Thread: The scoop on gas.

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Now, back to the question at hand. Why are gas prices exorbitant today.

If you'll go back to posts 17 and 18 and really, really read the content contributed by Big Tracks and written by Ed Wallace, it'll all fall into place for you. It's not a supply problem. It's not a refining problem. It's not a point-of-purchase retail problem. It's a problem with our duly elected officials. The people we hire to look after us. Problem is, they're not looking after us, they're looking after big money and lining their pockets with the results.

Here's the gist of the problem in one paragraph:
"It was called H.R. 5660, the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000. At first this bill went nowhere in the House, not even up for debate. Then, a few months later, late one night a 242-page bill written by Wall Street lawyers, with the exact same name as the former House bill, was quietly added to an 11,000-page appropriations bill, and the Enron loophole was created. The power behind that bill was one Texas Senator, one Texas Congressman and their wives."

And yes, I'm ashamed to say that apparently Republicans were behind it. I don't know if we can even fault all the legislators who voted for it. They may not have even known it was riding on the butt-end of the original legislation. How do you sit down and read 11,000 pages of a bill so that you can make an intelligent decision about how to vote for it, even if you cared what was in it? More of the problem, I don't think our representatives cared what was in it. Just more of the same "Go along to get along" way of doing business in Washington.

Anyway, I'm pretty much convinced that we have identified the problem as being caused by futures speculators who are allowed to drive up the price of crude because they are out of the jurisdiction of the SEC. Anyone have any remedies for this? How do we get this legislation killed?
Want to lower gas prices? Then get this bill rescinded and get these futures speculators back under the control of the SEC. Sounds simple, but how will it be accomplished?

I want you to get mad. I want you to go to the window and yell....I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore.