As I understand it, the rapidly rising demand in China and India has reduced supply. Couple that with OPEC's sitting on their ass regarding more production, our own refusal to do any drilling in ANWAR or Gulf of M, and you have the price hike.

That's what president Bush said. He also said in both the 2000 and the 2004 debates "if the price of oil goes up... I'm in the oil business and I'll make some phone calls." well....still waiting on the phone calls.

I also understand our capacity to refine the oil is not adequate so we are bidding for not only oil but gasoline. Maybe if we can get the lefty environmental whacko's to quit trying to stop refining plant construction. ww

I would like to see The McCain-Obama-Clinton bill brought to the floor saying
No more Ethanol subsides, or government mandates. (A humanitarian gesture )
The allowance of American Oil production and refining and Nuclear Energy. This would show everyone reaching across the isle for the good of the American people and McCain working with his own party.

Nope Having Hill contribution is all we can really expect.

As I understand it, the rapidly rising demand in China and India has reduced supply. Couple that with OPEC\'s sitting on their ass regarding more production, our own refusal to do any drilling in ANWAR or Gulf of M, and you have the price hike.

Well, ANWAR would only be a temporary solution the fact is there isn\'t that much oil there. I think I read an estimate that it would be good for 10 cents off the price of gas or so. Which hey, would be nice, but it will also take awhile to get that in production another large part of the problem is simply that Oil is running out.

Dick Cheney gave a speech on peak oil in the 90s. It is often tied to those who are trying to find motivation for Iraq in Cheney\'s previous statements, but the fact is that Cheney felt that oil production would peak sometime around 2010 and then would start falling as supplies dwindle. (Experts disagree whether the peak is close or not but most have it between 2010 and 2025) You couple that with massive demand now from China and India, instability in the middle east, the falling value of the dollar and so on and you get high gas prices.

Glenn Beck had an article on this on CNN the other day if I remember it correctly he argued that synthetic oil could be produced at $50 a barrel. Not sure how clean it is though. but that would be nice if it is a reality. I think it would mean gas at about $2.00 a gallon.

the fact is I think we need to start investigating ways to get off oil. It is not good for our country to be so dependent on a resource found primarily in the most volatile part of the world.

I'll never get those five minutes back

BTW you didn't mention the falling dollar - that's a huge contribution to the accelerating cost of gas, although not on point wrt the Clinton thing...

Gah, you made me read that whole thing!?

Pumping our own oil won't change prices unless we pump enough to flood the world oil supply. The other oil producing nations, primarily OPEC, can absorb any small production increase (on a global scale) with a production decrease.

And since demand and pricing is global, unless the global supply changes the price won't change. Now drilling domestically might pump a few dollars into some of the local economies though. However, the pump won't see anything different.

So when people put the blame for the price of gas on us not willing to drill in ANWAR or the Gulf, that implies we are prepared to nationalize the pricing & marketing of that oil.

Pumping ANWAR and the Gulf, aside from being ineffective without either flooding the international marketplace or nationalizing the sale, is one of those things that gets talked about and never happens.

We had Republicans in control of the Presidency, the Senate, and Congress for years and it didn't happen. Who are we going to elect that will make it happen?

We had Republican just not too many conservatives.
Some links on where we get oil and alternatives.

http://www.gravmag.com/oil.html
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/04/algae-farm-to-p.html
http://www.howstuffworks.com/gas-price.htm

"...only Hillary Clinton has actually done something about rising gas prices." -- Mr. Tea

Still yet another reason to support Barack Obama. It's good when gasoline prices go up, to encourage conservatives to get around to CONSERVING, and to sway conservatives (like Mr. Tea) to belch less filth into the air with their SUVs, filth we bicyclists, alas, have to inhale.

Crude oil is priced in US dollars. Commodities speculators and pricing of the barrel in dollars are the main two factors driving it. I wouldn't think refinery capacity has much effect now (it did during Katrina/Rita). When you go to the station do you see long queues?
Face it the "Big Oil" argument just doesn't hold water this year. Crude at $117/BBL is just under $2.80 per gallon just to buy the stuff from the Saudis. Combined taxes on a typical gallon of gas are roughly 50 cents or higher so there's not much left for the refining margin, bulk plant, and retailer.

encourage conservatives to get around to CONSERVING

WHo says that that is true. If you live in major city with good public transportation maybe you can give up your car. Look how many years did we hear that we need to have high gas taxes to force americans to conserve gas. however prices have increased and we are still consuming the same amount. Why well many people cannot go and out and buy a new car. They also may bot have choice but to drive to work. So no matter what the price they will have to pay it.

The prices of oil and gas are related, but not in linear fashion. IOW, oil could go down a good bit - like 50% or more - when the speculative bubble bursts, but gas wouldn't go down as far or as fast because there is a whole 'nother set of supply and demand equations to apply.

Our refineries are already running at 95% of capacity, which is effectively 100% (since SOME down time must be scheduled for periodic maintenance and repairs, etc.). As domestic demand increases, we will soon begin having to import refined gasoline just to keep up. Not only would that entail a premium and shipping costs, but foreign refineries don't produce the 20+ designer blends our federal government has, in its infinite stupidity, mandated for various areas of the country (in regular, "plus," and premium, no less).

Without a few new refineries planned soon for fast-track approval and construction, gas won't be going down much, even if oil does.

Oh, and Obama is correct: a "gas tax summer vacation" is about the stupidest idea to come down the pike since, well, threatening to withdraw from NAFTA. The average family would save roughly $30 over the summer. That won't fill up my tank once. What possible benefit could it be?

And Herman - of all people! - is right that cutting the tax would only encourage MORE consumption in a time of shortages.

But for the record, I run down bicyclists for fun. If they have leftist stickers or tee-shirts, I back up and do it again. ;-)

Nancy Pelosi promised us a Democrat plan to lower gas prices quite awhile ago, but still has not produced one.

Just more of the Democrats failures.

Jay

I look forward to reading you, but that was a serious stretch. Bad, even.

Sorry, but even though I know it was tongue-in-cheek, it was pushing it.

I have to agree with the commenter above who suggests that the current weakness of the Dollar helps greatly to increase our perception (and reality) of the price of oil going up. I just got back from Germany - the Euro kicked my wallet's ass!

A friend of mine and I figured it out, and their gas, converted to dollars, is only $1 - 1.50 above ours, which is a way better deal than they were getting just a few years ago - taxes included! Cranes everywhere, too. Lotsa construction.

Now don't get me wrong - I believe that we're in a period of "water finding it's own level," while they are on the edge of a tightly stretched bubble. I know enough Europeans to sense that they are ready, both economically and socially, to boil over.

Sure, Jim, but should we tell him about all the SUV's out there with Obama bumper stickers?

As domestic demand increases, we will soon begin having to import refined gasoline just to keep up. Not only would that entail a premium and shipping costs...

The stuff about the various blends is probably correct, however you would have to ship almost twice as many oil for the same gas. You could do the final blending locally. So refining it abroad should be a shipping savings. Not to mention the savings that cheap labor and lower environmental standards would also bring. In fact, it seems odd we don't import more. I smell the stench of protectionism.

Operating a refinery requires setting it up to handle a specific grade on input petroleum and setting it up to produce specific kinds of output products, gasoline, fuel oils, other refined products like LPG, etc. So its less protectionism than specialization.

Gas blends are re-mixes from the separated components plus adding some non-petroleum additives. Gas for use at the pump would not likely be shipped. However the basic components could be shipped for custom blending which, I'm guessing, is not the bottleneck in the refining process.

In fact, we're able to handle imports around 10% now.

How about if Hillary invests that 100 million they've made in cattle futures, takes the billions that will translate into, reinvests that and then buys Saudi Arabia!!?? Come to think of it, that's just about when I'd vote for her.

Jim,

We already buy 66 million gallons of refined Gas a day from Canada.
We sell them oil and they send back down gas. Which is why we need to build more refineries.

Also Gas has overshadowed it for now but we need more power plants. Remember all those rolling blackouts in CA a few years back. We have 104 Nuclear Plants providing 20% total power let get it up to 50%.

Jim Addison - "But for the record, I run down bicyclists for fun. If they have leftist stickers or tee-shirts, I back up and do it again."

You, sir, are an asshole.

I guess I shouldn't expect much from someone who is too stupid to know what "hypocrite" means.
http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/03/26/the-lawyer-factor.php

Idiot.