Buying Gas??? Like you have a choice.
OFFSHORE DRILLING WON'T CHANGE A THING
Fact: The oil companies currently have 40 million offshore acres and more then 20 million onshore acres provided by over 10,000 free U.S. government leases. The leases have been held for decades. The ban on offshore drilling only applies to NEW leases so they could drill,... if they wanted to.
But why would they want to? That would require billions of $ investing in equipment and refineries they don't have. That money would have to come out of their continually record breaking profits. The oil companies make more by buying and selling it than drilling it.

Fact: The U.S. is also an oil exporter. Oil is a world commodity. When the prices go up, the oil companies are more than happy to sell U.S. extracted oil on the world market. So while that tanker with Saudi crude is burning a million gallons of fuel to get it here, another tanker is burning 500,000 gallons of fuel to send American crude to Japan. The U.S. actually exported twice as much oil in 2007 as it did in 2006. It's all about the profits, stupid!

Fact: The war in Iraq has been burning on average 1.2 millions barrels of fuel a month. Ah, what's 50,000,000 gallons of fuel in a world living on the edge of the oil supply? The truth is, it is just enough to tip the supply and demand scale from $70 a barrel to $140 a barrel.

Fact: U.S. oil refineries are at capacity. Bush, McCain and Gingrich are dreaming when they claim that offshore drilling will deliver oil from under the ocean directly to your gas tank. If the refinereries are already at capacity then more oil can't be converted into more gas just because there is more oil.

This is the biggest hoax in history. $4 a gallon is here for good. And we're supposed to celebrate when gas drops from 500% of what it was 7 years ago to 400% by buying Navigator's, Tahoe's and Hummers? Aint going to happen. America is hurtin' for certain. The oil companies back McCain. Why? Because the Republicans are the ones who will give the oil gougers everything they want and who will filibuster any attempt to to hold them accountable.

Myth: Oil pumped in America belongs to us. No. It belongs to the multinational companies like Exxon and Shell and they are going to sell everything they pump on the world market at world market prices.

Myth: More drilling in the U.S. will make U.S. prices drop. Even if the oil companies did want to drill in the U.S., it would take 5 to 10 years for them to ramp it up. California already has 38,000 oil wells. How many more do we need? In the ANWAR, the oil would run out in less time than it took the oil companies to set up the drilling operations.

Myth: Oil is oil. No it is not. U.S. oil is far more expensive to refine than the Light Sweet Crude we get from the middle-east. Again, the oil companies do not want to waste their profits on oil that is much harder to refine.

Fact: You are being lied to. Oil companies pretend that the world has millions of years of oil reserves but the spotted owl is stopping them. What is really stopping them is that their dereliction in the Exxon Valdeze spill killed millions of people by destroying 1,500 miles of coastline and destroying their ability to eat fish. But that's OK as the Supreme Court recently ruled that Exxon had no obligation to clean up their mess and isn't required to pay any fines and never should have been expected to clean up after their screw up.

For a long time the oil companies had the best Congress money could buy. They still do.

June 2008. How about $5 a gallon?
The US comprises 6 % of the world population and consumes 25% of the worlds oil.

Fuel is $9 a gallon in Europe and that will catch up to us. It is inevitible.

In the last 15 years years Congress has given Exxon 33 million acres to drill on and they haven't touched it. Exxon has 8 million acres surrounding ANWAR that they haven't touched. And yet we are told they need more. They won't be happy until they are granted the rights to every square inch of land the US owns. It is pathetic that Congress passes blame on the people instead of the manipulators of the energy industry.
Still May 2008

And it still keeps going up a penny or two a day. Premium users, get ready for $5.


"I'm George W. Bush of the 'publican party an' I approve of this price cuz me an' Dick can 'fford it. Hell, if it goes to a hunert dollars a gallon that's jus' spare change ta me. Jesus talked to me an' he tol' me if ya don't like it then you don't support the troops an' yer for Al Queda an' yer a Nazi uhpeezer. Hehehe."
May 2008. Say good-bye to gas under $4.
It probably doesn't help that the operation in Iraq alone requires 1.2 million barrels (50 million gallons) of fuel a month. Ring that one up at the pump.

Also see Energy Bulletin or Peak Oil News
Set the Wayback Machine to 2002, Sherman!
Found an old gas receipt.
This is the closest one I have from my travels during the late 2001 low of 85.9


A lot of stuff has got messed up since then and someone should have some 'splainin' to do.
May 2006. A few days later and a few dimes more!
Congress talked about suspending the 18.3 cent per gallon Federal tax for a while.

The oil companies just see this as another gift and hike prices by 20 cents a gallon in response.

$4 dollars is getting closer. Thank your spineless one-party-ruled Congress again.

The temporary 18.3 cent tax suspension never materializes.
April 2006 and it is getting ridiculous!
Oil company profits beating 2005 levels. Some by as much as 41%
Congress kills every bill or investigation introduced.
Arnold Schwarzenegger accepts millions in campaign contributions from oil company execs.
Many stations raised their prices even more aggressively 12 hours after the President made this years batch of empty promises.
Meanwhile, Bill Frist offers a plan to give Americans $100 gas rebate checks. Remember the $250 or $500 rebate? We had to claim it as income on the next tax return.
2005 Price per barrel at all time highs!
Oil company profits at all time record highs!
Congress passes the largest tax breaks ever for oil companies.
The measures are signed by the President immediately.
Americans get shafted, AGAIN!

For a long time the oil companies had the best Congress money could buy.
In 2006, Congress only planned to work 97 days. Thankfully the voters revolted and were able to vote out some of the riff-raff. Our next chance to throw out more of the riff-raff is 2008.

April 2005
To pump,... or not to pump?
Hard to believe that regular was 0.859 a gallon
in the fall of 2001.
I should have taken a picture then.
Who gets fed today?
The car or me?
What a difference a few days makes.
How high can we go?
What's weird about this is that stations aren't running out of gas to sell. Unlike other price-jacking gas scares, there seems to be plenty of gas to be sold. Cool. If you can afford it, you pay for it.
August 2005
Price per barrel still going up.
Oil company profits climbing at double digit rates every quarter.
No wonder China wanted to buy Unocal.
Buying Gas??? Like you have a choice.
In 2003, in a dog and pony show, the Senate called upon big oil execs to testify (not under oath of course. "Under Oath" is taboo by this administration) why their profits keep breaking records while Americans are paying through the nose. Records show that many of them were involved in the secret meetings with Dick Cheney on energy policy. They all said, "I don't remember". The majority party running Congress at the time didn't have the collective balls to stop the gouging of America, so it continues.

Pre 2006 election note: Yes, prices have been dropping recently. It's an election year and the oil companies are worried they might lose some of the Senators and Reps they've bought and paid for.

Post 2006 election note: The day after the election, gas prices went up 6 cents a gallon. Within two weeks prices were 20 - 30 cents higher per gallon and still rising.

Anti-American Exxon keeps setting world record quarterly profits and laughing all the way to the bank. Their CEO retires with a $458 million "bone us" package.

Send some gas my way.

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