Kerry Announces Plan to Control Gas Costs

This is even more bizarre than the 10 million new jobs Kerry will invent if elected!

"Kerry Announces Plan to Stop Pumping Oil Into Nation's Emergency Stockpile Until Prices Fell
The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO March 30 � Democratic candidate John Kerry said Tuesday that as president he would stop pumping oil into the nation's emergency stockpile until prices fell and would pursue new energy policies so "our young men and women will never have to fight and die for foreign oil."

"For three years, George Bush and Dick Cheney have bent over backwards to help their big contributors in the oil industry," Kerry said in a campaign statement as he prepared for a campus rally in San Diego, where prices of $2.12 per gallon of regular unleaded gasoline are the highest in the nation. "I'm going to stand up for students and middle-class families and all those who need relief at the pump."

Kerry said he would pressure the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to provide more oil, simplify rules on gas to reduce costs, and develop more energy-efficient vehicles.
"Instead of secret energy meetings and drilling in the Alaskan wilderness, we're going to have a real energy plan for America," Kerry said. "Under my plan, America will be energy independent from Mideast oil in 10 years, the fuels of the future will be less expensive, cleaner, and our young men and women will never have to fight and die for foreign oil."

Kerry called on President Bush to halt filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, which some Democrats contend drives up the cost of fuel for U.S. consumers in an already tight market with record prices."
abcnews.go.com...



[Edited on 30-3-2004 by DontTreadOnMe]

so his plan is to cut pumping oil into the emergency reserves???

questions:
How much oil is in the reserves anyway?
Have we ever used oil from the emergency reserves?
If yes, when?

i do think we should spend more money and effort in alternate fuels...but i don't know about this emergency oil reserve thing.

Yes, I remember we tapped into the at least once recently.

Eleven bidders to tap emergency oil reserves

October 4, 2000
Web posted at: 6:17 PM EDT (2217 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Energy Department announced agreements Wednesday with 11 companies and brokers to take 30 million barrels of oil from the government's emergency reserve with deliveries to be completed by the end of November.

The 11 bidders agreed to return a like amount of crude, plus a 1.56 million barrel premium, late next year. No money was exchanged.

"These companies offered the best value in terms of restocking the strategic reserve a year from now," said

Last month, President Clinton ordered the release of the oil from the federal Strategic Petroleum Reserve on the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast. Clinton said he decided on the release because of concern over tight supplies this winter and to boost the stocks of home heating oil.

robots.cnn.com...

Strategic Petroleum Reserve Inventory for March 30, 2004

Current Inventory
(sour)392.6 million bbls
(sweet)258.6 million bbls
fossil.energy.gov...

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is the world's largest supply of emergency crude oil. The federally-owned oil stocks are stored in huge underground salt caverns along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico.

Decisions to withdraw crude oil from the SPR are made by the President under the authorities of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. In the event of an energy emergency, SPR oil would be distributed by competitive sale. Although the SPR has been used for emergency purposes only once (during Operation Desert Storm in 1991), its formidable size (more than 600 million barrels) makes it a significant deterrent to oil import cutoffs and a key tool of foreign policy.

fossil.energy.gov...

[Edited on 30-3-2004 by DontTreadOnMe]

ok..so that was in 2000...i would have to assume they repaid the debt by now...it did say 1 year later.

depending on how much oil is in the reserves and how often we tap those resources...it may not be a bad idea to stop pumping oil in it, if only temporarily to give us a reprieve from the high gas prices....

I edited after you posted, with info on the resrve as of 3.04.

Actually, this is the part that confuses me the most. It doesn't seem doable. Where's the plan?
Kerry:

"Instead of secret energy meetings and drilling in the Alaskan wilderness, we're going to have a real energy plan for America," Kerry said. "Under my plan, America will be energy independent from Mideast oil in 10 years, the fuels of the future will be less expensive, cleaner, and our young men and women will never have to fight and die for foreign oil."

And, FWIW:

Current gasoline prices are at record levels in constant dollars, but not when inflation is taken into account. Using today's dollar, motorists paid the equivalent of $2.90 a gallon in March 1981, the government has said.

Gas is high, but not compared to 1981, or other countries today.

thanks for the update...umm but what does "sweet" and "sour" mean in those references?

and i do think by this summer we will be seeing high prices comparable to those of 1981.

Aaah, worldwatcher, we're both learning about oil today. I never knew what it meant:

Sweet Crude
The name given to barrels of crude oil that meet certain content requirements, such as low levels of sulfur and hydrogen.
Sweet crude future contracts are the most popular oil contracts traded on commodity markets. This type of oil is much easier to refine than sour crude.

www.taxopedia.com...

You may be right about those prices , but I just saw in one of those articles that it would probably go down before the election.

[Edited on 30-3-2004 by DontTreadOnMe]

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
You may be right about those prices , but I just saw in one of those articles that it would probably go down before the election.

[Edited on 30-3-2004 by DontTreadOnMe]

thank you for the lesson

I wonder why it would go down before elections? that seems kind of strange...especially since the Saudis are planning to cut back on production and raise prices...maybe it's a ploy for the Bush campaign?...sorry that was reach...

i think usually in the fall and winter months, gas prices traditionally drop..due to less summer travel..vacations, road trips etc.

I think that one of the best things we can do is continue to research and develop better and cleaner burning Energy sources. as well as use our own Oil sources like Alaska. And maybe not worry so much about the calving caribou, polar bears, musk oxen,
But I would not believe any thing that Kerry says he has flipped flopped all over the place on all kinds of issues. This guy will tell any one any thing to get them to vote for him! With Kerry you have to read between the lines a lot. Next week he will say the opposite of what he saying now.
President Bush knows drilling in Alaska will lessen our dependance on oil imports. This will reduce the cost of light sweet crude oil a little. ( although not much ) this will help Americans in the long run and our president knows this very well. And I have complete faith in his decisions. If we are smart we will drill get the oil protect the enviroment and make some money for further energy research at the same time.
Kerry is a pacifier he really has no clue about the energy game. President Bush has been in the oil trade all his life and knows a lot more than Kerry ever will. Kerry shoud stick to something he understands like spreading his katchup on his hamburger!!! LOL!! We could repay those reserves quick with the oil from Alaska. ANd never take a hit on it it at all. Man i hope this makes sence.

Originally posted by KillerT
President Bush has been in the oil trade all his life and knows a lot more than Kerry ever will.

And how many of his ventures were succesful?

Flip flopping again and again - when is the American public gonna get wise to this guy,

In February 2000, Kerry Said Release Of Oil From The Strategic Petroleum Reserves Would Not Be �Relevant.� �Without being specific, Kerry, a key member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, suggested the US could retaliate economically in other trade areas. He also said he does not want a release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. A release �is not relevant. It would take months for the oil to get to the market,� he said.� (Cathy Landry, �US Energy Chief Warns Of Gasoline Crisis,� Platt�s Oilgram News, 2/17/00)

Okay, this subject has got me interested. I'm wondering how much oil is used daily by us and the rest of the world, how much goes into the Reserve daily (if possible)?
If what we can figure goes into the Reserve on a regular basis is a small percentage of the world's daily consumption, we could assume that either Kerry doesn't know what he's talking about, or he's blowing smoke to get votes. If it is but a small amount of the daily usage, it would not affect the price of oil, right???

Stocks of Crude Oil and other Petroleum Products, US: (PDF)
www.eia.doe.gov...

Official Energy Statistics from the U.S. Government
www.eia.doe.gov...

This link had many graphs showing global oil cinsumption. I am assuming this is the latest data available.World Oil demand by Regio, 1980-1999

The developed economies use oil much more intensively than the developing economies, and Canada and the United States stand almost alone in their consumption of oil per capita (see graph). For instance, oil consumption in the United States and Canada equals almost 3 gallons per day per capita. (The difference is these countries' transportation sectors, with their dependence on private vehicles to travel relatively long distances.) Oil consumption in the rest of the OECD equals 1.4 gallons per day per capita. Outside of the OECD, oil consumption equals 0.2 gallons per day per capita.

Regionally, the largest consuming area remains North America (dominated by the United States), followed by Asia (with Japan the largest consumer), Europe (where consumption is more evenly spread among the nations), and then the other regions. As the regional graphs illustrate, Asia was the region with the fastest demand growth until the 1998 economic crisis in East Asia. The region's economic upheaval is a central reason for the oil price collapse of 1998.

The United States and Canada use oil more for transportation than for heat and power, but the opposite pattern holds for most of the rest of the world: most regions use more oil for heat and power than for transportation. As a result, global demand for oil is highest in the Northern Hemisphere's cold months. There is a swing of 3-4 million barrels per day (some 5 percent) between the 4th quarter of the year, when demand is highest, to the 3rd quarter, when it is lowest. (The precise amount varies from year-to-year, depending on weather, economic activity and other factors.) While the 4th quarter is not the coldest in any region, estimated demand calculations are swollen by the traditional stock building that occurs during the period.

Demand for crude oil is derived from the demand for the finished and intermediate products that can be made from it. In the short-term, however, demand for crude oil may be mismatched with the underlying demand for petroleum products. This misalignment occurs routinely as a result of stock changes: the need to build stocks to meet seasonal demand, for instance, or the desire to reduce stocks of crude oil for economic reasons. In the longer term, blending non-petroleum additives into petroleum products (such as ethanol or other oxygenating agents into gasoline) can also reduce crude oil demand relative to demand for finished products.

global oil consumption

Here's another chart:
U.S. Oil Demand by End-Use Sector, 1950-2000

I'll see what else I find later. Any help here would be appreciated

What's this junk..." I'm going to stand up for
students and middle-class families
and all those who need relief at the pump"

'standing up' means Zilch as far as policy or gas production, distribution & cost/price dymanics

? students & middle-class= sounds like pandering 2 me

~~~~~~~~~~~

years ago, during the last severe fuel/oil/gas crisis
the govt tried to control prices (& wages too)
it ammounted to a disaster

and here we go again, Kerry suggests his 'plan'
will be better than market forces of free enterprise.
and his 'plan' will be the 'majick bullit' to cure the
petroleum based economy 'ills' in only 10 years!

oh well, everything goes round in cycles, i guess
its Kerrys' turn

[although i'm still on the Nader bandwagon for 2004]



[Edited on 31-3-2004 by riffraffalunas]

Kerry talked about this exhaustively in the debates. There's a hand in hand correlation to some of his American produced corn and electric alternative initiatives and some of the thousands of jobs he wants to start in this country.

Whether you, I or Bush or Cheney like it...even whether or not we elect Kerry... this country is going HYBRID eventually.

Oil is an unreplenishable resource. Period. These nickel and dime debates always make me laugh.

Whether we adjust now or kicking and screaming later, liberal ideals on energy are the future and oil is the past. You can't deny it. You can't even make an argument against it. All Conservatives do is prolong the inevitable, making things worse and worse in the future for a few dollars today.

This isn't even so much pro-Kerry as sincere unabashed and agasp bewonderment that ANYONE would think Bush's ties to oil makes him the expert to do what's right for the country. That's insane.

Why not make a drug dealer Drug Czar? Or appoint a wife beater to head the National Organization of Women? I mean they know what they're doing? No, I guess it's more like making a bank robber head of the Treasury. If Bush isn't a conflict of interest what the hell is?

Seriously... all you "no nonsense" Kerry haters... explain that. What the hell WOULD be considered a conflict of interest if not an oil man making energy policy?

Originally posted by RANT
Whether you, I or Bush or Cheney like it...even whether or not we elect Kerry... this country is going HYBRID eventually.

Oil is an unreplenishable resource. Period. These nickel and dime debates always make me laugh.
...Whether we adjust now or kicking and screaming later, liberal ideals on energy are the future and oil is the past. You can't deny it. You can't even make an argument against it. All Conservatives do is prolong the inevitable, making things worse and worse in the future for a few dollars today......

What I find laughable (or scary, maybe) is all the gas-guzzling SUVs and their gaz-guzzling cousines that have come out since the oil crisis in the 70s and the foregn-car-crisis of the 80s.
For awhile, much was given to fuel economy cars. But, once the US started getting its car act back together, SUVs, big trucks and Hummers started selling like hot cakes.
Now, I know it can't be only repubs driving these big vehicles. So, where's the outrage?

______________
A question, Rant:
Don't you think the technology is already there, and THEY just haven't decided to implement it yet?

....and they'll hang themselves trying to be cowboys!

Why are they so ultimately unaware of the sole facet of life that rules all....timelines? The inability to grasp nuance is a hallmark trait of their president & their movement, so we shouldn't be suprised.

In the latest half truth/whole lies episode on this topic:
In February 2000, Kerry Said Release Of Oil From The Strategic Petroleum Reserves Would Not Be �Relevant.� �Without being specific, Kerry, a key member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, suggested the US could retaliate economically in other trade areas. He also said he does not want a release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. A release �is not relevant. It would take months for the oil to get to the market,� he said.� (Cathy Landry, �US Energy Chief Warns Of Gasoline Crisis,� Platt�s Oilgram News, 2/17/00)

Using timeline...BAM! Logic ensues

1) Completely different subject dealing with a tit-for-tat scenario of response to an action, AND about releasing oil for consumption from the reserves.

2) Kerry's position on this subject is crystal clear for all those without the ideology filter:
- Bring to bear the laws of supply & demand

* We buy & store 'X' number of barrels of oil for the
reserve, giving OPEC locked in profit regardless of
whether they increase or decrease supply

* Divert all oil to the market, giving the market
increased supply, thus driving down price and removing from play OPEC's ability to hamper US via production stoppages.


It really is worthwile to be rational about things once in awhile and not have 'propaganda first/logic last' all the time.

Originally posted by KillerT
I think that one of the best things we can do is continue to research and develop better and cleaner burning Energy sources. as well as use our own Oil sources like Alaska. And maybe not worry so much about the calving caribou, polar bears, musk oxen, "

So your children will drive a vehicle using technology from the 20th century and it won't cost much to fill it up, but who needs the environment huh? I hope your children aren't/won't be interested in seeing such aspects of wildlife in Alaska because they'll be gone.

Don't get me wrong, I love oil companies -- after all, my potential inheritance is 80% XOM. I just can't stand social irresponsibility either.

We need to continue pushing research and implementation of cleaner and alternative fuel vehicles. We need more gas stations to provide the alt fuel. In central NY there are four stations and only one is ethanol. Makes it kind of hard to purchase an alt fuel vehicle now doesn't it?

EDIT: I did read your first sentence and acknowledge your statement on research. I was making a point about your second sentence.

[Edited on 31-3-2004 by titian]

Democratic candidate John Kerry said Tuesday that as president he would stop pumping oil into the nation's emergency stockpile until prices fell and would pursue new energy policies so "our young men and women will never have to fight and die for foreign oil."

This is the worst it can get.

If he will stop pumping oil into reserves and drops the price then the price will stay lower for a SMALL period of time only. Because the world is has hit its oil peak and now the oil producation will soon going to decline and if there is no oil in reserves then there will be no cushion for later double high oil prices.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

For more info on peak oil read the thread link above. I have a post there that explains everything in detail.

Out,
Russian

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
______________
A question, Rant:
Don't you think the technology is already there, and THEY just haven't decided to implement it yet?

I think there's truth there. And that kind of thing is not just automakers. I've heard the majority of TV's being sold today won't work after 2007 as well (the FCC switch to all digital broadcasting).

Careful there, Bush went bankrupt (if memory serves) trying to run his own oil business. If not bankrupt, he had some serious financial difficulties with it. Does he have more experience? Maybe . . . Is his experience? Questionable. Personally I think that the fact that Kerry doesn't have any connections (that I know of) to oil indicates that he would be a better president. Maybe he woudn't be as much a slave to those interests. I wonder what other interests he would be a slave of?

-P

Originally posted by KillerT
I think that one of the best things we can do is continue to research and develop better and cleaner burning Energy sources. as well as use our own Oil sources like Alaska. And maybe not worry so much about the calving caribou, polar bears, musk oxen,
But I would not believe any thing that Kerry says he has flipped flopped all over the place on all kinds of issues. This guy will tell any one any thing to get them to vote for him! With Kerry you have to read between the lines a lot. Next week he will say the opposite of what he saying now.
President Bush knows drilling in Alaska will lessen our dependance on oil imports. This will reduce the cost of light sweet crude oil a little. ( although not much ) this will help Americans in the long run and our president knows this very well. And I have complete faith in his decisions. If we are smart we will drill get the oil protect the enviroment and make some money for further energy research at the same time.
Kerry is a pacifier he really has no clue about the energy game. President Bush has been in the oil trade all his life and knows a lot more than Kerry ever will. Kerry shoud stick to something he understands like spreading his katchup on his hamburger!!! LOL!! We could repay those reserves quick with the oil from Alaska. ANd never take a hit on it it at all. Man i hope this makes sence.