JimfromPennsylvani
04-16-2008, 01:46 PM
Surprisingly, no one is really talking about the fact that much of the oil that the American people use and are paying skyrocketing prices for they initially owned, the oil came from public lands, such as in Alaska, off the Gulf Coast and numerous other Federal lands throughout the continental U.S.. Members of Congress, the President and the American people should be up in arms about the unfairness of this oil pricing system that essentially takes oil that the American people own and sells it back to them at exorbitant prices that are causing a lot of hardship and lessening the standard of living of the American people. The current oil pricing system is absurd and unfair with its investor bias and should not be used to set the price of oil that comes from public lands in the U.S.
Laws should be passed to create a separate pricing system for oil that comes from U.S. public lands. Such a pricing system should protect against the unfairness influences of investors just looking for investments that hedge against the drop in the dollar or inflation, speculators who opportunistically drive up oil prices based on oil supply shortage news or possessors of foreign currency who can afford to pay more for U.S. oil contracts when the value of the dollar drops (the value of the dollar should have no influence at all in the price of oil from U.S. public lands at this time when U.S. oil supply mandates that all U.S. oil be used only in the U.S.). What the nation needs is a separate oil contracts market for oil from U.S. public lands. This market should include the following. First, there should be price ceilings on oil contracts (no more oil going up 30 plus percent in one year); prices would be based on things like the nation’s overall inflation rate and the cost to extract the oil from the ground – a non-political entity, like the Federal Reserve Board, would have charge with setting these ceiling prices. Secondly, only U.S. refineries and U.S. based oil end users would be able to buy oil in this U.S. public oil contracts market – this is only fair because this the oil price savings of this market should be passed on to the American people whose oil it is in the first place. Thirdly, there would have to be guarantees that these oil refineries and oil end-users would pass the savings on to the American consumers – maybe these buyers would have to be certified to buy in the market, the certification would require these buyers report what percentage of the cost of their products is connected to the price of oil and commit to pass on this market’s savings and subject their records to audits to insure compliance. Fourthly, to avoid U.S. oil end users rushing to buy up all the oil contracts they need in this favorable oil contracts market and leaving other oil end users out in the cold where this public oil contracts market does not have enough contracts to meet their needs and they have to buy in the higher priced world commodity markets – the law could be made to charge the entity setting the price ceiling on the oil contracts to determine the maximum percentage of oil “oil end users” use that can come from this lower-prices public oil contracts markets – experts can pretty much estimate the amount of oil that will be pumped from public lands and the nations overall oil needs and just make that percentage the maximum percentage of oil an “oil end user” uses that can be purchased in this public oil contracts market. This idea won’t solve the American peoples’ problem with skyrocketing oil prices but it will definitely help in the lowering of petroleum product prices for the American consumer.
Another initiative which could help in the short-term to relieve pressure on escalating U.S. petroleum product prices, is for gasoline refiners or gasoline wholesale providers (if there is non-refiner wholesale providers that mix ethanol with gasoline) to take advantage of the recent bumper sugar cane crop in Brazil. This sugar cane crop will result in Brazil having a plentiful supply of ethanol this year and even with the U.S. tariff on Brazilian ethanol it is estimated such ethanol will only cost $2.18/ gallon this year. It is pretty clear here that taking full advantage of Brazilian ethanol for this year can help the skyrocketing gasoline prices in the U.S.. However, steps should be taken to protect the U.S. ethanol producing industry this is a relatively new industry that America desperately needs to be strong and to grow. Experts should be able to determine how much ethanol the U.S. ethanol industry will be producing as a gasoline additive this year and what the overall gasoline demand will be for the U.S. this year. The U.S. government should mandate that U.S. oil refiners use this percentage of U.S. ethanol in the gasoline they refine and sell. Moreover and most importantly, the U.S. government should get commitments from U.S. oil refiners that they are going to buy and use cost beneficial Brazilian ethanol to the greatest extent possible this year. If need be the Congress and the Whitehouse should have U.S. representatives contact the Brazilian government and Brazilian ethanol producers and determine how much ethanol Brazilian producers can sell U.S. refineries this year and mandate by law that U.S. refineries use this amount.
Laws should be passed to create a separate pricing system for oil that comes from U.S. public lands. Such a pricing system should protect against the unfairness influences of investors just looking for investments that hedge against the drop in the dollar or inflation, speculators who opportunistically drive up oil prices based on oil supply shortage news or possessors of foreign currency who can afford to pay more for U.S. oil contracts when the value of the dollar drops (the value of the dollar should have no influence at all in the price of oil from U.S. public lands at this time when U.S. oil supply mandates that all U.S. oil be used only in the U.S.). What the nation needs is a separate oil contracts market for oil from U.S. public lands. This market should include the following. First, there should be price ceilings on oil contracts (no more oil going up 30 plus percent in one year); prices would be based on things like the nation’s overall inflation rate and the cost to extract the oil from the ground – a non-political entity, like the Federal Reserve Board, would have charge with setting these ceiling prices. Secondly, only U.S. refineries and U.S. based oil end users would be able to buy oil in this U.S. public oil contracts market – this is only fair because this the oil price savings of this market should be passed on to the American people whose oil it is in the first place. Thirdly, there would have to be guarantees that these oil refineries and oil end-users would pass the savings on to the American consumers – maybe these buyers would have to be certified to buy in the market, the certification would require these buyers report what percentage of the cost of their products is connected to the price of oil and commit to pass on this market’s savings and subject their records to audits to insure compliance. Fourthly, to avoid U.S. oil end users rushing to buy up all the oil contracts they need in this favorable oil contracts market and leaving other oil end users out in the cold where this public oil contracts market does not have enough contracts to meet their needs and they have to buy in the higher priced world commodity markets – the law could be made to charge the entity setting the price ceiling on the oil contracts to determine the maximum percentage of oil “oil end users” use that can come from this lower-prices public oil contracts markets – experts can pretty much estimate the amount of oil that will be pumped from public lands and the nations overall oil needs and just make that percentage the maximum percentage of oil an “oil end user” uses that can be purchased in this public oil contracts market. This idea won’t solve the American peoples’ problem with skyrocketing oil prices but it will definitely help in the lowering of petroleum product prices for the American consumer.
Another initiative which could help in the short-term to relieve pressure on escalating U.S. petroleum product prices, is for gasoline refiners or gasoline wholesale providers (if there is non-refiner wholesale providers that mix ethanol with gasoline) to take advantage of the recent bumper sugar cane crop in Brazil. This sugar cane crop will result in Brazil having a plentiful supply of ethanol this year and even with the U.S. tariff on Brazilian ethanol it is estimated such ethanol will only cost $2.18/ gallon this year. It is pretty clear here that taking full advantage of Brazilian ethanol for this year can help the skyrocketing gasoline prices in the U.S.. However, steps should be taken to protect the U.S. ethanol producing industry this is a relatively new industry that America desperately needs to be strong and to grow. Experts should be able to determine how much ethanol the U.S. ethanol industry will be producing as a gasoline additive this year and what the overall gasoline demand will be for the U.S. this year. The U.S. government should mandate that U.S. oil refiners use this percentage of U.S. ethanol in the gasoline they refine and sell. Moreover and most importantly, the U.S. government should get commitments from U.S. oil refiners that they are going to buy and use cost beneficial Brazilian ethanol to the greatest extent possible this year. If need be the Congress and the Whitehouse should have U.S. representatives contact the Brazilian government and Brazilian ethanol producers and determine how much ethanol Brazilian producers can sell U.S. refineries this year and mandate by law that U.S. refineries use this amount.