Who will call out oil companies first?

You can also turn on your faucet at home and get very cheap water.

I like it when people say shit like, "You don't have a problem shelling out $6.50 for a beer at an NFL game." True, but the people who do that also know they stop by a liquor store after the game and get a six-pack for a few bucks. When it comes to gas, we don't have a viable alternative.

 

Price controls don't work. http://www.econlib.org/LIBRARY/Enc/PriceControls.html

In my opinion, the only way to lower prices is to up the supply. We're NOT going to reduce our demand; we've proven that over the last two years. The only way to do that is to fix the refinery problem by building more and updating those currently producing. Who's gonna make the companies build more refineries? Not us. We're price-takers, not price-setters. It'll have to be congress.

 

Here is a better question -- which candidate will have the courage to talk about finding new sources of oil -- oh I don't know, in Alaska -- that we can control and therefore control the supply.

 

When you write, "President Dodo," it doesn't help your credibility.

 

So I am taking it this is a yes vote for drilling in Alaska?

 

If a serious presidential contender said this, I would vote for them (sadly, I would be the only one):

"We aren't going to cap the price of gasoline. We are going to raise it. We will put a one dollar per gallon tax on gasoline, with additional tax being used to fund research into alternative fuels and finding new reliable energy sources. I realize that this is going to be hard on your wallets and will not do wonders for the economy. But if we are going to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and big oil companies, we need to be willing to think big and act drastically. Until we are willing to change our habits and put our money where our mouth is, we will never escape this cycle. It is the right move for the environment, the right move for national security and the right move for our future."

 

Flying Headbutt -- Couldn't we find new sources of energy as well as drill for more oil -- in case the first part of it doesn't work out as quickly as you and many of the greens seem convinced it will?

Why does it have to be one or the other?

 

Let's get one thing straight: WE DO NOT HAVE AN OIL SHORTAGE.

We have a refined gas shortage.

There's a reason why our oil companies are raking in billions upon billions. They're buying at the same rate and selling at higher rates. Now, I know as sure as I'm typing this that someone will come along shortly and attempt to explain to me how that's not the case and tell me that the oil companies are making their money on the market. That's bullshit. The oil companies have been manipulating the hell out of that market and their gains are still only in the millions. What they've been doing is hoarding oil under off-shoot companies and backing up the refining process.

While the demand for refined products has continued its steady increase (there has been no unforeseen spike in demand) oil companies haven't built a new refinery in something like 20 years. Not only that, but the oil companies have also made it their mission to buy up the independent refineries and either shut them down or severely scale back their production. So, while we're demanding more and more gas, the oil companies are refining less and less. That drives the price up. Even though they might be buying the oil at a slightly higher rate now than seven years ago, they're not buying it at a rate four times the seven-year-ago price. Not even close.

And you better damn well bet that there's been a whole shitload of shadiness going on to pull this off. Hell, there have been simple, shallow investigations that have turned up hundreds of crimes. But still, nothing has been done. At some point, one of these guys in Congress is going to toss the first rock into the lake. And what they'll find will make the attorney firings look like child's play.

Also, yeah, we need to find alternatives. There's no reason -- NOT ONE -- for us not having a viable alternative at this point. It's shameful. But at the same time, it doesn't make what's happened with the price of gas any less wrong.

 

No offense Pope, but that's straight out of the Tom Friedman handbook and a horrible idea.
A better solution is a windfall tax on oil companies. They are the ones making obscene amounts of money and they have it.
An additional tax on gas creats an unfair burden on the working poor and middle-class and expecially damages those who live outside major metro areas. You can't take public transportation in a city where it doesn't exist. So you have to have a car and you have to drive so you have to buy gas.
And yes we can blame the oil companies because they aren't refining enough of the oil. They haven't done the basic maintence or built new refineries. I've cut back. People I know have cut back. But the simple fact remains, I don't live in DC or New York, so I have to drive, there's only so much I can do.