RIGHT ON - DeMint Says Energy Should Be Top Priority

WATCH THIS VIDEO ....

Senator Jim DeMint ... he is RIGHT ON !!! COMMON SENSE ...

Now, this is telling the truth!

Big Oil! Mercedes exec says Big Oil conspiring to kill U.S. diesel market

http://www.leftlanenews.com/mercedes-exec-says-big-oil-conspiring-to-kill-us-diesel-market.html

Mercedes exec says Big Oil conspiring to kill U.S. diesel market
June16

Mercedes-Benz has accused profiteering oil companies of ripping off diesel buyers and fears such action may kill the U.S. diesel passenger car market in its infancy. While oil prices have hit new highs, the pump price of diesel has surged to be more than a dollar a gallon higher than gasoline in some U.S. states, even though it is cheaper and less energy intensive to produce.

And Mercedes-Benz, which introduced its E320 BlueTEC diesel passenger car into the U.S. in 2006, is fighting back, with Daimler board member, Dr Thomas Weber, insisting there was no demand-driven reason for diesel prices to be so high.

“We knew this surge was coming in the U.S.,” Dr Weber, who heads up the Mercedes-Benz Research and Development division, told Leftlane.

“I believe there is definitely optimization of earnings by oil companies to take advantage of the higher usage of diesel today. There is not another plausible or economic explanation.”

While diesel sales are up in Europe, the economic downturn has lowered volumes in the U.S., where it is primarily a heavy transport fuel.

Even so, the U.S. Government’s Energy Information Administration reveals that diesel users have suffered more than double the gas price rises in the last year. Once cheaper, diesel is now significantly more expensive than gas everywhere in the United States.

The EIA’s data shows that while gas costs 443 cents a gallon in California, diesel there costs 499.2 cents and, in a nationwide trend, it is 72 cents more expensive on the East Coast and 63 cents more expensive in the Mid West.

While gasoline has risen 113 cents a gallon in California in the last 12 months, diesel has surged by 199.5 cents in the same period and its pump price surge has outstripped gasoline by 95.7 cents on the East Coast and 95.3 cents in the Mid West.

“The most important driver is a huge trend in diesel use in Europe, but that doesn’t explain it,” Dr Weber insisted.

“There are limitations on capacity on the refining sites, but that’s not it, either, really.

“Diesel production costs are less than the gasoline production costs so the only idea you can find is that these companies are in the business of making a profit, so that is what they do now.”

The EIA’s pump price breakdowns seem to confirm Mercedes-Benz’s allegations. While the cost of the basic crude oil accounts for 73 percent of the pump price of gasoline, it only accounts for 61 percent of the diesel price.

Instead, the EIA figures show oil companies are slugging diesel buyers by more than double diesel’s refining costs compared to gasoline. Only 10 percent of the gasoline price is in refining, while that figure leaps to 21 percent for diesel.

Nevertheless, Dr Weber predicted the massive gap between gasoline and diesel prices in the U.S., Australia and Europe would soon come to an end and, even in the meantime, they would not affect Daimler’s upcoming plans to hit the U.S. market in force with its diesel engines.

“For the customer, if they experience the advantages of diesel, they will stay with diesel anyway,” he insisted.

“The technology is 20 to 30 percent more efficient than gasoline and has more torque at lower rpm and that’s what most buyers actually use.”

Benz will launch BlueTEC diesel versions of its R-, GL and ML-class SUVs in October after receiving 50-state registration approval for the technology in March this year.

Words by Michael Taylor.

Chuck Norris - Drill Drill Drill

American Solutions says DRILL DRILL DRILL ...




Here's a good interview with Church Norris and Fox News/Fox & Friends.

Beck + The list - Why gas is so expensive

here they are ... some of our brilliant "public servants" (right!)

These are the people who just voted in a partisan fashion to not allow drilling in the outer continental shelf.

From Glenn Beck's program today ...

The list

So why IS gas so darn expensive? There are a lot of reasons, but somehow the biggest problem (as usual) points directly to Washington DC. Democrats yesterday in a subcommittee voted basically to kill going to the outer continental shelf to drill for oil because there are 'other things we can do'. Glenn would like to introduce you to the people who are preventing us from drilling here at home, because, as Glenn says, these people should be famous. When the pitchforks and torches start coming out---we'd like to help clarify who was for or against us.

AGAINST

• Chair: Norman D. Dicks (WA)
• James P. Moran (VA)
• Maurice D. Hinchey (NY)
• John W. Olver (MA)
• Alan B. Mollohan (WV)
• Tom Udall (NM)
• Ben Chandler (KY)
• Ed Pastor (AZ)
• Dave Obey (WI), Ex Officio
  

FOR
Minority Ranking Member:

• Todd Tiahrt (KS)
• John E. Peterson (PA)
• Jo Ann Emerson (MO)
• Virgil H. Goode, Jr. (VA)
• Ken Calvert (CA)
• Jerry Lewis (CA), Ex Officio

Here is the subcommittee website -- they voted down party lines on this...

Beck + More Than Big Oil

Glenn Beck: Who makes more than Big Oil?
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/11200/

CNBC interview with Sen DODD: (Unbelievable!!!)
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=766303893&play=1

• http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26822
• http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2008/06/04/planned_parenthoods_obscene_profits

Asked by a North Carolina voter whether he supported a Jimmy Carter-era windfall profits tax, McCain responded: "Um, I don't like obscene profits being made anywhere -- and I'd be glad to look not just at the windfall profits tax -- that's not what bothers me -- but we should look at any incentives that we are giving to people or industries or corporations that are distorting the market."

Glenn Beck: Who makes more than Big Oil?
June 11, 2008 - 12:54 ET

GLENN: Did he ever do private business? Dan, do you know? Did John McCain, was he ever in private business? Joe, you would probably know this. Look it up.

DAN: I don't think so.

GLENN: I don't think he was. I think he went from didn't he go right from the military right to congress? So there is a chance that he didn't understand how the economy works because he's always been in government. But this is his quote yesterday. Quote: I don't like the obscene profits that are being made anywhere and I'll be glad to look not just at the windfall profits tax. That's not what bothers me. But what we should look at is any incentives that we're giving people or that industries or corporations that are distorting the market.

Do you have the clip? Play this.

McCAIN: I don't like obscene profits being made anywhere and I'd be glad to look

GLENN: Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. He doesn't like obscene profits being made anywhere. Is anyone talking about the hedge funds? Is anyone talking is anyone in congress talking about the hedge funds? You know why? They are not talking about the hedge funds because the hedge funds give them all kinds of money. The hedge funds, these guys Chelsea Clinton works for a hedge fund. John Edwards worked for a hedge fund. Al Gore works for a hedge fund, owns his own hedge fund. Nobody wants to talk about hedge funds. You want to talk about obscene profits. Now, I don't believe this is an obscene profit. I really don't. I think if you can make this kind of a profit, God bless America. God bless America.

But here's their profit margin.

Their profit margin in hedge funds is 87%. 87% profit margin. That is printing money. So you want to talk about an obscene profit margin, there it is. Again, as a capitalist I say God bless you. But that is ten times the profit margin of oil.
Oil's profit margin is about 8.5%. This is ten times the profit.
Why are we going after them?

• How about healthcare facilities? 48%.
• Publishing, periodicals, magazines is 34%.
• Information delivery services, 23%.
• Silver is 22%.
• Application software industry is 22%.
• Shipping, 21%. Well, not anymore.
• Copper is 19%.
• Tobacco products, 19%.
• Drug manufacturers, 17%.
• Insurance brokers, 16.
• Beverages, wineries, distilleries, 15%.
• Long distance carriers, 15.8%.
• I mean, railroads, railroads, 13.9%.
• Steel and iron, 13.8.
• Cigarettes, 13.7.
• Integrated circuits, semiconductors, 13.6.
• I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on.
• Money center banks, 10.8.
• Hotel/motels, 10.6.
• Asset management, 10.5.
• Beverage, Brewers, 10.5.
• Resorts and casinos, resorts and casinos are 10.5. Casinos are 10.5.

Oil is 8.5.

I mean, when a casino makes 10.5 and a hedge fund makes 81.7, you've got to ask yourself what's an obscene profit margin. Why aren't you going after those guys? That's not the way this system works, and as soon as America figures this out, these guys are toast. When America figures out and I really believe, I believe that she will. Here's why. Here's why I have more optimism than ever before. These you know these tours always give me faith. Getting out of New York City always gives me faith. Going around the country and talking to as many people as we do. You know, we had another sold out show last night, we've got another show tonight in Portland, Maine. You know, I listen to these crowds and I listen, you know, in the first two shows because it was down in the South people were shouting stuff out and I could hear it. I mean, I could hear the frustration and I could hear the answers. The answers are there, and for the first time this is why I have more faith because for the first time I believe that the people who are normally slugs and don't say anything, they are starting to shout those answers out. They are starting to say that's not the way it works! And they are starting to get involved more than ever before. And I just don't think I think people are going to be asking questions this time, and conservatives, conservatives, not Republicans, conservatives have the answer, and the answer is not to take these oil companies and pound them into the dirt. It is to give them tax incentives to go find it. It is for congress to stay the hell out of the way. When that happens, we'll have a return to sanity. But you know what? I read the front page of the Wall Street Journal today and I have to tell you, inflation is going up. Do you know, what was the country that I said inflation went up, doubled overnight? In India, went from 4 to 8% inflation in two days! And they're all blaming it on the United States of America.