News Flash!: Liberal politician decries price gouging, vows to use government to fix problem, mugs for cameras to hog credit.
Oh wait, that's not really news at all. Unless you work for the Chicago Sun-Times.
The online edition of the paper gave Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin a virtual press release with a 9-paragraph story by reporter Maureen O'Donnell. Here's an excerpt:
The Second City has become first in the nation for high gas prices, with consumers struggling as oil company profits soar, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Monday.
"We've got to stop the price-gouging,'' Durbin said.
He took credit for a new Federal Trade Commission probe into record fuel prices as he spoke before a BP station at Roosevelt and Wabash with regular gas selling for $4.25.
At no point did O'Donnell mention that previous FTC studies on price gouging have given liberals little if any ammo on the price gouging charge. Perhaps most notable among them the spring 2006 FTC study conducted to probe if there was price-fixing after Hurricane Katrina (available here as PDF).
That study found (see page 24):
the best available evidence suggests that companies have not restricted the level of capacity below competitive levels and that they have used their capacity to the fullest practical extent. Further, the price increases in summer 2005, as well as the more gradual increases since March 2002, do not appear to have resulted from short-run capacity utilization or export market manipulation by refiners.
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Wow
May 20, 2008 - 13:54 ET by MeanderingWhat's next, an article that the sky is blue? "This just in, it has been reported that the sky is in fact blue. Thanks for watching." Yep, sounds like a liberal.
ANWR is lost cause. Oil Shale should be our fight
May 20, 2008 - 14:03 ET by Daniel BakerBillions of barrels right in the middle of America.
http://www.ornery.org/
Daniel... Why is ANWR a
May 20, 2008 - 14:05 ET by Clear thinkerDaniel...
Why is ANWR a lost cause???
"Abstain from McCain"
Hi Ct...with the candidates
May 20, 2008 - 14:12 ET by bigtimerHi Ct...with the candidates we have running now who are against drilling anywhere let alone ANWR and the polar bear on the threatened list no matter how they down play it, there will still be law-suits....I don't see any hope for quite a long time.
Just my two cents.
"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Churchill
Democrats have decades of opposition and
May 20, 2008 - 14:19 ET by Daniel Bakerthey control congress and Mccain
http://www.ornery.org/
bt and Daniel... All it
May 20, 2008 - 14:23 ET by Clear thinkerbt and Daniel...
All it would take is an executive order signed by the President to open ANWR for national security reasons and the Dems and enviros would be SOL.
The problem of course is.... we need a LEADER!
Daniel... do you have a financial interest in oil shale?
"Abstain from McCain"
Ct... Oh I agree...and
May 20, 2008 - 14:28 ET by bigtimerCt...
Oh I agree...and have posted many many times Pres. Bush should of done this years ago...especially right after Katrina on top of this war..it would of been perfect...then have congress vote on this right afterwards to make it permanent.... We aren't going to have any of these candidates ordering this.
Btw...shale is huge here in Mt. too...but the dems who are running this state now are afraid to go against the money backers the greenies here...
Sad all the way around.
"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Churchill
What I don't understand
May 20, 2008 - 14:38 ET by Clear thinkerWhat I don't understand is...
One would have to assume that the enviros would find some stupid excuse to keep oil shale from being harvested. So I don't see what makes people think that oil shale is the answer. I have nothing against oil shale, I just think we have the advanced technology already to get at oil with relative ease, so other than some enviros and the Democrat buddies, what the heck are we waiting for?
I can see the enviros wanting the USA to go downhill, but I'm amazed that so many Dems would want the same.
Once again... we need a LEADER!
"Abstain from McCain"
Ct... Once again... we
May 20, 2008 - 14:48 ET by bigtimerCt...
Once again... we need a LEADER!
How do you propose we go about achieving that?
"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Churchill
bt... Steal
May 20, 2008 - 15:05 ET by Clear thinkerbt...
Steal one?
"Abstain from McCain"
Ct... ROFL! Sounds good
May 20, 2008 - 15:09 ET by bigtimerCt...
ROFL!
Sounds good to me...you lay out the plans, I'm sure plenty would help if possible.
"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Churchill
I once met an oil shale lobbyist
May 20, 2008 - 14:30 ET by Daniel BakerI wished him luck. Thats my only connection
http://www.ornery.org/
Daniel... Thanks. Why
May 20, 2008 - 14:41 ET by Clear thinkerDaniel...
Thanks.
Why do you think oil shale is the answer?
"Abstain from McCain"
the size of the deposits
May 20, 2008 - 17:19 ET by wizardjrThere is enough oil shale in America and Canada to equal the oil in the Middle East. It's HUGE! Right now we're getting way better (cheaper) at extracting the oil. BUT... the government is already making moves to prevent getting it through illegitimate environmental crap. The Polar Bears will come into play here.
You underestimate the
May 21, 2008 - 08:47 ET by NL207You underestimate the significance of these oil reserves. The oil shales in the general region of the Green River formation are thought to contain something close to 2 Trillion bbls of recoverable oil. The Canadian tar sands are thought to contain 1.6-1.8 Trillion bbls of oil.
By contrast, all of Saudi Arabia's proven reserves contain about 280 Billion bbls. The oil shales and tar sands together contain greater than an order of magnitude more reserves.
Oh I'm sure the mental
May 20, 2008 - 14:16 ET by Jack BauerOh I'm sure the mental enviros...
...will manage to find an endangered Shale Beetle to protect.
Don't forget if it's a choice between affordable energy for poor people and an insect, the insect will win out every time.
Stop the presses!
May 20, 2008 - 14:48 ET by FoolicanHere's your irregular "Beating-Your-Head-With-A-Hammer Lesson of the Day." Raising capital gains taxes, production taxes, corporate taxes, and tax taxes on oil companies in attempt to "seize those profits" will NOT force oil companies to lower their prices. In fact, they will RAISE them to compensate for their loss, or worse yet, they will fire their own workers!
ON THE OTHER HAND, giving them the initiative to drill and collect oil will LOWER the prices, and (for those who haven't taken Economics 101) lower their profits as well (but not the profit margins).
And, on that note, is anybody wondering why there are no endangered species in Saudi Arabia or Venezuela?
it takes really big cajones
May 20, 2008 - 17:16 ET by wizardjrDork Turbin is an icon of today's politicians. He causes all this price pain by voting to kill off a large part of our energy industry (power lines, drilling, mining, refining) and then turns around and shouts about "price gouging". Talk about dragging out the same old Red Herring.
In the mean time the general public just drools on themselves while nodding their collective head and repeating the mantra "Big Oil evil. Democrat good." This is going to get really entertaining as gas hit $7 a gallon late next year or so and heating bills double.