Okay, let's face it. China and India need more oil, and America is steadfast on not wanting to tap its gargantuan oil reserves. Therefore we can only predict that, unless there's a riot or a revolution of sorts, prices are going to continue ballooning, just as gold has in the past centuries.

Not to mention if we drilled our oil and put it on the market, the U.S. dollar would soar in value, but that makes too much sense for Old Man Government.

Clark Howard, of all people, has made the extraordinary prediction that gas prices (national average) will be back to $2.35 by May 1st of next year. I would like to hear his reasoning on it.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS

...and the speculators have less of an effect than the others. There has been a moratorium on exploration, production, and refining capacity for the last 30 years. In that same time, demand has skyrocketed. It doesn't take a genius to figure out the consequences. This is a failure of government, pure and simple.

"women and minorities hardest hit"

I think none of the choices hits the nail on the head. The real answer is: world leaders in Europe and the U.S. have pursued several decades of anti-energy policy which has resulted in an artificially restricted supply. Simply put, the price of gas is high because that's the way the politicians want it.

And then they call in the "Big Oil" executives and lambaste them with unrighteous indignation over the price of oil. This is designed to fool the people into thinking they are actually concerned and doing something about the price of oil when in reality they like the price to be high! It's a trick, and the Big News Media go right along with it. What a disgraceful abdication of responsibility.

There is not just one answer as too why oil prices are so high.  China and India is a big one, also the lack of supply from America is another, which really comes down to politicians keeping our oil companies from drilling in Anwr and in offshore places.  I don't think it one specific thing but many things rolled into one.  However the one group behind all of the many things I believe is liberal politicians.  Alaska now wants to sue since polar bears on now on the endangered species list.  Where did the common sense go?

While all of the reasons listed, with the exception of "The world is running out of oil", are indeed contributing to the high price of oil, speculation is the worst offender. This is true with all commodities. Speculating in futures affect prices in a way that doesn't reflect reality. The price of a commodity almost always follows the expectations of the majority of speculators.

I will be very happy to adopt and foster a couple of spotted owls in my home if they would just drill and lower my gas prices...

Head of Shell Oil U.S. Operations before the lunatic Judicial Committee yesterday, while they whined about high gas prices:

"In the United States, access to our own oil and gas resources has been limited for the last 30 years, prohibiting companies such as Shell from exploring and developing resources for the benefit of the American people. It is not a free market. According to the Department of the Interior, 62% of all on-shore federal lands are off limits to oil and gas developments, with restrictions applying to 92% of all federal lands. The Argonne National Laboratory did a report in 2004 that identified 40 specific federal policy areas that halt, limit, delay, or restrict natural gas projects. The problem of access can be solved in this country by the same government that has prohibited it. Congress could have chose to lift some or all of the current restrictions on exploration and production of oil and gas. Congress could provide national policy to reverse the persistent decline of domestically secure natural resource development."

...and should set a goal of producing an additional two million to three million barrels a day with additional access, he said.

"If we did this, it would be unnecessary for our national leaders to ask the rulers of other sovereign nations to produce more oil for U.S. consumers and risk the discomfort of an unresponsive reply"

"There is simply no way to keep up -- let alone get ahead of demand -- except by producing more oil and building more refining capacity. That's because of the makeup of the barrel of crude. Only a third to a half of a barrel of crude oil can be used to make these products. We can't use more than half of a barrel of oil to make diesel and aviation fuel. To meet this demand we need more capacity. So we need policies that enable both more crude supply and more refining. Higher taxes would only serve to diminish the expansion capacity of this critical capital investment. I urge you on behalf of American consumers to resist such punitive policies."

* * * * * * *

BINGO!

This is what is scary. Barry and the donkeys (name for a reason) will see the great things that Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales are doing to the local oil production make the 40B+ for the government by socialism. Only the government can control the environmental footprint thus to get any oil from the land in US will be governmental oil monopoly.

And for this reason it will stay in the ground forever

Only the human ego can think It can control something as big as the environment. It was changing before we came and will change after we are all gone.

I see the following of nearly equal importance:

Speculation by investors and hedge funds

Increased demand from China, India and elsewhere

Exploration and development constraints from environmentalists

Lack of supply from America

In a separate poll we should ask: Who is there in the media who could or would give an in depth objective answer to the above question that a majority of the public would trust?

My vote: absolutely no-one

Making a state of affairs even sadder.

Impunitas semper ad deteriora invitat.

This issue, could be the defining issue of this campaign.  If the Republicans don't use it, they're just too dumb to be elected.  They don't have much else to do so, run on drill, drill, drill, refine,refine, refine.  Someone, who can't afford $5.00 gasoline, will vote for you. 

Democrats: Stuck on Stupid since 2000.

Iran hoarding oil on supertankers <p> http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2019667/posts <p> Reformulated gas <p> http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2019642/posts <p> Senator Chuck Schumer claims that coercing Saudi Arabia to increase oil production by 1 million barrels a day would drop the per barrel price by $25, saving Americans 62 cent per gallon at the gas pump. Yet, somehow, that same amount of oil coming from Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would only ease oil prices by a penny. <p> http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/05/how_much_have_the_democrats_co.html <p> Chicago Gas Taxes Total Whopping 20%! <p> www.drudgereport.com <p> Gas taxes v. Profits
.09 v. .42 <p> Ten Simple Truths About Oil <p> http://forthegrandchildren.blogspot.com/2008/05/ten-simple-truths-about-oil-by-alan.html <p> When Bill Clinton took office in January 1993, the average retail price of gasoline was $1.06 per gallon. By the time Clinton ran for re-election in 1996, that average per gallon price had become $1.25 per gallon, a 17.9% increase in less than four years. By the time George W. Bush took office in January 2001, the price of a gallon of gas had become $1.45 – a 36.8% increase in gasoline prices during the first Clinton era. <p>

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2846

the global price of oil is determined by the global market, global users and suppliers, any other factor is just an appendix. how does local environmental idiots affect the global cost of oil? they don't they are irrelevent. the only answer is the higher demand for oil from developing countries, even the speculators can't affect that much change. they can create artifical inflation temporarily but it's the prolonged desire for oil from china and india that has driven the world market prices up. only a decade ago china was one of the world top ten oil suppliers, and in a short time they turned to the second largest user. a radical swing from a supplier to a demander.

don't give the looney local liberal envoronmentalists the self esteem boost they do not deserve. they are a local pain in the ass and have no global influence. 

several ways we can locally make a change is to ignore the loonies, drill our own oil in alaska(a big reason we bought it) and off the cost of florida, i don't care about you asses who don't want to see oil rigs on the horizon, and allow the refineries to start working more productively, something the environmentalists will never allow. and one major step would be to build 300 new state of the art nuke plants then we could just about power the entire country without a chunk of coal or oil. oh but lunatic you would allow a nuke plant in your back yard....YES palo verde is 30 miles from me. get your own and shut up. if we took serious aims to secure our own domestic oil supply, it would shatter china because then they couldn't afford the higher prices that opec would want to bill them with our establishment of independence.

remember environmentalist is just a code word for socialist.

lunaticcringeradio