As I pulled up to the pump this morning, due to a set of bizarre circumstances, I was able to remember exactly the price of gas I paid for at the same time, at the same gas station this time last year. For those of you with long memories you also may remember at this time in 2006 we were paying around 3.29 per gallon of regular.
Of course with public outrage, we were told there was nothing that could be done about it. Refineries were off line. Crude was too high, world wide demand was forcing up the price. We grumbled and willingly paid and then found out that Big Oil scored a 35 billion profit in one quarter.
No one mentioned the real reason. That was because republicans controlled all three branches of government. There was no way the people could investigate and determine whether they were paying a fair price, or being gouged. And for some unknown reason, any attempt by a Democrat to hold a public hearing, was squashed by both Hastert and Frist.
Face reality. If there is no reason to not to raise prices, why would one forgo the extra money pouring into the corporate coffers? And because of the tremendous amounts of money funded to “W” for both his campaigns, and the tight connections between Cheney and the Big 4 oil executives, they were guaranteed no interference from any of the branches of our republican government.
But that changed in November. Due to Rove’s miscalculation and an underestimation of the number of fake votes needed to win the election, Democrats were able to gain the upper hand in both the House and Senate.
Of course the republican complicity in this was brought up at election time. And of course the republicans tried hard to dismiss it, but the voters this time, did not buy it. Perhaps more than any other reason, dissatisfaction with republican leadership over this one issue, caused massive defections over to the other side.
So where are the facts? If you take a hard look at this chart, anyone with a smattering of economic knowledge will see that for all intents and purposes, that the price of gas should be even higher this year than last, not 50 cents per gallon lower. So by default, that means that whereas gas was 3.29 a gallon, it really could have been sold fairly at say 2.79 a gallon.
The same excuses use by republicans last year to pump up the costs, are even higher this year. The only difference between the two summers is that during this summer, we have Democratic control of the Congress. For this alone, Americans need to hold republicans accountable for all the lost money that was robbed from them last year.
How much was that? At 50 cents a gallon times each 40 gallon fill-up, that would be an extra 20 dollars per fill-up. At two fill-ups per week times the twelve weeks of summer, the republican gasoline scam cost most families around 480 dollars last summer.
So ladies and gentlemen,…. the Democrats, ….just by being in control of only one branch of government, have saved every American family at least 480 dollars over this summer. I don’t know about you, but that is what I call ……real politics………………
Fake politics is deciding to drop the price the day campaign season starts in earnest on Labor Day. A summer of profit taking, …….that’s all it was.
kavips 
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July 30, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Duffy
“So ladies and gentlemen,…. the Democrats, ….just by being in control of only one branch of government, have saved every American family at least 480 dollars over this summer. I don’t know about you, but that is what I call ……real politics………………”
Please explain how this was accomplished? Was there some legislation passed?
July 30, 2007 at 11:22 pm
kavips
It was done through the power of oversight. Just the threat was enough. Oil execs certainly did not want to be hauled into hearings, sworn to testimony, and then either lie and face perjury charges, or tell the truth and he held for conspiracy and charges of collusion under antitrust act. You know, once the public realized that every family was robbed of 480 dollars last summer, the republican party would have to dissolve and reform as something else………………….. just the stigma of the word republican would taint a candidate for generations………as well it should.
It is such a shame that so many fine candidates are going to lose next time, because they run as republicans……….that party really does have some good candidates who could certainly benefit America, if only they would switch parties………….
July 31, 2007 at 12:24 am
Duffy
So your assertion is this:
By sending extra strong frowny faces at oil executives they were able to manipulate the price of the most widely traded global commodity.
What conspiracy charges would they face? How would they be able to collude to change the price of a barrel of oil?
Seriously, you need to read a bit about the oil industry before you start making absurd claims like these. You sound like those “Freemasons run the country” guys.
To wit: Gazprom ARAMCO et al are so massive they make Chevron, Exxon et al. look like a 7-11.
India and China have both been building strategic reserves in the last two years which has increased consumption on the primary market dramatically
We have over 50 blends of gas required by EPA regs in the US. Any oversupply with one blend may not be shipped or sold to another market. Thus: gas formulated for New Jersey cannot be sold in Vermont if we have a glut and they have a shortage.
Our refining capacity has not increased since the mid 70’s despite the huge huge increase in demand.
If US oil companies were colluding to fix market prices, why are Lukoil, BP and Citgo (owned by our newest enemy) not undercutting them by say, 10 cents and taking all their business?
Why is the price of gas so elastic? How would the companies maintain parity across regional markets? How do they collude to fix the price of gas so quickly when the market shifts?
July 31, 2007 at 2:51 am
Shirley Vandever
Nice sign, but I have a more appropriate one:
http://www.delfreedomriders.com/GasPrices.bmp
July 31, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Robert Troy
The elivated oil prices have many specialist as well as laymen trying to figure what the catalist is that makes the prices rise and fall as they do. The only catalist for gasoline prices is supply and demand. Shut downs for maintenance and repairs are already built-in. Refineries go through this every year so it is nothing new. It has nothing to do with the price at the pump. One might consider the hurricanes of 2005 as having an effect on the price, since several refineries were without power for some time after the storms. And also, there was damage to units in some of these refineries. But lets face it, should these repairs still be holding prices up? The money made be the Oil empires over the past 75 years or more more than off set the few bilion it cost to make those repairs. Yes, I said billions because if anyone stop to consider that no other product on the planet carries a fraction of a penny in it’s price, then they might fantom how much the public has been milked of tax free money since the inception of the nine tenths of a cents they are charged at the pump. When do we get that one-tenth of a cents change???
Since it isn’t charged, and isn’t given back to the customer, it is free money that the oil companied get to keep TAX-FREE !! So it irritates me whem people like Trilby Lundberg tries to justify what keeps the price of gasoline rising. What I would like to say to Trilby is, “Give me the figures on how many gallons of gasoline was sold in the USA alone since midnight of 9-11. Take that and multiply it by .01, and that is what the Oil companies have gotten away with TAX FREE since 9-11. Then consider how much they have gotten since the nine tenths has been attached to the price of a gallon of gasoline.”
Gas prices go up as a feeler of the market. If the economy indicates that it can handle that price on the short term, the prices slowly drop down slightly and there is no public outcry. Then penny by penny, gas prices rise to that peak and settle in for the long haul making it the “adverage price across the country. a few months later, the process starts all over again. This is called supply and demand, and is the only thing that makes prices rise. It is now near mid summer and I see the price of gasoline dropping in mid to late August. then the next excuse for a rise will be “Getting ready for the winter heating oil demand, and the cost of making the winter blend of gasoline. so by mid october we will be looking at another price rise to about $3.50 per gallon and later dropping to a national average of $3.35 per gallon for regular gasoline.
We the consumers only protest is to get rid of those SUV’s and Trucks, and Vans, and cars that don’t get at least 26 mpg in city driving and 29mpg or more on the highway. If detroit won’t produce it, then get a foreign vehicle. What Americans should focus on when buying a car presently and in the future is “What kind of gas mileage can I expect from this vehicle?”
The automobile in America has to stop being an idem of presteige and start becoming an item of economy. The automobile is not the only thing that uses petrolium energy. So Americans must come to grips with being conservative in many other areas. But the automobiles are the majoe issue when it comes to the price of gasoline. By the way, the supply side often causes prices to drop also. Often there is gasoline that is in storage that is meeting it’s “shelf life” and must be depleted quickly to make room for new gasoline. This is where Oil companies sell off to distributors at discounted prices which make the price at the pump take a short lived dive. If we can look at the whole picture, then we as a people can force the prices of gasoline down. Consider what would happen if the oil companies woke up one morning to find that two thirds of the country was now using electric automobiles. All of a sudden, they have an enormous stockpile of gasoline and hardly anyone to sell it to. Now the demand has dropped two thirds while the supply is in excess by two thirds. Wouldn’t that be a glorious day???
July 31, 2007 at 10:27 pm
kavips
Good points in both thoughtful comments:
First to Duffy, all your points are valid on the surface. But you ignore one thing…….for if what you propose were true, that each of those factors alone were the cause of high gasoline prices, then my question to you is this: why are we not paying 60 cents more per gallon of gas for this summer as we did over the last? That is my point. Oil sycophants have been giving us those valid excuses for years in their efforts to request tax breaks. But all those factors……… are worse this year, …….and yet gas is still 60 cents a gallon cheaper?
Threat of a windfall profits tax….. is why……….Democrats have saved your family 480 dollars this summer. It is yours to spend as you wish. Should you wish to make a donation to an oil company out of love of their logo, you certainly are entitled.
Robert Troy, welcome to this forum. Insightful comments are always welcome.
You are correct when you say that were the market to shift to fuel efficient vehicles, even to those not requiring gasoline at all, we would not be discussing this today. If memory serves correctly, we had the same thing happen during the Clinton years as American car companies scrambled to recapture the high mpg market from the Japanese, and gas held at 99 cents a gallon. Then came SUV’s. And why not? One could fill up a tank for less than 30 dollars…… So here we are…… As is being done today with cigarettes, were we serious, we could penalize SUV purchases by adding a penalty tax on top of any vehicle with less than 50 mpg.
As any republican will tell you privately, we are hemorrhaging as a nation; we could always use more tax money coming into our government…………
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