ATV Florida Forum

General => Open Discussion => Topic started by: JackL on June 20, 2008, 12:35:30 AM



Title: I found someone to blame for gas prices.
Post by: JackL on June 20, 2008, 12:35:30 AM
Enron Loophole Boosts Oil Prices
The Tampa Tribune
Published: June 13, 2008


It's frustrating enough when gas prices soar due to the unseen forces of global supply and demand. But it's downright unfair when Wall Street speculators contribute to rising prices at the pump.

There's growing evidence that investors looking to make a fast buck are causing oil prices to rise faster than can be explained by ordinary market forces.

Congress, however, can do something about the situation. It can help to ease this problem, because it helped to create this monster.

In December 2000, Congress passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which was signed into law by President Clinton just before he left office in January 2001.

Few people realized at the time that a loophole had been tucked into this 262-page bill at the last minute by then-Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas. It came to be known as the "Enron Loophole," and it allowed Enron and other large energy traders to be exempt from federal oversight of over-the-counter transactions in energy markets.

Enron is no more, but the loophole lives on. It has allowed massive growth of unregulated trading on energy futures markets, where investors essentially "bet" on the price of oil at a certain date in the future.

Commodities markets ordinarily allow commercial buyers of goods that people need, such as corn, pork and energy products, to lock in a price for later delivery of those commodities. But in the unregulated environment spawned by the Enron Loophole, speculators increasingly treat commodities as if they were stocks. These investors don't want to take delivery of the oil after they "buy" it; they just want the price to rise so they can make a huge profit. As the dollar weakens, oil becomes an even more attractive investment.

The details of these types of trades are largely hidden. Some contracts are negotiated between parties who don't need to disclose them. Some contracts are made overseas, beyond the limited oversight of U.S. regulators.

As speculators flock to oil, they are creating artificial demand for the commodity, which drives up the price. Nobody knows how much speculators are adding to the cost of gasoline, but some analysts believe it's as much as 50 percent of recent increases.

Other factors are probably contributing to $4 gasoline. Global oil supply has not increased, and there is growing demand from nations such as China and India.

Meanwhile the federal authority responsible for regulating such trading, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is virtually powerless to step in. The CFTC needs the regulatory authority and the staffing to make sure these markets are transparent and monitored. Congress should give this weakened agency the tools it needs to do its oversight job effectively.

Commodities are products that consumers need for their daily existence, and those markets shouldn't be so vulnerable to greedy manipulation.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jun/13/na-enron-loophole-boosts-oil-prices/


Title: Re: I found someone to blame for gas prices.
Post by: svtbolt04 on June 20, 2008, 01:39:16 AM
The US military consumes 40% of the worlds oil...


Title: Re: I found someone to blame for gas prices.
Post by: FishaHallic on June 20, 2008, 01:47:00 AM
 :L 2:L :R 2:L :R 2:L :R 2:L :R 2:L :R :W


Title: Re: I found someone to blame for gas prices.
Post by: Bigscrb15 on June 20, 2008, 11:14:28 PM
The US military consumes 40% of the worlds oil...

no they don't


Title: Re: I found someone to blame for gas prices.
Post by: svtbolt04 on June 21, 2008, 02:57:48 AM
The US military consumes 40% of the worlds oil...


no they don't


The Department of Defense is the single largest consumer of petroleum in the U.S and the US military is the biggest purchaser of oil in the world. In 2006 the US Military consumed 117 million barrels or 320,000 barrels per day.

Say what?

Since you people will think I am making stuff up, check here http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oil+consumed+by+US+military&btnG=Google+Search



Title: Re: I found someone to blame for gas prices.
Post by: JackL on June 21, 2008, 06:53:32 AM
The US military consumes 40% of the worlds oil...


no they don't


The Department of Defense is the single largest consumer of petroleum in the U.S and the US military is the biggest purchaser of oil in the world. In 2006 the US Military consumed 117 million barrels or 320,000 barrels per day.

Say what?

Since you people will think I am making stuff up, check here [url]http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oil+consumed+by+US+military&btnG=Google+Search[/url]




I believe you, freedom ain't cheap.


The US Military budget was raised to US$532.8 Billion for the year 2007, around 3.7% of the country's GDP. This is more than the combined defense budget of China, Russia, UK, India, Japan and the next 10 countries which top in world military spending. To keep all the tanks, ships, aircrafts and Humvee's moving in battle's around the world takes a lot of fuel. Did you know that the Abrams tank can travel less than 0.6 mile per gallon of fuel.

Here are a few facts on the US Military Oil Consumption.

5) Over half of the fuel transported to the battlefield is consumed by support vehicles, not vehicles engaged in frontline combat. The top 10 battlefield guzzlers in the U.S. Army, only 2 are combat vehicles (the Abrams tank and the Apache helicopter). The other eight carry fuel and supplies.

4) The Department of Defense (DoD) per capita energy consumption of 524 trillion Btu is 10 times more than per capita energy consumption in China, or 30 times more than that of Africa. Only three countries consume more oil per capita then the DoD.


3) In 2006 Air Force consumed around 2.6 billion gallons of jet-fuel which is the same amount of fuel U.S. airplanes consumed during WWII (between December 1941 and August 1945). The mighty B52 bomber (pictured above) consumes 3300 gallons per hour, the F16 Falcon burns 800 gallons per hour and the KC-135 Statotanker an aerial refueling tanker aircraft consumes 2650 gallons per hour.

2) The Department of Defense is the single largest consumer of petroleum in the U.S and the US military is the biggest purchaser of oil in the world. In 2006 the US Military consumed 117 million barrels or 320,000 barrels per day.


1) With upto 15 gallons per day per deployed soldier in January 2007 the American GI is the most energy-consuming soldier ever seen on the field of war.

http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/top_5_facts_on_us_military_oil_consumption.php#


Title: Re: I found someone to blame for gas prices.
Post by: eldiablo64 on June 21, 2008, 08:18:31 AM
keep digging mccain was a big part of all that energy bill scam.


Title: Re: I found someone to blame for gas prices.
Post by: JackL on June 21, 2008, 09:01:29 AM
keep digging mccain was a big part of all that energy bill scam.



Seems you might be right, quite a bit to read.

http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS274US274&q=Enron%20Loophole%20mccain&um=1&sa=N&tab=wn