<div>US citizens, when viewed as a nation, given our large population their high rates of gasoline consumption, are among the most "gouged" by gasoline costs of any nation: </div>
<div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States</a></div>
<div>The <a title="United States" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States"><font color="#0645ad">United States</font></a> is the largest <a title="Energy development" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_development"><font color="#0645ad">energy</font></a> consumer in terms of total use, using 100 <a class="mw-redirect" title="Quad (energy)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_(energy)"><font color="#0645ad">quadrillion BTUs</font></a> (105 exajoules, or 29 <a title="Watt" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt#Petawatt"><font color="#0645ad">PWh</font></a>) in 2005. The vast majority of this energy is derived from <a title="Fossil fuel" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel"><font color="#0b0080">fossil fuels</font></a>: in 2005, it was estimated that 40% of the nation's energy came from <a title="Petroleum" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum"><font color="#0b0080">petroleum</font></a>, 23% from <a title="Coal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal"><font color="#0645ad">coal</font></a>, and 23% from <a title="Natural gas" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas"><font color="#0645ad">natural gas</font></a>. <a title="Nuclear power" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power"><font color="#0645ad">Nuclear power</font></a> supplied 8.4% and <a title="Renewable energy" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy"><font color="#0645ad">renewable energy</font></a> supplied 7.3%</div>
<div>-----------------</div>
<div>I did not agree with W. Bush very often, but in <font size="2">President Bush's State of the Union Address, </font><font size="2">January 2006, I agreed 100%:</font></div>
<div><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/31/AR2006013101468.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/31/AR2006013101468.html</a></div>
<div>"Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil...."</div>
<div>----------------</div>
<div>US gasoline price could be lowered significantly by government subsidies. Consider the gasoline price in "socialist" Venezuela and in Libya ( <span style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class="J-JK9eJ-PJVNOc"><a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/03/29/gas-prices-world-high-low-country-pain-pump/">http</a></span>://www.<span style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class="J-JK9eJ-PJVNOc">dailyfinance</span>.com/2011/03/29/gas-prices-world-high-low-country-pain-pump/ ) where gas per gallon costs are less than a gallon of oil, given world market price.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>But this approach would seem to contradict Bachman's brilliant and coherent stance on economic, political and social issues... Excuse me... Actually, if Obama was the socialist the political extremists who label him thus claim he is, it should be Obama rather than Bachman advocating government intervention in the marketplace to lower gasoline costs. Well, of course she probably meant that by getting the big bad government regulation and taxation out of the way, gas could be lowered to 2 dollars a gallon by the marketplace alone. But without subsidies, given the oil price per barrel that world markets now appear to accept as a new norm, the so called free market is unlikely to support 2 dollar a gallon gas. Maybe a massive worldwide recession/depression could lower oil price to this level.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>An interesting article on nations with very low gas prices is below:</div>
<div> </div>
<div><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Business/shocking-gas-prices-globe/story?id=13349235">http://abcnews.go.com/Business/shocking-gas-prices-globe/story?id=13349235</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div>Shocking Gas Prices Around the Globe</div>
<div>
<div class="byline">By SUSANNA KIM </div>
<div class="date">April 12, 2011 </div></div>
<div>
<p><strong>3. Libya: 52 cents a gallon</strong></p>
<p>Dewhurst said <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/libya/" target="external"><font color="#336699">Moammar Gadhafi</font></a> has had a long-standing policy during his 42 year reign of subsidizing the price of oil for its citizens. </p>
<p>"That has been his policy to keep his people reasonably content through gas prices," Dewhurst said. </p>
<p>Dewhurst said the policy is also practiced in other oil-producing countries. </p>
<p>"They subsidize the price so the gasoline sold at the pump is less than equivalent gallon of oil," Dewhurst said. "In those countries, they do it politically -- to satisfy the population so the regimes stay in power." </p>
<p><strong>4. Venezuela: 12 cents a gallon</strong> </p>
<p>While many consumers and businesses in the U.S. say high gas prices are hurting the economy, Venezuelans are concerned that gas prices are too low there: 12 cents a gallon, according to the Department of Energy. </p>
<p>Dewhurst said subsidizing gas for citizens has been a consistent policy throughout Hugo Chavez's tenure since he became president in 1999. </p>
<p>Cheap, widely-available gas domestically could reduce the oil available to the country for export, an important source of revenue in Venezuela. But citizens in Venezuela, who already suffer from high inflation, would also suffer because of higher gas prices.</p>
</div>
<div>------------------------------------------</div>
<div>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 11:37 AM, Ralph Nielsen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:nielsen@uidaho.edu">nielsen@uidaho.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br></div>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote">
<div style="WORD-WRAP: break-word">
<div>Right you are, Jay. That was why I wrote this. Don 't count on Bachmann either.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I was also pointing out that Americans have very little to complain about re gas prices when compared with most other countries.</div>
<div><br></div><font color="#888888">
<div>Ralph</div></font>
<div class="im"><br>
<div>
<div>On Aug 19, 2011, at 11:26 AM, Jay Borden wrote:</div><br>
<blockquote type="cite"><span style="TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; FONT: medium Arial; WHITE-SPACE: normal; LETTER-SPACING: normal; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); WORD-SPACING: 0px">
<div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Aside from taxes, it doesn’t matter what party is in office, they have very little (if any) control over the cost of gasoline. (Foreign wars and unrest in the middle east not withstanding). The BIG OIL companies that many on here love to bash so heavily also have very little to do with the cost of fuel at the pump. If you take a peek at their model, it’s a pretty straight-forward “cost-of-goods to produce + markup” business. Yes, a VERY BIG BUSINESS, but one that makes the profit on VOLUME, not on price gouging.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt">The two largest driving forces in the cost of oil? OPEC and taxes.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt">The government makes more in taxes on a single gallon of gasoline than the BIG OIL company that refined it and delivered it to your local gas station. (If I remember reading it correctly, this has been true for the past 25 years, with only 1 or 2 years being an exception).<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt">The other driving force, OPEC, is just unified enough to keep the supply/demand metric at a price point JUST above the break-even point for alternative forms of energy to become economically viable… and they damned well know it. (They produce something like 45% of the world’s crude oil supply… so they are the 800 pound gorilla in the market). If indicators show that suddenly a new form of wind technology or solar energy design can be made for cheaper, by some MIRACLE the cost per barrel of oil goes down just a tad. OPEC is business collusion in its WORST form.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Think about it this way: a 42-gallon “barrel” of oil sold on the market today is right around $84 (rounding to make the math easy).<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt">That means that the COST of the oil is $2 a gallon before it goes to any refining process… tack on a refining cost, tack on transportation/distribution costs and then tack on taxes… and now you’re starting to approach the current cost of a gallon of gasoline.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt">This is why I roll my eyes when morons like Bachman declare “when I’m president, I’ll return to $2.00 a gallon gasoline” [to paraphrase]… (yah, good luck with that).<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></div>
<div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Jay<u></u><u></u></span></div></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></div></div></span></blockquote>
</div><br></div></div><br>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet,<br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.<br> <a href="http://www.fsr.net/" target="_blank">http://www.fsr.net</a><br>
mailto:<a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020@moscow.com</a><br>=======================================================<br></blockquote><br>