I Told You They Were Setting Up an “EE-Ville” Wall Street Bankers/Speculators Excuse Line
…for the administration when World News Tonight ran the opening salvo the other evening. Right on cue, lookee here what I found in my inbox from my least favorite Senator on earth:
Bill Nelson
Representing FloridaDear Friends,
Gas prices most places are pushing $4 a gallon – again. And news reports say it could be $5 or more by summertime. That’s outrageous – and unjustified.
Whether it’s the continuing threat of unrest in the Middle East or the lure of quick profit, the price of oil is driven in big part by traders, speculators and, of course, fear.
There’s been unrest in the Middle East for thousands of years, as we’re seeing right now with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. Every time we’re faced with this international uncertainty, especially in the Middle East, we’re reminded why we must get off of foreign oil. Nothing’s going to eliminate the volatility in oil prices like becoming less dependent on foreign energy sources.
But we’ve also got to stop a new brand of oil trader who has emerged in the last decade, a middle man of sorts, who’s also driving up the price we pay at the pump.
Many experts agree we should not allow these traders to bid up the price of oil and flip futures contracts like condos. Yet in the last ten years the share of the oil market controlled by investors and speculators has more than doubled.
During the same time, American drivers have seen the price of gas at the pump go from about $1.56 per gallon to around $3.61 per gallon or more. By bidding up oil futures, speculators also increase costs for our airlines, industrial energy users and other businesses. And these higher costs are passed on to consumers like you and me.
Fact is, the level of speculation in today’s energy markets greatly exceeds the historic norm. If you want to know the truth, it’s partly the fault of broken-down policies from a Congress dominated by partisanship and extremism. Congress deregulated oil traders in December 2000. And it hasn’t tackled a comprehensive alternative energy policy since Nixon and Carter first talked about one in the 1970s.
Anyone can push for gas-tax holidays and the Keystone Pipeline. In fact, I support the pipeline as long as it’s in an area where it’s not as much of a threat to the entire Midwest water supply and we require that the oil stay here at home and not be sold to foreign countries.
We’ve already given the oil companies more than eight million more prime acres in which to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. Now we should curb the activities of speculators. And, in the long term, we must develop alternatives to gasoline.
I think Congress should pass legislation that aims to drastically limit the ability of speculators to artificially drive up energy prices. If this bill passes, there would be the first-ever limits on how much of the oil market speculators can control. The chief cosponsor of my bill is Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).
Plain and simple: the legislation says no single investor could hold more than 5 percent of the oil futures market, thereby greatly reducing speculators ability to manipulate prices.
Does this sound like an idea you could support? Please let me know. Also, let me know what else you think we could do to bring down gas prices.
Sincerely,
Bill Nelson
WAR in the Middle-East? Oh, gosh, things are always unsettled. Barack didn’t do that! The team is getting into position with a unified message.
There’s a question over on Instapundit which is the title of a Slate article. It asks:
Why did the Obama administration agree to a “robo-signing” settlement that barely punishes the huge banks behind the foreclosure crisis?
Glenn’s answer is “Have you looked at his donors list lately?” and that, in any other circumstances, would be the go-to assumption. I would like to posit another, more sinister reason.
It’s to keep the whipping boys under control. They are being set up to be demonized at the level of, if not worse than, bail-out time, and they need crumbs to keep them just bumping the doors in the stable out of frustration. If they protest too loudly, try to kick the doors down in rage, squawk in indignation at the brush they’re being painted with, SOMEBODY will quietly point to these “little” favors the industry owes the administration. The “look what we did for you here and this is how you treat us?” effect. Sending them whimpering about the injustice of it all back to their Aladdin’s Caves, while the gas prices tar brush flies.
Watch “The Godfather”. Same means and effect.
Life, Nanny State, People, Politics | tree hugging sister | 
February 25, 2012 10:27 am
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The weightier part of oil’s rise can be traced to two events: 1) Obama’s continued inept foreign policy and 2) the Obama administration’s policy to flood the world financial system with dollars to devalue the insane level of debt they are creating. This devalued dollar means that dollar-denominated commodities become much cheaper to traders around the world.
I’m looking for a common thread between these two reasons, call it the Unified Theory Of Boned, but I just can’t seem to find it…
Sen Bill Nelson=douche bag.
Mr. B, the common thread is that The Powers That Be are trying to divert us from miserable failures of President SCOAMF.
No doubt they hope to keep this up through the general elections, but I doubt that they can. Especially since gas prices have been about $3 a gallons for many months. And other other prices are rising to match that. Certainly the nutroot base will buy this nonsense; hopefully the independents won’t.
So your Unified Theory of Boned could read: “As long as President SCOAMF and Dhimmicrat minions are in office, we are most certainly boned.”
OK, that link got dorked up somehow. Try http://www.scoamf.com
Point the first, not a bloody thing was ‘given’. The oil companies pay for the leases.
Point the second, the oil companies – courtesy of this administration – are blocked from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. To date, there’s no indication that they’ve been repaid the money for the leases they can’t make use of.
There is no lie Democrats won’t employ in their efforts to disguise their utter incompetence.
¹ Emphasis mine.
And the EPA closes 3 refineries in the Philly area that provided 2600 jobs each.
December 22, 2011
Gasoline prices may rise above $4 next summer if three Philadelphia area refineries close, reducing capacity, said Edward Morse, New York-based head of commodities research at Citigroup.
Sunoco Inc. and ConocoPhillips have idled two plants in Marcus Hook and Trainer, and Sunoco plans to shut the Philadelphia refinery by July if a buyer isn’t found. Together, the plants account for about half of U.S. East Coast refining.
“One of the things that’s lurking in the marketplace is the consequence of this shutting in of about 700,000 barrels a day of East Coast refineries,” Morse said in a Bloomberg TV interview. – Bloomberg