Bush's Policies Help Push Gasoline Prices Higher and Higher
When Bush took office gasoline was $1.47 per gallon. However as recently as last February, Bush the hypocrite, who said he was concentrating on gasoline prices, didn't know that the price was heading to $4.00 per gallon.
The Shrub gets the US into terrible messes but does nothing to prudently extricate the US or alleviate the problems.
As McClatchy points out: "As gasoline prices soar to new records, America's president — and the two men who hope to succeed him — are offering only partial or long-term solutions and ignoring three steps that many experts say could bring some relief now.
"Americans began this workweek by crossing a dismal threshold, paying a once-unthinkable nationwide record average of $4.02 per gallon Monday for unleaded gasoline, with the prospect of even higher prices in months ahead.
"Independent experts, however, said that government could take at least three other steps that could force oil and gasoline prices down immediately. Neither Bush nor McCain nor Obama endorse any of them.
"Perhaps the quickest action, the experts said, would be ordering curbs on financial speculation. Financial industry heavyweights have acknowledged in recent testimony before Congress that such speculation is driving oil prices higher.
"Pension funds, endowments and other big institutional investors are pumping big money into index funds linked to commodities, including oil, driving up demand — and prices. The popular Goldman Sachs Commodities Index attracted $260 billion in investment last year, compared to $13 billion five years earlier.
"President Bush could order the CFTC to regulate U.S. investments in those markets with a snap of his fingers, said Michael Greenberger, a law professor at the University of Maryland and a former director of trading for the CFTC.
" 'Essentially this could be ended this afternoon if the Bush administration had the stomach to do it,' he said. 'Those abdications of responsibility and allowing these exchanges to trade in 'dark' markets ... provides an environment for speculators to thrive.'
"A second partial solution would be to boost the supply of oil available on the market by releasing as much as 1 million barrels a day of oil now held in the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That step is being pushed by, among others, the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank run by several former Clinton administration officials.
"Do that for 90 days — through the summer driving season when con sumer demand for gasoline is highest — and the reserve would lose less than 15 percent of the oil held in case of national emergency.
"Finally, the Federal Reserve could act to boost the weak dollar, which has led oil producers to demand higher prices for oil, because oil generally is traded in dollars. Oil producers want higher prices to offset the cost of converting dollars into euros and other currencies that have grown stronger against the dollar.
"The best way to bolster a currency is to boost interest rates, but the Federal Reserve has been reluctant to do that with America teetering on the brink of recession. The central bank in Europe, where growth is more robust, is poised to raise rates, however. That could weaken the dollar further, and drive oil prices even higher.
"Senate Democrats on Tuesday will try to muster 60 votes to allow a vote on legislation that could significantly affect the oil industry and oil prices. The legislation would, among other things, instruct CFTC regulators to require investors to plunk down more of their own money if they want to speculate in oil markets.
"Speaking in Raleigh, N.C., Obama on Monday repeated his call for a tax on high oil company profits to fund aid programs for the poorest Americans.
" 'I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills,' he said.
"Longer term though, Obama said, the only answers are to increase use of alternative energy — solar, wind, biodiesel, clean-coal technology — and to increase fuel-mileage standards for vehicles and develop hybrid-electric cars, which will take time.
"McCain's longer-term answers turn more toward increasing production of oil from offshore and from oil-shale deposits in the mountain West."
Obama is on the correct solution path, but also needs to look at the three suggestions offered. But he isn't the president yet so there is a limit to what he can do.
The delusional McCain's policy is disastrous and will ruin this country's environment to help oil companies make even billions more.
Bush, of course, as president, still carries the responsibility to solve the immediate gas price problem, but, as usual, won't do anything to curb financial speculation because that would hinder his corporate crony contributors, speculators, and other wealthy crooks like him. Dubya is completely unconcerned about regular Americans like independent truckers who are losing their livelihood because of high gas prices.
The Shrub gets the US into terrible messes but does nothing to prudently extricate the US or alleviate the problems.
As McClatchy points out: "As gasoline prices soar to new records, America's president — and the two men who hope to succeed him — are offering only partial or long-term solutions and ignoring three steps that many experts say could bring some relief now.
"Americans began this workweek by crossing a dismal threshold, paying a once-unthinkable nationwide record average of $4.02 per gallon Monday for unleaded gasoline, with the prospect of even higher prices in months ahead.
"Independent experts, however, said that government could take at least three other steps that could force oil and gasoline prices down immediately. Neither Bush nor McCain nor Obama endorse any of them.
"Perhaps the quickest action, the experts said, would be ordering curbs on financial speculation. Financial industry heavyweights have acknowledged in recent testimony before Congress that such speculation is driving oil prices higher.
"Pension funds, endowments and other big institutional investors are pumping big money into index funds linked to commodities, including oil, driving up demand — and prices. The popular Goldman Sachs Commodities Index attracted $260 billion in investment last year, compared to $13 billion five years earlier.
"President Bush could order the CFTC to regulate U.S. investments in those markets with a snap of his fingers, said Michael Greenberger, a law professor at the University of Maryland and a former director of trading for the CFTC.
" 'Essentially this could be ended this afternoon if the Bush administration had the stomach to do it,' he said. 'Those abdications of responsibility and allowing these exchanges to trade in 'dark' markets ... provides an environment for speculators to thrive.'
"A second partial solution would be to boost the supply of oil available on the market by releasing as much as 1 million barrels a day of oil now held in the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That step is being pushed by, among others, the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank run by several former Clinton administration officials.
"Do that for 90 days — through the summer driving season when con sumer demand for gasoline is highest — and the reserve would lose less than 15 percent of the oil held in case of national emergency.
"Finally, the Federal Reserve could act to boost the weak dollar, which has led oil producers to demand higher prices for oil, because oil generally is traded in dollars. Oil producers want higher prices to offset the cost of converting dollars into euros and other currencies that have grown stronger against the dollar.
"The best way to bolster a currency is to boost interest rates, but the Federal Reserve has been reluctant to do that with America teetering on the brink of recession. The central bank in Europe, where growth is more robust, is poised to raise rates, however. That could weaken the dollar further, and drive oil prices even higher.
"Senate Democrats on Tuesday will try to muster 60 votes to allow a vote on legislation that could significantly affect the oil industry and oil prices. The legislation would, among other things, instruct CFTC regulators to require investors to plunk down more of their own money if they want to speculate in oil markets.
"Speaking in Raleigh, N.C., Obama on Monday repeated his call for a tax on high oil company profits to fund aid programs for the poorest Americans.
" 'I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills,' he said.
"Longer term though, Obama said, the only answers are to increase use of alternative energy — solar, wind, biodiesel, clean-coal technology — and to increase fuel-mileage standards for vehicles and develop hybrid-electric cars, which will take time.
"McCain's longer-term answers turn more toward increasing production of oil from offshore and from oil-shale deposits in the mountain West."
Obama is on the correct solution path, but also needs to look at the three suggestions offered. But he isn't the president yet so there is a limit to what he can do.
The delusional McCain's policy is disastrous and will ruin this country's environment to help oil companies make even billions more.
Bush, of course, as president, still carries the responsibility to solve the immediate gas price problem, but, as usual, won't do anything to curb financial speculation because that would hinder his corporate crony contributors, speculators, and other wealthy crooks like him. Dubya is completely unconcerned about regular Americans like independent truckers who are losing their livelihood because of high gas prices.
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