September 26, 2006
The Politics of Gasoline

I received another flyer in the mail the other day from the Burner campaign (or one of her 527's), proclaiming Reichert was the "rubber stamp" vote for Bush's policies surrounding energy policy. The flyer was largely the Bush and his energy buddies rhetoric, and I was suprised the word "Halliburton" did not appear anywhere. By voting for an energy policy (the first one ever in this country), Reichert apparently was supporting millions in "giveaways to the oil companies". I suppose by "giveaways" the flyer was referring to incentives to build new refineries, since that's the only way another one will ever be constructed.

The flyer, not surprisingly, did not mention the millions of dollars in tax incentives for things like hybrid vehicles and alternative energy sources.

It also appeared the strategy of the Burner campaign was also to blame high gas prices on Republicans, but now that gas prices have fallen, they have turned to conspiracy theories to explain the result. To wit, 42% of people think that Republicans have manipulated gas prices before the election in order to get elected. If this figure is even close to representative of the electorate, it is a sad commentary that this many people think politicians have that much influence on the price of gas. Democrats like Cantwell already appear to have failed economics because they believe that gas prices have to do with oil companies price gouging rather than good old supply and demand.

Posted by Palouse123 at September 26, 2006 11:20 AM | Email This
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1. Burner, Cantwell, Gregoire, and the dems in general are completely against us drilling in this country to lessen the dependence on foreign oil. There are large deposits of oil off the coast and in Alaska, that we should be drilling for, and the dems are blocking it all. They are always quick to add taxes to gas and just added a whopping 14 cent gas tax in the last few years to each gallon. We now have the highest gas tax in the states. So who is rsponsible for the high cost of gas in this state?

Posted by: GS on September 26, 2006 12:47 PM
2. Perhaps the Dems rhetoric over this will cause Chavez, Iran or both to make a few crazy statements here soon to drive uncertainty back up, thus forcing the oil speculators to panic, driving oil and gas prices back up.

The bottom line is; What have the Dems actually DONE to reduce our reliance on foreign oil?

Posted by: SouthernRoots on September 26, 2006 01:05 PM
3. In the last leg session Gregoire and the dems passed a bill to push bio-diesel. The also passed the adoption of CA vehicle emission standards.

CA vehicle emission standards ban diesel vehicles under 8000 lbs. A number of European auto makers make high mileage diesel powered cars. Most of these cars are rated in Europe as "low emission vehicle" meeting the European emission standards. Those standards meet or exceed the CA standards.

Let's see the logic, push bio-diesel and cut off the supply of cars and light vehicles that use that product.

Posted by: JCM on September 26, 2006 01:10 PM
4. What I always love about the moon-bats and their "Bush is manipulating oil prices for the elections" is that they are the same people who say President Bush is a moron, stupid, idiot, etc...

Posted by: TrueSoldier on September 26, 2006 04:43 PM
5. Gee, Palouse, I live in the 8th. I feel hurt that I didn't get one of her goofy flyers. All I ever get are her lame robo-attack calls. /sarcasm off

Posted by: Misty on September 26, 2006 05:03 PM
6. I do not have a land line, so I am spared the political calls - they don't call cell phones. But, they more than make up for it with flyers. Since my wife and I are both registered voters, we usually get two of everything. Politicians don't even know how to save money before they get elected.

Posted by: Palouse on September 27, 2006 07:56 AM
7. And if anyone needs confirmation that the MSM is fueling the gas price conspiracy theories, look no further than this quote.

"The drop in [gas] prices may last a couple of months, long enough to get through the November election. Could that be what the oil companies want?"

-- CNN's Bill Schneider

Posted by: Palouse on September 27, 2006 08:59 AM
8. The driving season is over and gas always drops in price at this time as inventories build. Last year prices declined from October from about 2.70 Through December dropping to 1.99 at Arco Where I bought gas on 12,23,05 In January the prices started rising again, and guess what, they are dropping again at the same time almost,amazing. It will be interesting to compare prices from last winter to this winter.

I don't study fuel prices, but am looking at the gas log I keep in the car.

This is a little off point?

What gets me is diesel pricing. It comes off the cracking ladder way before gas, but now we are paying a premium and since we now get yet another diesel product which will require more refinery resources, storage at gas stations for all the varieties etc., the prices could go even higher?

Noticed prices at the store lately?

I would like to think the ultimate objective here is to eventually encourage a diesel economy through clean burning engines as they are 30% more efficient than gas. That means a lot less imported fuel and that equates to lower prices, right? Europe, China uses mostly diesel.

Posted by: John on October 1, 2006 02:30 PM
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