General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Please help me debunk this nonsense. I tried google and all I get is the rightwing message [View all]rainy
(6,321 posts)"Ok so, gas prices continue to go up all the wile the U.S. is exporting gas and oil companies are slowing down the refining of gas. Whats wrong with this picture?
I know, right wing economists will spout well thats just the free market responding to supply and demand
.
Theres no such thing as a free market. Our markets are not free. Our markets are the best money can buy and oil companies buy a huge chunk of them. Our Congress has long since been captured by the petroleum industry. Its so bad that oil companies which make hundreds of billions of dollars in profit actually get U.S. tax dollar subsidies. They also get access to Federal Lands at very cheap rates.
Not only that but Oil Companies rely heavily on our tax payer dollar funded military to protect their shipping lanes and secure new oil supplies (see Iraq). Oil Companies have so much money they can afford to throw billions of dollars at Congress without even noticing it to make sure no other industry can compete with them. We are at their total mercy.
So ask yourself why the oil companies are driving up gas prices? Well, for one, they dont want to see Obama re-elected. Look for Republicans to pivot in the summer and start blaming Obama for high gas prices. Second, the Oil Companies desperately want to build this Keystone XL pipeline. Why do they want the pipeline so bad? Is it so out of the goodness of their heart they can then lower gas prices?
No. They want the pipeline (which will go to the Gulf States where the bulk of refineries are) so they can export even more gas. This pipeline will do nothing to reduce gas prices. But oil companies know how the public thinks. They know that as gas prices go up the public will be more susceptible to propaganda such as we need to drill more oil here at home so we can lower gas prices!.
Why else would oil companies spend so much money buying commercial time on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News trying to convince you that all we need to do is drill more and frack more in order to solve our energy woes?
The oil market is not free. If oil companies could drill on every last square foot of land in this country and everywhere offshore gas prices would still not drop. Why? Because oil companies control the supply and as gas price drop they just stop refining gas.
In this case though their rationale is even more devious as they are trying to influence a Presidential Election and push through Congress the Keystone XL pipeline with the excuse being it will lower gas prices. They know full well it will do nothing to lower gas prices because they set the price."