WASHINGTON – As California gas

WASHINGTON – As California gas prices reach new highs, the state's two senators are joining other Democrats in calling on the Bush administration to tap the country's oil reserves to lower prices. ... At a Capitol Hill news conference Tuesday, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer expressed support for a resolution calling on the administration to stop sending oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Instead, the administration should siphon out 1 million barrels a day for at least 30 days, says the resolution by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "It in itself would send a strong message that we've got to stabilize and begin to reduce gas prices," Feinstein said. "I think this spike is with us for a considerable period of time." The reserve, a cache of 660 million barrels – or more than two months of imports – is in salt domes on the Gulf Coast. Some 170,000 barrels per day are now being shipped to the reserve, which was created after the 1973 oil embargo to counter supply disruptions.

{emphasis added by moi} Memo to Chuck Shumer, Dianne Fienstein and Babs Boxer From: Me Re: YOU ARE A PACK OF FLAMING IDIOTS, or GROW SOME GODDAMN BRAINS, WOULD YOU? There is a reason the word "strategic" is in the official title of the place we store all the oil. This would mean, nimrods, that there is a reason we are pumping billons of barrels into the reserve. This means OPEC cannot hold us hostage over political moves an administration might make that they disagree with. Are you getting it now? If we started emptying the reserves in a misguided effort to glut the market so gas prices would go down, that means we'd have to buy more at $41 a barrel. You would, essentially, be dooming us to more gas price increases because, of course, OPEC would take advantage of the situation. This also means you're giving OPEC leverage and honestly, do we need more of that? Learn what supply and demand means before you claim there's a problem with supply. There isn't a problem with supply. Neither has demand gone up. There's plenty o' oil. and the number of customers hasn't gone up. The problem here is terrorists. Yep those people you would like to think aren't out there, and if they are, well, they're wearing a Che T-shirt and what's not to like about that? They, and their state sponsors (who, just in case you hadn't noticed, control most of the world's supply of oil) would love nothing more than to hold us hostage by threatening to cut off the supply of the black goop. Why do you think Saudi Arabia suddenly started getting with the program in their limited way? Because they were attacked? Yeah, that had something to do with it, but it was also partially because Dubya said he was going to fill up the reserves to the brim after 9/11. The logic goes something like this: they can't blackmail us into going along with their whims if we take their means of blackmail away. It's all about "hand." You all watched Seinfeld didn't you? If you're unfamiliar with the concept, perhaps you can have one of your vast number of researchers dig up a copy for you so, like George Costanza, you can figure this one out. It's not like it's going to have a permanent effect, either. You are there to help us guide our country into the future, aren't you? Or are you only in Washington to make sure things go well in the meanwhile and the future can go hang? Just ask your beloved Bubba how well it went when he opened up the reserves. Sure there was temporary relief, but it didn't last long. His effort to allieviate our pain also put us at a disadvantage because we eventually had to fill the reserves back up. So, there's not a supply problem. There's not a demand problem. Where is the hold-up? Oil refineries. The baseline problem here is that nitwit Democrats like you scream bloody murder about oil refineries. You pay attention to all those nitwit environmentalists with their fringe "we should all be vegetarians living off the fruit of ferns" agenda, and you get all upset about oil refineries and their pollution output. This has led to fewer refineries, because the way it stands now, who in their right mind would want to own one of these things, let alone build more? They're anathema. Add in the draconian regulations you people have forced them to adhere to and you've got no incentive for anyone to the solve the problem. No one wants a refinery in their backyard and business owners know this. They stink. They're huge. They pollute. But because we don't have more refineries and because you refuse to help the ones that are operating to increase production, a bottleneck ensues. You all drive on Washington's freeways, don't you? You know what a bottleneck is, right? In the unlikely event that you all walk to work, let me explain: it's when a five lane freeway suddenly goes down to two lanes and all of that traffic that was flowing along quite nicely within five lanes, grinds to a standstill when there are only two lanes to handle it. We have plenty of oil; it should flow freely from the ground to the refineries to the pump. However, it doesn't. There is a bottleneck in the process and it occurs at the refineries. Particularly during the summertime, when stupid legislators like you have demanded that there be special, emission reducing gas sold at the pumps. The refineries can't keep up with the demand for specialized gas, hence the price of gas GOES UP. This of course doesn't mention all the friggin' gouging the oil companies are partaking in right now, but you wouldn't want to do anything about that, would you Senators Shumer, Feinstein and Boxer, because you get campaign contributions from the oil companies, too. Dubya's pockets aren't the only ones lined with petrodollars. At least he's honest about who he gets his money from---you, well, you three are a pack of hypocritical bastards, taking money with one hand while the other wags in disapproval. So, to sum up. 1. Opening the Strategic Petroleum Reserves is a bad idea because it will give OPEC more leverage that they shouldn't have and it puts us at risk. Neither will it help gas prices to go down and stay down. Temporary relief is not worth the price we would pay in the long run. 2. Fix the laws to encourage the building of more refineries, or at least make it easier for them to operate in the meantime. You're the ones who put the regulations in place, you can take them out again. 3. Realize the reason we're paying over two bucks a gallon is because of your actions. Take one for the team and shut the hell up already. You haven't a clue as to what you're talking about. Posted by Kathy at May 1, 2004 01:38 PM | TrackBack