Fill up that Tank lately? Ouch!
What Happened?
Gasoline drives US consumer prices higher
(AFP) – May 13, 2011
On a 12-month basis, the Labor Department's consumer price index was up 3.2 percent in April, the highest figure since October 2008 [...]
Gasoline prices accounted for almost half of the monthly increase, the Labor Department said. Its gasoline index increased 3.3 percent from March and was up 33.1 percent from a year ago.
Gas spending and prices by state
CNN - money - 05-13-2011
larger
Gas prices reflect the average price in each state and are updated daily from data gathered by the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. [The CNN Map is interactive.]
I thought the Bush Administration promised, more Oil than the eye could see ...
All we had to do was get rid of that terra-rist, Saddam ... and as I recall, that Mission was Accomplished, wasn't it?
Hey Oil Execs, What Happened?
How'd we get here?
With Big Oil Exec's claiming poverty economic hardship, and Average Americans pinching every dollar at the pump?
Here's cartoonist recap of our recent Energy History ... a refresher course, especially for those pundits who like re-writing it.
Source: bartcop.com
larger Source: sodahead.com
Source: martincountydemocrats.org
larger Source: thehillsbergblog.blogspot.com
Source: indexresearch.blogspot.com
Whose Oil Is It, Anyway?
by Antonia Juhasz, nytimes.com -- March 13, 2007
In March 2001, the National Energy Policy Development Group (better known as Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force), which included executives of America’s largest energy companies, recommended that the United States government support initiatives by Middle Eastern countries “to open up areas of their energy sectors to foreign investment.” One invasion and a great deal of political engineering by the Bush administration later, this is exactly what the proposed Iraq oil law would achieve. It does so to the benefit of the companies, but to the great detriment of Iraq’s economy, democracy and sovereignty.
Since the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has been aggressive in shepherding the oil law toward passage. It is one of the president’s benchmarks for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki [...]
Iraq Oil Law (2007)
wikipedia
The Iraqi government has yet to reach an agreement on the law. In June 2008, the Iraqi Oil Ministry announced plans to go ahead with small one or two year no-bid contracts to Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — once partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and smaller firms to service Iraq’s largest fields.[4]
[...]
Reduced role of state run company
The Iraq National Oil Company would have exclusive operational control of just 17 of Iraq’s 80 known oil fields. Normally countries do not have the type of exclusivity that would leave two-thirds of known and unknown fields open to foreign control. However, operational control of the fields does not mean control of the money made from them, and a percentage of the profits will be going into Iraqi tax revenue.[1][13] Iraq’s oil reserves are believed to be the second largest in the world[1] after those of Saudi Arabia.[14]
All according to Plan, eh Dick?
The Cheney Energy Task Force
Natural Resources Defense Council -- NRDC.org
In the spring of 2002, under order from a federal judge, the U.S. Department of Energy released to NRDC roughly 13,500 pages relating to previously secret proceedings of the Bush administration's energy task force. [...]
they reveal that Bush administration officials sought extensive advice from utility companies and the oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy industries, and incorporated their recommendations, often word for word, into the energy plan.
Source: dcheney.blogspot.com
For example:
Heavily Censored Energy Department Papers Show Industry is the Real Author of Administration's Energy Task Force Report
Natural Resources Defense Council -- NRDC.org -- March 27, 2002
[...] NRDC lawyers found:
-- A March 20, 2001 email from the American Petroleum Institute to an Energy Department official provided a draft Executive Order on energy. Two months later, President Bush issued Executive Order 13211, which is nearly identical in structure and impact to the API draft, and nearly verbatim in a key section.
-- In March 2001, a Southern Company lobbyist emailed a DOE official suggesting "another issue" for inclusion in the energy plan: so-called reform of the Clean Air Act and related enforcement actions. The suggestion was incorporated into the energy plan, launching the Administration's controversial effort to weaken the Clean Air Act and retreat from high-profile enforcement actions against the nation's largest polluters, including the Southern Company.
Funny how "Democracy" works sometimes, eh people?
Funny how the GOP-hopefuls would continue to leverage the "War on Terror" as a "War for Oil" ...
Trump: If We Don’t Take Iraq’s Oil, U.S. Soldiers ‘Would Have Died In Vain’
By Tanya Somanader, thinkprogress.org -- Apr 4, 2011
TRUMP: I very simply said that Iran is going to takeover Iraq, and if that’s going to happen, we should just stay there and take the oil. They want the oil, and why should we? We de-neutered Iraq, Iran is going to walk in, take it over, take over the second largest oil fields in the world. That’s going to happen. That would mean that all of those soldiers that have died and been wounded and everything else would have died in vain -- and I don’t want that to happen. I want their parents and their families to be proud.
America used to stand for something in the world ... something noble.
What is "America's standing" NOW, after a decade of chasing phantoms ... and warring with "an Idea" ...? after a decade of staking claims for sovereign resources, of other countries ...?
Well, as they say in Cartoon Land ...
Oil's Well ... that ends Well ...
isn't that right America?
... May you continue to live in Cartoonish Times ...
isn't that right Big Oil Execs?