Old Weird Ward
Unless otherwise noted, that which is posted here is opinion, which is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. If you don't like my opinions, go somewhere else. Nobody is forcing you to actually read this drivel.
The presumption exists that you can read at all.
That may be a large assumption.
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Tuesday, March 30, 2004
- - - - - Politics As Usual - - - - -
The esteemed junior Senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry, chose California as the site for his latest brainwave during the Silly Season. Actually, we get a bargain because he had three at once, ain't we lucky.
While railing about high gas prices in San Diego, Kerry advocated the cessation of pumping 150,000 barrels of oil per day into the National Petroleum Reserve. The NPR, which is currently at 645 million barrels, has a capacity of 700 million barrels.
OWW's Analysis: US National consumption is at about 20 million barrels per day. 150,000 barrels is, at .75%, a drop in the bucket.
If elected, Kerry also would seek to enact a national fuel strategy aimed at reducing price disparities across the country.
OWW's Analysis: How? By making all gas taxes federal? Just by adding taxes by region? By regulating the laws of supply and demand? By gov't fiat? By the way, Kerry made this suggestion in San Diego, which has the highest gas prices in the nation, at $2.12/gallon. Note that at one time, Kerry wanted a national $.50/gallon tax on gasoline. Kerry now says he opposes such a tax increase.
Kerry also wants the US to pressure OPEC and other petroleum exporting countries to raise production so that prices will come down.
OWW's Analysis: Doable, certainly. Maybe even desirable, in the short term.
OWW's Overall Analysis: Typical campaign posturing by a politician during the Silly Season of Presidential elections. Reality is that price controls don't work very well, if at all. Nixon/Ford/Carter tried various sorts of price controls, which created a lot of confusion and futzed the economy so bad that Carter made that famous speech about the "national malaise". And, in inflation-adjusted dollars, we aren't anywhere near a record price. Tailored regional taxes on gasoline would probably equalize prices nationally, by raising the price for the majority of folks who don't live in California. Using today's dollar, motorists paid the equivalent of $2.90 a gallon in March 1981. I remember that. I also remember that at the time, I had a VW Squareback, which got excellent gas mileage, for 1981. Now, OWW drives a Saturn SL2, which gets about 30MPG, overall. Mrs. OWW drives a Saturn VUE, which gets about 20MPG. And, in SE Georgia, current price for regular unleaded is $1.58/gal at our local Texaco and Shell stations.
See the whole story HERE
- - - - - More Politics - - - - -
Wanna annoy a Democrat? Take a look HERE. Doesn't work with dial-up, but it is amusing. OWW makes no claim about the accuracy of the stats, but I do like the music.
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