Here we go, on the ferris wheel of price increases with regards to gasoline and heating fuel, and all other related products, as the price of a barrel of crude rises yet again to it’s highest price this year. In a land with common sense, this would mean that drilling off of our coasts would make sense especially given the lag time between beginning the process, and actually obtaining the oil.

We, however, do not live in a land with leaders who have a lick of common sense when it comes to this issue. Instead, they prefer to run around like Chicken Little, screaming at the “ecological ” damage done to the environment. Truth be told, more damage is done by the oil tankers that ship the crude from far away places, than the pipelines that the oil flows from in the Gulf of Mexico, or the Alaska pipeline.

When the price of crude fell sharply last year, most people breathed a sigh of relief,as if the crisis was behind us- not so, as this is just the deep breath before the plunge into icy water. If we do not begin to drill now, then we will continue to be reliant on the Arab world, or Chavez, both of whom are repugnant to me. It would be much better to use our own petroleum reserves while we search for an alternative that might be as long as ten years away from commercial viability.

Pump prices have been on a tear as the price of crude oil—the biggest single factor in gasoline prices—has more than doubled from a low point this spring.

On Wednesday, the national average price for regular rose a fraction of a penny to $2.63 per gallon, according to motor club AAA. That’s up 40 cents from a month ago and just over $1 since the first day of 2009. In Houston, the average edged up nearly half a penny overnight to $2.43 a gallon, and is up 34 cents from last month, AAA said.

Crude oil prices are surging as investors pour cash into commodities as a hedge against the weakening U.S. dollar. The price got another boost Wednesday as traders reacted to Energy Department data showing a higher-than-expected drop in U.S. oil inventories, a sign that supplies are tightening, demand increasing and the economy improving.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose $1.15 to $71.16 a barrel, its highest price this year.

chron.com

Oil rigs don’t just float into place and begin pumping oil,which is why we need to begin now, or we will be forever behind the curve. That might sit well with Hussein, but the rest of us, normal American people, should not get this kind of “change” in our lives. We have already suffered these Liberal fools quite enough, thank you, and we would like to begin a return to sanity. 

Part of this return would be to drill for the oil here while we figure out the best way to go. Using a shotgun approach to solve the energy crisis is counterproductive- what is needed is focus on what works. In some places, solar might work- in others, wind may do it, although I personally have my doubts about wind. 

Nuclear power should be used more for everyday residential and commercial use, and I believe that we can make coal much cleaner, but we won’t know this if we rely on people who say no- as my mother used to say, ” “Can’t” never could.” 

Total U.S. petroleum product deliveries, including gasoline, fell to their lowest point since 1998 during the first four months of the year, according to the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group in Washington. The decline came despite pump prices that hovered around $2 a gallon nationwide for most of that time.

Now, some experts fear higher pump prices will cut deeper into the pockets of Americans and prove a drag on the rebound of the U.S. economy.

“A lot of what drives the U.S. economy is consumption,” said Ken Medlock, a fellow in energy studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute. “If we’re not consuming, we’re not going to recover at the same kind of pace we would otherwise.”

“I think if we had stayed in the low $2 range, we probably would have seen much stronger demand this summer,” he said.

This week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said it expects regular-grade gasoline prices to peak in July, hitting a national average near $2.70 per gallon.

chron.com

Now, on the one hand, decreased usage means that pollution will be less, but the other side of the equation is that reduced usage means that our economic recovery will be prolonged.

The drilling off of the East and West coasts could prove a boon financially to the states, like California, and New Jersey, both of whom desperately need the money, and also the Federal government, which would make money both in the sale of the leases, and the taxes on gasoline refining and sales.

And still you have some people in these respective governments turning a blind eye to the realities of the situation. 

Are they waiting for the return of four dollar gas?