prohibited ever since. Santa Barbara recovered and most homes in Santa Barbara sell for over a million dollars, despite the spill of 1969.

As long as Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House, the Democrats will not permit off shore drilling, even if gas goes up to $10 or $15 a gallon. It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Blessing.

For those screaming about the Democrats not letting oil companies drill offshore, please stop. It will take at least 10 years before any of this will be available to us and will not bring gas prices down. Even if we could drill this oil out faster, there are not enough refineries to process the oil into gas. Oil is a finite resource. It will run out. We need to start looking at alternatives - more than one.

This "crisis" could have been prevented years ago. During 1973 there as a little thing called the OPEC oil embargo where the Mid-Eastern nations refused to ship oil to any nation that supported Israel during what is now known as the Yom Kippur War. If we had at that time looked to the future and found ways to reduced our dependence on oil, we would not be having this conversation. Instead, once it was over we went back to our fas guzzling ways.

Who is to blame for this current "crisis" - we are. The problem with a lot of people in this nation is that they do not want to take responsibility for themselves or do anything that causes them inconvenience.

BeowulfthePolitician:

(So growled the last of the T. Rex) ;-)

Why on Earth would any Democrat want to lower the price of gas? For the first time in decades, the entire country has embraced the liberal hippy-childrens' Earth-First mantra. Even non-recycling (gasp!), cold, & calculating Republicans (like me =) are shopping for hybrids and eagerly awaiting GM and Subaru's All-Electric automobiles for full scale production. You should be rejoicing that your Son-of-Mother-Earth, Al Gore, has been vindicated, and the entire country is on a Green Footing. What will sustain our motivation if gas prices fall?

At least for the moment, it would seem the facts on the ground are outrunning the policy debate- oil prices are at least temporarily moderating. The only benefit to making releases from the SPR is the influence such releases might have on market psychology- the actual amount of oil involved is fairly trivial. As such, since the market is already in a (probably temporary) phase of unwinding long positions, there would not be much benefit to it. It's mostly election-year grandstanding.

That said, if prices spike again next spring with a vengeance (certainly a possibility given seasonal demand patterns), small SPR releases could be justified to dampen the sort of rabid speculation we have seen this year. Releases would also be a rational response to major hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico later this summer, if it occurs.

I disagree with many of the comments on here in regards to offshore drilling. First off, offshore drilling specialists routinely set up operations to production levels in 2-5 years (admittedly it could take slightly longer for extremely deep water); the 10+ year figure I have only seen applied to ANWR, due to the remoteness of the location and the need to construct extensive land-based infrastructure.

Also, offshore oil (or oil anywhere on public land, for that matter) is a collective resource. Oil companies are not given access to this resource for free; they purchase leases and also pay royalties (which, given current market prices, could be VERY substantial without making exploiting these reserves unfeasible). If we assume that our dependence on foreign oil is a strategic liability (both in terms of direct security as well as economic cost) and that the availability of "cheap" oil is diminishing, then we desperately need to address the problem of reducing this dependence. It will be expensive to do so. Royalties on expanded oil production in US waters could be dedicated (at least in part) to this purpose, while the supplies obtained from this drilling could provide at least a small cushion to the economy during the transitional period to a non-oil based energy infrastructure.

High oil prices are a blessing. Since we have repeatedly shown that as a nation we can't think beyond the next 3 months or so, high gas prices are the only way to get us to reduce our wasteful consumption of resources.

People are finally driving less, driving smaller cars, riding bicycles, or even *gasp* taking public transportation. This winter people will be rushing to install insulation in their homes. It certainly seems to me like we're finally on the right track...who would have thought it would take an oilman from Texas as President to finally get Americans to conserve?

We should not tap into the S.R. because a real emergency is likely around the corner. We need to quickly declare War on Oil and engage in a nationwide effort to be solar/wind etc. within the next few years. We need to incentivise EVs and improve our grid and guarentee the right for everyone to pump energy into the grid. We need to fast track advanced batteries and super-ultracapacitors. We need to put a solar panel on every roof and a wind generator in every back yard (where practical). We need to recognize that energy security IS national security. We need to recognize that carbon pollution is a threat to our National Security. We need to release American can-do and ingenuity. We mostly need to remove Conservative nihilists who deny us our bright future!

Neither a burden nor an emergency, but an opportunity, for those who choose to seize it... an opportunity to transition to a post-petroleum era.

Petroleum has been being created for millions of years. Only in roughly the last hundred years has it begun being extracted and burned in any quantity, and indications are, in that one hundred years, we have extracted and burned roughly half of what we may eventually be able to access.

Talk about an inconvenient truth....

Oil potentially yet to be discovered offshore has been there for millenia and more...THERE IS NO RUSH to drill for it. It isn't going anywhere, and in ten years or a hundred, it will be even more desperately needed, and more valuable, than it is today.

We need to focus on the current long-term repeat of a wake-up call we first received over 35 years ago. At that time, we hit the snooze button.

Petroleum is not inexhaustible! We have been blessed to have been living our whole lives in the midst of one of the biggest bubbles of all... The Petroleum Bubble. Now we are emerging from those halcyon days to a different reality for the next few centuries/millenia, and we need to ADAPT. Or go extinct.

Gas will be $3.35 a gallon by November just in time for the election you can bet your life on it.
It happened the last two election cycles this time we will be fed some boloney about global demand blah blah blah.

How this constitutes an "emergency" is beyond me. As others have stated, painful for some, yes, but an emergency, no. Even though my work is 10 miles each way, I still manage to drive less than 6000 miles a year. I bike and walk whenever I can locally, and bought very very high gas mileage cars. Driving a Prius, even at $5 a gallon, my total gas expenditure would be $500 per year. I waste more on EBay buying junk I don't need. I can't really feel sorry for those sitting in 3 ton Suburbans that get 10 mpg, or those that made the decision to live a far distance from their work with no mass transit options in place.

Yes, I do understand gas prices have a domino effect and raise the cost of most goods we buy and consume and thus contribute to inflation. But again, is a period of inflation an emergency?

The last time I checked, every gas station I drove past was still offering all the gas I could possibly fit in my tank. This is a far cry from the situation in the 70's (for those of you old enough like me to be driving at that time) where you either had to wait in a 2 hour line to get 10 gallons of gas or drove by dozens of stations displaying signs "Out Of Gas!". When we get to that point, then I'll buy into the emergency and fully support the release from the SPR. Until then, keep it for what it's supposed to be for - an emergency.

In the year 2000 gas was priced at around $1.30/gallon. In 2001 Vice President Cheney has SECRET MEETING(S) WITH ENERGY EXECUTIVES. IN THE YEAR 2008 GAS IS PRICED AROUND $4.00/GALLON. WE can now surmise that the plan of these secret meetings was to drive up the price of gas to extreme high levels(for Americans) and try to put alot of political heat on Congress to open up almost all public lands (and off shore) to drilling. This is also being done for political reasons to get Americans to vote Republican(think friends of big oil) in the fall elections. We need an energy policy that works for the American people NOT BIG OIL!

Neither. Gas prices are still too low. Raise taxes now to achieve more fuel efficient behaviour from the masses.

mascmen7:

I was an Obama lover until recent days when Obama, Reid, Pelosi vetoed any oil drilling. How will we get more gas? Dems always mess up every prez election. Now they are setting themselves up for a fall again. So dumb! Dems are more dogmatic than the Church following rigid doctrines that are harmful to living beings such as Dems are abortionists, against oil drilling, against school vouchers which enable black youth to get a good education after escaping the public schools. Dems say No, We Can't rather than the lie Yes, We Can.

--Somehow your ignorance of the Democratic platform has me doubting that you ever were an Obama supporter. You sound like a devoted Rush follower.

Oil Drilling is short sighted and being used as leverage by oil companies to make another land grab from the people. If they'd been developing their current leases and building new refineries over these past few decades the pinch wouldn't be so bad right now. I think we've had enough corporate welfare for these "patriotic" multinationals.

the problem with a "crisis" is that, too often, the response to it is not as well thought out and comprehensive as a real solution to the problem which caused the crisis in the first place.

all the rush to judgement in the form of gas tax holidays, ethanol requirements, etc. may create the impression we are addressing the problem but nothing is further from the truth.

we got here with a thirty year period of denying the inevitable and refusing to accept the fact that pertoleum is a resource we have little of and which is a shrinking and exhaustible source of power. and, we have refused to face another fact; exploration, development and extraction of oil is an expensive and time consuming process not lending itself to a quick turn on the spigot solution.

I say let's keep gas at $4 a gallon because it is the only incentive our population understands and which will motivate us, collectively, to develop and convert to alternates for our vehicle fleet.

Ignoring reality means we are going to have to suffer through a five to ten year period of adjustment until electic or hydrogen powered cars are feasible and affordable. But, in moving to that reality, let's get real about quick fixes; they may make us feel good and give our politicians the appearance of doing something, but they are just as false as ignoring the fact we control 2% of the world's oil reserves but use 25% of the supply to power our vehicle fleet.

These oil prices are probably for the long haul so let's get our head out of our butts and figure out some alternative methods to lessen the pain to our budget. Everyone else in the world (except the major producers) pays a lot more per gallon then we do so the markets are finally catching up to us.

The Democrats are looking for an easy gotcha instead of a real solution.....I can't believe it but Bush is right. Leave the reserves for a real emergency and not some election year BS. Besides the fact that one of his real emergencies is major war in the mid-East, which could still happen in a few months if he hits the button aimed at Iran.

Cut the Ethanol subsidies and let's get real about what it'll take to replace oil in our vehicles. It's finally worth the investment money for a few companies to lead us off this well beaten path.

Dumb is as dumb does - first, releasing oil is only a bandaid and stuipd; also, the idea that 'drilling' along the coasts in deep water will have any real effect on current prices is also stupid - experts feel that it will be ten to fifteen years before full production can come on line; right, that will help current prices or for the next ten years. Of course, by then, the question will most likely be irrelavent due to other factors.

I was an Obama lover until recent days when Obama, Reid, Pelosi vetoed any oil drilling. How will we get more gas? Dems always mess up every prez election. Now they are setting themselves up for a fall again. So dumb! Dems are more dogmatic than the Church following rigid doctrines that are harmful to living beings such as Dems are abortionists, against oil drilling, against school vouchers which enable black youth to get a good education after escaping the public schools. Dems say No, We Can't rather than the lie Yes, We Can.

While I'm not someone whose livelihood is greatly impacted by the gas crunch (fairly well-off, can bike to work) and I understand others are hurting more, I just don't think this is an emergency. Painful, yes. But not an emergency. Keep that supply until something _huge_ happens...