Americans started the week with a rude awakening — crude oil prices are up $3.80, or 3.8 percent, to $102.63 per barrel in New York today, according to the Associated Press. But despite the jump in oil prices, President Barack Obama is still sitting on his hands when it comes to exploring domestic energy resources.
The AP reports on the higher oil prices:
Prices climbed as soon as exchanges opened for the first day of 2012 trading. Commodity prices tend to rise at the beginning of January as investors start the new year with a fresh round of trading. This year prices were driven by heightened concerns that Iran might try to close the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to oil tankers, if Western nations impose new sanctions.
What do higher oil prices mean for Americans? Higher gas prices, of course. And they’re already likely to go higher, with or without an energy crisis caused by a bellicose Iran. Greg Laskoski of gasbuddy.com told Fox 13 in Tampa that based on the trends over the past five years, prices in the summer are typically about 93 cents higher by the spring and summer. Given today’s average gas price of $3.28 per gallon, that means that Americans could see gas prices topping out well above $4 per gallon.
Meanwhile, what’s President Obama doing to bring energy prices down and help the United States be less dependent on the Middle East for oil? Unfortunately, very little. The President postponed a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport 700,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to refineries in Texas, has blocked access to shale resources, and slowed down and even halted offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which supplies 30 percent of domestic oil production. And the Environmental Protection Agency is imposing new, costly regulations on energy production.
With Iran threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz–and one quarter of the world’s energy supply with it–there is no time like the present to safely explore America’s domestic energy resources before energy prices soar even higher.
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7 commentseverything going up in cost could be "protecting" someone's profit!? There's no reason to postpone the XL pipeline any longer.
what is even more upsetting are increased costs for food where no one has a choice to do without but many that should be providing for their own are getting it for free and grocers or someone is profiting greatly off this need to survive!
But do we hear anything at all from John Boehner or Reince Priebus about this? Not at all. This is the time they should be on the attack. Just link Obama, the pipeline, dependance on middle east oil and energy prices. People do listen to stuff like this. Both Boehner and Priebus are silent on all of this and should resign. Is there any deal that Boehner has made with the Democrats that has not left him with egg on his face and a black mark on the Republican party? They are amateurs and the are dealing with professionals.
We need an energy policy and it has to be local energy. Not energy shipped in from over seas or South America.
So what else is new, Barry wants company's like solindra taking over.
This article reinforces on why the EPA has outlived its usefulness.
I'll bet if Obama had to actually pay for the fuel HE used fliting and flying around this country at taxpayers expense we'd see the mass oil reserves in this country opening up one after another. This president couldn't do more to destroy this economy if he was trying….maybe that is the problem. His methodolgy seems a bit suspect and purposeful.
This nation had better wake up and understand what Obama is doing to all of us. He and his lackeys have stated openly they want European fuel prices? Obama has openly stated under his plan energy prices to skyrocket. Every one of his policies are directed at collapsing our economical system through the destruction of our energy system. So why are we surprised that he will do nothing about the pipeling or Iran (and the Strights of Hoemuz) until late summer 2012, just before the elections. Anyone ever heard of "October surprise?
Now that two Chinese owned Oil Companies have purchased properties in Canada, the importance of Keystone increases by a couple orders of magnitude.
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