Why is Bush responsible for high oil prices?

I started a thread about this but I figure more people will respond with this subject title.

My friend is working for MoveOn.org calling people encouraging them to vote Kerry - I will have some questions to help him have concise arguments to the people he describes as "staunch undecideds"

was needed.

But perhaps GOP arguments are not to be used by Dems?

LOL

:-)

make an issue of it blming Clinton/Gore. W said he was in the oil bidness and would "jawbone" the Saudis.

Chimpy said oil was high and it was the responsibility of the President to speak OPEC to get them to loser prices. Interesting that only applies to Democrats.

1) Fear. The major motivator. Our Little Iraqi Vacation is anything but. Not only have our actions upset everyone in that area, we continue to fail to safeguard the pipelines. They are now down more often than before we invaded. Uncertainty is always scary, so people hedge by buying futures in a critically important sector.

2) Sudan. A disgusting failure of will and policy. 40,000 women raped last year? Corrupt gov't troops involved in mass killings? Where the hell are we? Oh, yes, we have left our foreign policy in the hands ot Shell, BP and others.

3) It is our energy policy to guaranty oil company incomes, not push alternative fuels. conservation, or even the simplest minimum MPG standards.

4) Remember those energy meetings early in this administration? Ever wonder why Cheney was so intent on keeping them secret? now we know.

5) Venezuela. Instead of making peace with a huge supplier, we make low level war. Some of our missteps (supporting, fomenting and pushing that silly revolution, for example) would be side-splitting funny, if it weren't so sad and scary.

Instability in key regions makes the oil market shaky. When companies see the supply get threatened, or when they see oil pipelines targeted, oil goes up. When the supply that we've come to depend on get compromised (bomb on a pipeline, for example), we follow supply and demand, and the price goes up.

Meanwhile, we've looked at alternative fuels how well? This is key. Even if Bush isn't 100% to blame, it's clear that cheap oil is over. Do we go the Bush route, and try to scrimp oil a tiny bit, which really does nothing to solve the supply problem? Or do we research alternative fuel, prhaps one day coming to the point where we can tell the mid-east, "No thanks.. we don't need your crude?" Kerry's proposed a Manhattan Project-sized research project for alternative fuels; he at least is recognizing the problem. Which is more than can be said for some other certain people..

Because America is borrowing astronomical sums of money to pay for Bush's war and tax cuts for the rich, the dollar is worth less than it was and buys less oil.

has caused massive instability and fear in the market.

Yes Global demand is up, but the war, and the diverted attention from issues that could lower prices have had a big impact.

the Iraq War and this is caused by Bush.

because he's in their pocket. We could have invested a lot more into alternative sources of fuel in the last 4 years...

...and therefore we can not believe anything he tells us or says he will do. Only his actions speak to us as to his real intent and regarding oil prices he has stood by and done absolutely nothing to curb the outragious profiteering that is now taking place. Nothing to conserve oil, nothing to to force more production, nothing to put pressure on OPEC to raise supplies, absolutely nothing! George Dubya is also a liar, case in point, today's NYT editorial:

<link> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/opinion/27kristof.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=

via their connections with the Saudi royals - and making sure they get as much moola as possible before they get kicked out of the WH. Just a thought.

But:

He has never proposed anything resembling a responsible energy policy. His entire policy has consisted of half-heartedly trying to get permission to drill in ANWR. He has done nothing on conservation, true research into alternative energies, automobile efficiency, mass transportation, etc.

He promised in 2000 to "jawbone" the Saudis. Instead, he's "gummed" them.

Perhaps the major reason for oil prices rising is that China has become a huge market for oil. I'm not sure anyone foresaw this happening, at least not so soon.

The fact is, oil prices are not going down, not in the near term, perhaps not ever. There's only so much oil to be drilled, and demand is rising. We're going to have to get used to paying much higher prices at the pump. Again, that may not be George W. Bush's direct fault, but he has done nothing to prepare the country for the future. Drilling in ANWR ain't gonna be enough, not nearly enough. We have to start getting ready for a future without oil.

With Saddam gone and Iraq now a free zone, things are unstable. So the guys who analyze markets look at what may happen if Saudi production gets disrupted etc.

Also, after 911, and I hate to use that, but every now and then I like to imagine what would have happened if the president had come on and said something like this: "I vow that this should never happen again, and towards that end I want us to be free of imported oil in 10 years. Towards that goal, I am calling for new mileage standards for all cars and SUVs, new home energy efficiency standards, and tax cuts based on energy conservation." Research, whatever, I think he could have gotten it passed through, given the nature of how this country came together...

Instead, we decided to invade Iraq, and here we are.

The other part of this is the whole peak oil, but that's even more complicated. So I can't really blame oil prices on Bush, but he's sure part of the problem, and not part of any energy solution I can envision.

that the price of gasoline will be arranged for the election?

Instability has already been mentioned, the other is currency.

Oil is priced in dollars, but is an imported world commodity. So when the dollar falls against other currencies, either the price of oil goes up or the actual value paid for it goes down. Since the latter isn't happening, the price goes up.

Massive debt, the trade deficit and anemic stock market have produced a glut of dollars in foreign hands, so our currency has fallen significantly. You've probably already got the talking points on how those things are Bush's fault.

Just turn it into an anti-Shrub talking point. "We took over the 2nd largest oil reserves in the world, and Shrub didn't bring enough soldiers to keep the pipelines flowing and prevent chaos".

Lots of people justified this shit because they want plentiful, cheap gas. These late undecideds were either pro-war or out-to-lunch so use that against them.

Go Cards!!!! Biggest World Series comeback ever!!!!

Note these are in addition to comments mentioned by others hear.

1) Bush has steadfastly refused to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

See this Op-Ed in the NYTimes by Nicholas Kristof (registration required):

<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/opinion/27kristof.html?hp>

One example is Mr. Bush's determination since 9/11 to add to the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, even though this pushes up gasoline prices. Mr. Bush's approach is foolish economically, and it is crazy politically. Yet his grim willingness to raise gas prices during his re-election campaign underscores a solidity of character and convictions.

2) His Energy policy - he fails to embrace Hybrid Technology despite the widespread demand for more fuel efficient vehicles. Instead he embraced Hydrogen technology that is 20 years away. Had Bush embraced this then companies like Toyota and Honda and the American companies may have accelerated their Hybrid production lines in anticipation of the demand for these vehicles and incentives from the government. Now the demand is high for these cars because gas prices are high and there are not enough to go around and they are prohibitively expensive for some people who can buy an economy car for cheaper. See also this article in the NYTimes:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/automobiles/27HAKI.html>

3) He wants high gas prices. This is my own theory. The amount of recoverable oil in the Arctic Wildlife refuge is based on among other things the price of oil per barrel. The 6 month supply that is quoted by many environmentalists is based on an estimated price of $24 a barrel. In other words at that price there is an estimate of the amount of "economically recoverable oil" that is equal to what the US uses in 6 months. However, at 55 dollars a barrel the amount of economically recoverable oil goes up (I don't have the figures but it may as much as triple). In addition the economic advantage of recovering oil in other places (like in shale in our National Wildernesses, off the coasts, or in wells in Texas that were tapped out) makes these areas more attractive for development as well.
This would in effect create a boom for the oil industry. Additionally it allows the president to use the price of oil and gas and it's cost to Americans as a wedge to weaken peoples support for not drilling in these areas.

If Bush gets elected again and the Senate is close to a 50/50 split I'd expect to see this be a big driving issue in the next year from the administration. Cheney already talks about ANWR in his stump speeches and how Kerry and Edwards prevented us from getting that oil.

MURDOCH THE OIL IMPERIALIST: Murdoch has acknowledged his major rationale for supporting the Iraq invasion: oil. While both American and British politicians strenuously deny the significance of oil in the war, the Guardian of London notes, "Murdoch wasn't so reticent. He believes that deposing the Iraqi leader would lead to cheaper oil." Murdoch said before the war, "The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy...would be $20 a barrel for oil. That's bigger than any tax cut in any country." He buttressed this statement when he later said, "Once is behind us, the whole world will benefit from cheaper oil which will be a bigger stimulus than anything else." ---

He said this over over one 18 months ago!!
Monday February 17, 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,897015,00.html


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, promised President Bush the Saudis would cut oil prices before November to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day, journalist Bob Woodward said in a television interview Sunday.

In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" about his new book "Plan of Attack" on the Bush administration's preparations for the Iraq war, Woodward, a senior editor at the Washington Post, said Prince Bandar pledged the Saudi's would try to fine-tune oil prices to prime the U.S. economy for the election -- a move they understood would favor Bush's re-election.

Questioned about his assertion at a time when oil prices are nearing a 13-year high, Woodward responded:

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