This has been going on since the 1960s. If the vaunted Democrat-majority congress wants to "make real changes" as they kept claiming during their campaigns, here's a good place to start. But are they trying?

So far, I've seen nothing from them in this area, except for attempts to make us drive less, and/or drive smaller, lighter, more dangerous cars.

Even that cloud has a silver lining, though. If they keep this up, gas prices will rise so high that it will become economically practical to start developing alternate technology that has bee priced out of the market so far.

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CONGRESSIONAL CRITICISM MISSES MARK ON GAS PRICES

As gas prices pass $3.00 a gallon, several members of Congress have taken aim once again at oil companies, promoting everything from a windfall profits tax to breaking the companies up. Yet rather than attacking "big oil," Congress should look in the mirror, says H. Sterling Burnett, senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA).

The real problem is that while energy prices are subject to the basic economic laws of supply and demand, Congress continually restricts supply, says Burnett. For instance:

* Congress chose not to lift the moratorium on new oil and gas
production on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, putting more
than 85 billion barrels of oil (quadruple current U.S.
reserves) off limits.

* Congress has repeatedly refused to allow oil development in
the coastal plains of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR),
putting 16 billion barrels of oil off limits.

* Congress dictates the types of gasoline that Americans burn,
mandating 57 different gas blends that must be refined with
seasonal changeovers.

"The rhetoric coming from Congress shows a naïveté about energy markets and a blatant disregard for their own role in causing high prices," says Burnett. Further, by limiting domestic supply opportunities, Congress has required that oil companies, and therefore pump prices, are reliant on oil from foreign countries sold on the world market, rather than their own domestic reserves.

Source: "Congressional Criticism Misses Mark on Gas Prices," Earthtimes.org, May 11, 2007.

For text:

Congressional Criticism Misses Mark on Gas Prices

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The Constitution isn't perfect, but it's better than the system we're using now.

Except, of course, that the problem isn't oil supply, but refining capacity.

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

Isn't refining capacity the main variable in the current gas price jumps? I thought that was the bottleneck and that was purely in the hands of the oil companies and not our government. Perhaps the government needs to mandate a certain level of refining capacity so that there won't be false shortages.

Oh those damn Democrats.... Wait, hasn't the per gallon price of gas just gone up about $2.00 under the current Republican administration?

If we could just get the price of gas down to pre-Bush figures, we would be doing terriffic.

I was unaware that the Democratic-Majority was "vaunted". Haven't you seen the polls?

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Congratulations President-Elect Obama

Stephen Colbert says the Chinese have been charging us too much even like a pair of socks for example.So We should stop trading with china and look elsewhere.

steveox please get a clue. Colbert is satire. He says the opposite of the truth.

States with access to oil reserves: California, Alaska, Texas, Florida. 3/4 of those states have been under the control of Republicans for quite some time. Republicans have had control of Congress for from 1994-2006. So who's fault is it that the Republicans did nothing to ease restrictions on the enviornment controls? It's the enviornmentalists fault of course

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Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

There aren't enough US oil reserves to make even a small dent in imported oil. Refining issues aside, the US produces about 8.7mb/day from 10,000 oil wells at high production costs for around 40% of our consumption requirements. In contrast, the Sauds produce about 10.4mb/day from 1,000 oil wells for about $5/barrel.

If the US did have reserves in enough quantity it could produce at market competitive rates to substantially reduce imported oil dependency, environmental concerns would be no more than a minor irritant to oil companies regardless of which segment of our one-party political system was in office.

Question: Why are our production costs so high? Could it perhaps be related to environmental regulatory compliance? Nah - that couldn't POSSIBLY be it....

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In case you were wondering, yes, there really ARE more idiots these days....technology has made natural selection obsolete.

Someone recently sent this to me via email.

Louisiana produces about 30% of the nation's crude (see, we ARE important to the nation!). Last May, Valero St. Charles Refinery in Norco had a fire, Murphy Oil had to pay out mega bucks in lawsuits after Katrina and who knows what other excuses they use to raise gas prices. I'm still paying about $2.76/gallon, though it's been as high as $2.89 in recent months and I think it's disgusting that we're getting raped at the pumps.

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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride!"

We had substantially more refining capacity in 1980 than we do today.

Since then, no new refineries have been built, but existing refineries have been razed.

No one has even applied to build a new refinery.

Question: Why would a monopoly spend the money to build a new refinery, only to have it bring down the refining margin?

The free market only works when it exists, there is no free market in oil, it's an oligopoly that is extracting huge profits by virtue of it's stranglehold on the market.

BTW, what are the oil companies doing with the huge profits that they have been making lately, investing in new refineries, searching for more oil? NO
They are doing stock buybacks, to drive up the stock and create huge profits for the executives with stock options.

I hope that despite the huge contributions the industry makes to politicians, congress does something to reign this in.

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“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address