How is it if liberals are for the little guy, do they not support this?

Question

You can have lower gas prices by removing most of the 50 plus blend requirements for gas to a few, allow Americans to drill for oil that is all over the nation, and remove many of the gas taxes. This will lower the costs of all of our goods and services because gas will cost a lot less. This will help the pockets of all Americans, which you claim to support.

We have not built a new oil refinery in the US in 30 years.

There is tremendous regulation on cable, airlines, and pharmaceuticals. Do not believe the comment on it.

Answer 1

Good question. In the early 80's we had to remove lead because it had too much "pollutant." Then in the early 2000’s, when lead's replacement started causing cancer...the same groups wanted to sue the refining companies for putting in WHAT THEY TOLD THEM TO PUT IN!!! Typical liberal behavior. The case was thrown out of court because the refiners were FORCED to change the additive. I believe it's called MTBE, in case you want to look it up.

I used to work for a refining company, and it was amazing the government hoops they had to go through...They actually built the last "grass roots" refinery in the U.S. in the early 80's, and are one of the most profitable companies in the U.S. despite the government's stringent regulations.

I will tell you this though, they have had to buy and refurbish foreign refineries in places like Aruba, Canada, and other places because it is too expensive to build another one in the U.S. That takes millions (if not billions) of dollars away from the U.S. economy, and it's all due to the incredible taxes and regulations that the libs have implemented.

Also, the refineries of today are very safe places to work compared to even 20 years ago. They do not hurt the environment any more than a huge office building with 20 or more stories. Do you know how much power a big building uses? It's unfathomable! And all that power has to come from somewhere - and I can guarantee you it's not windmills.

I also worked for a cable company and I will tell you they are probably regulated just as much as any industry in the nation...the government actually tells them where they can and cannot sell their product. That's why major metropolitan areas are split between two or sometimes even three different companies. The government has given them each a map and will not allow them to sell any where other than that map.

Answer 2

Because liberals make it out to be too bad for the environment to drill for oil. They ruined the economy of western NY and PA when they shut down all their refineries and oil wells do to EPA restrictions.
The liberals don't want us to drill in Alaska, when it has abundant resources. They would rather keep insulting republicans and saying we are tied to the middle east while tying our hands at home.
They should be finding ways to make it clean safe and profitable but affordable.
Why is Alaska more important than the birds in the Persian Gulf ?
Couldn't they just require it to be done with minimal environmental impact?
If we stopped buying middle eastern oil, would they stop attacking us?

Answer 3

Some people don't realize that there is oil under some of the Midwest , Alaska (we might hurt the polar bears), and under the Gulf of Mexico which we have access to. They are hypocrites about it by trying to claim that an oil spill will harm the environment so they just want to keep using the from other parts of the world seemingly unconcerned about oil spills half a world away. Yet Venezuela and China drill of the coast in the Gulf and I don't know about you but I haven't heard of a single oil spill there. Plus doesn't it reduce the risk of a massive oil spill by shipping it short distances rather than half way across the world.

I may be more liberal than anything but I can't stand environmentalist. I love to hunt and am for realistic conservation but trying to scare and force people to conserve pretty much defeats the point.

Answer 4

I would like to know why they are not MAKING oil out of house hold waste and sewage. It can be done in 20 min! I saw a brief article that Australia was going to do something like that. If this country would make some of its oil instead of shipping it from terrorist countries what would THAT do to the price of gas? It would also be better for the environment than bio fuels, and I thought the liberals were all for the environment.

Answer 5

And increase dramatically the costs of cleaning up the environment, not to mention all the health expenses as a result of a more polluted country.

But of course, the oil companies would never go for it, and they're pretty much in charge.

And deregulation has been such a success in other industries...no wait, it hasn't.

Answer 6

why not just nationalize energy, since it is a national security issue??
and that will not do a thing for the price of gas.
gas prices have less to do with the supply of oil, as it does with the amount of gas the refineries wish to supply.
refineries are businesses to, that want to turn as high of profit, as they can, and boosting gas supply, doesn't do that.

if what you are suggesting, would work, my electricity bill wouldn't be going up this month by $30 bucks, do to electric company deregulation!

Answer 7

Good point. Many of the taxes that nobody seems to want to talk about fall disproportionately on the lower income earners. Sales taxes, gas taxes, car registration taxes, social security taxes. When your income is low, those taxes will eat up your disposable income faster than income taxes will -- that everybody seems to focus on exclusively.

Answer 8

I guess for the same reason Republicans claim to be for family values yet they destroy families by sending moms and dads to Iraq to die for access to oil.

The government raising the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) requirements by just 5 MPG would save Americans a lot more money than drilling holes for oil all over America. Do your homework.

There is not enough oil in ANWAR or anywhere else in the U.S. to lower oil prices, even George Bush knows that. It would take an incredibly huge amount to do that and the way oil prices are set globally is much more complicated than that.

It's a whole lot easier to just not drive an 8000 lb truck that gets 9 mpg.

Answer 9

Because economics and the oil companies would keep it high. Also, if that happened, you would be paying more in taxes and environmental cleanup. This helps the health of Americans, which we are also in favor of.

Answer 10

not only have we not built a refinery in 30 years (thanks to the overly strict regulations) but we lost one in hurricane katrina (no doubt started by Bush's hurricane machine, built by halliburton), and the democrats think the price of oil should go down, not up. Their superior minds have concluded that it must be Bush's fault.