Kerry Announces Plan to Control Cost of Gas With Prices at a Record High

[papau]

You ask yourself - how did the AP's Nedra Pickler come up with such a thin column of Kerry proposals when the pre-release indicated a plan to lower gas prices by pledging to pressure OPEC to open oil supplies, temporarily suspending filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, streamlining national and state fuel regulations and policies, and promising open energy meetings aimed at a goal of 20 percent renewable U.S. energy by the year 2020 via Kerry's longer-term plans for decreasing the country's dependence on foreign oil and increasing its reliance on cleaner-burning alternative forms of energy that are indeed cleaner-burning. And not one word about Cheney's secret energy task force meetings and his (and Bush's) ties to the oil industry.

One wonders

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA04AQZFSD.html

Kerry Announces Plan to Control Cost of Gas With Prices at a Record High

By Nedra Pickler Associated Press Writer
Published: Mar 30, 2004


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - With gasoline prices at a record high, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is calling for the government to stop pumping oil into its emergency stockpile.<snip>

Kerry's campaign aides said the Democratic candidate wants the United States to pressure the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase production and apply diplomatic pressure to the member nations to reduce prices.

If elected, Kerry also would seek to enact a national fuel strategy aimed at reducing price disparities across the country, the aides said. <snip>

Typically high demand during summer could drive prices even higher, although they could drop as demand eases going into the fall when Americans are most paying attention to the election. <snip>

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, at a Senate hearing in Washington last week, disputed claims by several Democratic senators that the diversion of 150,000 barrels of oil a day into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has added to economic pressures that are causing crude and gasoline costs to increase. <snip>



http://www.johnkerry.com

[still_one]

1. but all cnn has been reporting is that Kerry want a 50 cent gas tax

[papau]

2. Kerry is getting Gore'd by CNN and rest of media - why?

Who ordered this -

in our we are not controlled by the right wing GOP media - we just act that way.

????

[legin]

3. The 150,000 barrels of oil a day

is worth about 3-5 cents on a gallon of petrol. Big Deal. Basically this is just political game-playing with the downside of possibly setting up bush* for releasing 30-60 million barrels from the Strategic Reserve just before the election which would take 30-50 cents off a gallon of petrol. And bush* is going to be pulling this election stunt just like Clinton did, so this is what Kerry ought to be pre-emptively counter-attacking against.

[legin]

6. bush* speech 45 days before the election ???

"There comes a time when it is important for the u.s. to show the regimes of OPEC that they cannot just bully the nations of the world with the outrageous price that they have set. The price of oil as it stands at the moment amounts to what can only be described as a form of economic terrorism, an attempt to blackmail the West into downgrading the war on terrorism, which given that Saudi Arabia, the leader of OPEC, supplied most of the Sept. 11 hijackers is easily understandable.

And it is a short sighted policy too because it is not our great nation that really suffers the most, it is the poorer third world nations that will really bare the brunt of OPEC's outrageous policies. It will mean hunger for many millions around the planet. Therefore the u.s. will show the leadership, and make the sacrifices that comes with leadership, by releasing 60 million barrels from our Strategic Reserve over the coming month and a half.

It will send a message to OPEC and Saudi Arabia that we will not be blackmailed, and it sends a message to the poorer nations of the world that the u.s. stands with them in their fight against hunger."

[Snivi Yllom]

9. I heard it would be even less..maybe a penny a day.

And that's if you released the SPR reserves, a lot more than 150,000 barrels.

[TinaTyson]

4. Didn't Bush promise exactly this in 2000?

I think I saw that in a post here earlier today but I can't remember which one.

Any reason to suspect Kerry will be more successful at it?

Well Maybe if we get the "right" people in Venezuela who will open the spigots and block any OPEC attempts at embargo.

[TinaTyson]

7. In case anyone is wondering why I might think such a thing.

Venezuela was the country the OPEC oil embargo in 1973.

I couldn't find a complete account of this in a quick web search but it is referenced in one sentence in this article anyway.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0513-03.htm
(cut)
It was Venezuela which shattered the oil embargo of 1973 by replacing Arab oil with its own huge reserves.
(cut)

[Options Remain]

5. how about

regulating the refineries to maintain production quotas. Thats the chokepoint not what's being drilled out of the ground.

TearForger

[TinaTyson]

8. Overall the plan looks good. I doubt very seriously

he will be able to do anythign with OPEC though. The key is the renewables efforts. If that gets passed then it will help a lot.

[papau]

10. AP must read DU - they now have an expanded story!

Kerry Announces Plan to Control Cost of Gas With Prices at a Record High

By Nedra Pickler Associated Press Writer
Published: Mar 30, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Democratic candidate John Kerry said Tuesday that as president he would stop pumping oil into the nation's emergency stockpile until prices fell and would pursue new energy policies so "our young men and women will never have to fight and die for foreign oil."

"For three years, George Bush and Dick Cheney have bent over backwards to help their big contributors in the oil industry," Kerry said in a campaign statement as he prepared for a campus rally in San Diego, where prices of $2.12 per gallon of regular unleaded gasoline are the highest in the nation. "I'm going to stand up for students and middle-class families and all those who need relief at the pump."

Kerry said he would pressure the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to provide more oil, simplify rules on gas to reduce costs, and develop more energy-efficient vehicles.

"Instead of secret energy meetings and drilling in the Alaskan wilderness, we're going to have a real energy plan for America," Kerry said. "Under my plan, America will be energy independent from Mideast oil in 10 years, the fuels of the future will be less expensive, cleaner, and our young men and women will never have to fight and die for foreign oil."

Kerry called on President Bush to halt filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, which some Democrats contend drives up the cost of fuel for U.S. consumers in an already tight market with record prices. Gasoline prices reached a national average of $1.80 a gallon in the past two weeks, according the private Lundberg Survey. <snip>