Winter is coming and $ 4 a gallon heating oil is a major economic issue

If you live in the Northeast US or anywhere north of Florida, the news for this winter is not good.  Heating Oil costs $4 Gallon and the price of natural gas is going up at least 20%.

So what is the response from those in charge of our country to this critical issue???

Well the President and the Congress are giving it a " What do you expect us to do??" response that means many people will be freezing in their own homes as filling the oil tank with 250 gallons of heating oil costs $ 1000, and that is not something that most people can spare right now.

Read what the WSJ had to say about what our President has done to make us more energy independent - Those clueless enough to vote for the President might want to rethink their vote.

President Obama is campaigning as a champion of the oil and gas boom he’s had nothing to do with, and even as his regulators try to stifle it. The latest example is the Interior Department’s little-noticed August decision to close off from drilling nearly half of the 23.5 million acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.

The area is called the National Petroleum Reserve because in 1976 Congress designated it as a strategic oil and natural gas stockpile to meet the “energy needs of the nation.” Alaska favors exploration in nearly the entire reserve. The feds had been reviewing four potential development plans, and the state of Alaska had strongly objected to the most restrictive of the four. Sure enough, that was the plan Interior chose.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says his plan “will help the industry bring energy safely to market from this remote location, while also protecting wildlife and subsistence rights of Alaska Natives.” He added that the proposal will expand “safe and responsible oil and gas development, and builds on our efforts to help companies develop the infrastructure that’s needed to bring supplies online.”

The problem is almost no one in the energy industry and few in Alaska agree with him. In an August 22 letter to Mr. Salazar, the entire Alaska delegation in Congress—Senators Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski and Representative Don Young—call it “the largest wholesale land withdrawal and blocking of access to an energy resource by the federal government in decades.” This decision, they add, “will cause serious harm to the economy and energy security of the United States, as well as to the state of Alaska.” Mr. Begich is a Democrat.

The letter also says the ruling “will significantly limit options for a pipeline” through the reserve.

So we have anabundent supply but the FEDS have decided they would rather import oil from overseas.  In the meantime, people will freeze in their homes while the pols dither.  We deserve better.

And the hits just keep on coming....More Pain at the Pump as IRAN now controls OPEC

More of what we DON'T need.

Gasoline was $1.86 in January 2009 when the Doofus in the White House took over and now it averages DOUBLE that in the range of $3.70 - 3.80+ a gallon. Well we all know that the President campaigned that he would deal with the Oil companies....RIGHT. The "Pain at the Pump" is now twice as bad as it was in 2009 and for many families, that means doing w/o other items because we have to put more in the tank....Don't forget winter will be rolling around in a few months so the pain will be trying to keep your home warm also.

Now there's this piece of pissa news - Iranian President Whack-amin-Nutjob and his pals are in control of OPEC.

But then again, POTUS made sure he apologized to the world for all the terrible things we have allegedly done...what a PUTZ.

The "Bad Guys" overseas don't give a rat's arse for apologies, they only recognize dealing from a position of strength. They see apologies like the ones that POTUS has made as a sign of weakness and lack of will to defend yourself.

As Tom Cruise's character said in A FEW GOOD MEN, " And the hits just keep on coming.."

POTUS won't have to worry about any of this as he & his minions are on the government dole for the rest of their lives....The pain will be borne by the rest of the 250 million Americans who try to earn a paycheck & don't have the US Government picking up the tab for everything.


Iran revolutionary guards commander becomes new president of Opec
Rostam Ghasemi joins Ahmadinejad cabinet as oil minister, automatically making him head of global oil organisation

Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 03AUG2011

A commander of Iran's revolutionary guards has taken over presidency of Opec.

A senior Iranian revolutionary guards commander targeted by international sanctions has taken over the presidency of Opec after he became Iran's oil minister on Wednesday.

Rostam Ghasemi, head of the Khatam al-Anbia military and industrial base, was one of four ministersnominated by president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to join his cabinet last week and approved by Iran's conservative-dominated parliament.

Ghasemi is currently subject to US, EU and Australian sanctions and his assets have been blacklisted by US Treasury and western powers. He took 216 votes from the 246 deputies present in the 290-seat parliament.

Iranian state media interpreted the vote as a reaction by Iran's parliament to international sanctions against the country, especially those which have targeted the revolutionary guards and the country's nuclear programme.

"The clever and decisive vote of Iranian MPs for engineer Ghasemi to become the oil minister is a meaningful and crucial response to the attacks against the guards from the west's media empire," said Ramedan Sharif, the head of the revolutionary guards public relations' unit, in quotes carried by Iran's semi-official Fars news agency.

In a parliamentary debate before the vote, however, Ali Motahari, a prominent conservative MP who has previously threatened to impeach Ahmadinejad, spoke out against the involvement of the revolutionary guards in Iran's politics.

"The integration of the guard, as a military force, in political and economic power is not in the interests of the system," Motahari told the parliament. "In neighboring countries, military officials are distancing themselves from politics and power, while it's the opposite in Iran."

The appointment of Ghasemi as Iran's oil minister automatically makes him the head of Opec which has a crucial role in determining oil prices.

As its second-largest crude oil exporter, Iran took the presidency of Opec after 36 years last October and Ghasemi's position will give the revolutionary guards a unique opportunity to influence an international organisation.