Mission Half Accomplished

Joe Doakes from Como Park writes:

In 2008, Candidate Obama’s pick for Energy Czar, Steven Chu, said: “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”

On June 30, 2008, gas prices were $4.00 and Candidate Obama said: “I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment.”

On January 20, 2009, when President-Elect Obama took office, the price of gas was down to $1.84 a gallon. Going backwards, for him.

Today, in St. Paul, gas is back up to:

So have we achieved Secretary Chu and Candidate Obama’s goal?

Gas Prices in Europe are in the $9.00 per gallon range.

No, we have not achieved the President’s goals. We’re only half-way there.

At the convention, President Obama asked for more time to accomplish his goals.

It’s going to be a long four years.

Joe Doakes

Como Park

Dying to see what he does with natural gas…

25 thoughts on “Mission Half Accomplished

  1. If there are answered prayers in about 60 days we’ll come to find that Barry, Chu, and the whole lot of them have run completely out of gas!

  2. I read an interesting analysis on this. The piece noted that the spike in price is due to Hurricane Isaac (shutdown of drilling in gulf) combined with switch over to winter gas formula (refineries changing over).

    I suppose Obama is responsible for both of those events.

  3. “I suppose Obama is responsible for both of those events.”

    Why YES he and the enviro-weenies are!! Given that the refineries are forced onto small footprints in just a few areas around the country any event like weather, or fire, or whatever, shuts down a refinery and causes shortage/high demand on the system, with little redundancy to cover the outage.

  4. Oh right. Obama is the sole decider of when and where to build new refineries, and we really need to deregulate absolutely everything. To heck with a planet that the grandkids can live on. Forgot about that . . . thanks.

  5. We haven’t built a refinery in the US since 1976, Sanity. The enviroweenies won’t allow it. Every time a permit is requested, the Sierra Club unleashes a thousand attorneys to throw sand in the gears. If Obama were a real leader, he would try to muzzle some of the regs so we can get to something resembling a sane energy policy.

  6. Refining capacity has greatly increased since 1976 by adding capacity to existing refineries:

    http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/on-energy/2011/07/29/no-new-oil-refineries-since-the-1970s-but-capacity-has-grown

    “The simple truth (which may be hard to believe given that oil companies are generally looked down on), is that oil companies have been busy adding new capacity in the last decade—expansions of all sizes are underway or have recently been completed. The size of some of these expansions adds more than double the capacity of an average refinery.”

    I’ve spoken to people in the oil industry, and most say that it is more economical to expand existing refineries (as has been done, to the tune of adding capacity of 23 new refineries since 1980’s) than to build new ones in new locations.

  7. Here’s another good piece on oil refineries.

    http://www.citizen.org/cmep/article_redirect.cfm?ID=11829

    “From 1975 to 2000, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) received only one permit request for a new refinery. And in March, EPA approved Arizona Clean Fuels’ application for an air permit for a proposed refinery in Arizona. In addition, oil companies are regularly applying for – and receiving – permits to modify and expand their existing refineries”

  8. “To heck with a planet that the grandkids can live on. Forgot about that . . . thanks.”

    Sanity, you libturds are just as hypocritical about the environment as you are on everything else! You can never admit that you are all part of the problem. You just want everyone else quit polluting, quit using energy, etc. If I had my way, I would take every one of you idiots and put you on an bare island, with nothing to build a fire, fish or hunt with and see how long you last. Sheesh!

    I remember a few years ago, one of these dip sticks was espousing population control on a debate. He went apoplectic when the counterpoint person suggested that we start with his family!

    And sorry, but if I’m running an oil company, I probably choose to expand existing refineries, knowing full well that the environazis won’t allow new ones and will cost me far more money trying to get it built. Just like the Keystone pipeline crossing the aquifer. Safety measures up the yin yang, including ground liners, and they raise hell. The likelihood of a spill ever affecting said aquifer is far less than a tanker truck rolling over, a train car derailing or a tanker breaking up or running aground, but Obumbler derailed it. It’s kind of like building a lake home on most MN lakes now. Existing structures are easier to remodel regulation wise than building new.

    So please spare us your false outrage!

  9. The wife and I couldn’t help but notice while we toured the leafy, moonbat free area last weekend that the price of gasoline in our new Red White and Blue hometown of Greenville SC was considerably lower than here in the dingy, failing People’s Republic of Minnesota…as was just about everything else.

    Oops, did I say that out loud?

  10. “So please spare us your false outrage!”

    It wasn’t outrage. I was just pointing out that refinery capacity HAS increased since 1976 even though new refineries haven’t been built. The statement that was made by another poster was only part of the story. I was just trying to add clarity to the discussion by pointing out that existing refineries have been expanded.

  11. At last, an opportunity! This past spring there was a thread saying that we would have $4.00-$5.00 a gallon gas this summer. I said no way, no how. Labor Day (and summer) has passed and we (in Minnesota, home of S.I.T.D.) stayed well short of $4.00 which means we were short of $5.00. The national average also fell short of $4.00. One commentor mentioned that he was already paying $4.00, but I say that California doesn’t count.

    Not so sure about this fall but I did notice that our major automakers were making nice profits this past quarter–selling more full size pickups!

  12. We literally have no way out of our fiscal problems without engaging in a massive fossil fuel drilling frenzy.

    When gas hits $6, the poor and the middle class will be going after the Sierra Club with pitch forks and torches.

  13. We literally have no way out of our fiscal problems without engaging in a massive fossil fuel drilling frenzy.

    When gas hits $6, the poor and the middle class will be going after the Sierra Club with pitch forks and torches.

  14. “We literally have no way out of our fiscal problems without engaging in a massive fossil fuel drilling frenzy.

    When gas hits $6, the poor and the middle class will be going after the Sierra Club with pitch forks and torches.”

    That’s why Obama held the auto companies over a barrel (I know, bad pun) and forced them to do what they should have done long ago: Commit to ncreasing MPG on their product.

    By doing this we’ll keep the peak oil demon at bay (and cost per mile of transportation reasonable) a while longer. Buying time is important in the race to find alternative energy sources as the world runs out of cheap oil. Drilling isn’t the answer when the oil is harder (and therefore costs more) to recover.

    A good book about this looming crisis is “Twilight in the Desert”.

  15. Sanity, based on your remarks, I would guess that you were younger than 10 years old in 1973. That, or perhaps you didn’t notice the changes or realize the implications.

    I remember the Arab Oil Embargo. I remember sitting in one gas line with my Dad eating a sandwich for dinner so we didn’t lose our place. I got to drink a Coke from the bottle in the car, it was fun.

    Later, when I started looking for my own used car, I realized Americans hated the 1973 Ford Pinto and Chevy Vega because they royally sucked. The Toyota Corolla and Honda CVCC were more expensive but killed them on fit-and-finish and on mileage. Sure, they were dangerous tin cans; consumers were willing to trade off Safe for Cheap so they sold like crazy. Detroit had to lobby Congress to limit imports and impose safety restrictions to protect crappy American products from that dangerous, anti-social, right-wing-kook theoretical notion called Competition or Detroit would have died decades ago.

    That’s why CAFE standards and crash worthiness go hand-in-hand, it’s protectionism for Detroit, pure and simple. Else, we’d all be driving Tatas.

    Car companies begging Obama not to raise mileage and safety standards is Brer Rabbit begging Brer Fox not to throw him in the briar patch. In this analogy, you’re Brer Fox. That’s not a good place to be.
    .

  16. http://news.yahoo.com/mileage-standards-double-fuel-efficiency-160731380.html

    So . . . the tension is between competition/free market and moving toward indepedence from foreign oil. Given the turmoil in Middle East and greenhouse gas issues, I think policy should swing toward getting us off that source.

    But that’s just me. Some people think “competition” is more important.

    We’ll have to agree to disagree.

    “The administration says the latest changes will save families up to $7,400 on fuel over the life of a vehicle. The standards also are the biggest step the U.S. government has ever taken toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said. Tailpipe emissions from cars and light trucks will be halved by 2025.

    President Barack Obama said the new fuel standards “represent the single most important step” his administration has taken to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.”

  17. “Sanity” said:

    “We’ll have to agree to disagree.”

    No. Not unless we both agree that you are a hopeless President Barack Obama suck-up, no matter what the topic.

    “I suppose Obama is responsible for both of those events.”

    The President is not responsible for his own energy policy? Please.

    I read your linked articles. You call even one of them “good”? They are sprinkled “liberally” with straw men and false choices. I can see why you like them.

  18. “The administration says the latest changes will save families up to $7,400 on fuel over the life of a vehicle.”
    Two little problems. The average family CAN’T AFFORD a new car. And thanks to the brilliant Cash for Clunkers program, there’s also a shortage of used cars. It’s designed obsolescence, but the target is the Middle Class, not cars.

  19. “………. moving toward independence from foreign oil” Finally Sanity admits he agrees with Sarah Palin – Drill Baby Drill!!

  20. Took ya long enuf! Jeeze!

    Yup. Going to the Moonbat forbidden zone in the foothills of the Blue ridge Mountains. I’m adding depth to the largest concentration of engineers per capita in the US.

    Ya’ll enjoy that Dayton thing ya hear?

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