Do You Get Sweaty Palms At The Pumps?

There has been much hullaballo over the price of fuel and where we can throw the blame. That misogynist clown  Representative Alan West(R) of Florida would like to blame President Obama for his $70 tab to fill up his 2008 H3 Hummer. Yeah, a damn H3 Hummer and the man is shocked it cost so much to fill the tank. Wow.

Others would like to blame Iran and the instability they are causing by forging ahead with their nuclear program. Plenty more are throwing the blame on Wall Street with the speculators. Could it be just pure old supply and demand? Well, what the hell  is the reason I almost vomit and break out in sweats at the pumps?

Wednesday, oil futures (what the hell are those) spiked 2% in one day to it's highest levels in 9 months. Yet, demand has not increased enough to warrant this surge in price. It would seem that supply and demand is not the root of this problem. The demand in the US alone is the lowest since September 2001.

So, let's look at that crazy son of a bitch Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, can we stick some blame on him? Last week members of the European Union imposed a ban on Iranian oil effective July 1, as well as froze the country's central bank assets. The US has also said they would black list suppliers using Iranian Oil if they go ahead with their nuke programs.

This EU banishment is no big deal, because Iran can still deal with the Saudi Arabians, and Russia to get their oil. Iran produces about 2.5 million barrels of black gold per a day with 500,000 barrels sold to the United Kingdom and France. The rest goes to China, India, South Korea, and Japan. All but South Korea have stated they will cut imports by 10% because of increased sanctions by the United States.

Iran is the second highest supplier of crude behind Saudi Arabia in the OPEC nations, however they contribute very little to our market. The instability over their nuclear program and the west's reaction to it however, does cause some concerns on the market. All stated, we can take them off the table as our sole cause for ballooning gas prices.

Let's discuss Barack Obama, are these prices his fault? I mean hell it is his fault the economy tanked in 2009 even though he had barely taken office.. AND DON'T YOU TRY TO TELL US ANY DIFFERENTLY.

Time to call a spade a spade, the Keystone XL pipeline being denied access through our nation has nothing to do with fuel prices in the great US of A. Obama's policies are focused on renewable sources of energy. The GOP has turned this into a beaming lightening rod with voters. They say these policies alone are reason for such a rise in price and they won't stop until we "drill baby drill". There is little President Obama or any president for that matter can do to bring down fuel prices in the near term. Domestic oil production has grown since 2009, but that alone is not going to help us become more energy independent. So when the GOP candidates say "drill 'er 'til she's dry" they don't understand that flooding the market isn't going to help make prices cheaper if the demand isn't there. The President's policies are an attempt to lead us towards more energy independence, so we won't have to rely on foreign nations for our fuels.

Wall Street speculators, how about these vultures? This McClatchy article  aims the laser pointer towards them as being one of the key issues in oil prices. Give the article a look and judge for yourself.