Obama calls on Congress, Oil Subsidies near an end.

Awhile back I signed up for the regular White House newsletter. I received this about a day ago. It also comes with a video of Obama's 'Weekly Address'

"Good morning,

This week, as gas prices hit four dollars a gallon, oil companies like ExxonMobil announced skyrocketing profits -- while still receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies.

There's something wrong with this picture, and in this video President Obama outlines the steps we're taking to make it right:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIc83PWSBF4"]YouTube - Weekly Address: Ending Taxpayer Subsidies for Oil Companies

A few weeks ago, I emailed you about rising gas prices, and I want to give you a quick update on three important steps:

* Ending oil and gas subsidies. Oil companies are receiving $4 billion a year in taxpayer subsidies that don't make sense and that we can't afford. That's why President Obama has called on Democrats and Republicans in Congress to stop subsidizing the oil and gas industry so that we can afford to invest in the clean energy economy of tomorrow.
* Stopping oil market fraud. Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a working group focused on rooting out the cases of fraud in the oil markets that might affect gas prices (the President discussed this in his Weekly Address last Saturday).
* Reducing our dependence on oil. Stepping back to look at the bigger picture, President Obama recently unveiled his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future that set a goal of reducing our imports of foreign oil by a third in a little over a decade. To do this we have to increase our domestic energy production, reduce our demand for oil by building cleaner, more efficient vehicles, and fully utilize alternatives to oil in the transportation sector like natural gas and advanced biofuels.

These are difficult issues to tackle, and it's going to take all of us working together to move forward. For years, politicians in Washington have kicked this problem down the road, but we simply cannot afford the price of inaction any longer.

Sincerely,

David Plouffe
Senior Advisor to the President"

Lets hope he holds to his word.

 

Won't cutting the funding naturally make gas companies charge more for oil? Since they are gonna be losing almost $4bil a year, they're gonna have to 'make up for the loss' somehow..

 

This would be their response and justification, yes.

 

yeah they will...8 dollar a gallon gas.

 

Can't that be illegal somehow? Obviously they're not hurting for money if they have record-breaking profits..

 

They will call 'indian giving' and be upset. They might try to raise the gas prices, but this will just call for more government intervention/involvement. If they are smart they will take the punch to the arm and grit their teeth, like you said its not a big loss anyway.

EDIT:

Thanks to whomever moved this thread. A big 'Doh!' on my part.

 

This is why I am getting a horse..

 

Obama, there's a plant called cannabis, and you know what? You can use it for fuel. In fact, Henry Ford made prototype cars that ran on hemp and also used hemp plastics (10 times stronger than steel) as some of the material to build the cars. In fact, there are people in this present age who have successfully made hemp cars.

Ah, what's that? A silly joke that is to you, right?

Seriously, I hate it whenever cannabis is brought up, and he just regards it as some big joke. Ignores all the uses.

There's also electric cars, too.

This all could have been implemented a long time ago, and yet things are still allowed to continue.

 

Sounds like a dog and pony show to me.

Back in the 80s where I worked we had a special phrase for liars of this type.

He's talking out of both sides of his mouth.

I would love to see that idiots tele-prompter breakdown in the middle of a speech and there is no spare available!!

 

Great. Now take that $4bil and invest in technologies using zero hydrocarbons so we can get off an oil-based living.

 

If that stuff ever comes out.. it will be so expensive that the average person won't be able to afford to put out and we will still be slaving away with gas prices that are killing the american people and lining the pockets of the already rich...

 

Somewhere in the 19th century we moved from free transport - horse and carriage, bicycle and walking to paying for expensive petrol to run our cars. Same transition is going to happen, it's happened before and will happen again. The governments of the world need to make sure it happens and not let the corporations dictate to them anything different.

And if it doesn't happen, i'm not worried. It will be interesting to watch what happens to civilization around a shrinking supply of oil that they've built it and based it upon, like maggots quickly running out of meat on a decaying carrion corpse they're devouring. Grab your popcorn and pull up a chair....

 

Oil prices are going up, in part, due to the weakness of The Dollar.

Oil prices are going up for the same reason Gold prices are rising, or milk, or bacon or any other consumer commody.

It is insulting to hear this partisan drivel about Oil Companies and thier profits.

Obama: do something about our deficit spending, about fraud and self dealing within Washington. Please cut subsidies for all.

Some folks in Washington are seeking to increase goverment limits on debt and borrrowing. How do you think The Dollar will react to that.

:biggrinjester:

 

Nationalize 'em--use the profits to pay off the national debt. oooo-scary. Small diesel engines with hemp or some other non-food oil would be the ticket,long term.

 

now that sounds just like are govt. stuff like this needs to come to a end yet they want to cut programs we need

 

"When your born your given a ticket to the freak show, when your born in America your given a front row seat" - George Carlin

Loved the maggots and meat analogy, very true.

 

YaY! here we go more bio-fuel and investments in electric cars... lets destroy our planet even faster!

^^^Cuz damned if they will invest in SMART alternative energy methods such as solar power and wind turbines.. "oh noez.. those turbines make a humming noise.. my trailer walls cannot keep the sound out"

 

Well no. My understanding is that the barrelprice is a traded price. Oil companys dont set that price. The price is up due to speculation. It wouldnt suprise me however to learn that the speculators forcing the price up also work for the oil companys..

 

Likewise, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the government knew about it and willfully provided cover via refusal to look into the matter as a price fixing scheme.

 

I HATE OBAMA! Hes the fucking anti-christ for shit sakes!