Gas Prices Falling, No Thanks To Pelosi

Gas prices are expected to drop to near $3.00 per gallon by year's end, NO THANKS TO NANCY PELOSI or the DEMOCRATS. Adam Smith's invisible hand just bitch slapped Nancy Pelosi. Nearly two and a half years ago, Nancy Pelosi lied to the American people by telling them that she and the Democrats had a plan to lower fuel prices. On April 24, 2006 she said the following in a press release: “Democrats have a commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices by cracking down on price gouging, rolling back the billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, tax breaks and royalty relief given to big oil and gas companies, and increasing production of alternative fuels.” We're still waiting for the Democrats' "commonsense plan." Perhaps it was the suggestion recently by Obama to keep our tires properly inflated. Perhaps not. In any case, it would seem that the market - and not any political party - is at work. Gasoline prices, which have declined steadily for more than a month in Chicago and nationally are expected to continue dropping this Labor Day weekend, and could fall to near $3 a gallon before the end of the year, unless Hurricane Gustav decides to rain on the consumer party. FULL STORY at Chicago Sun-Times...

BREAKING: GAS PRICES JUMP $3 PER BARREL

Ooops. NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices jumped more than $3 a barrel Wednesday, halting a three-day slide after the government reported a bigger-than-expected drop in U.S. gasoline supplies. But more signs of dwindling U.S. demand cast doubt on the rally's longevity. "There's no doubt that refiners are making less gasoline," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. "The demand is bad so why store a product that you're going to have trouble selling?" FULL ARTICLE, Associated Press...

McCain's Gas Problem

Can John McCain take away your gas pains?

Timothy Carney , DC Opinion says he's trying to. But his plan might not be so welcome. Tim writes:

With gasoline prices averaging over $3.38 for a gallon of regular, Sen. John McCain has proposed a summertime gas-tax holiday. It’s probably the most eye-catching and voter-pleasing plank in the economic platform the presumptive nominee unveiled on Tax Day, but it certainly has its detractors: those on the receiving end of the gas. FULL STORY at Examiner.com...

Ethanol Madness Drives Up Milk Prices

The price of milk is now about the same as the price of gasoline, around $4.00 per gallon. One big reason why: Ethanol madness. Ethanol is probably more of a bane than a boon, and most estimates say that even if every kernel of US-grown corn was used for fuel, it would make up less than 15% of our fuel needs. MSNBC quotes an expert who says, "higher gasoline prices have increased the costs of moving milk from farm to market, and corn — the primary feed for dairy cattle — is being gobbled up by producers of the fuel-additive ethanol. The USDA projects that 3.2 billion bushels of this year’s corn crop will be used to make ethanol, a 52 percent increase over 2006." Another expert says, "The claim that using ethanol will save energy is another myth. Studies show that the amount of energy ethanol produces and the amount needed to make it are roughly the same. "It takes a lot of fossil fuels to make the fertilizer, to run the tractor, to build the silo, to get that corn to a processing plant, to run the processing plant" (see "Ethanol Facts and Fiction"). The insane desire to use ethanol has caused far more problems than it has helped. Mexican consumer know this all too well (see "Of Tortillas and Ethanol"). Mexicans been paying much higher prices lately for items made of corn, due largely to the displacement of ethanol for fuel usage.