• Oil prices tumble more than $10 per barrel

[paul]

Wonder if it is because Bush lifted the ban on offshore drilling. Maybe the oil schieks don't want to loose our business.

[MacUser]

Exactly.

[TC]

What would change oil prices and quick would be for congress to lift their ban and say we will be working OT to get it pumped within 6 months (won't happen... but hey) Then those in the Oil producing nations would see they won't have a strangle hold on us much longer and will see they stand to lose alot of sales. Then they would drop the prices in hopes that the american people would continue to buy their oil.

[EagerBeaver]

I actually heard on Bloomberg channel today that it was simply US oil futures that were going down in price based on overall consumer demand. That's not even the OPEC guys kicking in yet.

[dolfan]

Why didn't Bush do this 6 months ago? That's what I wanna know.

[TC]

GW tries so hard to be above politics even if time after time it does not work. What he did yesterday was only a PR move, doesn't really do anything policy wise, but now it may put pressure on the Dems in congress to do something. I don't think they will until after the election. They need the Issue more than they want to help people.

I wonder if he did it now to give the republicans running now something to use as an issue.

Now their (the DEMS) big excuse is it won't help until years down the road.... WELL then why didn't you do it years ago.... YES I know they will say well they were not in charge of congress, well they have been for 2 years and if you recall they were fussing about gas prices 2 years ago, but since they got power they have done NOTHING and now we have 4.oo Plus in gas.

[Mike Vande]

If the price of oil went down $10 a barrel, why is gas still over $4.00 a gallon?

[dolfan]

If the price of oil went down $10 a barrel, why is gas still over $4.00 a gallon?

Because the gas in the ground cost enough to keep it there for now, because the price drop is unlikely to stick, and because they're in it for profit.

[TC]

If the price of oil went down $10 a barrel, why is gas still over $4.00 a gallon?

Because the gas in the ground cost enough to keep it there for now, because the price drop is unlikely to stick, and because they're in it for profit.

I am glad someone else realizes they are in it for a profit.

I love that it is always big oil problem, and BIG OIL should find alternitives. That is like saying to Goodyear tires, cars use tires and we are depentant on tires, Good year you need to work on a new product like wooken wheels, so that can put you out of business.

Afterall it is not called Big Solar or Big Corn... it is big OIL....

[dolfan]

While I'm all for profit, mind you, I don't mean that the oil companies are blameless or somehow beyond criticism. They've done very well in all of this speculation, and only when their chairmen get subpoenaed to testify before Congress do they start harping about the lack of new refineries and inability to drill offshore, etc. I'm not convinced at all that the oil companies are populist (nor should they be). I don't think that ExxonMobil, for example, is my buddy. I think it is robbing me blind, but I also acknowledge that it is a legal robbery.

One problem is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that regulates futures markets in the U.S. They're investigating the possibility that speculators are driving the market up, but they are taking six months to do it and they come into it with a bias against that conclusion. Their own chief economist testified to Congress a couple of months ago that the real problem was an imbalance of supply and demand and the weak dollar. I'll give you that the dollar is weak, no doubt. Weak enough to double the cost of oil? No, not yet.

The acting chairman of the CFTC testified just this past week that its role is one of "surveillance" for particular speculators (what he called "traders of size") trying to manipulate the market. Apparently, if they're all doing the same thing, it doesn't matter --- it's just the market, now matter how irrational it is. Then, true to his bureaucratic bent, he blamed the ineffectiveness of the CFTC to do more on being underbudgeted and understaffed.

"We stink at really doing anything helpful, but we could be better stinkers if you'd hire more of us and pay us more." Right.

[valley]

Glenn Beck was talking this morning that the Congressional Ban expires in September of this year. Could it be possible that the ban lapses, or that Bush would veto the ban should they attempt to reinstate it?

If this is the case, that would mean by September, we could start drilling off our coast.

[free]

Today's headline:

Stocks jump on drop in oil, Wells Fargo report

[Rob]

I'm a little confused here with regards to drilling off of our coast. My brother works on an oil rig in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and has for over 10 years now. They have been drilling there for some time.

[pastorjason]

I'm a little confused here with regards to drilling off of our coast. My brother works on an oil rig in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and has for over 10 years now. They have been drilling there for some time.

Drilling is limited to the western and central gulf the eastern gulf bordering Florida is restricted and known to have deep reserves of oil

[Full Quiver]

I am glad someone else realizes they are in it for a profit.

Why wouldn't they be? I work for a profit as well.