Americans are experiencing more and more pain at the gas pump. Why?
Obama’s chickens are coming home to roost.
For three years, Obama has been the most anti-American energy or for that matter, the most anti American President we have ever had.
Now, Americans are paying more than they ever have for gas.
Gasoline prices have never been higher this time of the year.
At $3.53 a gallon, prices are already up 25 cents since Jan. 1. And experts say they could reach a record $4.25 a gallon by late April.
“You’re going to see a lot more staycations this year,” says Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. “When the price gets anywhere near $4, you really see people react.”
Already, W. Howard Coudle, a retired machinist from Crestwood, Mo., has seen his monthly gasoline bill rise to $80 from about $60 in December. The closest service station is selling regular for $3.39 per gallon, the highest he’s ever seen.
“I guess we’re going to have to drive less, consolidate all our errands into one trip,” Coudle says. “It’s just oppressive.”
The surge in gas prices follows an increase in the price of oil.
Oil around the world is priced differently. Brent crude from the North Sea is a proxy for the foreign oil that’s imported by U.S. refineries and turned into gasoline and other fuels. Its price has risen 11 percent so far this year, to around $119 a barrel, because of tensions with Iran, a cold snap in Europe and rising demand from developing nations. West Texas Intermediate, used to price oil produced in the U.S., is up 4 percent to around $103 a barrel. That’s 19 percent higher than a year earlier.
Higher gas prices could hurt consumer spending and curtail the recent improvement in the U.S. economy.
A 25-cent jump in gasoline prices, if sustained over a year, would cost the economy about $35 billion. That’s only 0.2 percent of the total U.S. economy, but economists say it’s a meaningful amount, especially at a time when growth is only so-so. The economy grew 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter, a rate considered modest following a recession.
While Obama has been throwing billions at so-called “Green energy” projects like Solyndra, he has been doing everything he can to attack the petroleum industry. His Interior Department has been held in contempt by a Federal Judge because of its attempts to shut down oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.
Obama has repeatedly made it more difficult for America to obtain oil, even if it is domestic oil and he has vetoed logical ideas for increasing America’s energy supply, like the Keystone pipe line.
If Obama were merely incompetent, he would occasionally get something right. This is not incompetence. This is his dream of destroying America as a super power.
A nation without energy is not a superpower. It is not a power at all.
Permalink Reply by Fitzhugh Havens on According to Lew Dobbs on the Orielly Factor, there is a surplus of oil but they're refining it and exporting it to other countries Could this be to line the pockets of the oil companies??.
Permalink Reply by American Infidel on Uhhh, Mr. Havens? Are you aware that if the oil companies refined and sold American oil IN AMERICA, they would stand to make a lot more money than they would by shipping it to foreign countries? So, your argument makes no sense whatsoever from a profit standpoint. Judson is spot-on in this discussion. Obama's "energy policies" are specifically designed to bring America to her knees. I vote we knee-cap Obama in November. By the way, since when is it a bad thing to make money? Only a Marxist is offended by people having a business and making good money.
Permalink Reply by Sharron Deer on There's nothing wrong with making a profit in general. But it's a simple fact that there are only two ways for oil companies to increase their gasoline profits: by lowering their costs and charging the same, or increasing what we pay at the pump. Well, there are three ways: they can lower their cost AND increase what we pay at the pump.
Permalink Reply by MUG on Fitzbutt, in 2010 the PROFITS on gas of the oil companies divided by the number of gallons of gas they sold, came out to a little over 2 cents, that's TWO CENTS per gallon!!!!!
The average Local, State and Federal tax is 48 cents, that's FORTY EIGHT CENTS per gallon. There's nowhere in the world that American Oil Companies can ship gasoline, cover transportation costs and compete in the highly taxed existing markets.
Mr Mug:
Your so right..its the taxes that drive the prices up..And those dollars where going to take care of all of the repairs to the Hwy,Roads & Bridges..Until the politicians stoled all the money for something else, just like the Social Security Trust that LBJ rapped..in the 60's
We just hit $3.77 and rising daily..on the Northern Shores of the East Coast (RI) thats at a no name stations.. Forget the Mobil, Shell, Etc..already at $4.00 or just under..for 87 grade..Deisel is over $4.00 already. There goes the food prices and cost of all personal consumers products!! And "Obama & CO" claims there is no inflation..what a joke..
Permalink Reply by Gregory PaulTwyman on What are you doing here, anyway?
Permalink Reply by Thomas Angle on This is his dream of destroying America as a super power
If this statement is true. Why are we even remotely treating him like a president? He is traitor and should be tried as one and punished as one. How much do you really love liberty? Enough to watch it flushed down a toilet?
Permalink Reply by Ronald Sorrells on Thomas:
The "prescendent" that Bill Clinton is EVERYTHING HAS TO BE PROVEN IN COURT TO SAY "THAT IT IS WRONG".
We even drag "enemy combatants" from the battlefield into our courts (they are not even citizens) to "try' them under our "criminal laws" ! THEY SHOULD BE "TRIED UNDER" EVIL LAW NOT CRIMINAL LAW !
Ron
Permalink Reply by Thomas Angle on Ron the courts will never let it happen. So what is there to do?
Permalink Reply by Barbara O Cassel on We live in an area of natural gas production and it is pretty much at a standstill. It is not because our supply is depleted, it is because this nation put an enemy of the state in the white house. If we don't 'clean house' this year they are going to achieve their goals and take this country under. You might say, "The ball is in our court!"
Permalink Reply by Ronald Sorrells on Barbara:
WHEN THE "RIGHT" PEOPLE FIGURE OUT HOW TO 'CONTROL THE DISTRIBUTION AND PROFITS MADE FROM NATURAL GAS' IT WILL BE ALLOWED FOR THE MARKET. BUT, IT WILL BE SOLD WORLDWIDE AT A RATE OF RETURN THAT IS AT THE ADVANTAGE OF CURRENT OIL COMPANIES OR SOME OTHER INTERESTS THAT ARE MORE POWERFUL.
THERE ARE NO ADVOCATES FOR THE "COMMON MAN CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
OUR SOVEREIGNTY IS DEPENDENT ON SOME FORM OF ASSURANCE BY THOSE THAT ARE ALLOWED TO "TAKE FROM THE AIR, WATER & SOIL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" THAT THE BENEFITS ARE RECOGNIZED BY THE "STOCKHOLDERS OF THIS GREAT NATION....WHO IS THE COMMON MAN CITIZEN.'
THE "COMMON MAN" (ABE LINCOLN CONSIDERED HIMSELF ONE) IS "TOTALLY DEPENDENT" ON THE "INTEGRITY OF THE PUBLIC OFFICIALS OF FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY/PARISH, CITY, TOWN GOVERNMENTS" TO "ENFORCE THE RULE OF LAW" AS SET DOWN IN THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION (1787) AND EVERY "RULE" MADE BY THE "AUTHORITY" OF THIS DOCUMENT !
THE "NON-NEGOTIABLES" THAT WERE CHARTERED BY FIRST THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, FEDERAL PAPERS AND FINALLY "THE CONSTITUTION" BY WHICH WE PLEDGED TO FOLLOW.....IS WHY AMERICANS ADOPTED A "REPUBLIC" MODEL OPPOSED TO "A PURE DEMOCRACY" (MAJORITY ALWAYS RULE). WE "ADOPTED" RULES SIMILAR TO THE "10 COMMANDMENTS OF GOD", WHEREBY THIS GOVERNEMENT COULD DO CERTAIN THINGS AND COULD NOT DO CERTAIN THINGS ! IT WAS "DIVINELY IMSPIRED" BECAUSE "MEN BOUND THEMELVES FROM THE PLEASURE OF THEIR OWN DESIRES BUT RATHER ADOPTED PRINCIPLES THAT ONLY GOD WOULD ADOPT".
IF MEN WERE ANGELS.........THERE WOULD BE NO NEED FOR GOVERNMENT.....Madison !
Ron
Permalink Reply by Juls on I live in western Colorado, also an area of natural gas production, and we've been dead in the water for a couple of years now. When the energy industry moved out they took the jobs with them and it literally devastated the local economy.
Obama's policies are a large part of the problem but the Dems in general make up most of it. Colorado is now under their control and with the constant influx of environmentalists into the area I don't see that changing anytime soon. Salazar, a democrat and a self-professed conservationist, hails from this state - has family and owns property here. He has witnessed the decline and the resulting suffering due to his party's policies and does not care. The democrat agenda foisted this disaster on the citizens of western Colorado. Obama's presidency was the icing on the cake.
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