Saturday, July 19, 2008

Oil Prices Fall $20 in a Week

The Price of oil dropped from a record high of $147 dollars a little over a week ago to $128.88 on Friday. The drop marked the largest ever drop in a price of oil recorded in a week. Some anaysis have siad that a nationwide average of under $4 a gallon could be fast approaching. The average is currently $4.10 a gallon.

There could be several reasons for this sudden drop in prices: people driving less, buying cars with better gas millage, oil inventories being up, but I go back to what I wrote a couple of days ago President Bush lifting the moratorium on drilling off shore. Notice that we didn't start drilling, or even lift the congressional ban on drilling. Which we would have to do before we could start drilling. Still, the Price of a barrel of oil has dropped almost $20 a barrel since that announcement. I've read in some places that if Congress would follow suit we could have gas prices back between $2- $2.50 a barrel. This is without touching Alaska or the oil shell in the Mountains.

Alot of the Price of oil is psychologically drive. If traders believe the oil will go higher they bid the price of oil higher. With wars in Iraq and Afgahnistan, problems with Iran, and the constant threats made on Israel. It's no wonder that traders bid oil higher since we have to get so much of it comes from that region of the world. However when those traders believe that we will start drilling for our own oil and our serious about adopting new forms of energy then the price drops as it has this week. So when President Bush lifted the Ban on drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans it caused a sell off which drove prices down at a record rate. The fact that American's having been using less oil recently also helped.

Americans need to continue to use less oil from here on out. No matter what the price is. We cannot forget the lessons we have learned during the past two years and go back to what we were doing before. However we will need oil for the foreseeable future. We need for that oil to be affordable for every American so that they can live their lives. Right now the best way to get to price of oil back to an affordable level is to follow President Bush's lead and drill. I don't know if their will ever be a time where we will not need oil at all. However I do believe we can make our need for oil significantly less than it is now with innovation and American ingenuity. However make no mistake about it right now we need oil!

Unfortunately the Democrats in Congress are more interested in sabataging Bush's Presidency than they are doing what's best for America. Their worried about how their liberal base will react if they allow a vote on lifting the moratorium on drilling, which would pass both the House and Senate. So right now Speaker Pelosi is the only thing standing between Americans and lower prices at the pump. So what's it going to be Speaker will you hold our wallets hostage to the environmentalist, or will you do what's in the best interest of your country. We're waiting for the answer.

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2 comments:

  1. The problem here is that you admit we need to use less oil, but then say that prices need to drop. Those are two mutually exclusive conditions. If prices drop, people will use more gas and buy less efficient vehicles. That's the market at work. People have known for a long time that they needed to consume less oil -- hell, Carter was saying this stuff in the 1970s -- but the only times they've actually done it is when prices forced them to.

    Why have oil prices dropped? Hard to say. There wasn't really an adequate reason for their skyrocketing in the first place. Yes, an increase, even a big increase made sense given that the world now consumes more oil than it produces (and the instability in the middle east caused by this war). But the -- what? -- six hundred percent increase in the last five or six years was over the top.

    I'm not sure what number you're looking for, but I can't imagine you're claiming that oil is going to go down to $2.00 a barrel. Adjusted for inflation, oil prices haven't been that low since the beginning of the 20th century. I'm guessing you meant $20-25 barrel, which is what oil cost before the recent surge in prices.

    I agree we need to fund -- massively fund -- research into alternative energy. I'm talking an Apollo style project that sets a major goal and then does whatever it takes to reach it. Similar to what Al Gore proposed the other day. But to me, doing that is not possible while simultaneously encouraging Americans to consume more oil.

    This is the greatest test the market has ever faced. You'd think conservatives who constantly champion the marketplace would welcome the challenge. Instead, all you guys want to do is postpone the inevitable despite the fact that doing so could do irreperable harm to our environment. And that's not just crazy environmentalist talk. I'm not saying we need to save the environment for its own sake (the environment will outlive us all, I can assure you of that). I'm saying we need to save the environment because it's the only way we might save ourselves. So let's not simply brush off environmentalist concerns on this issue. If we had listened to them earlier, and not waited a decade or more to start earnestly looking for alternatives, then we might not be in the spot we are now.

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  2. And where I live, inland in the Mid-Atlantic/South region, prices at the pumps have dropped two cents at one petrol station and nothing at the many others in town.

    Meanwhile, across the nearby state border, prices in an adjacent state have dropped 12-13 cents a gallon.

    As for alternative energy sources: We need a total energy package that includes alternatives to fossil fuels, while still using them. Contrary to what many people fantasize, it takes years to develop and implement some technologies.

    And given how much fossil fuel we have within our boundaries, it makes sense--something that's in short supply in some quarters in America--to find ways to use those fuels.

    Whatever it takes, including nuclear, we must move ahead, in spite of the currently Democrat-controlled Congress and what might follow, as well as the so-called environmentalists--they have moved well beyond the noble goal of protecting our environment into stupidity and fascistic directions--to free ourselves from self-inflicted bondage to the rest of the world re: energy.

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