We Did this to ourselves

the high price of saving the planet

from JoeUser Forums

This is our own legislative doing. Our laws currently put a windfall profits tax on domestically produced oil making it cheaper to buy it from others. This has caused oil companies to cap wells to save money but even now they are starting to bring them back on line but they were capped because they were low producers not because they were restricting the oil.

The other issue is that we don’t have the refining capacity needed to refine more oil. Since the 80’s we have had to import gasoline as well as crude oil. In the 70’s the oil executives told my Congress that they needed to build more refineries and more nuclear reactors. The Congress at the time did not believe them and imposed heavy restrictions on building more refineries and nuclear power plants. The paper work needed to get approval to build a refinery takes about 10 years if no where along the way anyone puts up a legal challenge. Environmentalists have put up challenge after challenge every time one was proposed. 30 years without a new refinery with increasing demand has put the plants at 90 to 110% of rated capacity.

Add to that the local laws that demand the fuel mixture include or exclude different chemicals and additives like ethanol. Currently there are 56 different blends that are mandated by law that have to be made in three categories of premium, midrange and regular gas and on top of that they have to make a summer and winter blend of the 56 blends. This eats up a lot of refining and storage space.

Get rid of the 56 blends and bring it down to 3 and we have more fuel, get rid of the mandate of a midrange fuel and you have more gas. Get rid of the windfall profits tax of the 70’s and you have more domestic fuel.

Allow the oil companies to drill where we know there is oil and our reserves increase. All of that will bring down the price of gas.

Build more nuclear power plants and you rely less on oil fired power plants also bringing more fuel to the party. Wind power is a great help but not the answer alone the same with solar power. Both of them are more expensive but as we learn more we refine and tweak the technologies becoming more efficient as we go.

legislated ourselves into this mess and we are almost to the point where legislation will not help get us out of it. and are the reason we have this spike in oil prices. Their massive growth was not anticipated and we were caught flat footed. There is also a world wide shortage of cement for the same reason. So it is not just oil that has gone up in price.

All these laws were created in order to save the planet, save the Earth, save from the environmental apocalypse of big business!

The experts in the field warned us in the 70’s that we would have 5 dollar a gallon oil if we did not listen and the environmentalist smiled at that because we would drive less and save the planet. They got their way and now we are stuck in a position where we must depend on our enemies for our own economic survival. We caused this and we can fix it.

Demand from your representatives that we repeal the short sighted foolish and draconian laws designed to save us!

4,154 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
If we don't do it now it will be too late in another year!
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
The experts in the field warned us in the 70’s that we would have 5 dollar a gallon oil if we did not listen and the environmentalist smiled at that because we would drive less and save the planet.
End of quote


And the honest environmentalist is rejoicing now. And I salute them. It is the dishonest that silently gleefully rubs their hands together and chortles, while publically shedding aligator tears over the "plight of the poor" that the price of gas has wrecked upon. They are the only true villans in this whole mess. And their name be Pelosi and Reid and their toadies.
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from PolMach Forums Top

And don't forget about the role that Federal Reserve has played in all of this.  They caused the housing boom.  They caused the banks to lend money to overly risky clients.  They are the reason that it collapsed and their solution was to lower interest rates over and over again, and pump gobs of money into the system.  That in turn drove the value of the dollar into the tank, and since oil is priced in US dollars it drove the price of oil up.  Add that to the increased demand and stagnant supply and you get what we are seeing.  There is plenty of blame to passed around and there is no one solution to the problem.

Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
They caused the housing boom. They caused the banks to lend money to overly risky clients.
End of quote


I disagree - Congress did it, not the Fed. The fed does not pass laws and encourage people. The Fed did abet the situation by loosening the money supply too much, but even that would not have caused it. It took the idiots in DC to do that.
Reply #6 from PolMach Forums Top

Quoting Dr,
They caused the housing boom. They caused the banks to lend money to overly risky clients.I disagree - Congress did it, not the Fed. The fed does not pass laws and encourage people. The Fed did abet the situation by loosening the money supply too much, but even that would not have caused it. It took the idiots in DC to do that.
End of Dr's quote

I'm not saying that congress didn't play a part.  The OP points out very valid points in how congress has let us down and helped to put us in this situation.  But congress has little to no effect on the value of the dollar since they handed control over the the Federal Reserve.  It is the actions (or inaction) of the Fed over the past 10-20 years that has led us down this path to a major devaluing of the dollar which is contributing to the dramatic increase in the price of oil.  Because the dollar fell in value many investors turned to oil to hedge their investments which inflated the cost of oil, plus everything I said previously.  The Federal Reserve definitely played a part in the crisis that we are in right now, but that doesn't mean congress is innocent they are very far from that.

Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'm not saying that congress didn't play a part. The OP points out very valid points in how congress has let us down and helped to put us in this situation. But congress has little to no effect on the value of the dollar since they handed control over the the Federal Reserve. It is the actions (or inaction) of the Fed over the past 10-20 years that has led us down this path to a major devaluing of the dollar which is contributing to the dramatic increase in the price of oil. Because the dollar fell in value many investors turned to oil to hedge their investments which inflated the cost of oil, plus everything I said previously. The Federal Reserve definitely played a part in the crisis that we are in right now, but that doesn't mean congress is innocent they are very far from that.
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Which came first, the chicken or the egg. We do not seem to be debating the causes of the crises, only what was the catalyst and what played the major role.

I will only point out that right now, money is almost as loose as it was in the early 21st century, and yet we do not have a boom. Why? Congress. The missing ingredient is congress.

I agree that the monetary policy has not been good since Volcker, but it has not been terrible either. But when we need great, we have mediocre.