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Posts Tagged ‘Gas Prices’
November 13th, 2015 at 8:40 am
Podcast: Is America Closed for Business?
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In an interview with CFIF, Patrick Hedger, Policy Director of American Encore, discusses why Obama made the wrong decision on Keystone XL pipeline project and what it means for jobs, the economy and gas prices. 

Listen to the interview here.

May 16th, 2012 at 12:48 pm
Forget Obama’s Energy Scarcity — More Oil in Three U.S. States than Rest of the World Combined
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President Obama’s views on energy have always been defined by a sense of false scarcity. This is the man, after all, who told Oregon voters in 2008, “We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times.”; who constantly invokes the fact that “the U.S. has only 2 percent of the world’s oil supplies” (an utterly misleading statistic that would be irrelevant even if it were literally true); who admitted to wanting the price of coal “to necessarily skyrocket”; and who hired an Energy Secretary who longs to see American gasoline prices reach the stratospheric levels of Europe.

Testifying before the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment last week, Anu Mittal, Director of Natural Resources and Environment at the Government Accountability Office delivered some stunning news about the amount of oil shale available in the Mountain West.

Here’s how CNSNews reports the story:

“USGS estimates that the Green River Formation contains about 3 trillion barrels of oil, and about half of this may be recoverable, depending on available technology and economic conditions,” Mittal testified.

“The Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, estimates that 30 to 60 percent of the oil shale in the Green River Formation can be recovered,” Mittal told the subcommittee. “At the midpoint of this estimate, almost half of the 3 trillion barrels of oil would be recoverable. This is an amount about equal to the entire world’s proven oil reserves.”

Read that again. If less than half of this oil shale is recoverable, it still represents an amount equal to that available in the rest of the world. By extrapolation, that means that as future extraction methods become more technologically sophisticated (and more economical) we could be talking about a grand haul equal to more than double current global reserves. And that’s only in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming — not in the other 47 states.

There are huge policy implications here because of the simple fact that most of this shale occurs on federal lands. That means that getting this material out of the ground will require a proactive effort from government. The current President — who likes to boast about record oil production without noting that the vast majority of it is coming from private land — is not the person to kick start this new era of energy abundance. One more reason to send him packing in November.

April 12th, 2012 at 9:20 am
Ramirez Cartoon – The “Buffet Rule” Distraction
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Below is one of the latest cartoons from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.

March 30th, 2012 at 9:36 am
Podcast: How Government Policies Are Driving Up Energy Prices
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CFIF Senior Fellow Quin Hillyer discusses how the Obama Administration’s anti-oil industry policies and practices are driving up gas prices and threatening American energy companies. 

Listen to the interview here.

February 21st, 2012 at 8:59 am
Ramirez Cartoon: Why Gas Prices Are So High
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Below is one of the latest cartoons from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.

June 9th, 2011 at 11:17 am
Obama Makes Us Run on Empty

Blame Obama for high gas prices. Sorry for the cross-link, but the info is here.

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May 9th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Ramirez Cartoon: Time to Celebrate?
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Below is one of the latest cartoons from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.

May 3rd, 2011 at 10:33 am
More on Inflation

When I wrote last week on the coming stagflation, I didn’t know that by formerly used official US inflation measures, current inflation is running at 10%. Niall Ferguson says it is. His terrific column is here.

This Ferguson paragraph mirrors one of mine from last week:

To ordinary Americans, however, it’s not the online price of an iPad that matters; it’s prices of food on the shelf and gasoline at the pump. These, after all, are the costs they encounter most frequently. And with average gas prices hitting $3.88 a gallon last week, filling up is now twice as painful as when President Obama took office.

(From my column last week: “The Fed economists may discount food and gasoline prices as unstable indicators that aren’t part of “core” inflation, but for most Americans food and gas cost hikes are the very definition of inflation. These are the things they pay for every day; they are the items closest to their psyches. Those gas prices on the big billboards at every filling station have an outsized effect on American psychology.”)

Here’s the Ferguson bit about how the inflation measure has changed:

And the reason the CPI is losing credibility is that, as economist John Williams tirelessly points out, it’s a bogus index. The way inflation is calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been “improved” 24 times since 1978. If the old methods were still used, the CPI would actually be 10 percent. Yes, folks, double-digit inflation is back. Pretty soon you’ll be able to figure out the real inflation rate just by moving the decimal point in the core CPI one place to the right.

Good stuff. Read the whole thing.

April 26th, 2011 at 9:57 pm
Non-Existent Inflation? It’s Everywhere.
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As we prepare for the beginning of the era of the Federal Reserve as PR machine, we can anticipate a glut of federal statistics hand-picked to convince the public that the growing evidence of inflation is psychosomatic. Of course, it helps that the Fed’s core measure of inflation excludes such basic staples as food and energy. But as Jeffery Lord points out at the American Spectator, the main street indices tell a sharply different story than the Wall Street rationalizations:

Milk. A gallon of skim. At the local Giant in Central Pennsylvania:

January 11, 2011: $3.20
February 28, 2011: $3.24
March 6, 2011: $3.34
April 23. 2011: $3.48

That would be a 28 cent rise in a mere 102 days, from January to April of this year. The third year of the Obama misadventure.

Then there’s the celery. Same sized bag. Same store.

January 11, 2011: $1.99 a bag.
March 6, 2011: $2.49 a bag.

A rise of 50 cents in 54 days.

If this trend continues, the Fed will have to find an even more counterintuitive metric for gaging inflation. Perhaps one that doesn’t include prices.

April 26th, 2011 at 8:37 am
Gas Price Fairy Tales
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Below is one of the latest cartoons from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.

April 12th, 2011 at 11:10 am
Fed: $4 Gas in March? Nothing to See Here, Folks.
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Gasoline prices have increased from the $3 range to the $4 range in just one year, we’re approaching all new record prices set in 2008 even though it’s not even summer driving season yet.  But ignore higher gas and food prices, America.  They only matter if you actually drive or eat. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen says it’s all “transitory,” and we need to keep the “stimulative” inflationary monetary spigots open because it “continues to be appropriate.”

Even the European Central Bank is raising interest rates in an attempt to avert inflation.  Of course, there isn’t an Obama reelection campaign to sustain over there.

March 28th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Federal Regulations Guarantee Higher Gas Prices
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Last week we told you about how President Obama’s steadfast refusal to open up America’s energy resources is keeping prices at the pump artificially high. But as we transition into the summer driving season, it’s important to remember that Obama isn’t the first Washington busybody who wanted to micromanage your gas tank.

Though current oil volatility will mask its effect, decades old federal regulations mandate that gas stations sell a “summer blend” gasoline from June 1 to September 15 (some localities extend the period). The blend is intended to cut down on air pollution in local areas, but it also adds an average of 10 cents per gallon to the cost of gasoline. Just what we needed.

March 18th, 2011 at 10:02 am
Video: The Obama Gas Tax
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In this week’s Freedom Minute, CFIF’s Renee Giachino explains how President Obama’s energy policy – namely, his opposition to opening up America’s vast domestic resources – amounts to a massive energy tax at a time when prices at the pump are soaring ever higher.