A Policy Sure to Impoverish Us All - Obama Hates Oil/America

Why does Obama hate oil so much? Why Why Why? Could it be that oil and all the products that are derived from it represents American freedom to travel and ingenuity? Could it be that Obama resents American freedom and ingenuity...our can do spirit? What else can one make of this administration's utter disregard for the fact that America needs oil to function and that we have abundant oil and that we need to drill for it. Ask yourself what it accomplishes. Only one thing - to make us impoverished and to force us to downscale our lives as a consequence.

The day before President Obama was inaugurated, the average price of a gallon of gas was $1.83, the Heritage Foundation notes. Today it's well over $3 and on the way to $4. Prices for this February and last December were the highest ever for those months.

While we sit on abundant oil and natural gas reserves, prices at both the wellhead and the pump are rising on fears of spreading Mideast turmoil and short domestic supply. But then, maybe that's the plan.

The silver lining for this administration in the gathering storm over the Middle East may be what it's doing and may yet do to energy prices. The average price for gasoline jumped nearly 12 cents a gallon last week to $3.287, according to AAA. But at the White House, that's not necessarily bad news.

...The administration's hostility to fossil fuels is documented. Immediately on taking office, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar canceled 77 leases for oil and gas drilling in Utah. Recently, in a stunning land grab, Salazar issued an order allowing Bureau of Land Management officials to place land with "wilderness characteristics" off-limits to energy development. Some 6 million acres in energy-rich Utah would be affected...

...John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil, told Platt's Energy Week Television that Americans could be paying $5 for a gallon of gasoline by 2012 based on the uncertainty of world events, the lack of domestic supply and increased worldwide demand fueled by countries like India and China.

Democrats once accused Big Oil of deliberately restricting supply to enrich itself. Now the Obama administration may be doing the same on purpose — a policy sure to impoverish us all. READ "Does Obama Want $8 Gallon Gasoline?

Oil, Gas, Coal Everywhere Around the World

...Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey concluded earlier this year that there are massive amounts of oil and natural gas in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's coast. They estimated that there could be as much as 157 billion barrels of oil in the Arctic, or nearly twice as much oil as was previously known to exist in that part of the world. The natural gas discovery is also greater than all of the previously known reserves in the Arctic.

Last year the USGS had to increase its estimate of oil reserves in the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana by 2,500%. The area is now estimated to hold more than 4 billion barrels of oil.

In Israel, experts underestimated the size of a huge natural gas discovery made in January of this year. The field is actually 16% larger than what had been estimated. Experts now claim Israel can supply itself with enough natural gas for two decades and could be an energy exporter.

In the United States, we have a 100-year supply of natural gas. Last year geologists discovered that gas reserves in the Marcellus Shale formation in Appalachia are actually 250 times larger than they estimated in 2002.

And recently, in the Gulf of Mexico, BP announced they had made a huge new discovery of oil, estimated to be as large as the biggest oil-producing spots in the Gulf, which means it could supply as much as 300,000 barrels of oil per day.

All told, there have been more than 200 new oil discoveries around the world this year alone. What these discoveries mean is our energy future does not have to be dictated by OPEC or energy taxes on American businesses. It is possible to have abundant and reliable sources of low-cost energy...READ AT IBD

Are We Entering the World of Atlas Shrugged?

Have I just walked into Ayn Rand's blockbuster novel Atlas Shrugged or what?

Go to Gerald Prante http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/23183.html to read about this idiotic bill introduced by Rep. Paul Kanjorski. The current high price of gas has led to a lot of crazy proposals from gas tax holidays to creating a tax deduction based upon energy consumption. But Rep. Paul Kanjorski's (D-PA) may top them all in terms of its stupidity. From the Times Leader, Kanjorski's plan would do the following:

• H.R. 5800 would tax industries’ windfall profits.
• The bill would set up a Reasonable Profits Board to determine when these companies’ profits are in excess, and then tax them on those windfall profits.
• As oil and gas companies’ windfall profits increase, so would the tax rate for those companies.
• Kanjorski said his legislation will encourage oil companies to lower prices to prevent them from receiving higher tax rates.

"While Hillary Clinton may have failed ECON 101 along with John McCain, it appears as if Kanjorski may been enrolled in Marxism 450 at the time. In all honesty, nationalization of the oil industry (i.e. Venezuela) may be better than Kanjorski's ridiculous proposal."

"One can make a case for taxing that portion of the return to capital that comes from economic rents, but Kanjorski has probably never even heard the term. An economist who backed such a tax would understand that such a tax is not going to lead to lower prices at the pump, just as economists are setting the record straight on the current gas tax holiday gimmick. Furthermore, the justification for taxing economic rents would apply to all sectors, not just petroleum."

So what's next? An owner of a restaurant can't make above 50,000 dollars in profit per year? Oh, I forgot that already exists with the minimum wage laws. Where are Francisco D'Anconia, Hank Reardon and John Galt when you need them?