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GAS PRICES
Topic Started: Feb 16 2012, 07:22 PM (7,983 Views)
Kerri P.
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http://news.yahoo.com/higher-gas-prices-threaten-economy-persist-221939724.html
Higher gas prices threaten economy if they persist
Associated Press – 2 hrs 40 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation remains tame throughout the U.S. economy, with one big exception: gas prices.

Those higher prices haven't derailed a steadily improving economy. But if they surpass $4 or $5 a gallon, experts fear Americans could pull back on spending, and job growth could stall, posing a potentially serious threat to the recovery.

And the longer prices remain high, the more they could imperil President Barack Obama's re-election hopes.

A few weeks ago, economists generally agreed that the economy was in little danger from higher gas prices as long as job growth remained strong. But fears are now mounting that gas prices could begin to weaken consumer confidence.

The average pump price nationwide is $3.83 a gallon. Energy analysts say it's bound to climb higher in the weeks ahead.

"It's a thorn in the side of the consumer and businesses," said Chris Christopher, an economist at IHS Global Insight. The economy this year "would have been better and stronger if we didn't have to deal with this."

So far, higher prices aren't undermining the economic recovery, which is getting a lift from strong job creation. It would take a big jump — to around $5 a gallon — before most economists would worry that growth would halt and the economy would slide into another recession.

snip....
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Baldo
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All I can say to that article is

Duh!
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Baldo
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Excellent column by Charles Krauthammer

Obama's oil flimflam

........."The American people aren't stupid," Obama said (Feb. 23), mocking "Drill, baby, drill." The 'only solution," he averred in yet another major energy speech last week, is that "we start using less - that lowers the demand, prices come down." Yet five paragraphs later he claimed that regardless of "how much oil we produce at home .... that's not going to set the price of gas worldwide."

So: Decreasing U.S. demand will lower oil prices, but increasing U.S. supply will not? This is ridiculous. Either both do or neither does. Does Obama read his own speeches?

Obama says of drilling: "That's not a plan." Of course it's a plan. We import nearly half of our oil, thereby exporting enormous amounts of U.S. wealth. Almost 60 percent of our trade deficit - $332 billion out of $560 billion - is shipped overseas to buy crude.

Drill here and you stanch the hemorrhage. You keep those dollars within the U.S. economy, repatriating not just wealth but jobs and denying them to foreign unfriendlies. Drilling is the single most important thing we can do to spur growth at home while strengthening our hand abroad.

Instead, Obama offers what he fancies to be the fuels of the future. You would think that he'd be a tad more modest today about his powers of divination after the Solyndra bankruptcy, the collapse of government-subsidized Ener1 (past makers of the batteries of the future) and GM’s suspension of production - for lack of demand - of another federally dictated confection, the flammable Chevy Volt.

Deterred? Hardly. Our undaunted seer of the energy future has come up with his own miracle fuel: algae.

Why, explained Obama, "we can grow it right here in the United States." (Sounds like a miraculous local find - except that it grows just about everywhere on earth.) Accordingly, yet another $14 million of taxpayer money will be sprinkled on algae research by Steven Chu's Energy Department.

This is the very same Dr. Chu who famously said in 2008 that he wanted U.S. gas prices to rise to European levels of $8-$10 a gallon - and who on Tuesday, eight months before Election Day, publicly recanted before Congress, Galileo-style.

Who do they think they're fooling? An oil crisis looms, prices are spiking - and our president is extolling algae. After Solyndra, Keystone and promises of seaweed in their gas tanks, Americans sense a president so ideologically antipathetic to fossil fuels - which we possess in staggering abundance - that he is utterly unserious about the real world of oil in which the rest of us live.

High gasoline prices are a major political problem for Obama. They are not just a pain at the pump, however. They are a constant reminder of three years of a rigid, fatuous, fantasy-driven energy policy that has rendered us scandalously dependent and excessively vulnerable.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-oil-flimflam/2012/03/15/gIQA7x77ES_story.html


Good point

Oil is a world-wide commodity.Consumption will be increasing with India & China. It is something that cannot be stopped unless by a major downturn in the world economy. What we can do is increase our domestic production and keep that money here employing US citizens.

Life is pretty good in North Dakota. They are booming with very low unemployment

Edited by Baldo, Mar 18 2012, 08:19 PM.
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sdsgo

Baldo: "Life is pretty good in North Dakota. They are booming with very low unemployment."

Dang! Baldo's right!



North Dakota economy booms, population soars

North Dakota, the state with the nation's lowest unemployment rate, capped a decade of economic prosperity with dramatic population growth in its biggest cities.

Fargo added nearly 15,000 residents to hit a record population of 105,549, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday. Its fast-growing neighbor of West Fargo added an additional 11,000 residents to reach a population of 25,830.

Fargo has seen steady growth over the decade - the housing boom missed it - to reach a size that surprised city officials.

"Above 100,000? Wow. That puts us into a different category of city. That's great," says Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker. The city is now home to about one of every six North Dakota residents.

Fargo's growth is especially striking considering North Dakota's population is only 672,591, the nation's third smallest. The state's total population grew 4.7% from 2000 to 2010, below the national average of 9.7%, but robust for a region that has suffered for decades from a depopulation of the Great Plains.

North Dakota residents continued the long-standing trend of leaving rural counties for the bigger towns of Fargo, Grand Forks, Bismarck and Minot. Also, the state's population continues to get older. The number of children declined for the second straight decade, says Brookings Institution demographer William Frey.

<snip>

Posted Image

<snip>

The state's weather makes it hard to lure new residents. The average January low temperature is four degrees below zero. North Dakota holds job fairs in other states to match workers to available jobs.

"We feel extremely fortunate for the position we're in," says North Dakota Commerce Commissioner Paul Govig.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2011-03-16-north-dakota-census_N.htm

Locals enjoying a nice day ...


Posted Image

You can see some very beautiful pictures of North Dakota at the link below.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g28955-North_Dakota.html
Edited by sdsgo, Mar 18 2012, 09:01 PM.
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Mason
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Parts unknown
.
I took a little trip. Just got back.

I found out condoms sell in Gas station bathrooms for two quarters (50 cents).

I saw stands on the side of the road advertising they take Food Stamps with EBT in parens.

I paid $4.36 for gas at one location.


You can learn more by getting out there than watching the Talking Heads selling Lies every day.


.
Edited by Mason, Mar 18 2012, 09:01 PM.
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Baldo
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Opinion - Jim Sensenbrenner US Congress (R - Wisconsin's 5th congressional district)

Pain at the Gas Pump Continues to Hurt Families, Businesses


On Sunday, the average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline in the Milwaukee area hit $4.07. When President Obama took office, it was $1.89. Higher energy costs are a burden on American families and threatening our economic recovery.

In 2011, the average household spent an estimated $4,155 at the pump. In total that represents 8.4 percent of what the median family makes annually, money that could be spent elsewhere when times are tough.

Surging gas prices hit Americans not only the pump, but also at the grocery store. As gas prices increase transportation costs, small businesses and large distributors alike will shift that price burden to the consumers....snipped

About this column: U.S. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner represents the 5th Congressional District, which includes most communities in Ozaukee, Milwaukee, Jefferson, Washington and Waukesha counties.

http://waukesha.patch.com/articles/pain-at-the-gas-pump-continues-to-hurt-families-businesses


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kbp

LTC from Michelle Malkin
 
....“I no longer share that view,” Chu told Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, today. “When I became Secretary of Energy, I represented the United States government, and I think right now in this econonic, very slow, return — these prices could very well affect the comeback of our economy,” he added.




What an idiot, and he's changing his stand for his boss. So now we learn the efforts by him & Barry on gas prices are not good for the economy!
Edited by kbp, Mar 19 2012, 11:15 AM.
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LTC8K6
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Assistant to The Devil Himself
http://news.investors.com/photopopup.aspx?id=604897
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kbp

LTC8K6
Mar 20 2012, 11:32 AM
Great link ...but it's not something you find in the news.
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Baldo
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As the propaganda war about who is responsible for Gas Prices continues I am struck by the lack of attention towards one aspect.

Crude Oil & natural gas are commodities and the country that makes use of their own resources benefits immensely. It is fairly clear to me that oil consumption will continue to be massive for the next many decades and those countries who make use of them will prosper & those that either don't have them or don't use them won't.

China will continue to use more & more, as will India. Unfortunately for them they lack huge reserves.

I think the idea that solar energy will replace oil & LNG is unicorns & fairy tales. At best it will make an inroad. How big I don't know, but unlikely a large percentage. I support solar, as long as it isn't a big boondoggle and govt handout to special friends. That leaves us with fossil fuel & nuclear. I have made myself clear I do strongly believe nuclear will eventually be our energy source of the future.

However in the meantime, no matter where the price of fossil fuels goes doesn't it make sense for us to use out vast supply of natural gas? Did you know our natural gas prices are very low, just the opposite of oil. However outside the USA it is very high? So why don't we develop it & export it? Let's be prosperous.

So why aren't we? Because we are not in any large amounts. I have been told it is because we don't have the exports facilities in ports to do so.

Unlike crude oil, which is traded globally via tankers and pipelines, natural gas trading remains primarily isolated within the producing regions and lacks the infrastructure to be a true global commodity.

In the past few years, increased LNG (liquefied natural gas) trade is gradually transforming the global natural gas market. However, bustling U.S. shale gas production and weak demand due to recession have created a significant supply glut as the U.S., despite nine LNG import terminals, has near zero LNG export capacity.

While crude oil prices have been climbing on trading activities and geopolitical tensions, domestic natural gas prices have remained stagnant in the $4 per mmbtu (million British thermal unit) range for the past year or so, practically immune to the effort by the Federal Reserve to inflate asset prices through two rounds of QE (See Chart).
http://seekingalpha.com/article/273436-lng-export-a-u-s-natural-gas-game-changer


Sometimes you just shake your head in disgust.
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kbp

This sounds like corporate cronyism. but imagine where we'd be today if the Stimulus all went towards infrastructure to be utilized to increase our usage of natural gas here at home. At least then the reduction in our world trade deficit would have been more US dollars to invest here at home and the income from those natural resources would have been taxed ...which looks like a win-win on the spending deficit side of the equation.
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Kerri P.
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My traded in our SUV for a car about six weeks ago. She only needs to fill up every two weeks. She is getting much better gas mileage with the car.
Edited by Kerri P., Mar 20 2012, 02:50 PM.
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Baldo
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kbp
Mar 20 2012, 01:00 PM
This sounds like corporate cronyism. but imagine where we'd be today if the Stimulus all went towards infrastructure to be utilized to increase our usage of natural gas here at home. At least then the reduction in our world trade deficit would have been more US dollars to invest here at home and the income from those natural resources would have been taxed ...which looks like a win-win on the spending deficit side of the equation.
Yep, it makes too much sense. I suspect there are forces who oppose this at different levels.

I am a big believer of create prosperity and passing out govt money isn't the way to do anything. The bigger question is why do they have our money to begin with & why do we have to ask for a portion of it back, whether through subsidies or tax breaks?

There is a need for government, especially in co-ordination and law/order, but it has gone too far.
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kbp

Recycling renewable-energy rhetoric
Obama bypasses fossil fuels to burn green dollars


By Rep. Mike Kelly

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Kerri P.
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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/20/chu-gives-himself-high-marks-on-gas-prices-drawing-criticism/?test=latestnews
Chu gives himself high marks on gas prices, drawing criticism
Published March 20, 2012
FoxNews.com

The Obama administration’s energy policy chief on Tuesday gave himself an A for controlling gas prices that have reached a record high at pumps across the country, drawing criticism and even chortles from Washington Republicans.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu made the comment during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in which he was asked whether he was still doing A-minus work.

“Well, the tools we have at our disposal are limited, but I would say I would give myself a little higher,” he told committee Chairman Darrell Issa. “Since I became secretary of energy, I've been doing everything I can to get long-term solutions."

Issa, a California Republican, said later that the administration’s “DOE is DOA.”

The average price of regular gas is now $3.87 a gallon, a record high for March and more than double the $1.85 a gallon price when Obama took office in January 2009, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

The price for a gallon of regular gas has reached $4.35 a gallon in California.

The issue of U.S. energy policy and “prices at the pump” have emerged as an election issue, and top GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have used campaign stops to hammer the issues.

On Tuesday, the Republican National Committee ridiculed Chu’s assessment of his and the administration’s efforts.

“I would have loved to have Secretary Chu as a professor in college if he thinks $4-plus a gallon and over a 100 percent increase gets an A,” said Sean Spicer, communications director for the Republican National Committee. “It would probably take $10 a gallon for him to get to a B under this curve.”

Spicer acknowledges the lack of short-term fixes. But he thinks Obama has dragged his feet for years on such potential, long-term solutions as offshore drilling and the Keystone XL oil pipeline while spending taxpayer dollars on such yet-to-be proven, alternative-energy ventures as offshore wind and solar-energy companies, such as Solyndra.

“He turned up his nose at areas of production we have in the U.S. and put all of his eggs in the basket of Solyndra, then says there’s no silver bullet. He wasted years," Spicer said.

Edited by Kerri P., Mar 21 2012, 08:40 AM.
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