Obamacommie Attempting to Take Over Oil Market

Yup, we all knew the little commies had their eyes set on “socializing” the oil industry when Maxine Waters let the cat out of the bag a couple of years ago while arrogantly grilling oil executives during a congressional hearing:

Now, in the spirit of never letting a crisis go to waste, the resident Commie-in-Chief is ready to roll with the plan:

Obama to pitch $52M plan to regulate oil markets
Published April 17, 2012 – AP via FOXNews

WASHINGTON –  Under pressure to take action on rising gasoline prices, President Obama wants Congress to strengthen federal supervision of oil markets, increase penalties for market manipulation and empower regulators to increase the amount of money energy traders are required to put behind their transactions.

The White House plan, which Obama was to unveil Tuesday, is more likely to draw sharp election-year distinctions with Republicans than have an immediate effect on prices at the pump. The measures seek to boost spending for Wall Street enforcement at a time when congressional Republicans are seeking to limit the reach of federal financial regulations.

Obama plans to spell out his $52 million proposal Tuesday at the White House, where he will be joined by Attorney General Eric Holder.

Republicans have been hammering Obama on his energy policies, recognizing the political cost of high gas prices on the president. Obama’s plan would turn the tables on Republicans by taking aim at Wall Street’s role in the oil price chain.

Senior administration officials who put together the proposal said it aims to detect and deter illegal manipulation by energy speculators, the type of practices that many Democrats blame for the high cost of gasoline. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plan ahead of Obama’s announcement.

[…]

WaPo-ABC News Poll Finds Americans DO Blame Obama for High Gas Prices

I just thought I would highlight this because Obama’s vastly disconnected from reality reelection campaign, just a little over a week ago, swore up and down that the American public would not hold Obama accountable for high gas prices:

Gas prices sink Obama’s ratings on economy, bring parity to race for White House

By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen – WaPo

Disapproval of President Obama’s handling of the economy is heading higher — alongside gasoline prices — as a record number of Americans now give the president “strongly” negative reviews on the 2012 presidential campaign’s most important issue, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Increasingly pessimistic views of Obama’s performance on the economy — and on the federal budget deficit — come despite a steadily brightening employment picture and other signs of economic improvement, and they highlight the political sensitivity of rising gas prices.

The potential political con­sequences are clear, with the ­rising public disapproval reversing some of the gains the president had made in hypothetical general-election matchups against possible Republican rivals for the White House. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) now both run about evenly with Obama. The findings come just five weeks after Obama appeared to be getting a boost from the improving economy.

Gas prices are a main culprit: Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they disapprove of the way the president is handling the situation at the pump, where rising prices have already hit hard. Just 26 percent approve of his work on the issue, his lowest rating in the poll. Most Americans say higher prices are already taking a toll on family finances, and nearly half say they think that prices will continue to rise, and stay high.

[…]

Obama’s Re-election Campaign Disconnected: Says Americans Don’t Blame Obama for High Gas Prices

Unreal!  This is one of those “let them eat cake” moments:

Obama campaign: Consumers ‘don’t blame’ the president for gas prices
By Ben Geman – 03/02/12 – The Hill

A top official with President Obama’s reelection campaign expressed confidence Friday that consumers won’t punish Obama politically for rising gas prices and touted “significant accomplishments” on energy, including tougher auto mileage rules.

“They don’t blame the president. They understand what’s going on with the global marketplace,” said Stephanie Cutter, the president’s deputy campaign manager, on MSNBC. “But they also acknowledge that we have to do everything we can to make sure that America is independent and not tied to foreign oil and they appreciate what the president has done.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail have increasingly attacked the White House over gasoline prices amid the recent run-up. Obama’s energy record was already under fire over the bankruptcy of the Energy Department-backed solar company Solyndra.

[…]

Republicans in Congress and on the stump say the White House is keeping too many areas off-limits to drilling, including the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and want faster permitting for drillers on public lands and in Gulf of Mexico areas where development is already authorized.

They have also taken aim at Obama’s rejection of a cross-border permit for the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring Canadian oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries.

[…]

Gasoline has increasingly become the stuff of election-year battles even though policymakers have few options, especially in the near term, to substantially affect prices at the pump, which are tethered to crude oil prices set on global markets.

That’s a load of BS.  Behold, the average price for a barrel of oil on the world market before and after Bush lifted the moratorium on oil exploration along the Eastern and Western Continental shelves:

A new Pew Research Center-Washington Post poll shows that 18 percent of adults surveyed say President Obama is most to blame for rising gasoline costs. The poll generally showed that the public spreads blame among a number of parties and causes.

[…]

While you might think that 18 percent is insignificant, when you look at the overall poll from Pew Research, out of an infinite number of possibilities, Obama is the number one “entity” being blamed for high gas prices:

Get Ready For $5.00 Per-Gallon Gas this Summer

Which begs the question, “How’s that Hope and Change working out for ya’?”

BTW – Just a quick anecdote:  I saw an Obama T-shirt a couple of weeks ago that said:  “HOPE – Helping Obama’s Presidency End!”  Anyway, I got a chuckle out of it and thought I’d share it with you. – DB

Gas prices’ earliest-ever rise above $3.50 a bad sign for motorists
Morning Call
American motorists have seen the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rise above $3.50 a gallon on just three occasions, but it has never happened this early in the year. Analysts say it’s likely a sign that pain at the pump will rise to some of the highest levels ever seen later this year.

In 2008, average gasoline prices had hit inflation-adjusted records nationally by the summer, but they didn’t climb above $3.50 a gallon across the U.S. that year until April 21, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. It happened again last year, but not until March 6.

But $3.50 a gallon gasoline is already here in 2012, weeks before refineries typically shut down for springtime maintenance, and weeks before the states switch from their less expensive winter blends of gasoline to more complicated and pricier summer blends.

“This definitely sets the stage, potentially, for much higher prices later this year,” said Brian L. Milne, refined fuels editor for Telvent DTN, a commodity information services firm. “There’s a chance that the U.S. average tops $4 a gallon by June, with some parts of the country approaching $5 a gallon.”

[…]

There are plenty of reasons for the high prices, and lots of reasons to fear a big price spike in the spring, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for OPIS.

“Early February crude oil prices are higher than they’ve ever been on similar calendar dates through the years, and the price of crude sets the standard for gasoline prices,” Kloza said, later adding, “We’ve lost a number of refineries in the last six months (to permanent closure). Some of those refineries represented the key to a smooth spring transition from winter-to-spring gasoline.”

[…]

Thank you EPA!  /sarcasm

 

Gasoline Prices Climb for 35th Straight Day

If you ask me, it’s all by design.   Look at it this way, you are the government and you took over a car company and spent mega-bucks on a few crappy hybrids and an electric vehicle that you can’t sell.  How do you unload your crappy products onto the consumer?  Do everything possible to bring up the price of gas, like putting a drilling moratorium on offshore drilling in the gulf, cancelling oil drilling in ANWAR, causing unrest in the middle east, bombing Libya, etc., etc.

Voila!  Problem solved!:  Speculators freak out;  Energy prices skyrocket;   Consumers look for more fuel efficient vehicles;  and, the President goes around giving a bunch of “I feel your pain” speeches, saying snarky little things like, “If you’re complainin­g about the price of gas and you’re only getting 8 miles a gallon, you know… You might want to think about a trade-in.”

As Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants might say, “It’s foolproof!!!”

And, don’t you worry your pretty little head none, Obama will make sure the price of gas drops before the next election…

Gasoline rises a penny to $3.87 per gallon
AP – Via YahooNews

NEW YORK – Gas pump prices have climbed for 35 straight days even though industry surveys show Americans have started to drive less.

The national average rose by a penny to hit $3.87 per gallon on Tuesday, more than a dollar higher than it was last year. Experts say prices should keep rising for the next few weeks before weaker consumer demand forces prices to drop. “We’re going to see prices keep bumping up for three, maybe four weeks,” energy analyst Jim Ritterbusch said. Eventually less travel will take its toll, Ritterbusch said.

“They’re going to cut back on spending, and that will push gas prices down,” he said. “All that should kick in by June.”

[…]

EPIC FAIL! – Nancy Pelosi: “Drill Baby Drill Won’t Lower Gas Prices”

Apparently, Nancy flunked economics 101; The Law of Supply and Demand.

Her ridiculous  comment is just more insanity from the world of Lefturds who will do and say anything to advance their green agenda at your expense (as in; from your wallet to their pocketbook—“Su dinero es mi dinero!” ):

Pelosi: Having More Oil Won’t Lower Oil Prices
Posted by Aurelius

Clearly Nancy Pelosi has never heard of “supply and demand.”  It’s a simple concept, really: the less of something you have, the more expensive it is because of its scarcity and vice versa.

Apparently no one ever told this basic concept to disgraced Democrat Representative Nancy Pelosi.  Taking to Twitter, she exclaimed yesterday:

The problem is, as usual, the facts simply do not agree with Ms. Pelosi.

Read the rest of this over at Pundit Press by CLICKING HERE.

AP Scrubs Obama’s Gas Guzzling Vehicle Comment

Yup, nothing like the Lame Stream Media protecting their unholy messiah.

From Instapundit:

OBAMA: Get Used To High Gas Prices. “Obama needled one questioner who asked about gas prices, now averaging close to $3.70 a gallon nationwide, and suggested that the gentleman consider getting rid of his gas-guzzling vehicle.”

High gas prices aren’t a bug, they’re a feature.

UPDATE: Rapid Reaction: I got an email from Haley Barbour’s office with this reaction: “Instead of changing his policies, President Obama is trying to blame the American people for skyrocketing gas prices by saying they should trade-in their cars.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Michael Broderick writes:

“Obama needled one questioner who asked about gas prices, now averaging close to $3.70 a gallon nationwide, and suggested that the gentleman consider getting rid of his gas-guzzling vehicle.”

I was confused when I clicked the link on your page and couldn’t find this quote. So I googled the quote. It shows up in all the google hits but when I click on those articles, it’s nowhere to be found. Looks like AP scrubbed it from all copies of the article! Nothing like a compliant media, eh? Hope you got a screenshot.

In fact, I did. And a good thing, because the story’s been almost completely rewritten. But the “memory hole” doesn’t work very well any more. Here, for the sake of history, is the story as it used to be. And if anyone from the Associated Press would like to email me to explain this change, I’m all ears.

Of course, it’s very interesting that Obama mentioned that figure of “8 miles a gallon” while poo-pooing the poor gentleman who brought up the subject of high gas prices.  Why?  Because his cadillac only gets 8 miles a gallon!:

[Click on Image to Enlarge]

Hm…  Maybe Our Dark Overlord should stop being such a damn hypocrite all the time and think about trading in his limo for a more fuel efficient vehicle…  Just a suggestion.

The Liar in Chief Can’t Help Himself

Why?  Because he’s a Lefturd ideologue, of course:

The President’s Oil Reserves Lie
By Chad Stafko – 16 June 2010 – American Thinker

Tuesday night, following a tour of the Gulf Coast area, the President of the United States addressed the nation regarding the state of the BP oil spill.  In his speech from the Oval Office, President Obama spoke regarding our nation’s dependence upon oil and how we need to break that dependence.

During his speech, the President made a statement that was blatantly false.  The President noted, “We consume more than 20% of the world’s oil, but have less than 2% of the world’s oil reserve.  And that’s part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean — because we’re running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.”

We are not running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.  In fact, it is due to the President’s party of extreme environmentalists that BP had to drill some 40 miles from the coastline in deep waters to extract oil.  Imagine if this oil leak had happened in the shallow waters off of the East Coast or even, dare we say it, in the pristine ANWR region.  How much easier it would have been to cap the leak and clean up the oil.

Consider our nation’s vast oil reserve resources that are currently unavailable for use due to government ownership of the land or outright bans on drilling in certain areas.

According to a June 2008 article in Kiplinger Magazine, the United States has enough oil reserves to power the nation for upwards of three centuries.  That’s three-hundred years, Mr. President.  We are not running out of oil reserves, it’s just that those oil reserves have been declared off limits due to decades of environmental lobbying of our politicians, especially those on the Left.  This lobbying has driven the likes of BP and others out deep into the Gulf of Mexico to extract the nation’s needed oil.

Note the following statement from the article:

“…untapped reserves are estimated at about 2.3 trillion barrels, nearly three times more than the reserves held by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties (OPEC) and sufficient to meet 300 years of demand-at today’s levels-for auto, aircraft, heating and industrial fuel, without importing a single barrel of oil.”

Think about that.  The nations that currently hold us hostage by their massive oil production actually have far less reserves than our own nation.  Put another way, some of the very nations in which we are dependent upon oil are also the same nations that help to sponsor worldwide terrorism.  Were we to extract our own oil, it would make our nation and the world a safer place.  But, isn’t a spotted owl more important than the safety of the world?

Iran Tries to Use Oil to Pressure an End to Hamas’ Butt Kicking

What I found interesting was that the other OPEC nations are giving Iran the cold shoulder.  Very telling…

Calls to use oil as weapon in Gaza fight fall flat

By ADAM SCHRECK – via Google News

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The call to use oil as a weapon against Israel’s friends once would have echoed in capitals across the Middle East. But even as fighting widens in Gaza, threats of an oil embargo by some in Iran and Bahrain are falling flat.

Key Persian Gulf producers like Saudi Arabia and even top officials in the countries behind the boycott calls are keeping quiet, reflecting a focus on their struggle to deal with the steep plunge in world oil prices.

“An oil embargo is just bad for business,” said Serene Gardiner, oil products analyst at Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai.

On Sunday, Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted an Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander as urging Muslim countries to use oil as a weapon to pressure an end to Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

Iran’s foreign ministry didn’t distance itself from Brig. Gen. Mirfaysal Bagherzadeh’s comments when asked about them Monday. “We do support any action for realizing two main steps: an immediate stop to the invasion and an end to the Gaza blockade,” spokesman Hasan Qashqavi said.

But Bagherzadeh is not among the top oil officials in Iran, OPEC’s second-biggest producer, and his suggestions drew no comment from those leaders.

A few days earlier, members of Bahrain’s lower house of parliament said Arab states should use oil and the region’s huge investment funds to pressure the West over Israel’s offensive. That call drew only silence from leaders of the island kingdom, an important American ally and host to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Arab oil producers most famously used crude supplies as a weapon during the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and Arab armies led by Egypt and Syria. Their decision to stop shipments to the U.S. and other allies of Israel led to shortages and a steep spike in the price of oil.

But analysts said times have changed.

The Good News is: Oil at $61 a Barrel. The Bad News is: Oil at $61 a Barrel

Why is this bad news?  When oil prices fall for no apparent reason, stock markets tend to also start dropping.  Since the price of oil is one of the leading indicators of immanent market trends, the slide on Wall Street ain’t over yet, folks…

Oil prices plummet to $61 dollars, despite OPEC output cut
October 24, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — Oil prices plunged to the lowest points for 17 months on Friday, as recession fears sparked renewed demand concerns, despite news that OPEC will cut oil output by 1.5 million barrels per day.

Brent North Sea crude for December delivery slumped to 61.00 dollars per barrel, the lowest point since March 2007.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery, tumbled to 62.85 dollars a barrel, which was last seen in May 2007.

“Recession fears and uncertainty continue to haunt global markets, while tight credit conditions threaten new energy projects all over the world, which could cause a price spike in the longer run,” said Sucden analyst Nimit Khamar.

“However, crude futures could benefit from a supply cut by OPEC in the longer run,” he added.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said Friday that they would slash output from November 1 in an attempt to stabilise plunging oil prices, despite a looming worldwide recession.

Analysts had expected OPEC to cut its daily output by at least one million barrels per day as a global economic slowdown amid a worsening financial crisis slashes demand for energy.

In later trade on Friday, New York crude was 4.59 dollars lower at 63.25 dollars per barrel and Brent oil slid 4.30 dollars to 61.62.

“Crude oil is heading lower again… on fears that the (OPEC) cut might not be sufficient to compensate the shortfall of demand due to a global recession,” said Dresdner Kleinwort analyst Peter Fertig.

Global stock markets plunged on Friday, with London losing more than nine percent as it struck a five-year low on news that Britain’s economy shrank in the third quarter, placing it perilously close to a recession.