Oil Together Now

Prez candidates tout new policies to lower oil prices

Posted at 7:47 AM on 23 Jun 2008

John McCain and Barack Obama have both called for changes to national energy policy in recent days that they said would eventually help lower oil and gasoline prices. On Sunday, Obama called for closer regulation of oil speculators that have been a major force contributing to the rise in oil prices. He said his plan would close the "Enron loophole" -- a provision exempting trade in some energy commodities from government oversight, which allows speculators to run up costs. Obama also said he would work with other countries to increase regulation of their energy markets. On Monday, at a campaign stop in Fresno, Calif., McCain spoke about the need for "a swift conversion of American vehicles away from oil." He called for a federal standard requiring more flex-fuel vehicles and said that the government should offer equal support to all forms of ethanol. McCain also said that better enforcement of existing fuel-efficiency standards is needed, and suggested that the federal government offer a $300 million prize to anyone who can develop a drastically improved car battery for use with hybrids or all-electric vehicles.

sources: The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Press Association, CBS News

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Comments: (3 comments)

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Just speculating...

I've been inclined to think that blaming the price on excessive speculation is mostly rubbish, but after reading Michael Greenberger's testimony and a June 25, 2007 Senate report, I think we are probably looking at an Enron-style market fleecing. So, Obama is spot on in wanting to close that dirty little loophole.

And, for a change, at least McCain sounds reasonable following his ludicrous about-face on off-shore drilling. His surrogates say he is just supporting state's rights on the issue; but, as far as I can tell, no state 'cept Florida (and pretty much just Crist) seems to think off-shore drilling is a good idea.

by guade00 at 9:39 AM on 23 Jun 2008

Politics

We need to get away from oil all together.Yes I know that that is not totally possible,but flex-fuel vehicles,ethonol,and the majority of other vehicles on the road are still using oil.Ethonol has the added distinction of forcing up food prices and encouraging deforestation of rainforest and general farm land.The poor in third world countries are starving and don't have alot of say so on crop production and our food prices are rising also and not just because of the cost of oil,but the corn being deverted to ethonol production.

Why not ask why!?

by usandthem at 3:00 PM on 23 Jun 2008

System Working!

The system is working beautifully.

Higher prices = less consumption and search for alternatives.

Who cares if its speculators or producers? The only number that matters is at the Shell station.

Someone, somewhere is making a lot of money. And soon someone, somewhere will lose a lot of money.

The crazy thing is...life goes on. Even though we worry a bunch about "energy" and "gas" -- as a percentage of most peoples income it's pretty little.

In the end, the entire effort blinds us to searching for justice.

by jabailo at 7:07 PM on 23 Jun 2008

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