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An Idiotic Government with Idiotic Goals

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Photo Credit: TownHallFor folks who are trying to ignite inflation, this sure isn’t working out very well. It’s been hoped by the country’s central bankers that the massive quantitative easing PROGRAM along with near-zero interest rates will touch off a wave of inflation that if not exactly the same thing as boom times, will at least give the appearance of a strengthening economy. However, month after month inflation in the goods that the Fed cares about seems muted. Now this month we had the horrid news that official inflation numbers are falling not rising.

“The consumer-price index declined 0.2 percent,” reports Bloomberg, “the first decrease since April 2013, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 83 economists SURVEYED by Bloomberg called for unchanged. Excluding volatile food and fuel, the so-called core measure was unchanged, the first time it failed to increase in almost four years.”

Oh, the horror of falling gas prices!

It should be noted that falling fuel costs, not coincidentally, also contributed to the robust retail SALES figures that boosted the economy in August

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This Standard Is One Reason the Price of Gas Will Increase

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Photo Credit: Daily SIgnal Not thinking things through is a chronic problem with policy-makers in Washington. Superficial and easily sound-bite-able policies dominate the thoughtful-but-complex ones. For instance mandates for biofuel use would seem to be driven by basic supply and demand—more domestic fuel would lead to lower fuel prices for consumers. But the reality is more complex.

On June 26, the Congressional Budget Office released a study on the impacts of the Renewable Fuels Standard and found that, if unchanged, the RFS will increase gasoline prices by 13 to 26 cents per gallon and increase the price of diesel fuel by 30 to 51 cents per gallon by 2017. Part of the popular, bi-partisan and totally misguided Energy Independence and Security Act, the RFS promoted increased production of various forms of ethanol and biodiesel with a host of mandates and subsidies.

The failure of advanced biofuels—especially cellulosic ethanol—to meet targets,along with the constraints of blend walls and consumer rejection of E85 gasohol, would force the oil industry to pay fines for producing fuels consumers do want and take huge losses on forced production of fuels consumers don’t want.

The chart below, from the CBO report, illustrates how miserably the mandate-it-and-they-will-make-it energy policy is failing. Proponents assured Congress and the president that commercially viable production of cellulosic ethanol made from non-edible plant material was just around the corner. Not only were they wrong, but as we see from the chart, there is no end of the tunnel in sight.

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Gas Prices Expected to Surge Again Soon

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Photo Credit: Grant Hindsley APGas prices are heading up again.

Rising crude oil prices and a fall in U.S. supplies are driving wholesale gas prices up sharply. That has yet to be fully reflected at the retail level.

Prices at the pump — up 4 cents the past week to a national average of $3.52 a gallon — could climb another 15 cents or higher over the next two weeks. A year ago, the national average was $3.38.

“It’s getting ugly,” says Patrick DeHaan, senior analyst for GasBuddy.com. “First and foremost, the political problems in Egypt are driving crude oil prices, but there has also been a sharp drop in oil supplies the past two weeks. This is coming at a time when demand is at its annual July peak.”

Egypt is not a major oil supplier, but ongoing political woes threaten Middle Eastern shipments and were the catalyst behind crude oil prices rising to 15-month highs earlier this week. Benchmark West Texas crude oil eased 1.5% to $104.91 a barrel Thursday. Wholesale gas prices — up 30 cents to 50 cents a gallon on some markets since late June — rose 0.8% to $3.04 a gallon for mid-August delivery. Typically, pump prices are about 75 cents higher.

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Obama Unveils Yet Another Measure to Jack Gasoline Prices and Kill The Economy

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Photo Credit: Reuters

The White House is planning to unveil a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency that aims to clean up gasoline and automobile emissions, a plan officials say will lead to cleaner air but also higher gas prices.

The so-called Tier 3 standards would reduce sulfur in gasoline by more than 60 percent and reduce nitrogen oxides by 80 percent, by expanding across the country a standard already in place in California. It would go into effect in 2017.

The oil industry, Republicans and some Democrats have pressed the EPA to delay the rule, saying it would be unwise to impose such a standard while many are still struggling in a bad economy. An oil industry study says the rule could increase gasoline prices by 6 to 9 cents per gallon.

The EPA says the potential increase in gas prices would be slight, estimating the rules could increase gas prices by less than a penny per gallon and add $130 to the cost of a vehicle in 2025. Additionally, the agency argues the plan will yield billions of dollars in health benefits by slashing smog- and soot-forming pollution come 2030.

For states, the regulation will make it easier to comply with health-based standards for the main ingredient in smog and soot. For auto makers, the regulation allows them to sell the same autos in all 50 states.

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Inflation Highest In More Than Three Years

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Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. consumer prices rose 0.7% in February for the largest gain since June 2009. Gasoline prices rose 9.1%, also making the largest jump since June 2009, and accounted for almost three-fourths of February’s gain in the consumer price index. The broader price category for energy increased 5.4%.

Despite the CPI’s large jump in February, longer-term trends remain within the Federal Reserve’s target. The overall CPI and the core reading, which excludes volatile energy and food categories, increased 2% over the 12 months that ended in February. Economists expect that today’s data should continue to support the Fed’s accommodative policy stance.

Looking forward, analysts expect monthly inflation to moderate as some of February’s surge in gasoline prices is reversed this month. In the most recent weekly data, average per-gallon gas prices across the U.S. fell five cents to $3.71.

“Overall, despite the sharp rise in headline prices and some modest firming in core consumer inflation pressures, the overall backdrop for consumer prices remains favorable, providing further breathing room for the Fed,” wrote Millan Mulraine, a macro strategist at TD Securities, in a research note.

Prices for food rose 0.1% in February. The core CPI rose 0.2%. Read RetireMentors: From ammunition to zucchini, prices are up.

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$5 Gas Returns To California (+video)

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Photo Credit: Muffet Gas prices in Southern Californiarose again on Monday, leaving some drivers paying over $5.00 per gallon.

CBS2′s Amber Lee reports the average price of a gallon of gas in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area climbed for the 25th consecutive day to $4.29 – over 50 cents higher than last month, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

One gas station in downtown Los Angeles was offering regular unleaded at $5.19 on Monday, prompting at least one potential customer to exit his vehicle, snap of a photo of the station’s prices – and then drive off in search of cheaper gas.

Nationwide, the average price of gas jumped to $3.73 per gallon, while customers paid only $3.30 just one month ago.

Orange County drivers are paying an average of $4.28 at the pump, while the price of gas in the Inland Empire has climbed to $4.24 per gallon. Drivers here in the Southland say they’re already feeling pinched.

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Why is the American Automobile Association, With Over 50 Million Members, Doing Nothing About High Gas Prices?

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By My Auto Club. The American Automobile Association (AAA) has for years failed to fight high gas prices to benefit its motorist members. The AAA with 50+ million members is the largest nonreligious member organization in the country.

The AAA gas price surveys always have included the oil cartel’s excuses and red herring arguments for their skyrocketed prices.

The AAA is tasked to lobby in support of motorists. But it has not yet done any lobbying to any state or the Federal government to:

1. investigate the domestic oil cartel for collusion and antitrust violations.

2. investigate the worldwide oil cartel including OPEC and its allies.

3. urge President Obama to stop all help the US occupation authorities are giving to Iraq and its OPEC allies (could be done with a stroke of President Obama’s pen); and investigate the possible support the US occupying forces continue to give to Iraq and its OPEC allies, including enforcing worldwide oil production quotas. Iraq has kept its oil production down at the Saddam Hussein level of March 2003 when the occupation started. The price of gas was $1/gallon in March 2003 and is now $4/gallon.

4. stop tax increases on gasoline and diesel.

The two largest AAA clubs are the Automobile Club of Southern California (with about 7 million members), which owns the AAA clubs in Texas, New Mexico, and Hawaii, and parts of Northern New England (Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire), Missouri, and Alabama; and the Automobile Club of Northern California, which owns the AAA clubs in Utah and Nevada. Both have totally failed to lobby. No bills have been sponsored, no ballot measures been initiated.

Time for the AAA to rise up for its member-owners. The multi-billion dollar rip-offs must stop.

$4 Gas: Get Used to It

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President Obama may have a lot more to worry about than bombing the debate this week. Traders are starting to get particularly bullish over gasoline prices – and that is bad news for the average driver, who may also be looking to vent his spleen at the voting booth.

Reports of gas shortages along the high-demand west and east coasts may be fleeting – although deeply concerning – but they highlight a problem that’s expected to persist in the U.S.: our refineries are getting old. Given that a new refinery has not been built since 1976, commodities desks on Wall Street are bracing for more refinery outages and fires just as the nation needs to gear up for the busy winter heating season.

What does that mean? Probably more weeks where we’ll see U.S. crude oil inventories hovering above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year, yet gasoline inventories tunneling into the lower half of their average range, as the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday.

Translated in dollars and cents, retail gas prices likely won’t be moving off the $4 needle anytime soon. In fact, some gasoline buyers think this may even usher in a run to $5 a gallon (especially out west where gas stations are shutting down because they cannot buy gas at price levels low enough to turn a profit).

The firmness in gasoline also is giving oil prices a boost, the knock-on effects of which cannot be understated.

You want to save the US economy? Deliver American Energy to Americans

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There is widespread consensus that America needs to become energy independent. America’s ever growing dependence on foreign energy puts her at ever-greater risk in a world that is increasingly unstable. Given the current political upheavals in the Middle East, this reality is slapping America in the face with increasing costs at the pump which, in turn, drive up costs of goods and services to consumers.

Making matters worse, Progressives are obsessed with forcing Americans into accepting their green energy fantasy. Three plus years of actions taken by the current administration and fellow Progressives show a willingness to achieve this end at any cost. Increasing limitations on auto emissions and mileage, crushing EPA regulations on energy providers, opposing development of domestic energy resources, enormous deficit spending on inefficient and noncompetitive solar, wind, tide and bio-fuel technologies all litter the landscape of the White House’s failed energy policy.

While such Progressive measures may theoretically promote development of green energies, they dictate a highly impatient, frantic pace that is further crippling an already fragile American economy. They force the issue at the worst possible time, in the middle of a recovery resistant recession that is quite possibly teetering on the brink of a full-blown depression.

America’s economic infrastructure is based on the use of petroleum, natural gas and coal, as well as limited nuclear power. Nearly every vehicle that is driven on American roads burns gasoline or diesel fuel. Public transportation relies on fossil fuels as well. Natural gas, heating oil and coal are used in furnaces to heat homes and places of business. Coal and nuclear power generate electricity, which powers countless devices; the uses of which are taken for granted every day. Coal, natural gas and petroleum products power American’s industrial complex, the base of the economic engine.

In short, America’s economy depends heavily on existing energy. The methods of providing and consuming energy are deeply ingrained into American business, industry, home life and recreation.

Expecting to change the methods of powering a society of over 300 million people overnight is impractical. Even if it were justified, transforming a hydrocarbon-based economy to something else would take an enormous amount of money and time, far more than most of the public realizes.

Granted, some movement to “renewable” energy sources is currently taking place, but what energy is powering the manufacturing, delivery, and installation of windmills, solar panels, turbines, generators and power grid modifications needed to provide “green” energy to the public? Is it the “green” energy that is still under development? Of course not. No, the energy used to move away from oil, gas, and coal will be those traditional fuels themselves.

Why does America continue to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign energy while there is undeveloped energy in its own country? Why doesn’t America keep those billions of dollars at home, in its own cash starved economy?

At a time when millions of Americans are looking for work and its economy is starving for liquid capital, why doesn’t America take advantage of its own expansive wealth of natural resources? Why aren’t Americans drilling for oil and natural gas or digging for coal? Why aren’t people working building refineries and power plants? Why aren’t people delivering gas, coal and natural gas to consumers? How many peripheral jobs would be created in the process? For every new oil well, power plant, refinery, and mine there will be new roads, followed by restaurants, stores, housing, and other infrastructure. All generated by the only force capable of powering America’s economic recovery: the private sector.

In the interest of national security and job creation, America should put Americans back to work delivering American energy to Americans. This is the best way to become energy independent. Forcing “green energy” on America overnight will only lead to more economic destruction.

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Michael Fell is a former MCA recording artist from the seminal punk rock era who toured America from coast to coast. Today, he’s a leading voice in the L.A. Tea Party movement, active since the February 2009 inception. Mr. Fell currently chairs the Westwood Tea Party, is a founding member of the L.A. Metro Tea Party Coalition, serves as the Vice Chairman of the Westside Republicans Club in L.A. CA, and is an elected Republican delegate to the L.A. 47th AD Central Committee. He’s been Campaign Manager for a primary winning Congressional candidate, as well as Santa Monica and L.A. City Council candidates. Mr. Fell is a contributing writer for https://conservativedailynews.com/, https://rightwingnews.com/, https://www.hollywoodrepublican.net/, https://beforeitsnews.com, https://www.redcounty.com/, https://www.uspatriotpac.com and, https://westsiderepublicans.com/. His opinions on today’s news events and political climate can be found on his blog: https://mjfellright.wordpress.com/

Photo credit: Chimpanz APe