Senators Warn Bill Could Spike Gas $1.50 to $5 a Gallon Inhofe, Sessions blast massive costs of global warming legislation.
By Jeff Poor Business & Media Institute 5/15/2008 5:44:34 PM
Worried about gas prices hitting $4 a gallon and beyond? Imagine if they were $6, $7 or even $8 a gallon. Those levels are a certain possibility should Congress pass cap-and-trade legislation, which could face a vote in early June.
Oil is trading at record levels, in excess of $120 a barrel. Leading Republican Sens. James Inhofe (Okla.) and Jeff Sessions (Ala.) both told the Business & Media Institute (BMI) energy prices would drastically increase if the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 2191) is signed into law.
"The studies show it would be directly affected, would be a $1.50 a gallon, in addition to what it is today," Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said to (BMI).
Inhofe spoke at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on May 15 to introduce the "We Get It!" campaign " a program founded by evangelical Christians that question the merits of global warming alarmism. According to Inhofe, the bill will make it to the floor of the Senate on June 2.
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"So now I think we need to concentrate on what it will cost the American people," he said during the press conference. "To try to put it in a perspective people understand, if we had ratified, according to the Wharton School of Economics, the Kyoto Treaty, back five years ago, it would have cost about " between $300 and $330 billion " that was the range they had. This bill that"s up today is $471 billion " far more than that. And the question is, what do you get for it?"
Sessions, a member of the Senate"s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, went a step further. He cited sources that suggest the increase could be as much as $5 a gallon.
"[L]et me tell you what"s heading down the tracks," Sessions said to BMI on May 14. "In a few weeks, we expect that the cap-and-trade legislation that"s been voted out of Sen. Barbara Boxer"s (D-Calif.) Environment and Public Works Committee will be on the floor and according to the Environmental Protection Agency it will increase gas prices by $1.50. The National Association of Manufacturers says it will increase it as much as $5 per gallon."
Sessions proposed that money should be spent on energy investment versus a regulatory bureaucracy to enforce the provisions of the Lieberman-Warner bill.
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"So instead of actually coming forward with any idea about what to do about rising prices, we"ll soon be voting on a bill that has already passed committee, has some Republican support, that would surge the price of energy, create a bureaucracy " and I just don"t think is the right thing to do," Sessions said. "I"d rather spend our money in investing in the new the technologies, helping get nuclear power online, improving batteries, researching cellulosic ethanol. Let"s spend our money on that without creating cap-and-trade bureaucracies that have not worked in Europe."
Gas prices have been one of the most reported news stories of the past several years. Reporters have repeatedly warned of prices approaching the levels Inhofe and Sessions warned about. However, journalists have consistently complained about oil company profits, not taxes, making gas prices higher.
On NBC"s May 15 "Today," host Matt Lauer interviewed ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) CEO Rex Tillerson. Lauer quizzed Tillerson on oil companies" profit margins and higher gas prices, but Lauer didn"t ask Tillerson about the potential impact Lieberman-Warner would have on the price of gasoline.
"Well, the problem we have right now, and fortunately we have several months before the election, to make sure the American people know that this is a supply problem that is causing the gas prices to go up," Inhofe said to BMI. "You know the Democrats, right down party lines " they do not want to drill in ANWR, they do not want to drill offshore. They don"t want the tar sands. They don"t want more energy. And they don"t want refinery capacity."
The Senate defeated a measure to drill in ANWR on May 13. The vote, an amendment to another bill, was killed by a vote of 42-56, largely along party lines. Only one Democrat voted for the amendment, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), and five Republicans voting against it.
Inhofe blamed Democratic policies going as far back as the Clinton administration.
"The Democrats are the reason we have high prices at the pumps, and we"re not going to be able to alleviate that until we start producing again in America," Inhofe added. "And I knew this was happening way back, well 10 years ago, when President Clinton vetoed the bill that would have allowed us to drill in ANWR. I said on the Senate floor that day 10 years ago that in 10 years we would regret this. It"s now 10 years later."
RE: $6 to $8 a gallon gas due to global warming bill?
And this comes at a time when some global warming think tank admitted the earth will COOL OVER THE NEXT DECADE. Way to go enviro-whacko-liberals. Maybe that's the "change" Obama is talking about, massive, instant negative growth in the economy and halving of the stock market due to gas prices working people cannot afford coupled withObama's huge tax increases?
No thanks! Give us Bush again and we are MUCH better off!!!!!
RE: $6 to $8 a gallon gas due to global warming bill?
Just filled up today at $4/gal, total of about $75, filled up my lawn more gas tank the otherr day, was over $10!!!! for 2.5 gals approx....
If less cylinders gets better gas mileage, how come more 6 cylinders instead of V8's aren't coming out? ie a 6liter 6 cylinder should get better mileage than a 6liter v8.chevy has the inline 5 cylinder vs. the v6, why don't we have bigger 5 or 6 cylinders? to replace the 8's?
Seems lots of solutions out thre....and none are being tapped.
RE: $6 to $8 a gallon gas due to global warming bill?
Good post DougMD.
What do you think are the odds of it passing?
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For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do
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A golf course is a willful and deliberate misuse of a perfectly good rifle range.
RE: $6 to $8 a gallon gas due to global warming bill?
If the gov't speculates an increase of $1.50 to $5.00, don't be suprised if it's actually $3.00-$10.00.
Oh well......at least those who voted in a Dem Congress and are wishing for a Dem POTUS will get their wish for "change". 'Course when fuel goes up, everything else goes up. Guess we won't have to worry much about the obesity problem over the next four years--nobody will be able to afford to eat.
Chad
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RE: $6 to $8 a gallon gas due to global warming bill?
Quote:
ORIGINAL: salukipv1
Just filled up today at $4/gal, total of about $75, filled up my lawn more gas tank the otherr day, was over $10!!!! for 2.5 gals approx....
If less cylinders gets better gas mileage, how come more 6 cylinders instead of V8's aren't coming out? ie a 6liter 6 cylinder should get better mileage than a 6liter v8.chevy has the inline 5 cylinder vs. the v6, why don't we have bigger 5 or 6 cylinders? to replace the 8's?
Seems lots of solutions out thre....and none are being tapped.
Cyl number has little to do with it, HP is the killer, that and power to weight ratio. A full size truck with an underpowered engine will get worse mileage than the same truck with the current production engines. Want mileage? Get a scooter or a motorcycle. Get a hybrid if you can stomach the styling.....bleh. Id personaly like to see some diesel powered mid/small trucks here in the US, not sure whats keeping them out.
RE: $6 to $8 a gallon gas due to global warming bill?
Quote:
ORIGINAL: Lubricious
Quote:
ORIGINAL: salukipv1
Just filled up today at $4/gal, total of about $75, filled up my lawn more gas tank the otherr day, was over $10!!!! for 2.5 gals approx....
If less cylinders gets better gas mileage, how come more 6 cylinders instead of V8's aren't coming out? ie a 6liter 6 cylinder should get better mileage than a 6liter v8.chevy has the inline 5 cylinder vs. the v6, why don't we have bigger 5 or 6 cylinders? to replace the 8's?
Seems lots of solutions out thre....and none are being tapped.
Cyl number has little to do with it, HP is the killer, that and power to weight ratio. A full size truck with an underpowered engine will get worse mileage than the same truck with the current production engines. Want mileage? Get a scooter or a motorcycle. Get a hybrid if you can stomach the styling.....bleh. Id personaly like to see some diesel powered mid/small trucks here in the US, not sure whats keeping them out.
Emissions mainly. I would also like to see some mid-size diesel trucks.
__________________
I love Christmas lights. They remind me of the people who voted for Obama. They all hang together; half of them don't work, and the ones that do, aren't that bright.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do
not understand, no explanation is possible.
A golf course is a willful and deliberate misuse of a perfectly good rifle range.
RE: $6 to $8 a gallon gas due to global warming bill?
Quote:
Cyl number has little to do with it, HP is the killer, that and power to weight ratio. A full size truck with an underpowered engine will get worse mileage than the same truck with the current production engines. Want mileage? Get a scooter or a motorcycle. Get a hybrid if you can stomach the styling.....bleh. Id personaly like to see some diesel powered mid/small trucks here in the US, not sure whats keeping them out.
The engine that's likely to get the most mileage with everything else similar is the one that has the highest compression ratio. Gasoline engines are around 9-12.5:1 (high number is the performance engines) and diesel engines start even higher than the highest ratio for gasoline. You can't get higher compression ratios in gasoline engines because it'll cause engine knocking. We'll most likely see HCCI engines in the future. They don't use a spark plug. Only when starting the engine and when going faster than 55 mph according to one model.
RE: $6 to $8 a gallon gas due to global warming bill?
Quote:
ORIGINAL: jeepkid
Quote:
ORIGINAL: Lubricious
Quote:
ORIGINAL: salukipv1
Just filled up today at $4/gal, total of about $75, filled up my lawn more gas tank the otherr day, was over $10!!!! for 2.5 gals approx....
If less cylinders gets better gas mileage, how come more 6 cylinders instead of V8's aren't coming out? ie a 6liter 6 cylinder should get better mileage than a 6liter v8.chevy has the inline 5 cylinder vs. the v6, why don't we have bigger 5 or 6 cylinders? to replace the 8's?
Seems lots of solutions out thre....and none are being tapped.
Cyl number has little to do with it, HP is the killer, that and power to weight ratio. A full size truck with an underpowered engine will get worse mileage than the same truck with the current production engines. Want mileage? Get a scooter or a motorcycle. Get a hybrid if you can stomach the styling.....bleh. Id personaly like to see some diesel powered mid/small trucks here in the US, not sure whats keeping them out.
Emissions mainly. I would also like to see some mid-size diesel trucks.
With the price of diesel were it is now I'm not sure it a cost-effective option either. Diesel is right around $4.75/gal here, that extra mileage benefit vs. higher purchase price and fuel cost seem to get about to the same cost as a gas engine now days.
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$6 to $8 a gallon gas due to global warming bill?
