Oil hits another record high – Democrats take a vacation

[bigsixfive 328]

The U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, both controlled by democrats, have decided to head out for their Fourth of July vacations without addressing the high cost of gasoline.

The Senate returns Monday, July 7, and the House returns Tuesday, July 8.

One can only hope they have to stop by a few gas stations on their way to their vacation spots as oil prices set another new record on Friday at $143 per barrel. Knowing them, they will probably tie in their trip with some “official” business and get their fuel paid through their senate and house expense accounts (taxpayer money). They won’t feel our pain then.

I purchased gas the other day and paid $4.06 a gallon. Gas prices have increased 71% since the Democrats took over Congress.

Happy 4th of July Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Max Baucus and Jon Tester! How’s your New Direction for Energy Independence plan working out for you? For us little people, it pretty much stinks.

Maybe we’ll happen to meet some of these politicians at an event over the holidays, or even better at the gas pump. Ask them to support what 76% of Americans want and that is to drill for oil in our country.

[tiger88 934]

I'm sure that one day in the near future they will begin to make serious plans for an alternative energy source that will be ready maybe 10-20 after the economy collapses and our country follows closely behind.

[TheDrewYouKnew 3]

Using my newly acquired knowledge from dems on this forum, I would say we neither drill or research alt fuels since neither will yield immediate results. Instead, we should blame the republicans, and elect a crappy dem into office and hope that we can further screw the country by passing universal "healthcare".

[CCTAU 3,336]

3 ways to lower fuel prices. Good plan?

[Shire5k 19]

They get the whole week? Gah...I wish I was a Senator.

[channonc 466]

Do you honestly think that they went home and are laying out on the beach or something? Members of Congress go home during these periods to meet with constituents. Trust me, this week isn't slow for any of them.

[Justin5 20]

Do you honestly think that they went home and are laying out on the beach or something? Members of Congress go home during these periods to meet with constituents. Trust me, this week isn't slow for any of them.

Thank you. No one is out of work this week in Congress. I can promise you that. Not to mention, its not like anyone had a choice in it anyways. Its been done since our country was founded.

[kwagoner 214]

EVERYBODY gets vacation time.

[bigsixfive 328]

I'm aware they get vacation time, but they should use their time in office more wisely. Their extensive coverage of issues like baseball and the 342nd investigative report on Bush are wasting our time. They need to be doing what they're overpaid to do. There's enough people in there that if they put their heads together and DISCUSSED the issues instead of spewing party line arguments, some pretty good solutions to many of our problems could be thrown on the table.

And no, I don't think they're laying out on the beach this week. They take off when its in session to do that.

[1CopaceticTiger 0]

This came to me in an email:

Subject: A Great Article

It all boils down to Economics 101-the laws of supply and demand

Subject: A Great Article From Billy Weeks

Bill Phillips spent nearly 50 years in the US oil and gas industry;

most of his career was with the Phillips Petroleum Company. Bill

is a descendant of Frank Phillips. Frank Phillips, along with his

brother Lee Eldas (L.E.) Phillips, Sr., founded the original

Phillips Petroleum Company in 1917 in Bartlesville, OK. Do you

remember Phillips 66 gas stations? Phillips Petroleum Company

merged with Conoco, Inc. in 2002 to form the current ConocoPhillips

oil company.

So, when Bill talks about oil and gas issues, I tend to listen -

very closely. I think that you will find Bill's thoughts and facts

very revealing, very compelling and very difficult to argue with.

May 28, 2008

"Big Oil"

Did you know that the United States does NOT have any big oil

companies. It's true: the largest American oil company, Exxon

Mobil, is only the 14th largest in the world, and is dwarfed by the

really big oil companies--all owned by foreign governments or

government-sponsored monopolies--that dominate the world's oil supply.

With 94% of the world's oil supply locked up by foreign

governments, most of which are hostile to the United States, the

relatively puny American oil companies do not have access to enough

crude oil to significantly affect the market and help bring prices

down. Thus, ExxonMobil, a "small" oil company, buys 90% of the

crude oil that it refines for the U.S. market from the big players,

i.e, mostly-hostile foreign governments. The price at the U.S. pump

is rising because the price the big oil companies charge ExxonMobil

and the other small American companies for crude oil is going up as

the value of the American dollar goes down. They will eventually

bleed this country into printing even more money and we will go

into runway inflation once again as we did under the Carter

Democratic reign.

This is obviously a tough situation for the American consumer. The

irony is that it doesn't have to be that way. The United States--

unlike, say, France--actually has vast petroleum reserves. It would

be possible for American oil companies to develop those reserves,

play a far bigger role in international markets, and deliver gas at

the pump to American consumers at a much lower price, while

creating many thousands of jobs for Americans. This would be

infinitely preferable to shipping endless billions of dollars to

Saudi Arabia, Russia and Venezuela to be used in propping up their

economies.

So, why doesn't it happen? Because the Democrat Party--aided,

sadly, by a handful of Republicans--deliberately keeps gas prices

high and our domestic oil companies small by putting most of our

reserves off limits to development. China is now drilling in the

Caribbean, off Cuba but our own companies are barred by law from

developing large oil fields off the coasts of Florida and

California. Enormous oil-shale deposits in the Rocky Mountain

states could go a long way toward supplying American consumers'

needs, but the Democratic Congress won't allow those resources to

be developed. ANWR contains vast petroleum reserves, but we don't

know how vast, because Congress, not wanting the American people to

know how badly its policies are hurting our economy, has made it

illegal to explore and map those reserves, let alone develop them.

In short, all Americans are paying a terrible price for the

Democratic Party's perverse energy policies. I own some small

interests in tiny, 4 barrel-per-day oil wells in Wyoming. We have

14 agencies that have iron-hand jurisdiction over us. If we drop

any oil on the ground when the refinery truck comes to pick up oil

from our holding tanks, we are fined. Yet down the road the state

will spray thousands of gallons of used oil on a dirt road to

control dirt. When it rains that oil runs into rivers and creeks.

Yet a cup of oil on the ground at our wellhead is a $50,000 EPA

fine plus additional fines from state regulating agencies. They

treat oil as if it were plutonium that has the potential to leak

into the environment. We are fined if our dirt burms are not high

enough around a holding tank, yet the truck that picks up our oil

runs down the road at 60 mph with no burm around it. People wonder

why there is no more exploration in this country. It's because of

the regulators; people who have lived their whole lives doing

nothing but imposing fines on small operators like us for doing

mostly nothing.

So, America enjoy your $4.00 per gallon gasoline. Your dollar is

now worth 0.62 Euro-Cents. The lack of American production of GNP,

the massive trade deficit (as labor markets have moved overseas to

fight insanely high union imposed labor costs in America) and the

run away printing of money (backed by nothing of value here in

America) has caused the dollar to become more worthless on the

international market. And that's where our oil comes from. It's

paid for with dollars that become more worthless everyday. If we

had just kept par with the Euro we'd be paying $62 dollars per

barrel for oil (42 gallons) or about $1.50 instead of $2.50 a

gallon for crude oil.

What the US government also does not tell you is that it is the

leaseholder and royalty recipient of most oil production and

receives 25% of the gross oil sales before we pay for electricity

to lift the oil, propane to keep the oil-water separators from

freezing in the winters. We pay a pumper to visit each well

everyday plus we have equipment failures all the time. We pay for

that out of our 75% of gross sales. The government does not share

in any expenses to run any production well. So, if the Big Oil

Companies are making record profits, then so is the federal

government from it's 25% tax on every molecule of oil sold to a

refinery in this country. Why isn't the government on the stand

for "Record" profits? What you don't see is this 25% of the sales

price of crude oil being siphoned away by the government. That

money plus the road taxes, state taxes, etc. amounts to over $1 per

gallon of gasoline you are buying while the governments only admit

to about 50 cents per gallon.

To all you Democrats, when you go vote for your candidate, a

blazing liberal like Barrack Hussein Obama or Hillary Clinton, just

keep in mind that their liberal spending habits will further

decrease the value of the American dollar on the world market and

your gasoline costs will hike even higher. As they introduce more

give-away programs, raise taxes on everyone to pay people not to

produce or work, your dollar will continue to dwindle on the world

market and you will be paying $10.00 per gallon at the next

election. Cheap hydrocarbon fuel is all over. Enjoy! Enjoy

the fruits of your decision to elect these folks when you are there

in that voting booth and you stab your pin through a Democrat's name.

William "Bill" Phillips

[TheDrewYouKnew 3]

Do you honestly think that they went home and are laying out on the beach or something? Members of Congress go home during these periods to meet with constituents. Trust me, this week isn't slow for any of them.

But if President Bush is on "vacation" from the hardest job in the world we can make fun, right?

[Justin5 20]

Do you honestly think that they went home and are laying out on the beach or something? Members of Congress go home during these periods to meet with constituents. Trust me, this week isn't slow for any of them.

But if President Bush is on "vacation" from the hardest job in the world we can make fun, right?

The entire point of a member of the House of Representatives is to represent those in his district. Bush's job is IN Washington, or war zones, or disaster areas. Not in some ranch in Texas. That is why we make fun.

[RunInRed 16,454]

Do you realize who was in the White House the past 8 years and who controlled Congress for the majority of the past 8 years? And nothing was done. Yet now, you point to this "vacation" as the reason why oil is so high? Is this a serious post?!

[channonc 466]

Do you honestly think that they went home and are laying out on the beach or something? Members of Congress go home during these periods to meet with constituents. Trust me, this week isn't slow for any of them.

But if President Bush is on "vacation" from the hardest job in the world we can make fun, right?

For the record, I have never made comments about Bush going to the ranch.

[Tigermike 3,046]

Do you realize who was in the White House the past 8 years and who controlled Congress for the majority of the past 8 years? And nothing was done. Yet now, you point to this "vacation" as the reason why oil is so high? Is this a serious post?!

I think his point was that every time Bush went on vacation, the bed wetting libs ranted and raved about it. What he was saying was POT MEET KETTLE.

[RunInRed 16,454]

That's not what his post was about - he made a lame attempt at blaming Democrats for high gas prices.

[autigeremt 6,660]

It's BOTH parties fault. Anyone who cannot see that hasn't taken a clear look at the history of this problem.

A COMPREHENSIVE plan is in order here. We MUST drill, refine, and clear the way for more domestic oil production. Congress can limit the export of oil and create legislation that forces the oil companies to adhere to domestic production for domestic use.

We MUST advance biofuels, paving the way for decreasing demand on fossil fuels. (Corn has to be ruled out as the primary yeild for this).

We MUST build more nuclear plants. We MUST build more wind mills. We MUST use solar. We MUST use clean coal.

We MUST create a diverse energy grid and become self reliant.

Comprehensive is the way to go. It's reality, not a dream world like many think their way is.