OPEC president warns no end to oil price rises

[Janett_Reno]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/oilenerg...jmWmVFdn2oOrgF

OPEC president Chakib Khelil warned Sunday that oil prices will continue to rise because of the falling dollar, in an interview in the Algeria-News.

"The price of oil will rise again in the coming weeks. We have to follow the evolution of the dollar, because a one percent fall in the dollar means four dollars more on the price of oil," Khelil, who is Algeria's minister of energy and mines, told the independent daily.

"As producer countries we think that the current supply is sufficient, that this balance in supply is in everybody's interests and that it shouldn't be disturbed, because the current rise in oil prices is in nobody's interest," the head of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries stressed.

He also commented on the geopolitical effects on the price of oil, notably the crisis between Iran and the West over its nuclear programme and rejected the theory that oil cartel members were against boosting production to put a downward pressure on prices.

"I believe that 60 percent of the rise is due to the fall in the exchange rate of the dollar and to geopolitical problems, and 40 percent to the intrusion of bioethanol on the market," he said.

"I can affirm that all the (OPEC) countries are in favour of new explorations (of oil reserves), but the fact is that the embargo imposed by Libya has prevented any increase of investment in that country, just as the current embargo on Iran is stopping anyone investing there," Khelil said.

"The United States is threatening severe economic sanctions against any group which dares invest in Iran. Similarly, the war in Iraq is why investment there is weak. No OPEC country can invest in embargoed countries."

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Remember, dude and the neocons say a weak and falling dollar is very good.This way you can charge more and get those cerdit cards out but what the neocons and dude doesn't tell you, is you must pay those credit cards off sometime. Dude and the neocons tell you that the reason your gas is high is because of China and India. They tell you nothing about a big cause is the Iraq war, threats to invade Iran, embargo imposed by Libya. Now Bill Moyers does tell you who will benefit in the "no big contracts" to tap into Iraqi oil. The big 4 from the usa. Will these record profits trickle down to you, me and the working class? No. Trickle down doesn't trickle. Does this mean gas prices will go down soon? No again because we have a dunce in office that has pushed the dollar to all time lows and threatens more middle eastern countries. Are these real faith and values or is this self greed like Alan Greenspan(republican) tells us of this adm? Remember what i have been telling you, get out of debt and pay those credit cards off. Make your money work for you and don't work off other's money. Many good things are comming if you are out of debt and have cash to buy with. It is already a fully electric sports car that wil smoke a corvette and other sports cars. It runs between 200 and 250 miles before needing charged. 0 to 60 in 4 secs flat and will run about 135mph. It takes about 3 1/2 to 4 hours to fully charge. Plug it in.

The bad, it is high and has risen about 10 grand because of our falling dollar. Cheaper ones are just around the corner in the next year or two and alot less. Big oil will not listen to you untill you get off it. Ford and GM make good money off suv's and that is why they push them and it is hard hard for them to compete in a smaller car.

It is also out now where you can convert any car over from fully gas to a Hybrid Electric. The cost is about 10 grand. This in returns gets you 150 mpg. It will run on electric for about 40 to 50 miles and then the gas engine kicks in. It charges the batteries when brakes are applied, slowing down and other ways. If you have a solar panel it can charge if the sun is out. The batteries in these work untill 150 thousand miles. These are also fast cars but not like the above sportscar. This last one i am speaking of, takes about 10 to 12 hours to charge but you can run it on gas alone. It can also power and run your house with electricity for 4 to 5 days from those batteries.

So it is not good going out charging big suv's and paying interest like dude says to do now, to charge and get in debt like the neocons teach you to do. This is comming soon with many independent companies now and in the next two years and also Honda and Toyota. These independent co's are in the usa. They are not listening to big oil. As gas hit's 5.00 and 6.00 a gallon these cars are going to sell and if you are not strapped in debt, it will be a win win situation for you. Then in 5 or 6 years, big oil will lower gas prices to try to sucker you back in. Make your money work for you, not against you. Right the opposite what a neocon want's you to do.

[dude1394]

Must mean that the democrats will keep congress.

[Janett_Reno]

I feel democrats will keep congress and the senate and i feel Obama will win president. It won't be all bad dude as Hagel, Powell, Greenspan will probably be somewhere in the adm, so you can enjoy some republicans in with a democratic adm. I doubt Mitch McConnell will be in the adm as he is fighting to keep his seat in the state of Ky.

By that time dude, you might have a suv car market and advertising a $100.00 gas card to go along with them. Better times are comming.

[wmbwinn]

Although it is a very unpopular idea, I think that in the background that elevated oil prices is EXACTLY what America needs.

1)forces alternative fuel development and allows for alternative fuel to be profitable which is eventually going to be a big boom to our own economy as the fuel will come from our own economy
2)divorces or reduces our foreign reliance
3)makes the oil industry right here in North America more profitable (I for one don't find that to be a problem. It is another boom in our own economy which means more investment and more employment).
4)will create entirely new business structures such as the battery powered cars, hydrogen power, etc. These things will boom the economy as the companies and ideas come online and investments start paying off.
5)America will do a better job of working towards an economy where more energy is produced here, used here, improved here, etc. All of those things are good for our own economy.

Pain. A lot of pain in the short term.

[dude1394]

Higher gas prices are not what america needs unless you believe that the lack of industry is needed to reduce global warming.

It's not what anyone needs, the prosperity driven by relatively low priced fossil fuel is huge, absolutely huge. it's saved hundreds of millions of people by dragging them out of poverty.

Finding a way to get that fuel without importing it is also a very nice important thing. It is the lack of political will that has been going on that has caused much of this problem.

We could have been drilling everywhere, building nuclear, providing all kinds of incentives for alternative fuels (however it would have been a pipe-dream, they aren't there yet). That would have kept more dollars here.

If you are saying we should have had a 3.00 tax on gasoline, that's an argument to be made, but high oil prices isn't good for anyone. We'll see it in fertilizers, plastics, transportation, inflation almost everything.

It would have been nice(if for nothing to reduce the trade deficit) to have been creating as much energy here as possible but it wasn't done because of political reasons, not economic.

[wmbwinn]

there is no source of energy in this world that can compete with cheap oil.

Cheap oil had to disappear to allow the American economy to produce other energy sources and strategies.

[dude1394]

Originally Posted by wmbwinn

there is no source of energy in this world that can compete with cheap oil.

Cheap oil had to disappear to allow the American economy to produce other energy sources and strategies.

But it's not good that it has.

[wmbwinn]

Originally Posted by dude1394

But it's not good that it has.

You can never prove or disprove a conspiracy theory...

[DirkFTW]

Because the cure for lower gas prices is higher taxes.

Lawmakers Could Consider Gas Tax Hike, After Gas Tax Holiday Fails

WASHINGTON — The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died a quick death in Congress, losing to a view that federal excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel will have to go up if they go anywhere.

Despite calls from the presidential campaign trail for a Memorial Day-to-Labor Day tax freeze, lawmakers quickly concluded — with a prod from the construction industry — that having $9 billion less to spend on highways could create a pre-election specter of thousands of lost jobs.

Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel.

With gas prices setting records daily, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and former Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton called for a 90-day suspension of the federal fuel tax to give drivers a little relief at the pump. The fuel taxes go into the Highway Trust Fund, which is used for road construction and repair and mass transit.

Clinton suggested making up for the loss by imposing a windfall profit tax on oil companies, an idea that Republicans rejected. McCain said the money could come out of the general Treasury fund, in effect adding to the federal deficit, and is still getting mileage from the idea.

"Some economists don't think much of my gas tax holiday," he said in a speech this month. "But the American people like it, and so do small business owners."

Barack Obama, the likely Democratic nominee, opposed the idea from the beginning and the White House gave it a cold shoulder. Depriving the 52-year-old Highway Trust Fund of $9 billion at a time when it is heading into the red doomed the notion of a gas tax holiday in Congress.

The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. James Oberstar, and the chairman of the highway subcommittee, Rep. Peter DeFazio, presented fellow lawmakers with a list of how many jobs and how much money each state would lose. It ranged from $30 million and 1,000 jobs in Vermont to $664 million and 23,000 jobs in California.

"Because the trust fund is already looking at a looming shortfall, it would have moved project cancellations into the construction season," DeFazio, D-Ore., said in an interview. He said it was "highly unlikely" that oil companies would have passed savings along to consumers.

Just three years ago, that trust fund enjoyed a surplus of $10 billion. Even without a tax freeze, the fund is projected to finish 2009 with a deficit of $3 billion. That that could grow as Americans drive less and buy less gas because of higher pump prices.

The consequence is that only about $27 billion in federal money will be available next year to states and local governments for new infrastructure investment even though the current highway act calls for spending $41 billion a year. For many, the solution is to raise rather than suspend or cut federal fuel taxes, which haven't changed since 1993.

The Transportation Construction Coalition, a group of industry companies and unions, said that if Congress does not do something about the shortfall, states will lose about one-third of their road and bridge money in the budget year starting Oct. 1. That would put 485,000 more jobs at risk.

That message carried the day this summer. But now Congress has the bigger task of dealing with the short-term deficit crisis in the fund and coming up with a new spending plan, including revisiting the gas tax issue, when the current six-year, $286 billion highway-transit act expires in September 2009.

Senate Democrats in May tried to add $5 billion to an aviation overhaul bill to replenish the highway trust fund next year; Republicans objected. Democrats tried again in June, but this time for $8 billion; Republicans objected to that, too.

Congress should first reduce spending on pet projects, known as earmarks, argued Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. "I'm not going to let the Senate spend all this money when nobody is looking, especially when we refuse to stop wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on earmarks."

Oberstar, D-Minn., said his committee is working on the next long-term highway bill. He estimated it will take between $450 billion and $500 billion over six years to address safety and congestion issues with highways, bridges and transit systems.

"We'll put all things on the table," Oberstar said, but the gas tax "is the cornerstone. Nothing else will work without the underpinning of the higher user fee gas tax."

At the very least, the gas tax should be indexed to construction cost inflation, DeFazio said.

The nonpartisan National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission concluded in a report this year that the U.S. needs to spend $225 billion annually over the next 50 years to create a highway and transit system capable of sustaining strong economic growth. Current spending, at federal, state and local levels, is about $90 billion a year.

Among other revenue-raising possibilities, the commission recommended gradually increasing the current federal fuel taxes to 40 cents a gallon.

The American Road & Transportation Builders Association is calling for a 10-cent-a-gallon raise and indexing the tax to inflation. With construction costs soaring because of competition for building materials from China and other developing nations, the tax rate would have to be about 29 cents a gallon to achieve the same purchasing power as the 18.4-cent rate imposed in 1993, the association says.

Including state and local levies, people in the U.S. pay about 47 cents on average in taxes for a gallon of gasoline. Fuel in many European countries costs $8 to $9 a gallon, with half or more of that going to taxes.

Other ideas that will be on the table when lawmakers write a bill next year including more toll roads and public-private partnerships, congestion pricing and user fees where drivers pay a tax based on how many miles they drive.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,386643,00.html