Pumping up Prices: The Strategic Petroleum Reserve and Record Gas Prices

Pumping up Prices: The Strategic Petroleum Reserve and Record Gas Prices - Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming - 2008-04-24 - $119--a record price for a barrel of oil, reached today. $3.51--today's record price for an average gallon of gas in America. 70,000 barrels--the amount of oil the Bush administration buys daily at these record prices to continue filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). In light of all of these factors, Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming held a hearing to explore the effect of filling the reserve on the current spike in oil and gas prices and on America's economy. The hearing featured representatives from the trucking industry, which has been hit particularly hard by high gas prices, a consumer advocate who will talk about how high gas prices are hitting all drivers and families in America, and several industry analysts to discuss the policies surrounding filling the SPR. WITNESS: * Dr. Mark Cooper, Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America; * Mr. Dave Berry, Vice President, Swift Transportation Company, Inc., Chairman, Energy and Environment Policy Committee, American Trucking Association; * Mr. Frank Rusco, Acting Director, Natural Resources and Environment, GAO; * Ms. Melanie Kenderdine, Associate Director, Strategic Planning, MIT Energy Initiative; * Mr. Kevin Book, Senior Vice President, Senior Analyst, Energy Policy, Oil and Alternative Energy, Friedman, Billings, Ramsey and Company, Inc. Video provided by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• globalwarming.house.gov
• public.resource.org

[WhatTheFain]

that was a really funny and true vid you made I like it and agree! It would be cool If you can check out my vid. that would be awesome! ido vid like that too!

[AnchorageDentist]

Wow, we got some discussion on this one. What happened to the guys arm?

[buisyman]

@syyenergy7 I've never seen any indication of suppresed technology "except for maybe what Mr.Tesla had), but I've never really looked into it. If there's something being suppresed, I guess the key would be finding out why and by whom. The way things are right now, my guess for the whom would be the government. Who gets the most money from fuels? The government.

[syyenergy7]

@buisyman I know Solar is definitely not cost effective. Still I have seen too much to indicate there is suppressed technology out there. I know for a fact in the field of medicine, there are a lot of suppressed cures and treatments that cost very little. Be very wary of All the money angles. Some are not very apparent. The more I dig in, the shrewder I find that the wealthy & powerful are. Very slick & cold. Obama is just the person who is visible to us.

[buisyman]

@syyenergy7 The big problem right now is that solar panels are expensive and not cost effective. Windmills (no matter what President Obama says) aren't a new technology, they've been around for hundreds of years, we're just trying to use them differently. Obama found out when he got into the whitehouse that the technology he WANTED to use really doesn't exist, yet, if it ever will. someday, maybe we'll find it, but it won't be because he forced us to find it. It must be cost effective.

[syyenergy7]

@buisyman I'm aware. There are many, many, many things going on that most people don't fully see. Almost everything has a very shrewd financial goal. Likely there is some policy by some factions to greatly weaken the U.S. I agree also a lot of green tech is not great at all. Even electric cars, if in an accident can be an extreme fire and explosive hazard due to all the batteries. They are much more unsafe than a tank of gasoline.

[buisyman]

@syyenergy7 I have to agree with you in part here. Part of the reason the price of oil is so high is the devaluing of the USD. Another part is the Obama moratorium on drilling. it seems that, to our president, it's ok if Nicaragua and columbia drill for oil (he lent them 2 bill a peice to help them) but if we do it, it's bad for the environment. Do you know the effective life of solar panels? Not cost efective. that's why all these "green energy" companies get so much money in subsities.

[syyenergy7]

@buisyman CNG costs about $1 a gallon equivalent and is clean, plus the engines can last twice as long. Crude could be cheap, if it's weren't a racket. There is so much oil on this earth but the industry itself is tied in closely with the financial rackets (Petro dollar) that it's not going to go away easy. Oil backs the USD in effect. Not until they figure out how they could charge people money for using sunlight for solar panels, will things change much. .

[buisyman]

Opening the strategic reserves serves no purpose other than a political one. It doesn't solve the problem. Neither do electric cars, which are worse for the environment, because of the charging time. all that electricity has to come from somewhere, now doesn't it?

[buisyman]

@syyenergy7 CNG is far too dangerous. We here in Dallas had some patrol cars that used CNG. Because of a leak in the system of one of the cars, a female police officer nearly died from the fumes. What's so wrong with oil, anyway? It comes out of the ground, too, youknow.