Breakdown of cost of gasoline

Here is a breakdown of the cost of a gallon of gasoline.
If crude oil is $140 per barrel, the cost of the gasoline from that barrel is $71.96.
A barrel of oil is 42 gallons. Of that 21.5 gals of gasoline can be refined from the 42 gals.
That come to $3.34 per gal. for cost of oil.

Here is the breakdown from California on June 23 2008, to produce one gal of gasoline.

3.22 Cost of crude
0.18 Federal tax
0.34 State and local taxes
0.18 State exise tax
0.12 marketing and distribution
0.53 Refining cost and profit

4.59 Retail price

The taxes vary from state to state and the additives vary which is why California is higher.
The costs associated with refining and terminal operations, crude oil processing, oxygenate additives, product shipment and storage, oil spill fees, depreciation, purchases of gasoline to cover refinery shortages, brand advertising, and profits.

As you can see the main cost of a gal. of gas is the cost of the crude, $3.22. The second highest part is $.70 per gal tax. that puts the cost at $3.92 per gal before the oil company even gets the oil to the refinery.

The way to pay less is very obviously to lower the cost of the crude.
The cost of the crude oil in Jan 2007 was $62 per barrel. Just changing that has raised the price of gasoline from $1.42 per gal to $3.22, in 18 months.

Should we drill in ANWR?

According to the Department of Interior's 1987 resource evaluation of ANWR's Coastal Plain, there is a 95% chance that a 'super field' with 500 million barrels would be discovered. DOI also estimates that there exists a mean of 3.5 billion barrels, and a 5% chance that a large Prudhoe Bay type discovery would be made.
The map on the left shows Alaska, the orange part shows ANWR., the yellow part shows where we want to explore, and the part that would be developed would most likely be less than 15 square miles. The governor of Alaska, the house and senate reps for Alaska, and most of the residents of Alaska want the exploration and developement.
This area is also an area that contains flat grassland tundra, that no trees or any of nature would have to be damaged.
The other photo shows the impact of drilling at Prudhoe bay on the wildlife. No impact at all.
Lastly here is the estimates of resources in the area.
U.S. Geological Survey - 1980. In 1980, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the Coastal Plain could contain up to 17 billion barrels of oil and 34 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
This leaves no doubt in my mind we need to pursue this huge potential.
To find more info, check out this site. www.anwr.org/

socialized medicine

Here is a short story from Powerline blog.

Claude Castonguay is the father of socialized medicine in Canada. In the 1960s, he chaired a Quebec commission whose recommendation of a government-run health care system for that province was adopted, and quickly spread to the rest of the country. Now, after forty years of experience with socialized medicine, Castonguay has changed his mind:

Four decades later, as the chairman of a government committee reviewing Quebec health care this year, Castonguay concluded that the system is in "crisis."

"We thought we could resolve the system's problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it," says Castonguay. But now he prescribes a radical overhaul: "We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice."

A novel idea! When the first countries adopted socialized medicine, it was a mistake. For the U.S. to do it now, in the face of disastrous experience wherever it has been tried, would be a crime.

Global warming arnold schwarznegger

California gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is on the side of global warming. He has repeatedly told the average people how we need to conserve and cut back on greenhouse gasses. He spoke a climate change summit today saying how we need to clean up, he said "Our nation needs to follow California's roadmap to a new energy policy-one that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, emphasizes greater innovation in new technologies and gives consumers fuel choices."
The gov lives in a suburb of L.A. and works in Sacramento, he commutes to work everyday in his gulfstream 5, this is from the gulstream website. The Gulfstream V has a large, wide-bodied, stand-up cabin and offers superb performance and unrivalled luxury for long-range and transatlantic flights. The Gulfstream V is the worlds ultimate business aircraft, accommodating up to 16 passengers in unsurpassed comfort while cruising at Mach 0.80, at altitudes up to 51,000 feet. With a range of more than 5,500 nautical miles, non-stop transoceanic flights are routine.
that is really conserving and making a contribution to lower greenhouse gasses.

Obama and Cap Gains Tax

Obama said in march that he will raise the capital gains tax. The rate is currently 15%. Obama said he will not go over 28% when he raises it. That is basically double.
There are hundreds of millions of dollars in investments right now with big capital gains sitting there.
What do you think will happen to the market if Obama is elected? Before he takes office, the people that control these big mutual funds will sell so they will not have to pay the extra 13% in tax.
What will that do to the market?

Fairness doctrine

Speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi also wants to take away our rights of free speech, by bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. Because of the fact that successful talk radio is more conservative, the liberals want to stop it from being successful. Liberals have tried to compete, but nobody listens to there stations. The problem is that most people can see that the conservative views are based on liberty, freedom, common sense, and truth, and the liberal views are mostly socialist views and lies.
Liberal views are also mostly negative and doom and gloom.

Lowering gas prices

Congress could lower gas prices within a week if they would lift the ban on drilling offshore, and in Anwr. The message to the world would be, we are going to fix the problem of high oil prices. This would stop the speculation that the price is going to keep rising, it would come down.
It is obvious to anyone that we are going to need oil for quite some time if we want our economy to keep growing. the argument that liberals are using that it would not put any new oil on the market for years my be true, but is that a reason not to try to fix it? If they would not have blocked the drilling and exploration from 1994 up to the present, we would not have this problem now.
A philosophy like that is the same as saying, there is no point in living healthy, it will not make any difference in the next week or months, so why try.

D.C gun ban decision

Today was a good day for liberty and personal rights. The supreme court decision on the D.C. gun ban was a win for the rights of the people and the founding fathers of our country. The second amendment does mean what it says, we have the right to own guns and to keep them. The D.C. gun ban is just another case of stopping the law abiding people from owning guns while having no effect on the criminals. Banning guns is being tried in England and Australia, in both cases the crime rates have increased since the ban, the thieves know that if they break into your house, even if you are there, you will not be able to stop them from robbing you.