Oil Prices Are Dropping Thanks To President Obama
Oil Prices Are Dropping Thanks To President Obama
By: Ray Medeiros
June 29, 2012
We all heard the Republicans religiously chanting that the rise is oil and gas prices was due to not drilling. Unfortunately, that is far from the truth. In fact to the dismay of many environmentalists, he is drilling for oil, even in the Arctic!
Since April oil prices are down 21% and according to Forbes, it mostly, if not all has to do with President Obama.
The Forbes article states,
President Obama’s $52 million plan to increase the margin requirements and otherwise tighten the screws on oil speculators — who borrow huge sums to bet on the direction of oil without taking delivery — would cut oil prices by 10%. He’s beaten that prediction and the lowered price of gasoline has added $78.4 billion to its consumers’ spending power.
In case you never heard about it, in April the Obama administration asked Congress to spend $52 million to regulate this speculation. According to the Washington Post, this included the following steps:
Increase by a factor of six Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) surveillance and enforcement staff “to better deter oil market manipulation,”
Boost 10-fold to $10 million the civil and criminal penalties against “firms that engage in market manipulation,”
Give the CFTC authority to increase the trader margins — the amount of their own capital that traders must set aside for each bet. The administration officials said such authority “could help limit disruptions in energy markets,” according to the Post.
So how does all of that affect the price of oil?
Well, increasing the margins, makes speculating on commodities less attractive and the speculators place their bets somewhere else.
Historically, when margins are raised, oil prices fall. This is exactly what happened in February of 2011. Oil prices dropped 10% in a few months. A year later these margins were lowered, and oil prices spiked back up to 109 dollars a barrel.
So in April and May, what happened? The Obama Administration and the CFTC implemented there $52 million dollar plan to regulate the oil speculators. Now oil dropped from $106 dollars a barrel in April to $84 dollars a barrel by mid-June.
Amazingly, what worked in 2011 worked again in 2012.
Of course there are other factors in play, which is why the drop was more than the original prediction of 10%. The strengthening dollar against the Euro, the slowdown in demand and the worries over in Europe definitely play a role. But the combined effort has made filling up a little bit less costly, and that has to do with the Obama Administration.
Read More: http://www.politicususa.com/oil-prices-dropping-pr...
Top Opinion
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**StarzAbove** 2012/06/29 20:39:12
+5The cons blamed the president for the high gas prices, wonder if they will give him credit for the drop in prices.......... I know, it's just wishful thinking, they will never give him credit for anything.
Then we have Biden saying the Recovery act will stop unemployment rates from going above 8.2%, they did. Biden should not have made such a bold prediction without knowing all the facts, can we agree on this?
If we can agree on all this, now can we agree, that it was Obama's policies that brought back the Markets, and that if the stimulus was not past, unemployment would be way about 12% , not talking about the mythical numbers that republicans like to throw out there, because honestly they were out there while Bush was in office also, can we agree on this?
If we cannot agree on what is logical and truthful, then you guys are indeed what a friend of mine said. People who must have something to complain about, even if it is not based in reality.
"Oil production has risen during the Obama administration, but analysts don’t give Obama the credit for the increase over the past three years."
Robert Rapier at the ConsumerEnergyReport.com produced a very nice graphic about the trend in oil production since Obama took office. You can see how oil production has risen under the Obama administration, but analysts have said the oil production rose because of projects approved prior to Obama taking office.
So oil production has risen under Obama, but it isn’t because of his policies, analysts said.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2012/...
Thank God for Free Enterprise and the American Capitalist system!
The sooner we get rid of Obama and his anti-business and anti-Middle Class the better off we will all be.
Yeh, I'm still scratching my head too.
Misleads the American People in Speech After Speech
President Obama continues to talk about his energy “blueprint.” The following is an analysis of how his statements don’t match up with the reality of his policies.
• Claim #1: America only has 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Truth is proven and undiscovered oil resources total seven times that amount.
• Claim #2: An “all-of-the-above” energy strategy. Truth is the president’s policies are hostile to low-cost domestic fuels, particularly gasoline and other products from oil.
• Claim #3: Using less gasoline will lower prices. Truth is the president ignores supply.
• Claim #4: The president takes credit for less U.S. dependence on imported oil. Truth is a large portion of less imported oil is the economic downturn.
• Claim #5: The president claims increasing oil supply is key part of his energy strategy. Truth is total U.S. oil production has decreased by 130,000 barrels per day.
• Claim #6: The president claims to be producing more oil than any time in the last eight years. Truth is production has increased in spite of the president. According to his own BLM director, production on federal lands has decreased 14 percent on federal onshore lands and 17 percent on federal o...
Misleads the American People in Speech After Speech
President Obama continues to talk about his energy “blueprint.” The following is an analysis of how his statements don’t match up with the reality of his policies.
• Claim #1: America only has 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Truth is proven and undiscovered oil resources total seven times that amount.
• Claim #2: An “all-of-the-above” energy strategy. Truth is the president’s policies are hostile to low-cost domestic fuels, particularly gasoline and other products from oil.
• Claim #3: Using less gasoline will lower prices. Truth is the president ignores supply.
• Claim #4: The president takes credit for less U.S. dependence on imported oil. Truth is a large portion of less imported oil is the economic downturn.
• Claim #5: The president claims increasing oil supply is key part of his energy strategy. Truth is total U.S. oil production has decreased by 130,000 barrels per day.
• Claim #6: The president claims to be producing more oil than any time in the last eight years. Truth is production has increased in spite of the president. According to his own BLM director, production on federal lands has decreased 14 percent on federal onshore lands and 17 percent on federal offshore lands.
• Claim #7: The president claims to have increased the number of oil rigs in the U.S. Truth is the number of oil rigs are a result of policies prior to the president taking office.
• Claim #8: The president claims to have opened up more land for oil production. Truth is the amount of land open is now less than when the president took office.
• Claim #9: The president claims a high number of new exploration permits in the Gulf of Mexico. Truth is the president double-counts these new permits.
• Claim #10: The president claims to approve new oil pipelines. Truth is the president is the one who blocked the Keystone XL pipeline, and lobbied against it.
• Claim #11: The president blames speculation for oil prices. Truth is no federal study has found speculation as a contributing factor and the president’s own task force has not issued a report.
• Claim #12: The president claims new regulations on cars will reduce gasoline costs. Truth is that the new regulations will cost consumers even more for new cars at the point of purchase.
• Claim #13: The president wants to increase taxes on U.S. energy producers. Truth is the proposed tax increases will increase the cost of gasoline for U.S. consumers.
http://rpc.senate.gov/public/...
(You must use some of that LW Dem fuzzzy math learned in Government Schools)
Last Updated: December 25, 2008: 10:23 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Christmas travelers haven't paid this little for gasoline in nearly five years.
Gas prices declined for the sixth straight day on Thursday, falling below the $1.65 per gallon, according to a national survey of credit card swipes at gasoline stations.
The nationwide average price dropped to $1.648 a gallon, down 0.7 cents from Wednesday's $1.655, according to motorist group AAA. The survey bases its information on credit card swipes from up to 100,000 service stations across the nation.
Gas prices were at their lowest national average since Feb 20, 2004 AAA reported.
The plunge in the nationwide average price comes as welcome news to Americans who are traveling for the Christmas holiday.
Enough said, have a good evening.
That's not ez to do!
What happens when you factor in the $935 Million lost on loans to Solyndra & Abound Solar?
Then it starts to read a bit like "People I have your Eyes Covered!"!
Apparently their plan is to drive down the cost of oil to about $60 a barrel (I'd be surprised if it goes that low) so they can hurt Iran as it makes sanctions against Iran more affordable to the West, this was reported about a week or two ago from a Russian diplomat in Saudi.
I don't know much about Obamas plan and how much it's helped at the pumps but it sounds like it has helped.
http://www.reuters.com/articl...
Personally I find the whole oil industry disgusting and the sooner we move away from it and our dependence on these countries for it the better.