Buck Naked Politics

Why Are Gas Prices Going Down?

by Deb Cupples |  It make no sense.  In my North Florida town, gasoline prices were in the $2.90s in April; now, gas is in the $2.70s.  What happened?

Back in 2007, gas prices were near  or above $4 a gallon nationwide.  The public-relations people paid by oil companies habitually blamed it on "supply and demand" (i.e., lower supply or higher demand automatically caused higher prices).

Fast forward to 2010: on or about April 20, a BP oil well exploded and started spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico.  Thousands of barrels of oil have been flowing into the Gulf each day, but the estimates vary.

According to McClatchy (May 19), BP's oil spill was causing a loss of about 95,000 barrels or 4 million gallons of crude oil each day.   According to the New York Times (June 10), the flow of oil into the Gulf was 25,000 to 30,000 barrels (1+ million gallons) per day.  According to the New York Times (June 15), the flow of oil was "as much as 60,000 barrels" (or 2.5 million gallons) per day.  According to Reuters, an internal BP company document states that the worst case scenario (depending on whether a piece of equipment malfunctions) is that up to 100,000 barrels (or 4.5 million gallons) of oil may flow into the Gulf.

As late as June 18, BP's own estimate was that the flow of oil into the Gulf was under 5,000 barrels per day.

Whichever estimate is more accurate, the fact remains that our nation's oil supply will decrease because of BP's massive oil spill.  Thus, according to notions of "supply and demand," oil and gas prices should be going up (even if only due to market speculators' anticipation of the decreasing supply).  Yet, gas prices in my area have been going down.

What gives?   Again, Oil company executives have habitually attributed climbing gas prices to  "supply and demand," implying that price hikes are caused by some natural force beyond their control -- the way physicists might attribute a falling satellite to gravity.

Recent declines in gas prices make one wonder whether oil companies have always been forthright about what causes gas prices to increase. 

Perhaps "supply and demand" played a significant part in some gas price fluctuations.  Perhaps a stronger factor was oil executives' fundamental desire to funnel more consumer dollars into their own pockets.

How can we know what to believe?

Jon Stewart: "Auto-Neurotic Gas Fixation"

by Damozel |  Fuel efficiency, or the lives of your family? Which is it going to be, America?  GOPpers want to know:  Don't we Americans have the right anymore to drive a gas hawg?  Meanwhile, Obama turns a simple speech on energy into the Gettysburg address!  After the jump....

Obama Picks Nobel Winner as Energy Secretary and Considers Other Key Players in the Global Warming Fight for Key Positions

by Damozel | The implications, The Washington Post suggests, are clear:  "Obama plans to make a strong push for measures to combat global warming and programs to support energy innovation."  (WaPo)  All of his picks and potential selections are tried and tested warriors in the fight against global warming and for green technologies.  

Bush Lies Low While His Administration Quietly Prepares to Inflict Even More Damage

by Blue Stockings | In the meantime, George W. Bush is still president.  But in these times of economic crisis and many little wars, where is George?  Anywhere?  Anywhere?

He's intentionally keeping out of sight, according to The New York Times---presumably because if he reminds voters of his existence, they'll never want to vote Republican again.  After all, McCain has been fighting to create and market his own "not at all like W---even nastier!" brand.

THIS JUST IN: OMG!!! Is McCain a Secret Socialist Wealth Spreader Like Sarah Palin?

by Cornertard | Oh noes! We just saw how Sarah "the Wealth Spreader" Palin REDISTRIBUTED WEALTH IN ALASKA! Et tu, John McCain?

Forgetting the massive tax cuts he's promised to allow to big corporations, he's now swearing, "When I'm President, we're not gonna let Exxon reap record profits"!  Is John McCain's "socialist" tag as applied to Obama a case of "pot meet kettle"?  See the video here!!!!!!!!!!  (Via Memeorandum, see other bloggers react to this Hallowe'en shock/horror as McCain and Palin RIP OFF THEIR MASKS!!!!)

See also: Sarah Palin: Real American or Wealth-Redistributing Possibly Communist Commissar of the People's Collective of Alaska?

Sarah Palin: Real American or Wealth-Redistributing Possibly Communist Commissar of the People's Collective of Alaska?

by Teh Nutroots | She might call Obama a socialist---but it turns out that socialism-hating real Americans who support Palin are in the tank for an ACTUAL wealth-spreading collectivist.  From The New Yorker:

For her part, Sarah Palin, who has lately taken to calling Obama “Barack the Wealth Spreader,” seems to be something of a suspect character herself. She is, at the very least, a fellow-traveller of what might be called socialism with an Alaskan face. The state that she governs has no income or sales tax. Instead, it imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields.

Palin Pal Republican Sen. Ted Stevens Convicted on all Seven Felony Counts

By Damozel |  There's a reason he's served for 40 years as Alaska's senator.

A legendary figure in Alaska politics since joining the U.S. Senate in 1968, Stevens has steered billions of dollars to the state from his seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.(Bloomberg)

Can you say "earmarks"?

Sadly--the man is 84 years old--Stevens is yet another Republican thought the laws don't apply to him.  Amazingly, it turns out that they do.

Fall-out for "The Axis of Diesel" from Falling Oil Prices---and for the Rest of the World

by Damozel | The [right wing] Times of London reports:

Together they form an “Axis of Diesel”. Buoyed by petrodollars, Russia, Iran and Venezuela hectored the West as they extended their reach abroad, backing separatists in Georgia, Islamists in the Middle East and Leftists around the world.

Now those oil-producing powers may be forced to draw in their horns as crude prices tumble. They face austerity budgets that could force them to scale back their military spending and foreign assistance even as falling oil prices fuel domestic dissent.(ToL)

You might already have noticed.  We certainly have.

Judiciary Committee Slams Mukasey for Letting Justice Dept. Apparently Protect Oil Company

 by D. Cupples |  As mentioned a few weeks ago, the inspector general at the U.S. Interior Department found that staff at Interior's Bureau of Minerals Management (BMM) employees took gifts from, had sex with, and shared illegal drugs with some of the same oil-industry folks that Interior was supposed to be regulating.

The BMM is responsible for collecting royalties from oil companies for the oil that they drill on public lands -- but the BMM has repeatedly failed (or refused) to collect all the royalties owed to us taxpayers.

In a letter yesterday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers slammed Attorney General Michael Mukasey for essentially failing to do his job by failing (or refusing) to prosecute some of the miscreants.

Energy Expert Sarah Palin, Stop Making Sense! Oh, Wait.

by Teh Nutroots |  Here is some expert wonkery from the person whom McCain said knows more about energy than anyone in the United States.

To quote Eunomia, "Fortunately she is an expert."  And you know what those wonks aer like, with the crazy expert jargon!  It's like we're being offered Boomhauer for Veep, except with less substance, or a Rorschach inkblot.

Bailouts and Stimulus Packages: Will Congress Encourage Bad Behavior?

by Deb Cupples |   An article in yesterday's The Hill begins with two very disconcerting paragraphs:

"Banking lobbyists are eyeing their own savings accounts, oil companies are pushing back on House and Senate energy plans and automakers are revving up their push for billions of dollars in a federal loan program."

Democrats Cave on Offshore Drilling after Republicans Throw Tantrum

by Deb Cupples |   A few days ago, congressional Republicans threatened to shut down the federal government (by refusing to pass major spending bills) if Democrats didn't vote to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling.  Apparently, the Republicans' tantrum-ish threats worked.  The New York Times reports:

Interior Dept. Corruption Investigation: Are Some Folks Being Protected?

 by D. Cupples | According to an inspector general's report, people working for the U.S. Department of Interior have been naughty. (B-N Politics and NY Times). For example, one Interior official arranged to give a big contract to an ex-employee to do basically the same job he'd done before he retired.

Interior employees also reportedly took gifts from, had sex with, and shared illegal drugs with some of the same oil-industry folks that Interior was supposed to be regulating.

Because sex and drugs are involved, most media are all ears.  What bothers me is what's being left out of (and assumed in) some media reports.

Scandal Unfolding at Dept of Interior: Not Just Incompetence, but Frat House Antics & Irresponsibility

by Damozel | Did you know that George W. Bush is still president?  It's true.  And his administration isn't about to let us go without more and skeevier scandals.  They'll keep on scandalizing us till the end!

George Bush's Department of the Interior, like so much else under his administration, is apparently rife with corruption.  The Inspector General of the Department, Earl E. Devaney says so. (NYT)  And it's quite the scandal.  "“A culture of ethical failure” pervades the agency, Mr. Devaney wrote in a cover memo." (NYT)  That will do nicely for the documentary miniseries on the Bush years that someone somewhere is planning.  Or, as Deb Cupples put it:

GOP Threatens to Shut Down Govt. Over Oil?

by Deb Cupples |   Many Americans oppose drilling for oil off shore, partly because a big oil spill could retard state and local economies (e.g., by damaging the seafood and tourism industries).  An oil spill could cause a lot of jobs to go poof.  A spill could also further poison our seafood and wreak havoc on the coastal environment.

Apparently, our Republican representatives in Congress don't care about the risks that offshore drilling poses to hundreds of state and local economies or to hundreds of miles of our nation's coastlines.  Congressional Quarterly reports:

Bush Turns a Press Conference on Hurricane Gustav Into a Discussion of Why We Need Offshore Drilling

by Damozel |  Hard as it is to believe, this really was supposed to be a press briefing about Hurricane Gustave. This is just amazing.  Listen to his tone when he speaks about the hurricane---he gets that out of the way with a quickness.  Then he switches to talking about offshore drilling.  Joe Scarborough takes the piss afterward, though he finds it a lot funnier than I do.  That's probably because Deb and I have been tracking the continuing stories of his failures on Katrina.   

As for Bush, he just doesn't care.  He's not even pretending. 

Harry Shearer (Songs of the Bushmen): "Addicted to Oil"

Sing along with "W."   He rocks it out of the park here:  "The problem with solutions is that they take too much toll."  Shearer makes a particularly creepy Bush---a sinister and haggard double like the picture of Dorian Gray.   (More exclusive Harry Shearer music here; see Crooks & Liars article here.)

Democrats Go Soft on Off-Shore Oil Drilling, Sending Logic on an Extended Vacation

by Deb Cupples |   For years, one of our nation's top Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, fought against offshore oil drilling because of the risks it poses to Americans' resources and health.  Many congressional Democrats recently agreed that drilling for oil off our nation's coastline 1) would not render oil for years -- thus, would not lower gas prices now; and 2) would not lower prices a significant amount in the future. 

Apparently, they didn't mean what they'd been saying, as a British newspaper points out:

McCain: Disingenuous or Oblivious?

Teh Nutroots | You can read the candidates' discussion here.  This just pisses me off:

Two Significant Defeats in Tennessee Congressional Races

by Damozel | Nikki Tinker---she of the race and/or religion-baiting ad campaign criticized by Obama--- lost to Cohen "handily," as The Politico says.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) overwhelmingly defeated attorney Nikki Tinker in a racially charged Democratic primary in Memphis that received national attention....

Entering the race, Cohen faced the challenge of being the only white congressman representing a majority African-American congressional district.... And Tinker, who is black, sought to make Cohen’s race and religion (he’s Jewish) a central part of her candidacy, airing two ads in the final week questioning his racial tolerance and religious convictions.