Roadblock Blog

Fueling Speculation

Why Republicans make you spend twice as much at the pump.

Having utterly discredited itself on national security, the economy, morality and every other conceivable issue, The Republican Party is purposefully permitting the inflation of gas prices in the hope of making domestic drilling a winning campaign issue. Speculation, perhaps more than actual demand, has caused the dramatic increase in fuel costs since February as institutional investors -- not those who intend to use petroleum -- now account for 73% of all crude oil trading contracts. Even the oil companies think the market has drastically over-valued the price of oil, yet Roadblock Republicans just voted against legislation to curb such market manipulation.

Unless the Republicans are thinking of nationalizing our oil, the product of increased domestic drilling would conceivably lower the price of a gallon of gasoline by a few cents when it entered the world market ten years or so from now, but that market would be subject to the same speculation and manipulation it is today, maybe more, as institutional investors accounted for only 37% of crude oil contracts in 2000.

It's an interesting political strategy, really. Rising fuel prices should hurt incumbents, but Newt Gingrich's grand "Drill Now!" strategy seems to have trumped basic self-preservation instincts. 12 Roadblock Republican Senators facing re-election voted against the anti-speculation measure: Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), John Barrasso, (R-Wyoming), Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia), Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota), John Cornyn, (R-Texas), Elizabeth Dole (R-North Carolina), James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), Gordon Smith (R-Oregon), John Sununu (R-New Hampshire), and Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi).

We all have to suffer so these guys (and Elizabeth Dole) can falsely blame Democrats for high fuel prices. Now that's manipulation.