Oil At $75 Per Barrel: Bush Reneges On Promise To "Jawbone The Saudis"

So much for the main reason Republican voters kept supporting George W. Idiot for so long: cheap gasoline. That 2ooo presidential campaign promise to "jawbone the Saudis" has turned out to be just another Bush lie.

No withdrawals from strategic oil reserve needed

Q: The Energy Secretary said he would not tap US strategic petroleum reserves in order to drive down prices saying those reserves are for emergencies. But given the shortages that exist, do you consider this an appropriate time to tap those reserves?

A (Bush): No, I don'’t. I agree with the energy secretary that the strategic petroleum reserve is meant for a national wartime emergency. What I think the president ought to do is get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots. One reason why the price is so high is because the price of crude oil has been driven up. OPEC has gotten its supply act together and it'’s driving the price, like it did in the past. And the president must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price. And if in fact there is collusion amongst big oil, he ought to intercede there as well.

Source: GOP Debate in Manchester NH Jan 26, 2000

Oil was $28 per barrel when Bush promised to jawbone. His Kool Aid guzzlers ran to the polls and turned a blind eye when he lost to Gore, and they cheered when the George W. Supreme Court appointed him Jawboner-In-Chief.

Suckers.

US won't ask OPEC for more oil

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman on Friday said he will not ask the OPEC cartel to pump more oil even though gasoline prices are soaring and Republican congressional leaders want the White House to do more to fight rising energy costs.

High energy prices will be on the agenda this weekend at the International Energy Forum in Doha, Qatar, which will be attended by officials from 65 countries, including the United States and members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries,

The price for U.S. crude oil hit a record $75.35 a barrel on Friday at the New York Mercantile Exchange and gasoline at $3 a gallon continues to spread to many U.S. cities and towns.

Bodman, who will be at the Doha meeting, told reporters that OPEC members and other oil producing nations "are largely producing everything that they can produce."

Bodman supports the position of OPEC ministers that oil supplies are plentiful at the moment. "They believe, and I don't have any reason to doubt them, that the oil markets are well-supplied," he said.

Some gasoline distribution terminals from Virginia to Massachusetts are already seeing shortages as the industry transitions to ethanol. That's helping to push up pump prices.

Bodman said he was not aware of any profiteering by U.S. oil companies in the current spike in crude oil and gasoline prices. "We continue to watch that," he said.

Republicans are worried that consumer anger over high gasoline prices will hurt them in this year's mid-term congressional elections.

Hope you're happy now, Kool Aid Guzzlers.


So you think you know Delilah?
Judges 16:19-- And she made him (Samson) sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head.