The 'never ending' bad news.

Today, May 21 @ 11:00 am, Fox News reported the crude oil price of $132 per bbl.

This price will be reflected "at the pump" by the middle of June to mid July.

And if any politician or candidate for President truly want to reduce the price of a barrel of oil, all they have to do is eliminate speculative trading on the New York Merciantile Exchenge and other Exchanges that allow future speculation.

As much as 60% of the price of oil is from speculation. Simply by buying and selling oil on the open market, the price could be reduced to around $50.00/barrel.

What's really bad is that Congress mandated the Commodity Futures Trading Trading Commission "to ensure that prices on the futures market reflect the laws of supply and demand rather than manipulative practices or excessive speculation. The US Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) states, "Excessive speculation in any commodity under contracts of sale of such commodity for future delivery . . . causing sudden or unreasonable fluctuations or unwarranted changes in the price of such commodity, is an undue and unnecessary burden on interstate commerce in such commodity."

Further, the CEA directs the CFTC to establish such trading limits "as the Commission finds are necessary to diminish, eliminate, or prevent such burden."

Oil experts the work over has said that there is enough supply to meet current demand, which, over the past few months, has been going down.

So why are oil prices continuing to rise?

Aaron wrote:And if any politician or candidate for President truly want to reduce the price of a barrel of oil, all they have to do is eliminate speculative trading on the New York Merciantile Exchenge and other Exchanges that allow future speculation.

That won't be necessary, Aaron.

Congress has taken the logical and sensible approach to sole the problem.

They have decided to file a Law suite against OPEC ....... thus forcing them to cut the price of their oil.

So, "happy driving times" will soon be with us again.

Oh, and ps, later news:

Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose as high as $135.09 before falling back slightly. By midday in Europe, the contract stood at $134.37 a barrel in electronic trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up $1.20 on Wednesday's close of $133.17.

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We are so screwed.

I just feel dirty and I didn't even get a kiss.

I need a shower and probably a penicillin shot or something.

Stephanie wrote:We are so screwed.

Steph, one consoling thought, ........ all the Bush Haters can still get their "jollies" by claiming the Iraq War "was all about oil" ..... and not WMDs which Bush lied about.

A learned fellow on Cavuto yesterday said it wouldn't surprise him if gasoline soon reached the $8 per gal price.

Of course, if it does, I will be reminding them at every $1 increase ..... what I've been tellim them for the past 5 years.

That ......

.

They say timing is everything in life. In RI I could walk to the library, the park, a convenience store for milk & bread and emergency items. There were 3 supermarkets within a 10 minute drive, one within 5. My son's pediatrician was 10 minutes away, as was my eye doctor, dentist, and midwife. I could be at the beach or an aquarium in less than 15 minutes.

It takes me nearly 25 minutes to drive off this ridge. Now gas is $4 a gallon and climbing.

I feel your pain, Steph.

Eventually, though, I see good coming of this. I think OPEC has finally overplayed it's hand, and we're going to see not only more internal production but alternative sources being developed as well.

In the meantime, up in hills of WVA (you're out toward Leon, aren't ya?) I'm afraid your screwed. Is your car efficient at least?

It used to be that environmentalists are "cute," but now that we are paying 4 bucks for gas when we can't even get our oil out of Colorado and the Gulf (while the Chinese drill within 100 miles of the coast), I think we'll finally have people telling them what EXACTLY they can do with their porcupine caribou.

No, my car is a beast. It's an older Volvo sedan.....around 23 mpg. My husband drove an ever greater beast, but just picked up a used Geo Tracker for a song and it gets around 36. I'm learning how to drive it. I've never driven a standard before!!! yikes!!! lol

Meanwhile, back in RI....my father just purchased his second new car. He's always bought used (must be where I get it from). When I was about 10 he bought a new Dodge Polaris. I'm pretty sure it was the widest single passenger car on the road for decades, if not ever. I leared to drive on that thing. lol

Anyway, he loves the big vehicles. He purchased some sort of a Toyota SUV that gets a whopping 17mpg....brand new. I want to say my mother told me it's a Highlander. You see, you can do something like that when you drive 100 miles a week on level ground as opposed to 100 miles each working day over hill & dale.

Jonah Goldberg, Sheik, has a pertinent article on NRO that talks about the religious nature of environmentalists and the idiocy that relegates corn a "green" fuel despite the fact that burning it is more environmentally damaging than burning petro fuels.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjEyZjRiOTVhOWE1NmViOTIzMzVhMjg1MGViOTViYjI=&w=MA==

I believe that God does judge sin (although perhaps we are wrong when we assume when He is or is not judging at the point of catastrophe), so Goldberg's quick dismissal of Hagee is unfortunate, I believe.

Othewise I think the man is right on. I'm particularly interested in questions of "how much good are you actually doing?" The local casino is having a "green day" in which you can win a hybrid. Environmental regulations in the US lead polluters to set up shop in "safer" countries. Al Gore flies on his private jet in below zero weather to tell New York City that the globe is warming and we are the culprits.

I think what I would like to see is a conservationist prerequisite to environmentalism. Our culture needs to see people telling us to go green actually make sacrifices themselves, and then report to us how it is going. I like the idea of a great increase in public transportation, nuclear power, and Colorado oil. People who never take the bus tell the American people that they need to buy carbon offsets (enterprise wanted me to buy one) which probably make the fat cats all the fatter. Frankly, I smell a rat. A rat with a huge carbon footprint getting fatter off of people with far smaller ones.

The religious analogy is a striking one. We have before considered carbon offsets as a kind of indulgence. I read a fascinating article from the University of Chicago which claimed that indulgences actually led to greater vice, because the purchasers of those indulgences felt entitled. I saw no shortage of people driving their SUVs to the Whole Foods in Chicago, in which wind power could be purchased for 10 dollars (if my eyes were not failing me, it was being purchased by costumers of whole foods and then going to power whole foods). Fascinating. There was then a list of all of the activities that this 10 dollar card offset (miles of driving, for instance). It was a kind of menu.

Most unfortunate of all, I think, are the people who really do live righteous lives in every sense of the word, driving efficient cars (and avoiding driving when able), making a real effort to buy local, putting up with being too warm in the summer or too cool in the winter, but then supporting a movement whose leaders heat and cool houses fit for 100 inhabitants, drive in SUV pools around major cities, and insist that the public must do by force what they themselves are unwilling to do by choice.

Jonah Goldberg, Sheik, has a pertinent article on NRO that talks about the religious nature of environmentalists and the idiocy that relegates corn a "green" fuel despite the fact that burning it is more environmentally damaging than burning petro fuels.

Goldberg writes as though all "environmentalists" were the same. They aren't.

Some are irrational as all hell. Some are comparatively reasonable. Most are somewhere in between.

Some are humanists. Some are pantheists. Most are some combination of both.

Some are absolute anarchists. Some are absolute authoritarians. Most are somewhere in between.

All "environmentalists" are no more alike than all Christians are alike, or than all Republicans or Democrats are alike.

Do you want to have good water to drink and good air to breath? Then you are an environmentalist.