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Gas Prices Rise! We’re Doomed! As long as I can remember, the price of gasoline has risen just before the summer months, known for greater travel as folks pile into the car to go to the beach or drive to some vacation destination. In early April, however, oil prices rose more than a $1 per barrel, a high point over the passed seven months, and the mainstream media went berserk with reports that seemed to say that our entire economy was in free fall. House Democrat Leader, Nancy Pelosi, loosed a statement on April 11 saying, "the President has failed to take any action to lower gas prices." I have scoured the Constitution to find a provision that says anything to the effect that the President is in charge of the global oil market or is empowered, nay, required to do anything about gas prices.
What would the Democrats do? "Our plan would empower the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) to crack down on price gouging to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices, increase production of alternative fuels, and rescind the billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, tax breaks, and royalty relief given to the oil and gas companies." The Democrat plan would drive up the price of oil and gas while wasting still more billions in research and tax credits for so-called alternative fuels. If such fuels were cost-efficient they would be in production right now. Ethanol is, if anything, a political payoff to the agricultural interests in the nation’s farm states. It costs a lot to produce and does not contribute to the efficiency of an auto’s operation. Why isn’t Ms. Pelosi recommending tax credits to encourage the building of more oil refineries? Major changes to the federal and state environmental restrictions on drilling for oil? The elimination of environmental gasoline formulations that require different blends, for example, for California and Illinois, repeating this process throughout the nation. Why isn’t she on the front lines demanding that America has access to the huge deposits of oil in Alaska that exist beneath the tender hoofs of caribou? And why isn’t Ms. Pelosi mentioning that one of the largest parts of the cost of every gallon of gasoline you put in your vehicle are federal and state taxes? While Americans are paying over $2 a gallon, last year the price per gallon in England was close to $6 where taxes make up more than 60% of the pump price as compared to 20% in the U.S. It’s probably $7 or $8 this year in Great Britain. In 2005, it was over $5 a gallon in Italy, Germany, and France. It was just over $4 a gallon in Spain, Japan, and Canada. In case you haven’t noticed, there is considerable turmoil in Iraq these days. Its oil production, despite sitting atop the second largest reserves in the Middle East, has been severely obstructed, often due to the deliberate destruction of pipelines. Next door in Iran, there is much talk of going nuclear, a prospect that scares the hell out of everyone, but especially oil traders. In Nigeria, turmoil which is largely unreported has forced more than a half million barrels a day off the global market. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is still being felt as more than 300,000 barrels per day in the Gulf of Mexico remain offline while oilrigs are repaired. Information about the factors that affect gas prices is not a secret. I found it on the Internet site of ExxonMobil where they noted that, "Americans feel the full effect of these changing commodity prices at the pump. On average, crude oil alone accounted for 53% of the U.S. pump price last year, with refining and marketing costs accounting for a further 25-30%." Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Department reports that the demand for gas was up nearly 1% in the first quarter of this year as compared to last year. Crude oil is a global commodity that is publicly traded on world markets. If drivers in the U.S. use more, the price responds to the formula of supply and demand. We still pay less for gas than most of the rest of the world. While Ms. Pelosi wails about rising gas prices and wants to make life even more difficult for "big oil", most Americans are likely to ignore the rise in the cost of gas as we "fill her up" for a bit more travel this summer, oblivious to everything that oil traders worry about on an hourly basis. Would you like to share excerpts from Warning Signs with visitors to your blog or website? Is there a news or opinion website on which you would like to read excerpts? Send me an email. April 22 is Earth Day. I doubt that most people have any idea how vast the effort is to convince people around the world that the Earth is in peril due to industrialization and the human population in general. The amazing thing is how bogus the claims are, but when repeated endlessly, they become a "truth" simply from repetition. The Earth Day Network has mobilized 13,000 "partner organizations" for a letter to the President "to champion specific, meaningful climate change solutions during his second term in office." What the Earth Day Network wants him to do is bring about "significant mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide emissions." That translates as putting everyone on a bicycle. They also want "large scale investment and other incentives for renewable energy…" That means coast-to-coast fields of windmills and buildings covered in huge solar panels. And lastly "strong fuel economy standards." Translate that to mean higher prices, via taxes, on the use of gasoline. It too is a lie. We have already reached the point where every bit of energy that an auto can squeeze from of a gallon of gas has been achieved. The Network still claims—falsely—that, "scientists around the world have come to a near consensus on the climate change problem facing our planet. Weather patterns and temperatures are shifting, animals on land and in our oceans are dying, and food and water supplies are threatened." This is pure sophistry. Of course weather patterns and temperatures are shifting. They have been doing that for billions of years. Species have been living and dying for millions of years. Ninety-five percent of all the species that ever lived on Earth are extinct, but countless species, as Darwin pointed out, still survive. To keep these lies going, the Network is going to mobilize "nearly 100,000 teachers in the U.S. and thousands of local, grassroots groups in nearly every congressional district in the country to raise awareness and initiate immediate action to address the causes of global warming." The catch is, of course, there is no global warming. There will be some 20,000 "climate change events in the United States alone on Earth Day." The Network expects "more than 2,000 Earth Day sermons" to be given in churches. The end of the world has long been a favorite topic of theologians. There will also be events in China and Kiev, and presumably lots of other places where people without a scintilla of knowledge about the Earth’s climate will gather to tell others that we’re doomed. At this point, it should be pointed out that we are talking about the expenditure of millions of dollars to make all this happen. There’s no way Earth Day television programs, conferences, panels, parades and other events can occur without spending a lot of money. And it is all about a huge lie, a hoax concerning the "warming" of the Earth that is not happening.
Today, however, the environmental movement remains polluted with an antipathy to the economic system that funds such programs. It remains tainted by its contempt for the Earth’s human population. It is indifferent to scientific truth and is a corrupting force in an endeavor that has produced the discoveries that have advanced and enhanced life. Here is the curious fact about Earth Day that is not widely known. It is the birthday of Lenin, the icon of Communism who led the Bolshevik revolution that brought the Soviet Union into being. In 1955, the then Soviet Premier, Nikita Krushchev ordered that April 22nd be designated a day to celebrate Communism. Out of all the days in the year, the founders of Earth Day chose Lenin’s birthday. Coincidence? I think not. In the past, the former Soviet Union spent billions to perpetrate the lie of Communism on the world. On May Day they would stage a huge parade in Red Square. The inner core of the environmental movement today would have celebrated that event with the same fervor they bring to the celebration of Earth Day. This mass nonsense officially began in 1970 and I am patiently waiting and hoping to be around on the last Earth Day when a grand total of perhaps eight people with nothing better to do show up for its final event. The world is a complex, often confusing place. Let Warning Signs help shed some light on it for you every week by lending your support to The National Anxiety Center with a donation. If you prefer, you can send a check to The Caruba Organization, 28 West Third Street, Suite 1321, South Orange, NJ 07079. Thanks!
©
2006 Alan Caruba. |
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"Since President Bush took office in 2001, gas prices have increased 82 percent, but he continues his reverse Robin Hood policies of massive giveaways for big oil and gas companies at the expense of consumers." What exactly these "massive giveaways" are remains a mystery to me. Indeed, the Bush administration has been singularly unable to get Congress to open ANWR to the extraction of a huge reserve of oil that would not only increase the world’s supply, but likely reduce the price per barrel. The same is true for U.S. offshore reserves of oil and gas. 
A vast governmental bureaucracy has grown since the advent of the Department of Environmental Protection. The EPA has generated more federal laws and regulations than any other government agency. Fully a third of the Federal Register is devoted to so-called environmental concerns. Much of it is devoted to destroying the keystone of capitalism, private property. That said, there is no denying that those early programs to clean the nation’s air and water have produced some dramatic, useful results.