Lawmakers in the nation’s capital may be wringing their hands about record high gasoline prices. Others are putting their hands together ”” praying for help from a higher authority. Volunteers from a Washington, D.C., church soup kitchen launch a movement called Pray at the Pump.
Silly.
If the lawmakers want to help, they can lift the Federal tax on gasoline until Fall, for starters.
Democrats lift a tax? Are you kidding? Raise taxes, yes but not suspend them.
I thought higher gas prices will help save the planet.
Irenaeus: Right you are. Why don’t they pray for something really worth the while– like free food, booze, health care and paid vacations? Best.
I had coffee this morning with a friend who owns a small gas and oil distributorship. He says that one of the main reasons oil is so high right now is the weakness of the dollar. For years most oil transactions have been in dollars. To make the same amount they used to make when the dollar was stronger, the producers are charging more for their product. A secondary reason is speculation on the commodities market. A lot of investment money was pulled out of the various stock markets and invested in oil and commodity futures which is where the action (and money) is right now. This is also a reason why food prices are up so much. My friend said there is plenty of supply right now though there is a bottleneck caused by lack of refinery capacity in the US which has contributed to the high price of gas.
So, if we are going to pray for something, let’s pray for the government to do something to shore up the fading dollar.
the snarkster
U.S. gas taxes are not the problem.
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Richard [#5]: I’m not sure what your point is. Barring a major catastrophe, praying for lower gasoline prices this summer is like praying for relief from gravity.
In a free market, prices rise when demand increases and supply does not correspondingly increase. U.S. demand for gasoline always spikes during the summer and so does the price of gasoline. This year summer will come even as a steep rise in the global price of oil is working its way through the system.
Don’t we have more important things to pray for lower gas prices?
6. Snarkster,
You hit the nail on the head. Plus the Saudis are pumping oil out of the ground at $2 per barrel and selling it to us for $118 — pretty steep markup! A dealer at our church says he used to have $0.10 a gallon margin and send $0.05 of that to the credit card company (when gasoline was about a buck a gallon.). Now, he has a $0.20 margin and sends $0.20 to the credit card company. If he can’t make a profit on Cokes and snacks, he is out of business. And people think gas stations are getting rich. Look again, it may be the Saudis and the credit card companies.
Always enjoy your posts, best wishes.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=293842906547200
I wholeheartedly agree with praying such practical prayers. But I believe that the prayers could be more practical and concrete.
Prayers that our lawmakers would open their eyes and decrease the draconian regulations on oil refineries that would allow our free market to promptly initiate production of more oil refineries that would decrease the bottleneck in supply would be appropriate.
Prayers that our lawmakers would open their eyes and allow drilling in the Dakotas, Alaska, and off-shore would be appropriate.
Prayers that the voters would open their eyes and elect lawmakers that already have open eyes to replace those with closed eyes would be appropriate.
To whom could I send these practical prayers that would be a tad more detailed regarding the cause of high gas prices?
“One of the main reasons oil is so high right now is the weakness of the dollar” —Snarkster [#6]
Absolutely right.
Since President Bush took office in 2001, the value of the dollar has fallen:
— 73% against the value of oil (oil price is 3.7 times what it was)
— 69% against the value of gold (gold costs 3.3 times what it did)
See a pattern?
This isn’t just a matter of higher commodity prices: the dollar has fallen 41% against the euro.
Cana Anglican wrote: “You hit the nail on the head. Plus the Saudis are pumping oil out of the ground at $2 per barrel and selling it to us for $118—pretty steep markup! ”
I’m guessing you don’t earn a profit based on whatever you sell? What’s too much of a profit, and who decides who trades? 1. A willing buyer and seller. 2. Cana Anglican.
A wealthy nation means an abundance of profits determined by the free market. If you’re living in the West I’m guessing youre turning a shade hypocritical.
There is really no reason to be snide about people praying for anything. Sarah is right — we should pray with our understanding — as limited as it may be. But even if we have no understanding, God does, and He hears — our prayers, our hearts, our needs. He also answers accordingly, whether it means to accomplish shifts in the world’s economy or to enlighten an individual pray-er to change his lifestyle.
#12. Dear Martyr,
I’ve been some shade of hypocritical all my life. It’s a really bad trait and if I can find some unhypocritical folks to stone me I’ll be better off for it.
I do live in the West and enjoy the benefits of the free market system. Clearly it is the willing buyer and the willing seller who must set the price. My point was the public often rails against the gas station (owner) who is making 0% profit and forgets about the sheik who is making 6,000%. We should be more circumspect about our willingness to buy Saudi oil. All the 9-11 terrorists were either Egyptian or Saudi, and I cannot help but feel a few of the oil dollars continue to drip into terror activities.
What can we do? With a concentrated, perhaps twenty-year, effort we can free 90% of auto travel from oil. Current technology could support this using electric cars for the first 50 miles per day supplemented with petroleum-based engines only for longer ranges. Nuclear power could provide the required electricity at a fraction of the cost of today’s oil.
Will we ever have leaders who will start the long-range effort?
Parying for lower gas prices? This is so puerile, it is embarrassing even to read about it. This is the equivalent of sending $10 to some tawdry radio preacher whose prayers will put $500 in your pocket on the morrow. This cheapens prayer immeasurably. Larry
Irenaeous (11) and Larry (15): We’re on the same page. I don’t know why these people do not pray, instead, that God give them the strength, wisdom and discipline to get themselves and their families, and the nation, through the crises which seem to be coming. That was my intended point in #5, not too clearly put by my sarcasim. Best.
I would rather we go after the suppliers of the oil, and in particular, the Middle East countries. THEY buy a lot of our food, and WE buy the ONLY thing they have worth selling: OIL. Want to put pressure on them? Jack up the prices they have to pay for the food that they need but can’t grow! Sooner or later, they’ll get the message: lower your selling price for a barrel of oil, and we” lower OUR price for the food you need! Tit for tat!
Post hoc ergo propter hoc is a logical fallacy, Irenaeus (#11); it does not make a case. If you want to make a case, make it.
The suppliers are not the problem this time. The problem is that investment money has fled in to oil in incomprehensible amounts, staggerinig amounts, and this has driven the costs and will continue to do so. As usual, greed, called sound investing, will make the situation worse, and the oil companies will make the kid of profits that would put a pro-football quarterback to shame, even a blankfaced scarcely dressed celebrity to shame. Larry
Did I not read that the euro is taking a beating – for the same reason we are. A lot of realty foreclosures are causing Europe to experience the same problems we are!
Canada is our #1 supplier of foreign oil. Saudi Arabia is second and Mexico third. The United States imports roughly twice as much oil from Canada and Mexico combined as it does from Saudi Arabia. Rounding out the list of our top five sources of oil imports are Nigeria and Venezuela. The Middle East is an important source of oil for us, but we are actually making more Canadians rich that sheiks – but that’s okay since we export the NBA, Starbucks and The Simpsons back at them. And as much as we hate Hugo Chavez, we’ll still buy from him.
[url=http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html] Here’s the full list[/url]
An interesting thought: The Saudis sell us about 17% of the crude oil we import. Since we import about 60% of the oil we use, that’s only around 10% of the crude we use. If we really wanted to screw the Saudis, a 10% reduction in the amount of oil we use theoretically should be enough to let us tell them to go jump in the Gulf.
I say “theoretically” because of course we aren’t going to stop buying oil from the Saudis, nor being interested in that Middle East even if we do. Europe and Japan get much higher percentages of their oil from the Gulf region than the United States, and we can’t let their economies tank. But it really does get one thinking.
The simple truth is that we must reduce demand fast if we are to see prices go down. And many of us have been saying this for 20 years. The good news is that the technology exists now to do this, although a lot of that technology will be imported because America just did not think it was important enough to invest toward the future.
We have been driving hybrids for eight years now and have increased our fuel economy by 70%. That is the same as saying that we are using 42% less gasoline now than we would be using if we were still driving the cars we were driving eight years ago. Although, hybrids have been available for more than eight years, our Vice President back then scoffed at energy efficiency saying it was a matter of personal preference. Unfortunately, high gasoline prices hurt everyone, including those of us trying to use it more efficiently. It should not be simply a matter of preference.
I believe it is a matter of national economic security, and the attitudes of our leaders has been, simply, unacceptable. However, as Americans we also need to take action and reduce demand and stop waiting for Detroit or Washington, DC to provide the answers. Purchasing Japanese hybrids eight years ago was the best way to demonstrate a will to conserve, even as my GM and Ford Dealers were telling us we were crazy. I say it is important for all Americans to buy hybrids and other high efficiency cars and send a message to Detroit and Washington, that it had better get in tune with the economic needs of America or face extinction and/or expulsion.
You say you do not have the funds to purchase a hybrid. Buy a Prius, financed by the bank, and let the gasoline savings pay for most of the monthly payment. That is far better than driving an old in-efficient clunker.