« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

Ken Salazar: No OCS drilling, even when it’s $10/gallon for gas.

This is why they hate Mitch McConnell.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  July 31st, 2008 at 06:28 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I give up. I figured that six bucks a gallon was a nice, round number with which to beat the Democrats with about the head and shoulders. Which it would be. For rational people.

But freaking ten?

(Via Hot Air)

What are you willing to bet that Senator Salazar hasn’t paid for his own gas in years? – because he certainly seems perfectly happy to make you pay more for yours.

Moe Lane

PS: They want Mitch gone, you know. Hint, hint.

PPS: Ken Salazar would purely hate it if, starting in January his colleague from Colorado was named Bob Schaffer. Hint, hint.

Tags: , , , ,

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • rj1913

    Assuming we allow new drilling, how much money will it save me at the pump at $4.50 a gallon? How about at $10? $50? When will this assumed savings take effect?

  • Jaded

    have been saving you now if Clinton hadn’t denied it 10 years ago….next question?

  • Canthros

    Actually, prices here are inflated because there’s a hot rod convention in town this weekend, so the price of gas has jumped back to $3.89/gal today, from $3.68 this morning. That’s down from $4.10-ish when President Bush started making noises about off-shore drilling.

    Just doing something to actually increase supply will drive the speculators out.

    There are monetary policies that will have more direct effect on the price of gas in the short term, once the speculators have moved on to other things, but there will be some immediate savings all the same.

    The other issue is this: if not now, when? $4.50 is too low? $10 not high enough? When does the price of gas become high enough to justify additional drilling? And, if drilling is unacceptable, what alternative do you offer? If you don’t have an answer to at least one of those last two questions, there’s no point in responding, because this conversation will go nowhere.

  • kowalski

    $10 a gallon gas within the next six months to a year equals something much worse than during the Carter years, when people just unscrewed each other’s gas caps and siphoned fuel from their neighbors gas tanks.

    I lived in New Jersey and we actually caught my next-door neighbor doing this.

    No, it’s much worse than that.

    $10 a gallon gasoline will mean, in the context of this economy right now, people blowing each other’s brains out in the middle of the street for gasoline. And just wait until the winter comes.

    Buy ammo.

  • Jaded

    nt

  • rjd27

    needs to become an RNC campaign ad – with a little clean up, of course. But: “The Democrats are willing to let YOU pay $10/gallon for gasoline because they don’t want to invest for the future.”
    Are the Liberals that tone deaf? Really? – rhetorical questions.

  • kowalski

    The price that justifies the drilling is dependent upon blood.

    If gas rises another $5-6 a gallon, the incidence of violence related to gasoline and gasoline theft will go hyperbolic very fast.

    People in this economy are already hurting and if you double their energy costs going into the winter, you’re going to see a lot of people snap. It’ll be very ugly.

  • Darin_H

    I think that’s exactly what Bob Schaffer will do! He’s already nailing U-Turn Udall with the oil shale, this is a simple question to ask, Do you agree with Salazar or not?

  • kowalski

    And I’m only half joking.

  • Joe_Schmo

    Living in Colorado I’m dealing with devote liberals on a daily basis. They are also buying into the Dem idea that it’s good for the price of gas to go up. Salazar just helped me out emensly as I’m pretty sure, even my liberal friends will cringe at $10 a gallon gas.

  • LDockside

    Can someone please explain how, when oil is sold to the highest bidder on the international market, this will bring down gas prices ten years from now. Especially since, right now we buy 25% of the gas and with China’s use increasing, almost exponentially, it will be an even smaller percentage in ten years.

    Unless the oil fields are nationalized and the oil sold exclusively in the U.S., drilling in ANWR or offshore will be like spitting in the ocean.

    Not to mention, why not drill where oil companies already have leases?

  • walter_hanson

    A couple of weeks ago didn’t Rush have a story where the members of Congress get a car allowance + a gas allowance so they don’t pay already.

    Charlie Rangel the chairman of the house and ways committee got over $700 per month to pay for his car and gas.

    They don’t care what the price is since the tax payer picks it up for them already. They don’t know our pain!

    Walter Hanson
    Minneapolis, MN

  • Moe_Lane

    Thanks for the feedback.

  • aaronbg

    n/t

  • aaronbg

    there seems to be a few of us Coloradans here at RS…I hope to put up a few good diaries on our state page soon. Our page should be hopping this year, with Udall/Schaffer, and who ever wins the CO 5th CD Republican primary on Aug 12th. I am not convinced of CO going blue this year.

  • Vegas_Rick

    What possible incentive could the “greedy oil companies” have for NOT drilling on those leases with oil at $130 a barrel?

    Come on! Let’s hear it! I am freaking sick of that idiotic mantra. Can one of you liberal fruitcakes give an explanation that is even remotely feasible? I want to hear it!

  • Moe_Lane

    Mad, you might not contemplate that the real question is not “Why must we drill?”, but “Why are you standing in the way of our drilling?”

  • Vegas_Rick

    It’s the same tactic Obama is using. It’s the same tactic the Dems always use. Most of the time I can stay focused on the issue at hand, but that is one of the most rediculous diversions they’ve come up with. Drill it or lose it? Come on.

  • kingnavland

    Not going to be that great, since this is my first time ever attempting something like this, but it’ll get the job done. Maybe the RNC can take a cue.

  • LDockside

    No response re selling on the international market to the highest bidder won’t do diddly squat to bring down gas prices if drilling offshore or in ANWR.

    Still waiting…

  • simpson316

    that increasing supply will not lower prices (or, heck, even slow the rise in price)?

  • Moe_Lane

    NT

  • Moe_Lane

    If you ignore their attempts to wrest control of the narrative, and instead just think of it in terms of amusing flailing about against the inevitable, it becomes a good deal more tolerable to witness.

  • simpson316

    Much better response than mine Moe.

  • gamecock

    very long unless it were due to war damage at refineries or fields. Even an attack on Iran, so long as Iran can’t block the strait would cause the price to stay high for more than a week or three.

    Given that the $4 point is the known tipping point in the US and that a much higher price would make sales drop dramatically, the market will force the price down to an affordable level.

  • Canthros
  • Flagstaff

    of my youth. He looks for his glasses where the light is good, not where he lost them.

    Democrats want us to drill where we know the oil isn’t, because they don’t want us to drill where it is.

  • LDockside

    If the Chinese continue to increase the demand for oil, which is certain, any additional oil on the international market which comes from the US will, at best, just keep the supply even with the demand. That’s not gonna bring down prices.

    So the price won’t go down because the demand will continue to keep them up. The only sure way to increase the supply is for nations to use less oil (conservation or develop other energy sources, in other words). Or, get the Chinese to stop increasing their demand.

  • sanrioscenario

    Listen, anybody who’s against offshore drilling clearly hasn’t thought of the countless problems that it would solve. For example,
    Problem: pollutants increase nationwide. Your kid has asthma attacks on a daily basis. On “bad air days” he can?t go outside.
    Solution: You’re going to need some cheap fuel to drive him back and forth to the hospital. Try drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge. Also, you should gut the clean air regulations. Actually, you have enough to worry about. Let us do it for you.
    See more reasons why offshore drilling will save the world: http://www.236.com/news/2008/07/30/poordepressedimpotentoffsho8035.php

  • kowalski

    That’s true enough, but people don’t have as much of an option when it comes to heating their homes, and there are a lot of people in the country who simply must drive. Particularly in exurban and rural areas of the country, gasoline at $10 a gallon would be a real hardship, particularly if the price of heating oil rose commensurately.

    I live in such a town: one stoplight, a gas station, a pizza joint and a convenience store is our “business district” and people here need to drive 15 miles to get to the nearest grocery, or the post office. You can get a good idea of people’s financial situation by watching how they pay for things like milk, bread, beer and cigarettes at the convenience store:

    For the past two months, the owner has been getting increasingly nervous because the number of people paying with change (and coming up short and leaving IOU notes) has been rising each week. They’re not paying with change because they just bought a new leather sofa and are throwing out their old cushions, either.

    The recent small break in the price of gas has been a genuinely felt relief here, small as it is. My seat-of-the-pants guess, based on watching this phenomenon and his increasing agitation, is that a lot of the people paying with change would be in big trouble if their home heating bills doubled this winter.

    And do you know who benefits from that in the Northeast? Hugo Chavez and Joseph Kennedy II, because of his Citizens Energy heating-oil company.

  • kowalski

    As an aside, I expect to see quite a few more hunters in the woods this fall than I did last year: people are hurting for money, and that means they’re going to be looking to lighten their grocery bills by bringing meat to the table the old fashioned way.

  • Moe_Lane

    Although I can’t blame you for not wanting to be too openly against poor people getting to drive, too. It is very stupid of your faction to be like that, after all.

  • Joe_Schmo

    I hope you’re right about Colorado staying Red, but I think we have our work cut out for us.

    Maybe McCain can ride the coattails of Schaffer… :)