The Roanoke Times: RoundTable

Comments

# 1

[April 29, 2008 1:13 PM]

Henry

Jeremiah Wright spoke at the National Press Club yesterday and sent the Obama campaign into a tail spine. Guess who invited Wright to speak?

Barbara Reynolds, a former USA Today editorial board member who has written on personal blog of her support for Clinton.

Funny a Democrat would do that. CNN was blaming the Republicans for everything last night.

# 2

[April 29, 2008 8:48 PM]

Josh

George Bush is the only one talking real sense on energy today. He correctly blasted Democrats for standing in the way of ANWR drilling and building more refineries. Democrats offer absolutely no solutions on long-term lowering of gas prices.

By blaming oil companies for the high gas prices, it is clear neither Hillary nor Obama has any idea how this market works.

Hillary is probably the most offensive. She wants to "take profits from oil companies". This is pure socialism. Never mind the tax on a gallon of gas is twice the profit a refinery realizes.

Check out this vid of the smug Hillary. This is an example of why so many despise her:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1PfE9K8j0g

# 3

[April 29, 2008 9:30 PM]

Henry

How is taxing Exxon going to lower the price of a barrel of oil???

# 4

[April 30, 2008 8:26 AM]

Will

Ah....

When the oil company excutives say that there is no need to build new refineries, I'd say that Congress's position seemingly has no effect. The refineries today are only operating at about 80% to 85% capacity.

The analysts have not correctly predicted crude, gasoline and heating oil reserves in the last two years. Whether they are doing so intentionally or they are just plain stupid, their predictions have the impact of causing incredible upward swings in price but very minor down turns in price.

Get your political partisanship out of it Josh. It doesn't wash.

# 5

[April 30, 2008 9:02 AM]

Jack

It wouldn't be a benefit to individual motorists at all.

Let us consider this hypothetical...

Gas price is $3.00/gallon. The total taxes on a gallon of gas that would be exempted are 15%, or $0.45/gallon (I'm just making these numbers up).

Day before the "Gas Tax Holiday" begins: $3.00/gallon.

Day it begins: $2.55/gallon.

That's nice, right? Okay. Here's where it would go wrong.

Mr. Oil Company Executive begins to think to himself... "Yesterday, these folks were paying $3.00/gallon for gasoline. Now today it is $2.55/gallon. Hmm... If they are happy paying $3.00/gallon, why are we not charging them $0.45 more per gallon?"

Up it goes to make up the difference.

In the end, no difference to individual motorist, negative impact on government, positive impact on oil companies.

# 6

[April 30, 2008 9:16 AM]

John

I am sure the liberals would like to see the gas tax increased. Make gas and energy so expensive that the people are forced to walk, bike, or take the bus and our evil over consuming US economy and life style will be destroyed. It is not fair that we live so well and the US is single handily destroying the planet and the poor polar bears. Socialism is the only way to save us from ourselves.

# 7

[April 30, 2008 9:26 AM]

Other John

For Jack, the pricing would not work that way...there are real world examples that prove it. There was a Federal tax on airline flights that expired years ago, and many airlines suddenly saw a windfall profit on the sale of their flights. Then one airline decided, well, I can cut my prices a small amount and increase my market share over the other airlines...so they did. Then another airline saw what happened and undercut the first. It continued until the airline ticket prices fell by the exact amount of the Federal tax. And how long did it take? Days, weeks, months? No, a matter of minutes. Market competitiveness will prevent such a scenario from playing out. To be honest, my humble opinion on gas prices is that they have been too low in this country for too long. We got used to cheap oil and cheap transportation and built our country around that notion. We drive big cars or either fast or congested highways to get into the cities to work. We live in sprawling suburbs where we have to drive to do anything. Except for the folks who actually live within a dense city, we have to drive anywhere to do anything, and now we are going to be paying the price for the wasteful and innefficient planning of our cities and lives. When gs tops $5 or $6 a gallon here, I truly believe that more people will move back to the cities and start using mass transit and we'll transition to more of a European style urban model in the future. I think it may be the only way to sustain ourselves unless some great technological reform occurs to create cheap energy for our cars so we can keep driving like it's 1999 (fuel prices that is).

# 8

[April 30, 2008 9:57 AM]

Josh

Will,

If you don't think banning ANWR drilling is political, you're naive. The eco-nuts from the Left like Chuck Schumer are keeping us from drilling there.

The execs said we don't need new refineries as long as expensive ethanol is being used. We all know which side started the ethanol disaster, don't we?

# 9

[April 30, 2008 10:29 AM]

Blue John

Jack made some very good points.
I had the pleasure of spending four and a half hours on the truck route we call I-81 monday. I couldn't help but notice that the majority of the vehicles (autos and trucks) were from out of state.
I can not understand why anyone residing in Va. thinks that a fuel tax increase would be unfair. Everyone using the road would be paying for the improvements and repairs. Can there be a more equitable solution?
The Senate is in favor of a gas tax increase, while the House favors a SALES TAX increase. And of course, Morgan Griffith says he will not support ANY tax increase. Funny thing about Morgan, he is opposed to any new taxes, yet he offers no credible alternatives to solving our transportation (or any other for that matter) problems. Yet this man is considered a leader.
Only in Va.

# 10

[April 30, 2008 10:53 AM]

Blue John

Josh,

I did a little research on the ANWR, and found that the projected oil from the region would be in the neighborhood of 725,000 to 800,000 barrels per day in full production. The cost has been prohibitive until the recent price increases.
If one wishes to make this political, there have been enough moderate Republicans to prevent any bills allowing drilling in the region to pass. The laws that would need to be changed are quite restrictive, and after my research, I found that the
ANWR is not the simple solution that everyone perceives it to be.
Even the oil companies are not pushing for opening the area.

# 11

[April 30, 2008 6:47 PM]

Josh

Blue John,
Conservatives in Congress and the President have long pushed for the opening of ANWR. The consensus is that Senator Schumer's claim oil wouldn't flow for 10 years is preposterous.
But the part you're missing is it's a national security issue. Libs mouth opposition to foreign oil dependency, but when it's time to do something, well, they don't want it after all.
Still waiting to hear Democrats' solution to lowering gasoline prices.

# 12

[May 1, 2008 12:18 PM]

Will

Josh...

Your assessment of a free market economic systme is a little off the beam. If current refining capacity is only being utilized at an 80% to 85% rate, what is the incentive for a business to create more supply that would then drive down their own profits?

The oil companies are perfectly satisfied raking in billions in profits so long as they control the exploration, extraction, transportation and refining of the product. Why do you think the oil companies in the United States went bust back in the mid to late 80's? The price that the independent drillers were able to get for a barrel of crude was less than it cost to produce it.

Now that most of the large companies control the resource from the ground to your gas tank, they can control production and price.

Politics has little or nothing to do with it.