The Biden administration is playing defense as gasoline prices have risen 60% in a year. Faced with an unfriendly administration, U.S. oil companies have not raised output as much as they usually do when prices are high.
Despite putting pressure on the oil-producing nations, the oil-importing countries failed to move OPEC. COVID restrictions, particularly the air travel ban, led to an oil surplus in April 2020. To ward off an oil price crash on the international markets, OPEC cut oil production. The OPEC members had charted a plan to boost output gradually once the economies started opening up. Notwithstanding a sharp rise in demand in the past months, the oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, have refused to accelerate production and have committed to sticking to their July agreement.
Following OPEC's silence, with mid-term elections looming, low approval ratings, and public disapproval of his economic policies, President Biden ordered the release of 50 million barrels of oil from the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. To put more pressure on OPEC, the Biden administration persuaded the U.K., China, Japan, South Korea, and India to join the effort.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), established after the oil crisis of the 1970s, is made up of 600 million barrels of crude oil (about a month's supply) stored in underground salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana. The SPR's goal is to alleviate gasoline shortages during a national security crisis such as a war or a natural disaster.
I am pretty sure that most everyone understands that tapping our national reserves for purposes of lowering gas prices (because it is hurting the President's approval) is a bad idea. The national reserves are not meant as political capital to be released when a President needs a bump. They are there specifically in case of natural emergencies or even a war-time situation. We have not just tapped the oil reserves in the past because a President has bad approvals.
Soon after his inauguration, President Biden signed executive orders to halt new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and water. He canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have transported about 830,000 barrels per day of Alberta oil sands petroleum to Nebraska. While clean energy may be the future, it is still in its nascent stage. There is a long way to go before alternative sources are capable of meeting the country's demands.
Not that the idiot in chief or his minions will put two and two together here. Instead of looking at the obvious here (that Biden and his policies are designed to harm domestic oil production in favor of "green energy") - the administration is attempting (as they always do) to create a different boogie man. In this case it is not that the domestic oil companies are suffering from his own policies designed to make them suffer, but rather that they must be doing something illegal.
So their solution to this problem it to convince the American public without a hint of any evidence that the reason our gas prices are high are because our dometic oil companies must be breaking the law. Go figure.
Of course... who is dumb enough to fall for that? Not many I assume.
41 comments:
Explainer-U.S. gasoline prices could fall below $3 if oil market sustains losses
Laura Sanicola
November 29, 2021, 3:06 am
By Laura Sanicola
(Reuters) - U.S. motorists could see gasoline prices fall below $3.00 a gallon in the coming weeks after crude futures posted their steepest losses since April 2020 on Friday as a new coronavirus variant threatened to extend the pandemic.
A further fall in pump prices from seven-year year highs hit in October would take some of the heat out of U.S. inflation, which rose at its fastest in 31 years in October. The surge, in part due to soaring fuel costs, damaged the popularity of U.S. President Joe Biden.
The global market's reaction to the newly discovered Omicron variant is likely to affect U.S. gasoline prices more than the coordinated release of crude from major consuming countries' strategic reserves orchestrated by Biden and announced last week.
The reimposition of air travel restrictions is already hitting fuel demand. The full impact will depend on the extent of mobility restrictions imposed to counter the variant as governments weigh lockdowns to stop its spread.
Gasoline prices were expected to decrease anyway in the coming weeks, largely due to lower demand for fuel in the winter months due to colder weather and shorter days, according to Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS).
If the oil prices drop off and the economy continues to grow at historically outstanding speed, Sleepy Joe Biden's approval ratings will rise from record lows.
Scott, if the gasoline prices decrease your concern about law enforcement on possible illegal manipulated of fuel costs, will disappear....
Of course... who is dumb enough to fall for that? Not many I assume.
And you just happen to host several here.
The depravity of the lies this regime needs to tell to stay afloat is simply breathtaking.
Roger, tell us what inflation "rates" are and how many of them are there?
Gasoline was 2.10 a year ago getting it under $3, is not a win.
The reimposition of air travel restrictions is already hitting fuel demand. The full impact will depend on the extent of mobility restrictions imposed to counter the variant as governments weigh lockdowns to stop its spread.
Gasoline prices were expected to decrease anyway in the coming weeks, largely due to lower demand for fuel in the winter months due to colder weather and shorter days, according to Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS).
If the oil prices drop off and the economy continues to grow at historically outstanding speed, Sleepy Joe Biden's approval ratings will rise from record lows.
Scott, if the gasoline prices decrease your concern about law enforcement on possible illegal manipulated of fuel costs, will disappear....
The keystone is another theft from Native American like the Black Hills of South when gold was found...
James's claim.
James, do tell what are those " within legal parameters". (You made a claim the Oil/Gas companies have current legal price restraints)
He has yet to shows us what they are.
Scott, if the gasoline prices decrease your concern about law enforcement on possible illegal manipulated of fuel costs, will disappear....
Well fucking DUH, alky. Thank you Captain Obvious.
Translation; If gas prices return to pre-Slow Joe prices, Slow Joe will take his boot off the necks of the oil companies because he won't need to lie about them anymore.
Next the alky will proclaim that the sun is expected to rise in the east tomorrow, and that water is, in fact, WET.
James, do tell what are those " within legal parameters". (You made a claim the Oil/Gas companies have current legal price restraints)
He has yet to shows us what they are.
He prefers to peddle the lie.
In the real world (from 10 years ago):
Industry profit margins are cyclical too. But on average, between 2006 and 2010, the largest oil companies averaged a profit margin of around 6.5%. This pales in comparison to profit margins in just about every other industry. The pharmaceutical industry, for example, routinely averages a profit margin of about 16%. The soft drink market is even more lucrative.
At the gas tank integrated oil companies make about 7 cents per gallon. Meanwhile, the government extracts more than 48 cents, on average, per gallon. That's right: Uncle Sam takes nearly seven times more out of drivers' wallets via taxation than "Big Oil."
https://www.forbes.com/2011/05/10/oil-company-earnings.html?sh=4d5876092dc8
From last year:
Oil and Gas Drilling Profit Margin
As of January 2020, the average net profit margin for the oil and gas drilling industry was 6.8%, according to data from NYU Stern.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/012015/what-average-profit-margin-company-oil-gas-drilling-sector.asp
As the table below shows, the Integrated Oil and Gas industry made an average profit of 6.2 cents per dollar of sales, which ranks #114 out of 215 industries by profit margin, and puts oil companies right in the middle of industries by profitability.
If the Senate Finance Committee wants to investigate "excessive" or "windfall" profits, they might consider going after some of the other industries that have benefited from higher commodity prices and achieved much higher profit margins than oil (at 6.2%), like silver (44.7%), copper (24%), gold (21%), and industrial metals (21%) and lumber (17.7%).
https://seekingalpha.com/article/269679-oil-industry-profit-margin-ranks-fairly-low-there-are-bigger-fish
The fact of the matter is that gas prices are a direct result of Slow Joe's policies. Period. Full stop.
He has no one to blame but himself, therefor the lies about oil company malfeasance need to be told and repeated ad nauseam.
We are still waiting to see if the oil and gas companies have illegally raised gas prices.
MEANWHILE
TRUMP LIED TO "PREVENT PANIC."
BIDEN TELLS THE TRUTH TO PREVENT PANIC.
TheHill.com
Biden says 'lockdowns' not needed to curb coronavirus variant
President Biden said Monday that his administration was not recommending further restrictions on businesses or in-person gatherings to combat the coronavirus pandemic amid concerns about the new omicron variant.
Speaking from the Roosevelt Room, Biden described vaccinations as the best possible tool to defeat the virus and any emerging variants. He said his administration would outline a strategy to combat COVID-19 during the winter months later this week.
“On Thursday, I'll be putting forward a detailed strategy outlining how we're going to fight COVID this winter, not with shutdowns or lockdowns but with more widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing and more,” Biden said.
Biden later told reporters that “lockdowns” were off the table “for now” as his administration weighs measures to respond to the omicron variant, much about which remains unknown.
“If people are vaccinated and wear their mask, there is no need for the lockdown,” Biden said.
Lockdowns refer to closures of or restrictions on businesses, schools and other in-person gatherings. The federal government generally cannot maintain such steps but can recommend them for states or cities.
When the coronavirus raged last year, many states and cities implemented restrictions on businesses and large gatherings to stop the spread of the virus. Officials have curbed such restrictions as coronavirus vaccines have become widely available in the U.S.
The omicron variant has driven the U.S. and other countries to restrict travel from southern Africa, where the variant originated. Health experts and officials say it will take at least two weeks to better understand the variant’s transmissibility and the degree to which vaccines protect against it.
There has not yet been a case of the omicron variant in the U.S., but cases have been detected in Canada and Europe, and Biden said Monday that U.S. cases were inevitable.
Biden described the omicron variant as a “cause for concern” but not panic and encouraged Americans who have not yet gotten vaccinated or received their booster shots to do so immediately.
The president also encouraged Americans to wear face masks indoors in crowded settings to prevent the spread of the virus.
BIDEN'S BOOSTERS REALLY WORK
WHERE TRUMP'S VACS FAILED.
We are still waiting to see if the oil and gas companies have illegally raised gas prices.
So if speculation is all that is needed... are we all still waiting to see if the Reverend is actually a child molestor or if Roger is actualy a wife beater?
Because I believe it would be unfair to make those sort of accusations, even as a round about back into it sort of deal. You know like sort of begging the question? Have oil companies stopped breaking the law, have certain people stopped molesting children or beating wives? That sort of thing.
I generally feel that if you are going to make an accusation of criminal wrongdoing that you need to at least have some facts on your side. Something that suggests that a crime actually has been committed?
I wouldn't accuse the Reverend or Roger of these actions without proof. Nor would I pretend that I am not accusing them while actually sort of accusing them by using semantic undercurrents to make my accusation.
LOL If I were molesting children as charged here without any facts on the chargers' side, I would have been doing it for many years now and yet not a single legal charge has ever been made against me, just preposterous statements here. Also, because I undergo a background check with every church I serve, I have been repeatedly investigated and found not guilty.
But if anyone wants to call for another investigation, I welcome that.
Shouldn't the oil and gas companies?
Crime may not be an issue next year
538
Violent crime is up. Data from the FBI found that the murder rate increased nearly 30 percent in 2020. And homicides continue to rise in 2021 as well, if not by quite as much.
Americans have noticed. A Gallup poll released in November 2020 found that 78 percent of Americans thought that the national crime rate was higher than the year before — the highest that number has been since 1993, when it was 87 percent. More recently, an October report from the Pew Research Center found that 61 percent of Americans said violent crime was “a very big problem” in the U.S. today — a 20-percentage-point jump from roughly a year earlier.
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But despite polls showing that Americans are increasingly worried about crime, there are a few reasons to believe that it may not be a large issue in the midterm elections next year. The biggest of which is that crime doesn’t offer a clear advantage to either political party.
Past scholarship has found that political parties have built-in advantages on certain issues. And historically, the public has expressed greater confidence in the GOP’s handling of the issue of crime. For instance, a 1985 ABC News/The Washington Post poll found that Republicans had a nearly 20-point advantage over Democrats on the issue. But there’s evidence that former President Clinton’s rhetoric and policies diminished the GOP’s advantage, leaving the two parties pretty evenly matched — a balance that has maintained to this day. Case in point: A June poll from ABC News/The Washington Post showed almost no difference in which party Americans trusted more to handle crime (35 percent for Democrats, 36 for Republicans).
But if there is an opening to make crime a campaign issue, it is probably linked to the “defund the police” movement championed by some progressive activists and local Democratic leaders. Since its popularization during last summer’s protests, the slogan has been controversial and poorly received by the public, even as it captured widespread media attention. In fact, most polling, including my own, finds the public largely opposed to cutting law enforcement budgets. However, despite GOP efforts to cast the idea as a mainstream Democratic proposal, it has garnered very little support from the party establishment. President Biden, for instance, has been clear in his opposition to defunding the police.
Ch, do you guess Hillary and I should confess that we have been keeping abused children in the basement of a pizza parlor in Washington that has no basement?
(I am laughing.)
Furthermore, as crime spiked across the country last year, even the elected Democrats who had touted proposals to reallocate law enforcement funding or disband police departments quickly reversed course. For example, more than a year after the Minneapolis City Council pledged to disband the city’s police department, the mayor is now seeking to hire more officers. And earlier this month, voters in Minneapolis decisively rejected a ballot measure that would have replaced the police department with a health-oriented Department of Public Safety. In Oakland and Los Angeles, local lawmakers are also now looking to increase funding for police departments.
As we look ahead to 2022, there’s a good chance the issue will not reemerge. Consider a study by the Voter Study Group that found that immediately after the murder of George Floyd, positive views of the police sank sharply among Democrats. However, over the next six months, Democratic views turned much more positive. And today, Democrats have mostly favorable views of the police.
The uptick in crime might not affect as many people as it once did, either. This past July, in Politico, historian Josh Zeitz suggested that crime resonated as a political issue in the past because its effect was immediately apparent. He said that, in the 1970s, “many working-class and middle-class voters lived in cities or inner-ring suburbs where crime was not a hypothetical concern; it was an everyday reality.” But recent trends in geographic polarization have shown that the places experiencing the greatest surge in crime today — cities and inner suburbs, according to the American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life, where I serve as director — are largely Democratic strongholds. In other words, there are simply not that many swing voters living in the areas most affected by rising violence.
rrb has repeatedly said the I had hit Lydia..I would never hit anyone unless I was defending myself...
I have never said but twice in my lifetime two people punched my face with their fists and I didn't fight back because I don't like violence of any kind...
You have probably been in a bar and someone gets aggressive? I would stand up because I am over 6 feet tall and muscular and they shrugged their shoulders m..
Hmm I remember him because it was a really great thing about golf
Lee Elder, who became the first African-American golfer to play in the Masters tournament, a signature moment in the breaking of racial barriers on the pro golf tour, has died. He was 87.
The death was announced by the PGA Tour. It did not specify when or where he died or give the cause.
When Elder teed off at Augusta National Golf Club in April 1975, he was 40 years old. Years earlier, in his prime, he played in the United Golfers Association tour, the sport’s version of baseball’s Negro leagues. The PGA of America, the national association of pro golfers, accepted only “members of the Caucasian race,” as its rules had spelled out, until 1961.
Elder was among the leading players on the UGA tour, which over the years also featured such outstanding golfers as Ted Rhodes, Charlie Sifford, who was the first Black player on the PGA Tour, and Pete Brown while offering comparatively meager purses.
Golf was segregated for decades
Biden Says Lockdowns Not Needed
November 29, 2021 at 12:55 pm EST By Taegan Goddard
Oh wait, I see the "pastor" already posted this off thread topic GODdard blog post
Just "forgot" to tell us he was getting it from GODdard
again
ROFLMFAO at the idiot !!!
Hey roger, you forgot to mention perhaps the greatest golfer of all-time.
Besides being a minority he is a great Trump supporter.
You may have heard of him
Tiger Woods
and his son appears to be ready to make a name for himself in golf too
James is a professional at "
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour"
So there is no regulations that currently control what a oil/gas company can charge, if there is it is time to show us.
Scott is this a first time right?
The New Jersey man who allegedly breached the Capitol on Jan. 6 and bragged about urinating in the office of the Speaker of the House has pleaded not guilty, along with a son he said recorded video of the incident.
“I pissed in her office,” James Douglas Rahm Jr. allegedly wrote in a text to a friend that day, according to FBI filings. “My son’s got video.”
The “her” in the text refers to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and is in response to a text that reads: “Go find Pelosi rip her fucking head off.”
Rahm also posted on Facebook that he had urinated in Pelosi’s office.
Broke Back Biden.caves in spectacular fashion.
He pushes his Mandate for vaxing into next year.
But if anyone wants to call for another investigation, I welcome that.
I wonder if Roger would agree that an unwarranted allegation is something that you welcome police involvement into? Was Roger's life better off because the police were called in to investigate? Did any of those restraining orders and police calls actually cause Roger any problems or otherwise make it easier?
If given the choice... would Roger just go.. yeah. My wife made an allegation. Call the police and have them investigate. Or would he have preferred that he was not investigated and the police had not gotten involved.
Roger says he is not guilty of anything.
But the fact that allegations were made, investigations happened, and authorities got involved... probably did not work to Roger's advantage.
What say you Roger?
Agree that you have no issues with false allegations being taken seriously enough for police involvement and investigations into your life?
The fact that the Reverend is willing to give up his fourth Amendment constitutional rights... doesn't mean that anyone else has to give them up, or that they are somehow guilty of something or otherwise should be seen as guilty for not wanting to give up their own constitutional rights.
But apparently that is the best argument he has to defend the President.
Reality vs pipe dream of Tiger's
Today National Average gasoline $3.39
A year ago $2.12.
Roger IF I retreats to $3.00 that is not a Victory as you stated it was.
The fact that the Reverend is willing to give up his fourth Amendment constitutional rights... doesn't mean that anyone else has to give them up, or that they are somehow guilty of something or otherwise should be seen as guilty for not wanting to give up their own constitutional rights.
Scratch ANY leftist and you'll find a totalitarian tyrant desperate to get out.
I'm simply amazed at how fucked up one has to be to insist that the state can go after anyone, private citizen or private sector company, and just start fishing around in the hopes of finding criminal behavior.
One thing is for certain - the pederast and the alky would've ratted out Anne Frank in the blink of an eye.
rrb sings a different tune when it is Trump who "just start[s] fishing around in the hopes of finding" evidence that the election was stolen from him.
That kind of searching around is just peachy keen in rrb's warped mind.
Ch sings a different tune also, as above.
Well pederast, in Trump's case he has a mountain of circumstantial evidence, and he seeks civil, not criminal relief.
In the case of Biden vs. the oil co.'s, there's nothing there but a baseless allegation meant to cover for egregiously stupid behavior.
And once you embark on a practice of fishing expeditions for the purposes of punishing perceived political enemies, you may enjoy it for now, but at some point the opposing team will rise to power again. And then we start to fish in Twitter, Google, Facebook, The Soros Foundation, and perhaps even that cult you call a church.
I mean why not? No one needs any evidence of criminal behavior. All anyone needs is 'suspicion.'
Maybe suspicion that you truly are a pederast. You claim not to be one, but that's for others to decide, and the imposition of the process to determine that will be long and particularly painful.
You can't un-ring that bell pederast.
Ch sings a different tune also, as above.
How so Reverend...
Have I ever once suggested that we criminally investigate anyone over this? It actually seems that I have consistently argued from the beginning that the courts were not going to likely intervene in any of this.
All I have asked is that people open mindedly look at the statistical issues involved in the election and explain in mathematical terms how certain things happened or why my analysis is wrong.
Again and again I get red herring about how "the courts" have not stepped in.
So one of us seems to believe that we use law enforcement, the courts, and other powers of the state to just investigate whom we want for whatever reasons we want (you) and apparently doesn't understand the concept that there are things in this world that are no under that umbrella.
The other understands the limits of said law enforcement, the courts, and other powers of the state (me).
Have any of the large oil or gas companies brought any kind of court action because their "constitutional rights" are being violated by President Biden's request that the the Federal Trade Commission exercise its proper function by considering whether “illegal conduct” by those large oil and gas companies is pushing up gasoline prices.
Please list their constitutional complaints here.
We will again patiently wait.
Have any of the large oil or gas companies brought any kind of court action because their "constitutional rights" are being violated by President Biden's request that the the Federal Trade Commission exercise its proper function by considering whether “illegal conduct” by those large oil and gas companies is pushing up gasoline prices.
As I have implied and you seem to miss the implication.
There is no investigation, only the President suggesting that there should be. The oil or gas companies are not the one responsible to go to court to stop something. it will be the Federal Trade Commission or whomever who would eventually need to acquire warrants to do any actual investigation.
Now personally I don't believe it will get to that point, because the President is full of shit and the reason gas prices are going up is because of his policies (not some unknown and specifically unalleged illegal activity being implied).
But again, Reverend...
You just seem to believe the United States is a land of guilty until proven innocent and that law enforcement has the right to investigate without evidence... while the investigated is the one forced to prove something.
Not the way it works. Never has and never will.
It's childish for you to suggest it does.
Or perhaps that is the best argument you have?
In other words...
Think about the President of the United States suggesting that FTC will investigate whether or not some oil companies (he doesn't tell us which ones) are committing crimes (without telling us which crimes they supposedly committed).
and imagine the legal people over at the FTC spitting out their coffee and falling over on the floor in a fit of laughter!
I am laughing. Apparently Ch believes only Trump has the right to investigate or (try to) pursue legal action against anyone.
And President Biden is quite specific in what he is asking the FTC to investigate.
But Ch will keep dancing, no matter how ludicrous, grotesque, and knee slappingly HILARIOUS his dancing becomes.
Ch believes only Trump has the right to investigate or (try to) pursue legal action against anyone.
Well if you are just going to lie and demand that my opinions are literally the other way around...
Then why would I bother to ever respond to you?
It's like debating a child... either you literally cannot comprehend an argument or you simply are demanding I claim the opposite just as one of those childish attempts to get under someone's skin.
You know... like how you earlier said that if the police wanted to investigate you over child molestation allegations that they better bring guns with their warrants, because you would shoot anyone who tries to investigate you for anything! And then hand the bodies in front of your house so everyone can see.
Seems rather extreme of you, Reverend?
Remember... simply denying or explaining yourself again will do no good based on your terms and rules of debate. I get to just make up what you say, just like you do!
I didn't "make up" what you said. I didn't say you said that.
I said "Apparently" -- a word you convieniently [ahem] omitted above --
I said "Apparently Ch believes ..." -- an obvious speculation on my part.
But trying to talk with you is like trying to talk with someone who always distorts the plain sense of what an opponent says.
You dance around and around, distorting every statement I make and so it is worthless to try to have a reasonable discussion with you.
I pity your poor wife.
Okay Reverend...
Show me where I ever supported lawsuits into election fraud, much less criminal investigations into election fraud.
The fact that Donald Trump does something doesn't mean that I support it. Unlike you, my opinions come from my mindset and my understanding of things.
I don't just willy nilly demand that "big oil" be investigated because a politician I support suggests it. I actually use my brain and make that determination myself.
This is very very simple Reverend.
If you want to claim "I" stated something then I better have actually claimed it. It doesn't count that Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Tucker Carlson, or some other conservative made an argument.
My arguments are my arguments. I am not responsible for anyone else's argument.
And you don't get to twiddle around it with "apparently" or other so called disclaimers. Say what you fucking mean and mean what you fucking say... or just keep your half-assed, it doesn't mean what I actually imply opinions to yourself.
Is that too hard to understand?
There are no signs that the inflation surge showing up in the latest statistics is caused by sustained overheating of the U.S. economy. The signs point to several short-term factors coming together all at once — trade logjams aka supply, a surge in post-pandemic demand for goods, limited step-ups in oil production, labor demands for a living wage.
Economist Stephanie Kelton calls the economic gains resulting from the miraculous development of COVID-19 vaccines and generous pandemic relief spending “good problems to have.” Allowing near-term inflation fears to undermine longer-term investments would be penny-wise and just plain foolish.
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