jlf1961
Posts: 14840
Joined: 6/10/2008
From: Somewhere Texas
Status: offline
|
Both of you are wrong....
quote:
Consider that the average price of a regular gallon of gas at U.S. pumps was $1.85 when Bush was sworn in for his second term in January 2005 and $1.84 when Obama took office in January 2009 on the promise of change, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Adjusting for inflation, prices rose to $2.52 (Bush) and $2.53 (Obama) seven months into their terms, $2.76 and $2.71, respectively, nearly two years in and $3.27 each three years in. This month, gas is $3.85, more than a dime cheaper than at this point during Bush’s second term when adjusted for inflation.
The average, through 45 months in office? Obama: $3.04; Bush’s second term: $2.98.
“The global price of oil pays no attention to whether the White House occupant is Democrat or Republican,” said Paul Bledsoe, a former White House energy aide to Bill Clinton. It’s just that “when you’re living paycheck to paycheck and gasoline is more expensive, you want to blame somebody.”
Source
All things considered, according to the US Department of energy, gasoline prices were about the same for both presidents, fluctuating normally as the price of crude per barrel fluctuated.
Now, since the price of gasoline is dependent on the price of crude and influenced by the supply and demand curves, it does not matter one damn bit if a Republican or Democrat is sitting in the white house.
Now, when the price per barrel is high, it does drive exploration AND it makes producing from shale and oil sand deposits profitable, not the price per gallon of gas.
Now, when supply is low and demand is high, prices are high. (basic capitalism folks)
But there are a few other factors to consider.
In the US there are two types of crude oil.
Old oil and New oil.
During the Ford and, later, the Reagan presidencies, oil production in the US was cut into two categories, old and new. Old oil was produced in fields and deposits discovered prior 1970, and old oil had a floating price cap placed on all oil from these older deposits.
The goal was to drive exploration and also increase the strategic oil reserve.
And it is easy to tell exactly which fields the oil comes from, since it is picked up by tanker trucks from tank batteries located around the fields where the oil is being pumped.
Today, WTI crude if 48.23 a barrel and Brent crude is 51.51 as if 10:33AM Central time.
US old oil, price per barrel is $34.45, dependent on availability.
Now, that sounds like gas should be dirt cheap, but the key phrase is "dependent on availability."
You see, oil producing states have various commissions that regulate what oil production will be for any given day, and from what fields that production is allowed to come from.
These states get revenues off production dependent on current crude prices.
AND the Federal Government Department of Energy also has a say in what fields can produce, as it impacts strategic reserve.
Of course, around this part of the oil patch, pumping old oil will be a bit difficult, as most of the wells that were drilled before 1970 has been plugged, nice 200 foot cement plugs poured into the wells as new fields began to produce in abundance.
So, in reality the "old oil" price is meaningless, unless the federal government orders producers to start pumping from those fields.
So, the president has less impact on gas prices at the pump than the two of you have on the price of a Hershey bar at a 7/11 in south central LA.
The Presidents energy policy makes great headlines, but in essence is little more than guidelines and wishful thinking.
President Bush's energy policy went down the toilet with a large refinery fire in Texas at the same time 3 major refineries were undergoing some much needed renovations and modernization of equipment.
Bush sr.'s energy police went down the toilet when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Carter's went south when Iran fell to the Fundamentalists, and then Reagan had to deal with the Iraq v Iran war and the fact that Iranian gun boats tended to attack anything in the Persian Gulf.
For the record, the highest price per barrel for crude oil was in July of 2008 at $147.27 and by February of 2009 it was down to $40 a barrel. The president had absolutely no control over the fluctuation of world crude prices, and thus the price of gasoline at the pump.
Again the price of crude oil and thus the price of gasoline is market driven.
_____________________________
Boy, it sure would be nice if we had some grenades, don't you think?
You cannot control who comes into your life, but you can control which airlock you throw them out of.
Paranoid Paramilitary Gun Loving Conspiracy Theorist AND EQUAL OPPORTUNI
|
RE: Turning On The Pipeline Spigot - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread