Photo Credit: Grant Hindsley AP
The national average price was $2.60 a gallon Friday, the lowest since Dec. 27, 2009, auto group AAA said.
“There is no end in sight to lower gas prices as crude oil continues to fall sharply,” AAA spokesman Michael Green said in a statement.
The group had predicted that the price of gas would hit $2.50 a gallon by Christmas, but Green said that is now likely even sooner.
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Photo Credit: AP
An oil industry study says the proposed rule being unveiled Friday by the administration could increase gasoline prices by 6 cents to 9 cents a gallon. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates an increase of less than a penny and an additional $130 to the cost of a vehicle in 2025.
The EPA is quick to add that the change aimed at cleaning up gasoline and automobile emissions would yield billions of dollars in health benefits by 2030 by slashing smog- and soot-forming pollution. Still, the oil industry, Republicans and some Democrats have pressed the EPA to delay the rule, citing higher costs.
Environmentalists hailed the proposal as potentially the most significant in President Barack Obama’s second term. 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. For states, the regulation would make it easier to comply with health-based standards for the main ingredient in smog and soot. For automakers, the regulation allows them to sell the same autos in all 50 states.
The Obama administration already has moved to clean up motor vehicles by adopting rules that will double fuel efficiency and putting in place the first standards to reduce the pollution from cars and trucks blamed for global warming.
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Beneath the campaign rhetoric emanating from the Obama White house is a stark policy reality that is harming America.
When President Obama began his term as President, the average price for a gallon of gasoline was about $1.80, today it is $4.20. Many folks don’t remember this and the Obama administration wants you to forget it.
Caged in a government report that said consumer spending was up, administration officials would want you to think it is a sign of an improving economy. But the details reveal the real reason: People are spending more on expensive gasoline.
President Obama’s energy Secretary, Steven Chu, has been quoted, he wants to see US gasoline prices equal to European levels….Interesting coming from a man who does not own a car.
In spite of the administrations crowing about oil production being up, it really is in spite of his policies. Oil companies are exploiting resources found on private and state land. While massive amounts of federal land, loaded with energy resources, are blocked from exploration by the Obama administration.
This administration has blocked efforts to bring oil in from Canada through the Keystone pipeline. As a result China is buying the oil meant to come to our country.
The coal industry, Americas main source of electrical generation, is reeling from attack after attack by this administrations “legislation through regulation.” Due to the EPA, coal operations are laying off workers and declaring bankruptcy, in a time when every domestic job is precious.
President Obama previously vowed he would bankrupt any coal fired power plant that attempted to be built in our country. He also said this would necessarily make our utility rates skyrocket. Yes he said that.
Folks with a lot of money can afford to pay more to fuel up their cars with expensive gas, or pay hundreds of dollars a month to pay their utility bills to heat and light up their homes. But the poor and middle class are already on the edge and every penny increase in the cost of energy to them, might mean a decision as to whether to put food on their table or put gas in their car.
The suffering caused to Americans is barely getting any attention in the main stream media as we approach the November elections. Higher energy costs affect everything we rely on to live: Food, shelter and clothing.
The driving force behind the Obama administrations war on fossil energy, is that the use of it is causing “climate change,” and poisoning the earth….it must be stopped. The environmental industry, which puts mankind’s needs very low on the totem pole of priorities, has the Presidents ear and donates millions of dollars to his re-election effort. So no one expects any changes in the Whitehouse policy if he gets a 2nd term.
But most of the high profile environmentalists and the politicians they support, don’t mind having one way conversations regarding their views and promoting their science in their quest to destroy our fossil fuel industries. But most shy away from a real debate…Have you ever heard Al Gore actually debate a knowledgeable expert and have to defend his “earth has a fever”views? I haven’t. I also haven’t heard any of the other high profile environmentalists defend their positions in a public debate setting, where they actually have to answer tough questions….But that is about to change
In late July, environmentalist icon Bill McKibben–a man who has been instrumental in crippling the coal industry and stopping the Keystone XL pipeline–announced his intention to create a movement to demonize and dismantle the fossil fuel industry. The industry, he declared, is “Public Enemy Number One.”
But Alex Epstein, the founder of Center for Industrial Progress and pioneer of the powerful environmental case for fossil fuels, challenged McKibben to a public debate: “Are fossil fuels a risk to the planet or do fossil fuels improve the planet?”
This debate will be held November 5 at Duke University. It is in a public setting and will have major attention from all corners of the world. A showdown between the environmental industry and the very energy industry it has been trying to destroy. There will be no place to run and no place to hide.
Here is the website that will give you the details and an accompanying video: Debate McKibben vs. Epstein.
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Ed Farnan’s articles are also carried in:
Irish Central
Energy independence-Politics & More
Carrollstandard.com
Tea Party Cheer
Tea Party Patriots
AMAC
Photo credit: Spencer T.
The defibrillator is the abolishment of the ethanol mandate!
President Reagan abolished oil price controls with an executive order, so don’t tell me Obama could not abolish the ethanol mandate instantly tomorrow.
He won’t, so pressure must be put on Democrats with Tea Party public education of the public about the ethanol mandate problem to result in a ground root’s demand for its abolishment.
The GOP isn’t going to do it. It is not even aware of the problem. Romney could make abandonment of the ethanol mandate a persuasive part of his campaign, but he won’t since it is impossible for anyone to communicate with his campaign about it.
The Tea Party is the only hope 49 days before the election. The Tea Party can get it done if Romney is elected.
Please don’t put abolishment of the ethanol mandate in a list of things to do in the future!
The biggest problem in America is the economy. The biggest problem in the American economy is the oil policy. Foreign oil imports affect jobs, income, tax revenue, debt, gasoline prices, imbalance of payments, and our national security, not to mention wars in the Middle East. On the individual economic level, gasoline prices affect Americans the most.
Gasoline prices can and should be lowered in two ways, immediately and long range. Gasoline prices can be lowered immediately by simply abolishing the ethanol mandate which requires that ethanol be blended with gasoline at the pump. This would eliminate the millions of dollars in waivers which refineries are required to purchase because there is no cellulosic ethanol production, thereby decreasing the price of gasoline.
Besides immediately lowering the price per gallon of gasoline, abolishing the ethanol mandate would also allow Americans to be able to go much farther on a gallon of gasoline, thereby lowering the cost per mile traveled.
Americans would get an extra 125 billion miles of free travel annually due to the poor mileage from ethanol. In 2011, the US consumed 134 billion gallons of gasoline and 13.9 billion gallons of ethanol for a total of 147.9 billion gallons of fuel with an average blend of about 10% ethanol. The 13.9 billion gallons of ethanol had 1,056 trillion BTUs. The same amount of gasoline would have 1,727 trillion BTUs. The ethanol had 671 trillion BTUs less energy than gasoline. It takes an average of 5,354 BTUs of energy for a vehicle to travel one mile. Thus, Americans could travel free for an extra 125 billion miles annually if the mandate to blend ethanol with gasoline was abolished so that gasoline would replaced ethanol.
There is yet another benefit from abolishing the ethanol mandate. It would prevent 4.2 million tons of additional carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere annually since using ethanol emits more carbon dioxide into the air than using gasoline. There are 0.99 pounds of additional carbon dioxide emitted from each 1.635 gallons of ethanol. Thus, one gallon of ethanol emits an additional 0.60366 pounds of carbon dioxide. Ethanol production last year was 13,900 million gallons. There were 4.2 million tons of additional carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere last year due to the use of gasoline-blended-with-ethanol rather than the use of gasoline. Such unnecessary emissions of carbon dioxide into the air should be stopped.
It is impossible for ethanol to ever replace oil. Last year’s ethanol production of 331 million barrels was only 6% of the US oil demand of 5.3 billion barrels annually. Ethanol is a disastrous folly, and the ethanol mandate should be abolished immediately.
The long range lowering of gasoline prices can and should be done by replacing foreign oil imports with US oil production. Historically, the price of US oil has been lower than the price of foreign oil. During the week ending November 11, 2011, US crude oil was $6.47 per barrel less than foreign OPEC crude oil at the “World Crude Oil Prices” website of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration. Foreign oil imports were 3.4 billion barrels annually. The estimated savings to Americans, if US oil replaced foreign oil imports would be over $21 billion. Unfortunately for transparency, the “World Crude Oil Prices” website went blank after that week in November 2011, a year before the presidential election.
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Sel Graham, West Point ’51, is the author of Why Your Gasoline Prices Are High.