Bush Plan on Gas Prices Falls Short
by Pamela LeaveyToday, Bush ordered a temporary suspension of all environmental rules for gas, to make it easier for oil refiners to meet demand and possibly dampen soaring prices at the pumps. Bush also temporarily suspended the purchase of crude oil for the government’s emergency reserve, for the summer. In an effort to show concern over rising gas prices, Bush delivered a speech today at the Renewable Fuels Association, in which he talked about “our addiction to oil” which should be translated to his affection for the oil whores who fill his political coffers.
“Our addiction to oil is a matter of national security concerns,” the president said in a speech to the Renewable Fuels Association, which advocates alternate energy sources. “After all, today we get about 60 percent of our oil from foreign countries. That’s up from 20 years ago, where about 25 percent of our oil came from foreign countries.”
First Read questioned Bush’s plan — Bush oil offers to what effect?
About one hour after we published this morning that President Bush “could — though he has yet to broach the subject — open up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to temporarily boost the gas supply,” the White House announced that Bush is in fact ordering that deposits to the SPR be suspended during the summer and resume in the fall in an effort to boost supply and, hopefully, ease gas prices. The news broke shortly before Bush’s scheduled speech on energy and gas prices to a renewable-fuels conference in Washington. In his speech, he asserted that it “will leave a little more oil on the market,” and that “every little bit helps.”
The announcement is the headline of the speech, which also contained words of assurance for consumers, words of praise for the renewable energy industry, words of warning to oil companies about price-gouging and about investing in new refineries, and words of encouragement to Congress that more policy-making can be done. Based on conversations with oil traders, however, it’s not clear right now what effect, if any, the temporary halt in SPR deposits will have on current gas prices since unstable relations with Iran and political instability in Nigeria seem to be the primary drivers of the price of oil.
RawStory reports — Democrats will propose eliminating federal gas taxes for sixty days; 18 cents a gallon:
The measure, proposed by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), would reduce the cost of gas by $0.184 per gallon and the cost of diesel by $0.244 per gallon. The move, aides say, will provide $100 million dollars per day in relief.
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Unfortunately the Dem plan would also keep 6 billion from getting to the treasury. Not an exceptionally large figure, and given the losses vacation business’ will suffer this summer due to the prices, probably more than offsetting that revenue loss.
I would at least like to see it combined with some sort of windfall profits tax.
I think one of the points others have raised as missing here is the fact that, unlike WWII and other wars, Americans were not asked to share the pain of sacrifice to pay for the war.
True, this increase is caused by the war and the oil companies’ exploitation.
All the more reason for Americans to start adding the ripple effects of going to war with the overall evaluation of whether the war is going to do more harm than good.
Kerry on Ed Schultz:
The investigation called for by Hastert and Frist into profits and price gouging is unnecessary. The FTC was to monitor this as a part of the energy bill that was passed and the report is due soon.
Kerry “They don’t even know what legislation they passed”
His other recommendations
Windfall profit tax – he proposed it months ago and ….
Get moving on oil independence:
Educate people on the alternatives already out there
Start getting more energy alternatives on the market here,
eg:hybrid cars that use biofuels instead of gas.
Fund more research
I’m sure if he had time, he would have added
Re-emphasize the need to conserve energy in all aspects of our lives. (along with educating them about the alternatives already available)
The price of oil is what it is. The law of supply and demand is still the best determiner of a price. Do we need all the environmental regulations that are contributing to a small amount to the price? We probably need most but in the short term suspending some of them is probably not going to have a massive environmental impact and it might relieve a little pressure on the price. Do we really need relief on the price? If we need to ween ourselves of this dependency on oil then high priced gas is probably the best motivator to force conservation, fuel efficiency, developement of alternative sources, exploration and all kinds of solutions we would not come up with without this motivation. Should gas tax be suspended, raised, lowered or kept the same? As painful as it is I think the gas tax needs to be raised. Raised to funds some of the targeting of future solutions. Not because I believe the government is the only group to provide the solution however some solutions can only be pursued with the kind of backing the tax money could provide. Use the additional tax money to do that. The additional tax would also further spur the rest of us to look harder for individual solutions. It is said that “necessity is the mother of invention”. Economic necessity is a great motivator to action. I can afford the higher gas prices as can many of my friends however high prices have many folks, I never would have thought would consider carpooling or alternative transportation, thinking of how they will do just that. High prices and the attention on them is motivating these folks. We need to encourage that process. How do we protect those more vurnable to high gas prices, the poor trying to make ends meet and traveling great distances to work because it is too expensive to live closer or in jobs where driving is required. Some of the increased gas tax could be set aside to target solutions for that segment of society.
I get a kick out of the folks saying oil companies are making too much profit. These are publicly traded companies. If you think the profits are going to be so high then invest for yourself in an oil company. The current investors are risking their money and have been for a while. I submit that the average person who hears me say “invest for yourself in oil companies” would when told they are only going to make about 7-9% say that that is not enough for them to invest in – they need a bigger pay-off to be enticed to invest there. There in lies the most telling answer to are oil company profits too high. Windfall tax is a stupid idea. Should we put a windfall tax on the entertainer who comes up with the next hit song, the inventor who solves a real need and gets rich, the doctor who is so successful at saving lives that people are just throwing money at him or her to perform their operation. The list goes on. In fact there is a far more reasonable need for a windfall profit tax on some of the non -necessity areas like sports, entertainment and the like than there is on a necessity are like oil. If stockholders did not believe that there was money to be made in oil stock then the price of their stock would fall – it all goes back to supply and demand.
High and even higher gas prices with additional tax will change a lot of what people value and do for their jobs an leisure and we might as well get started along that path. WE do not need another band-aide solution we need a long term phylosophy and we need to phase into that phylosophy in a reasonable time frame vice overnight.
George Bush is not the villian in this but I also do not know if he has the vision and conviction to stay the course and get on with solving the problem vice catering to the masses, doing what they say they want right now. People are sheep, they want therir needs fulfilled and they want it now. We are as a group not able to look far enough ahead to do what is good for us in the long term even if it hurts in the short term and heaven knows polititians don’t last unless they “satisfy” therir constiuents even if the constituents are “wrong”. Unfortunately even when they are wrong they are right. That is the nature of a represenative democracy. Ironically thesolution in this faster paced world where information is immidiately available might just be longer terms for polititians because the complexity of our time necessitates greater insulation of the elected represenatives from the whims of the fickled public.
[...] Now that the issue finally has his attention, he realized this would be a great time to suspend environmental rules for oil refiners. Typical. And he’s making more noise about our R [...]
Kevin
Bush and Cheney are in bed with the oil whores who are making record profits. Your pro-Bush oil whoring arguments are laughable.
hello,
it sure looks more like a lack of capacity in oil processing.. ie refinery.. but in a sense they are trapped with declining mineral – the blackstuff demand – and rising vegetable – biofuels – demand. The ‘gouging’ is something else.. like shareholder pull for bigger returns which come from profits, price.. which gets my vote for congressional scrutiny.. given the enormous profits these guys have been taking.. I would even add that profits addiction is a major problem..
with best wishes
Roman Eos
Profit addiction is the bottom line of corporate greed.
A few comments Kevin…
I admit to owning stock in oil companies. My 401Ks contain funds that buy oil stock. And most likely, so do most of the folks that participate in their company investment plans. Most of us do own pieces of oil companies.
1 – Oil prices are also dependent on the fickle Middle East fears. Did the price go up because the supply went down or did it go up over the fear the supply would go down. In other words, this run up in the retail price of gas is not a function of supply and demand; it is the result of fear the price may go up.
2 – Comparing the price paid to entertainers to the price of oil is absurd. Watching an entertainer is optional; gas is mandatory. The two do not equate at all.
3 – Raising taxes is a bad idea. How about diverting some of the massive profits into alternate fuel development? How about letting the oil companies either optionally invest profits into developing alternative fuels or have their “windfall profits” taxed to fund alternative fuel development? They get to decide which path to take.
4 – Dumbo is allowing oil companies to get off the hook. He is treating this like it is a problem caused by local gas stations instead of by oil companies ramping up the price of their products. Dumbo said he would “jawbone” with the Middle East cartel. The only jawbone here is the Dumbo’s jawbone of an ass.
5 – The plan to have all states punish price gougers is laughable. Proving price gouging is extremely difficult and takes a lot of time and investigation money. Are the Feds going to foot the bill? We went thru this earlier in Arizona who has a very popular Governor and Attorney General. The result was noise, no charges, and the price promptly dropped.
6 – The good;
Good plan on helping the poor work their way through this issue.
ooops
…” is not a function of supply and demand; it is the result of fear the price may go up.”
s/b i
s not a function of supply and demand; it is the result of fear the supply may go down.
Roman Eos has a point. Shareholder in corporate america are pushing for better returns no matter the cost to the employees or consumer.
Bush and Chenney are addicted to oil I’m certainly aint.
They need to go to brazil and see how energy independence is done. AMerican auto makers make cars that run on 85% or more ethanol because they showed them in Brazil.
The argument that we don’t have enough ethanol stations is valid so why isn’t anyone building more ethanol stations.
As for the relaxing of envorinmental regulation if the chemicals are poisioning your water supply its a big deal. Whenever there is a crisis the first thing bush does is relax environmental rules.
Bush is about as serious about doing something to help gas prices as dracula guarding the state blood bank.
Pen,
LOL, dracula at the blood bank, the fox at the hen house and W bringing down the price of gas.
Kevin,
I like the idea of taxing windfall profits on sports – especially the ones that make them on publicly built sports arenas.
The energy bill passed last year had every incentive for alternative energy use & development, plus every disincentive for using fossil fuels (all put in by the Dems) cut before it passed.
In the tax law at some point, they made a change in deducting for a business vehicle. You could deduct the FULL price of a large SUV in the year you bought it. There is no documentation needed to show your business requires an SUV. There were no similar changes for buying a small, SUV, a fuel efficient car for your business, or any other incentive/disincentive changes in the tax laws for business vehicle deductions. (Mental picture: the makers of big SUVs with one hand in the pocket of the congressional reps and the other writing the bill.)
I am not sure how many of the environmental regulations, if suspended, could go into effect quickly enough to make a difference. Any that affect air quality will have a quick effect on people with respiratory disease. Ask any pulmonologist or internal medicine physician what happens with their chronic respiratory patients when an inversion raises the ppb numbers of air pollutants.
To some extent, the refusal of many to see the reality an issue are the protections from the consequences. Like artificially low gas prices. The prices are actually set by the Middle East Oil producers as much as anything.
The stock market is certainly a huge incentive to owners, CEOS and share holders who follow unenlightened self interest in running the companies and supporting them.
I am glad that you are hearing a lot of people considering public transportation. The huge light rail line that is being developed in Metro Denver has had some big detractors in the “not enough people will ride it’ opinion. With another major section nearing completion in the fall, going along the major commuters interstate (I-25); the number of people who start riding that may speed up the construction of the other lines. Having spent 10 days in Tokyo, riding the largest light rail mass transit system in a city of almost 30 million, I would love to see more of it here.
The long term philosophy you suggest, in place of the Cheney, Halliburton and Oil Exec version we have: A S A P
“Bush is about as serious about doing something to help gas prices as dracula guarding the state blood bank.”
Yaaaaay pen!!!!!!!
My thanks for everyone for the good read this morning.
Pen, Brazil took the problem of oil dependance seriously and their efforts to turn to ethanol, down to demanding their country’s fleet vehicles run on the stuff, is something to be studied, seriously, by our own country.
I’m no scientist by a long shot, but I do know there is so much that can be done re: alternative fuels. So many new manufacturing businesses and university degree programs begun and research opportunities opened up… it boggles my mind. Especially since so many high-tech-skilled Americans have felt the loss of their jobs outsourced…
I really had hopes this would be a central issue in the last campaign but unfortunately, it wasn’t.
“If not now, when?”
Brazil is 20-30 years ahead of us.