Senator Carl Levin on Oil and Gasoline Prices

[kach22i]

It's a long read, he wants to; Put a Cop on the Beat in Energy Markets.


Statement of Senator Carl Levin on Oil and Gasoline Prices: 05/12/08
http://www.carllevin.com/news/2008/05/12/statement-of-senator-carl-levin-on-oil-and-gasoline-prices/

[legion]

• Put a cop - a regulatory agency - on the beat in the energy markets to ensure these markets are free from excessive speculation and manipulation;
• Stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until prices are lower;
• Develop alternatives to fossil fuels to lessen our dependence on oil;
• Impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies that have profited from the massive price increases.

Well, he's half right. I will agree that the federal government should keep the playing field level in financial markets.

I also agree that it is dumb to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when prices are high--unless of course you expect supply disruptions and/or higher prices.

But then he veers off course.

There is no alternative to petroleum. If there was, we would be using that instead. Everything else is more expensive to produce and/or provides less energy. We are now seeing what ethanol means to the marketplace in the form of higher food prices.

And the windfall tax thing is nothing more than political posturing. He thinks we should "punish" the oil companies for making too much money. What he will do is punish end consumers as these new taxes get passed on. My blood boils when I here this ignorant populist crap dressed up as a "solution".

[widgeon13]

more gov't. bureaucracy

[The Gaijin]

It is amazing to me. Absolutely amazing to me - that a member of that select club - the US Senate - could be so ignorant of basic economics. And no, not talking about Marxism 101.

"Unless something is done to make energy more affordable".

Therein lies the crux of the problem - when it was cheap - it was too cheap realitive to evertyting else - so wasted it like it was free and increased our consumption. We drive around in Pickim-ups and Escalades and pave over farmland to have McMasions with no shade trees 30 miles from any job... GMAFB (see earlier post)

Strategic oil reserve? Every 50 cent bump in price per barrel for the past 5 years and every wimp in congress looking for a cut back.. What part of "strategic reserve" is so complicated??

Sorry folks, should have bought a Focus when you had the chance.

[widgeon13]

The strategy is, do anything, even if it is wrong. They can't make the public conserve so they want to control the price, makes them look like they are being productive. Wrong but productive.

[kach22i]

Bottom line is that Levin is from Michigan and serves it's people and it's industries (what's left of them). He has done a good job too.

He has fought regulation on fuel economy standards for light trucks (SUV's) and "Fleet Standards" as that's where the Big Three (Michigan based) were making profits over the Japanese brands. I was not "on board" with that as it only put us in the bad and foreseeable position we are in today.

He is right on regulation, but there is an opportunity to "change" the way things are done in Detroit, and he is an enabler.

[cairns]

Levin wants free markets?? Puh-leez. Let's take the four major proposals in order:

Put a cop - a regulatory agency - on the beat in the energy markets to ensure these markets are free from excessive speculation and manipulation;

More regulation will just make your taxes go up and will do nothing to stop speculation or lower prices. What do the hundreds of thousands of employees at the Department of Energy do all day anyway? I agree there should be regulation to ensure free markets- but what specifically does he propose that will not increase the number of government employees and actually ensure that the markets are any freer than they are today? And where was Mr. Freemarket Levin (and the Democratic leadership for that matter) when we were talking about trade with Columbia a few weeks ago? As I recall he was protecting his beloved unions from a free market.

Stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until prices are lower;

Uhh that's why it's called strategic. So quit thinking tactically. If we can't fill it at $4 bucks per what does that say about a real emergency? And if we're just waiting until the price of gas goes down why do we need all this other stuff?

Develop alternatives to fossil fuels......OK great... whose automakers revolutionized the industry by making small fuel efficient cars? Whose are at the forefront in developing hybrid alternatives? I don't think they're from Michigan. And what happened to the last great alternative the government so willingly subsidized, you know, ethanol? This is just more rhetorical ka-ka- too bad we can't harness Levin's hot air.

Windfall tax on oil companies. Right, let's incentivize them to make less money. Works with unions and car companies, right? No? Well oil companies are the devil. So this particular rhetorical ka-ka sounds good- oil companies aren't headquartered in his state.

Levin's just another Senate moron. Representing union morons who will be out of work because no one will want to buy gas sucking pickups and SUVs as the price of oil goes up. His overpaid constituents will be out of work and the auto companies that line his pockets might have to do something that they haven't done well for years- develop a product that the marketplace actually wants to buy.

George I can't believe you'd buy into his hype.

[nostatic]

jack the price to $10/gal and mandate minimum 40mpg for new vehicles as of 2010.

economy is gonna crash sooner or later...the sooner it does the more there will be to work with afterwards.

[Chocaholic]

Originally Posted by nostatic

jack the price to $10/gal and mandate minimum 40mpg for new vehicles as of 2010.

economy is gonna crash sooner or later...the sooner it does the more there will be to work with afterwards.

Brilliant.

[nostatic]

as smart as any other idea I've seen. Like repealing the gas tax for the summer. That's asinine.

What is wrong with a mandate of more fuel efficient vehicles? Times change. I have no doubt that carmakers can build a 40mpg car that can haul a family and their stuff.

[hytem]

I'm surprised that nothing has be done by now to put a damper on the oil futures market, which has become much too speculative for such a strategically important commodity. It reminds me of the financial market, which almost imploded because of a lack of regulation in the sub-prime mortgage industry. The price of oil right now does not have a lot to do with supply and demand. It is mainly about a weak dollar and over-speculation.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by nostatic

jack the price to $10/gal and mandate minimum 40mpg for new vehicles as of 2010.

economy is gonna crash sooner or later...the sooner it does the more there will be to work with afterwards.

IF your desire is to make us all VERY GLAD you are not in charge, you have just succeeded brilliantly.

[9dreizig]

Why not double the gas tax, then take all that money and invest in coal/gas plants.. I understand they can convert it for $55 a barrel.. the technology exists...

[Hugh R]

I'm generally not for regulations, but with the CAFE standards and stricter tail pipe emissions, cars ARE more efficient and require less tuneups than they did three decades ago. Remember when a complete tuneup, points, plugs, rotor, condensor, plug wires was every 10K miles? And cars then got like 12-14 mpg at best, and LA was absolutely choked with smog. Haven't had a Stage I smog alert in about 15 years, nor a Stage II in 25 or 30 years.

What about crash ratings, in the 60s, you had a head on with a bridge at 60 mph, you were pretty much guaranteed to be dead, now you've got a pretty good chance of survival.

[mikester]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

I'm generally not for regulations, but with the CAFE standards and stricter tail pipe emissions, cars ARE more efficient and require less tuneups than they did three decades ago. Remember when a complete tuneup, points, plugs, rotor, condensor, plug wires was every 10K miles? And cars then got like 12-14 mpg at best, and LA was absolutely choked with smog. Haven't had a Stage I smog alert in about 15 years, nor a Stage II in 25 or 30 years.

What about crash ratings, in the 60s, you had a head on with a bridge at 60 mph, you were pretty much guaranteed to be dead, now you've got a pretty good chance of survival.

Holy crap hugh - what is that sense you're talking?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Brilliant.

Actually I see some wisdom in this.

There is absolutely NOTHING sustainable about current trends in America. We consume way too much and (most importantly) there are too many of us. We either change our lifestyles to something resembling a sustanable existence by hard choices or we are forced to do it by very painful and harsh events (economic collapses/crashes, hyperinflation, runs on banks, etc.) I think these things WILL be seen in America again - soon. Maybe not next month, maybe not even next year, but if there's one thing I'm absolutely, positively convinced of, it's that America is too collectively stupid to think beyond tomorrow night's television programming.

I don't like (nor do I support) government mandates - there's too much regulation and government as it is - but I do support forward thinking. This is something that is HUGELY absent from our "culture" and is all-too-often absent from our government. On the rare occasion when we have the opportunity for it to manifest itself in either, we should perhaps not be so quick to dismiss it out of spite.

[Halm]

We have a Long Term issue and we have a Short Term issue. They may or may not have compatible answers. Here is my 2 cents worth.
If we total up the untapped, known oil fields like Alaska, off-shore, and the Bakken Formation in North Dakota, we have enough oil to substitute for imported oil for over 100 years (at the current rate). It is also known that we don’t have enough refining capacity. And of course, there is the gross underutilization of nuclear and coal. Put in place a policy that encourages drilling in these locations, building/adding refineries, and issuing licenses/permits for nuclear/coal power facilities and watch how fast OPEC increases production and drops the price of oil to under $90/barrel (the price that makes the Dakota fields profitable.

And I am not suggesting we abandon good stewardship of the environment. But these sources can be tapped and the environment maintained. We just have to put a little common sense to it. . . Something clearly missing in Washington, DC.


Now that we have bought ourselves 75-100 years to develop a real alternative to oil, we need a viable Long Term Strategy. What is it? I don’t have a clue. Anything based on electricity will require power from some source, that is where nuclear and coal come in. So maybe better battery technology? Wind, and ethanol IMHO clearly aren’t the answers. Maybe solar? At least we are not stressing the power grid with solar.

[Mule]

Originally Posted by nostatic

jack the price to $10/gal and mandate minimum 40mpg for new vehicles as of 2010.

economy is gonna crash sooner or later...the sooner it does the more there will be to work with afterwards.

And give the excess to Algore! Once again proof that while intelligence has limitations, stupidity has none. That should be the slogan of the left, "Help me kick off the total collapse of our evil economy!"

[Mule]

Originally Posted by nostatic

as smart as any other idea I've seen. Like repealing the gas tax for the summer. That's asinine.

What is wrong with a mandate of more fuel efficient vehicles? Times change. I have no doubt that carmakers can build a 40mpg car that can haul a family and their stuff.

Let me guess, you're voting for Obama?

Just a few solutions that have been ignored due to the insanity of the left. 85% of the Gulf of Mexico is "off limits." We're not drilling off Florida so now Venezuela is. Anwar has as much oil as Texas There is oil off the CA coast.

Thanks to the left, we sit here, in possession of more than enough oil to solve all our problems, but we won't touch it. Instead we have BHO telling people the solution is to confescate the money of the oil industry. Amazing!

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

I'm generally not for regulations, but with the CAFE standards and stricter tail pipe emissions, cars ARE more efficient and require less tuneups than they did three decades ago. Remember when a complete tuneup, points, plugs, rotor, condensor, plug wires was every 10K miles? And cars then got like 12-14 mpg at best, and LA was absolutely choked with smog. Haven't had a Stage I smog alert in about 15 years, nor a Stage II in 25 or 30 years.

What about crash ratings, in the 60s, you had a head on with a bridge at 60 mph, you were pretty much guaranteed to be dead, now you've got a pretty good chance of survival.

30 years ago a toyota celica cost $3500. Now it's what, about $25,000?
A fender bender that used to cost $200 to repair now totals the car.
Air bags deployed? Big $$$ or totalled.
All that safety stuff is heavy. cars are pigs, which eats gas. It used to be easier and cheaper to not hit bridges. Darwin was just doing his job.
Modern engine management works great and is a very good thing but it is EXPENSIVE compared to a carburetor.

There are no free lunches.