Obama Will Add 9 Cents to Gas Prices

April/13/2013 8:54AM
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I don’t know why I’m writing this since not one of you will remember it when it happens. Constant meddling in the gasoline business by the government has added more to gasoline prices than crude oil cost escalations. But, does the government ever get any blame when gas prices go over $4 a gallon? No, it’s always the oil industry or crude oil price manipulation by greedy speculators.

Never ethanol, taxes, summer blends, special blends, or other government involvement. Never the lack of a Keystone Pipeline and the cost of that oil being shipped by rail in the absence of the pipeline.  Here comes another 9 cents that will soon be forgotten. The EPA is issuing a new rule requiring lower sulphur levels in gasoline. It will require $10 billion to upgrade refineries and add $2.4 billion a year in operating costs. Here’s what I truly love about these types of new regulations. The EPA says it’s the equivalent of taking 33 million cars off the road. Wouldn’t you like to have the job of the genius who did this calculation? Or this one. The EPA says it will add a penny to gasoline costs. The oil industry says a dime. Who’s right?

How many refineries will close rather than spend the money? Just like all the coal fired power plants that are closing due to the EPA. No worries, all will be replaced by clean energy.

Clean energy provided by companies like Solana. Not Solyndra, but Solana, a Spanish company that got a $1.4 bilion loan from Obama to build the second largest solar farm in the USA. Funny thing, Solana isn’t paying their contractors. Isn’t that the first sign of a pending bankruptcy? Ready to flush another billion and a half in bad DOE loans down the drain and subtract all that great solar energy that was to replace the lost coal generated electricity? See the EPA can subtract but the DOE can’t add.

California is about to learn about the EPA subtraction talent. In 2006, California passed a law that said utilities must get 20% of their power from renewables by 2010. They increased it to 33% by 2020. The law states that three-fourths must come from the state of California. Get this, in 2011 solar was 0.6% of the state’s power supply and 3% of renewables.

To comply with the law, utilities have been locking in long-term contracts at rates that are two to four times that of nonrenewables. It’s nice to know the residents already pay 25-60% more than the national average. Not satisfied, wanting to be Obama’s EPA on crack, the state has a cap and tax law in effect that jacks up rates more and has cut back conventional power production. Still not enough, 17 coastal generators are scheduled to be shut down for non-compliance with state and federal water regulations. Outages and shortages plus sky-high power prices are inevitable. Once again, the model for what not to do becomes California, except for Obama, who always uses failures for his plans. Who will get blamed when all of this happens in California, the utilities of course.

Still not done, it has been confirmed that the oil industry gets no tax breaks today. This, despite Obama contending they do for the past three years. Once that was discovered, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, wants to fix that. He wants to eliminate section 199 of the Job Creation Act of 2004 from the oil industry alone. Guess he wants to clear up the errors Obama has made when he has singled out the oil industry for tax breaks they don’t get by giving them a tax increase no one else gets.   Let’s see higher taxes, higher prices for gasoline.

You see all those midget minds in Washington DC look to California and the Post Office for ideas on how to manage energy in America. As the Iron Lady, the late Maggie Thatcher once accused a member of Parliament, “he wants to make the poor poorer just to make the rich less rich”.

That’s what’s happening here in a nutshell. Gouge those who can least afford it at the pump and on their utility bills. Just to be more like Europe and California. Take 33 million cars off the road, yes, not by lowering sulfur, but by making sure poor people can’t afford to drive.

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