Quote:
Originally Posted by Caltex
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When Clinton was in office fuel prices increase and he outhorized the releasing of some(a small amount) petroleum reserves. I traveled thru Merridiam, Ms. and fuel had increased to $1.78 a gallon. After the release prices dropped to $1.19 a gallon. I could not tell you for a fact that the decrease was because of that. I can tell you:
President Bush stated on national TV that the U.S. would never authorize realease of national petroleum oil reserves, and the price of fuel increased over night. I saw this a , in effect, signing a blank check. The reason is that we also have hugh oil supplies. We tend to buy to use other oil before ours.
My wife inherited(with 3 sisters) 3 oil well in OK. that were already leased to the federal governments oil reserve for 99 years. On a selfish side if oil became scare they could become rich.
I can tell you that the U.S. government is one of the largest consumer of oil. I can tell you that the AP reported that a member of OPEC stated that they would not increse oil production to lower the price of fuel. Over night, again, the price of fuel increased.
I can tell you that in a perfect world oil would be a traded fairly in the open market. I find it hard to believe that supporters in this theory do not believe that by holding production, even in a fair market, the price would be artificially increased. The U.S. does this all the time. Examples: Restricted the influx of goods from China, and many other things. Shrimp was being imported at cheap prices, far below market value, destroying the Louisiana Shrimp economy. The price of shrimp to the consumer was still inflated while the shrimpers were going out of business. There were restrictions put in place.
The government does many things to devalue the dollar so we can export at cheaper prices. A problem is that we then have to pay inflated prices for certain things imported. Many in the U.S. government see the allowed exploration and production from oil in Canada and the North Slope as a cure. What if it is like the oil from Alaska? What if EPA standards rule that it can't be used here. Do we sell it to Japan also? There is also the problem with a lack of petroleum plants in the U.S. and there is no remedy in sight, as far as I know, to rectify this.