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Fuel Stability =Healthy Economy

olgentdc

olgentdc

Well-known Member
Location
Harrison County , Elizabeth Ind 47117
Stable Fuel supply and affordable Costs are a must for a strong economy . Just Thinking ..What should be done to keep fuel cost below 2 bucks a gallon ?.... Obviously leveraged trading caused hi prices , among other factors,, There has been lots of good comments aired on this subject over this year. Personally, I value the Common sense of this forum . Therefore , Suppose we were introducing a Fuel Stability Bill to Congress for action , Just for Fun , what would the nuts and bolts wording look like ? Any Takers ? Thanx jim
 
Every Senator would want to add a few pork projects.. The Bill would end up being 200 pages long, and would not even enforce the original intent.. Sorry to be so negative..
 
Jim, I think a bill mandating fuel price stability would be unenforceable...especially since we buy a lot of crude overseas. No US law can be enforced on, say, Saudi Arabia, unless the Saudi government WANTS to recognize that US law. A US law is basically null and void beyond US borders, except as it applies to US citizens.

Of course, the oil industry would also balk at government instituted price controls, either on the wholesale OR the retail level. And my best guess is that, except in cases where martial law is declared, even price controls instituted for reasons of national security would probably be declared unconstitutional. And do you actually think those high-priced oil company lawyers wouldn't take the government to court, if the government did anything that might cut into their string of consecutive record profits? I believe those bloodsuckers would be filing lawsuits before the ink on the proposed bill was dry .

Just MY opinion...YOUR mileage may vary, void where prohibited, objects in mirror may be closer than they appear, and alcohol may intensify any side effects.
 
Prices tend to be most stable during times of large surpluses, they are then also lower. Extreme volatility comes with shortages, as do higher prices. Fuel Stability Bill, implies government regulation. Me thinks it best to let free market forces govern prices. Leveraged trading allows one to win or lose faster, but in the end the main effect of it is, to smooth out the price swings. BTDT.
 
Obviously to get it away from chicken little speculators. Any little reason to jack up prices regardless if based in reality.
Some people say we can't regulate oil prices, but if you go at it like WalMarts purchasing policies it could be done. We're the biggest users but we're treated like some red headed step child. WMs polices are if you want to sell in our store we'll tell you the price, when you're going to deliver and how much.
 
You can have price stability or you can have cheap gas, take your pick. But you can't have them both. Just like the agricultural price support programs, to keep prices stable you need to keep prices higher than the free market price and control supply to prevent overproduction.

Higher fuel prices encourage exploration, particularly domestic production. It's difficult to make money drilling for $50/barrel oil.

Higher fuel prices also reduce demand. Combine lower demand with higher domestic production and you start to reduce the horrific trade imbalance we have with the oil-producing countries.

Just because something is good for you personally doesn't necessarily make it good for the US economy.
 
High Oil Prices might help the economy in Ok. and Texas. If folks have to go back to spending 4 or 5 Dollars a Gallon, this is gonna be ONE LONG RECESION! And what good will "Exploration" do if the Libs won't let us drill ANYWAYS????????I M H O, the Economy will fair much better if the price remains STABLE, at fifty bucks a barrel!
 
Don't claim to have any expertise, but it seems to me our domestic oil companies are pretty much content to just take the foreign oil and add their profit margin to it - as long as we are willing to pay. I see a lot of activity from them wanting to acquire the rights to explore and drill, but I also see reports that they aren't drilling in areas they already own the drilling rights.

The only incentive they have for domestic production is when they foreign supplies are not enough or the public can't or won't pay the price for foreign oil. Corporations have no soul and no loyalty to the USA.
 
It'd have about the same effect as introducing a Bill to say it has to rain every Wednesday and no rain on Saturday's.Market forces will overwhelm all other efforts eventually.
 
Not exactly on-topic, but I hope oil gets back to 60-70 dollars a barrel and stays there. There has been an explosion of new drilling here in NW PA (around Bradford) and it's been great for the local economy. I'd hate to see it stop. Dropping below $50 would probably make it stop.
 
Government now prevents fuel supply stability by not allowing drilling in many areas. Supply and demand contributes to instability and therefore if there were an abundance of oil available the price would settle and stabilize.
 
Until we have a sound energy policy that makes sense, we will be at the mercy, more or less, of the big oil producers. The mere threat of drilling here, where there are actually oil deposits, will help, along with increased refinery capacity. We also have to relax some of the requirements to meet in the middle, somewhere between Love Canal and saving some little known species that may or may not even exist.

Development of alternative fuels that can be marketed without subsidies will also help keep demand in check. Until we can get our energy production close to our energy needs, things won't stay stable.

We're 30 years behind the curve since we didn't learn from the shortage in the early 70s. I'm afraid if oil stays under $50 a barrel, our usage will go right back to where it was.
 
I'm a old man who made a prediction a year ago.

We all heard about drilling, no new refineries etc. They sure must have done alot of drilling and building new refineries in the past couple of months. HUMMM....OR?

Does the big oil comanies know that by reducing the price for a short term they can break all the competiton that corn processing plants had threatened? And perhaps maybe the big oil companies might just decide to buy the backrupt corn processing plants at a very reduced price?

And if perhaps we get a real energy bill, it will resemble our medicare bill that the folks who own the drug companies actualy wrote for our friends in Washington. It probably saved our politicians alot of leg work don't ya think?

Remember, We have the best government money can buy.. I think the only way out of this hole is to have one line bills so voting can't be blamed on other items in the bill, cause they seem to get slippery with pork fat.

But never the less, high gas prices have slowed the amount of traffic in our rural area. Not that the drivers are any smarter or safer, just less of them.

North East IA
 
(reply to post at 10:31:17 12/01/08) We're 30 years behind the curve since we didn't learn from the shortage in the early 70s. I'm afraid if oil stays under $50 a barrel, our usage will go right back to where it was.
Click to expand...

True, to some extent. But most people will not put themselves at risk by buying gas guzzling SUVs & p/u trucks, unless they need them. I started car-pooling when gas was close to $4/gal and find no reason to change.

Cutting my energy use in half at any price still saves me money. So, hopefully this last oil shock will have some lasting effect as we learned that we actually CAN conserve without our lifestyle drastically changing.
 
With the threat of drilling we'll get cheaper prices from the big oil producers. Arn't the big oil producers the ones who would be drilling? Arn't most of these companies American companies.
 
One simple thing would help stabilize the price,remove it from the speculators market thats been rigged to create a false shortage.That would also help us to know what the real supply is when they arent bidding on oil 2 years in advance thats not been pumped out of the ground.Then add to it what Tlak said about Wal Mart.If we wont buy it they wont jack it up.Then if we put a limit on anything we allow in this country from any other country,oil,cars,iron,junk,people,to fire our own industry back up,so we even have a country.Right now we have some kind of stupid non regulated,banana republic,with a puppet dictator and corrupt government sinking deeper into the slime.That has to stop,and not be allowed to happen again or we will be in another civil war before long,might still be in a civil war because of the soulless corporations.While that may be true,corporations can get a soul if they are allowed to operate here,or be broken up into a minimum of say 10 companies each,further if necessary.Weve all seen how these idiots want to drag us into a world thats a lot worse than what we had,time to get rid of them.We have to do something like that,and a lot more,to have a country thats going to last.The Bush regime is over,and anything remotely like it is poison.If the EPA wants to ban something it needs to be politicians like that.That banking system is not going to make it either,that crowd needs to be beat down.
 
The threat of drilling puts the worlds oil producers on notice. More supply, lower prices.

Is there anything wrong with putting Americans to work producing American oil? I guess I don't get your point.
 
We went that route in the early 70's. More fuel efficient cars, smaller pick ups. It last for a awhile and then the gas guzzlers came back. Some would continue to conserve, I doubt the masses would.
 
IF THE USA THINKS IT CAN RESTRICT ITS GOODS AND SERVICES TO OTHER COUNTRIES TO BAIL ITSELF OUT OF TROUBLE IT HAS ANOTHER THINK COMMING.THE USA HAS SIGNED TRADE AGREEMENTS WITH THOSE COUNTRIES.REMEMBER FELLOWS YOU NOT ONLY SELL TO OTHER COUNTRIES YOU ALSO BUY GOODS.THERE ARE NO RUBBER TREES GROWING IN THE US AND YOU ARE ALSO GETTING CLOSER TO A WATER SHORTAGE.
 
I agree with the one item bills or the line item veto to cut pork, but I doubt that alone will solve the energy price swings. What is your solution?
 
The 3 biggest oil drilling companies are Schlumberger,Halliburton,and Baker Hughes.The "big"American oil companies come in at about 14th for the biggest.Some how it seems that most big oil companies are owned by countries,Russia being the biggest in the country owned area.So it looks like even more corruption is behind oil companies,and the names of the drillers should tell you some of it.Just the idea I got when reading about it is that the oil companies have somehow arranged their company to where it can keep from being responsible for any pollution.Like it seems all of the companies selling gas here are owned by some other country.Too complicated for my poor little brain right now.
 
So True Buzz ,, It really is a $64,ooo ?,, I just wonder How these Chikin little speculators could be idled back to where they do not create so much turmoil in the economy ,, Like others have Agreed ,, The Speculators , Therein lies the biggest part of the problem ,jim
 
I don't know if you're a farmer or not, but consider this. Maybe I think wheat products are costing me too much, my cereal, bread, etc. I think there should be a Wheat Stability Law enacted. It should never cost more than $1 for a loaf of bread of $2 for a box of cereal. I don't care what it costs to produce that wheat, or transport it, or process it into the foods I eat, I want to pay the same all the time. After a while, the farmers realize they can no longer make a profit growing wheat, so they stop. They grow something else. The food companies that turn the wheat into flour and cereal realize they can no longer turn a profit so they stop. What would you propose at that point, that they be forced to continue and lose money and go out of business completely, or lose their farms? Or should the government, (you and I), begin to subsidize production and processing of wheat so that the retail price can continue to be stable? Even though that means we are paying higher taxes to keep those businesses profitable.

Surely you can see the folly in your idea. Free markets must remain free. Any regulation, or interference, by outside forces, (the government) will cause an inbalance and the markets fail. Very similar to the restrictions congress has imposed on domestic oil drilling over the past 30 years has caused us to become dependant on foreign sources of oil, and subjected us to bearing the pain of what others, mostly OPEC, believe the price should be. They, OPEC, are right now trying to artificially raise the price of a barrel of oil by reducing output. They have said they think a fair price for a barrel is $75 to $80. That means gasoline at $2.50/gal. plus.

See why it has been folly to restrict our own ability to drill domestically?
 
Red, it sounds like you want taxpayers to subsidize the price of wheat so you can always pay the same cheap price for your cereal and bread. Sounds like you are supporting government planning of the economey and a redistribution of wealth. Please tell me it isn't so. If the price of wheat drives the price of your Lucky Charms or Captian Crunch to unaffordable levels farmers will start growing wheat again, in turn lowering the price of your cereal. No need to redistribute the wealth, just switch to Oat Bran untill the wheat ceareal prices comes back down. That economic theory is called "Substitution".
 
I've always been big on complain and much less with solution.

One thing that I feel would at least help is if all the farm land that is in the 10 year set aside was made tillable, the farmer paid a reasonable amount, and the corn would be used for military, federal, state, & even city autos. That should show a profit if nothing else.

I'm big on wind so I would certianly think that wind power would also help a little.

Shutting down all government offices & travel 1 more day of the week would also help, and probably we would never see a decline in production. The government workers that are not needed...fire their rear ends. So now we are down to only a handful of government workers.

Take their wages and buy oil?

Just being silly here, but I kinda think we have to get out of the mind set that oil is our biggest fuel sorce.

If we all worked longer days, and took off on Fridays we could cut some costs. If you car pool, or ride a bike, or use public transportation Uncle Slam could give a tax credit.

A lottery drawing one big name out of the hat for oil companies--the winner gets a week that we all avoid (just their products). Next week another drawing till they get three strikes, then a month of not purchasing their products. Maybe just taking the highest price oil company each week?? If we all tried to stick together maybe we could change the picture a little.

Like Johnny Carson once asked. What would happen if everyone refused to pay their taxes? Could they put us all in jail?

I'll stop my babbling now, and maybe do something constructive.

North East Iowa
 
Scott- I think IR^ was using a little sarcasm to illustrate his point. T-40, as usual is using wacko conspiracy theories to illustrate his lack of a point v.
 
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