It is now 2014 and it is a mid-year election cycle for American voters.
Quite frankly, as an American consumer who is hawkish to what goes on in our markets – I am sick and tired of hearing about the crude oil boom in North Dakota, more deep oil drilling throughout the midwest and Texas with nothing to show for in the way of savings for American consumers. Everyone knows that less expensive gas means less expensive products we need to buy giving Americans more expendable income.
I believe the Texas Republican politicians who are in bed with the Wall Street oil industry fat cats in our Nation are not doing enough to help the American people on main street.
Recall to your memory when in March of 2012, Congress voted to end giveaways to big oil, proposed by Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) which would stop the wasteful subsidies. As Republicans continue to rant and rave that we can’t afford public education, child care services or alternative forms of energy; they continue to support their friends in the oil business by handing out cash anytime they can. … As quoted by Sen. Menendez, sponsor of the bill, “At a time when families are feeling the pain at the pump and our deficit keeps growing at an alarming rate, we simply can’t afford to keep giving away billions in taxpayer handouts to oil companies that are doing nothing to help lower prices. … ”
That said, we have made a mental note of how quickly Republicans are to give the Texas oil industries corporate welfare via oil subsidies they take advantage of. But why aren’t American regular hardworking people seeing that passed on to us?
Gasoline Price History
The following plots show how much I paid for each gallon of gas I bought over the past 34 years or so. The data has a somewhat varied pedigree. Most of the purchases from 1979-1982 were in the Rio Vista/Fort Worth, Texas area. From late 1982-1983 was from College Station/Rio Vista about equally. From 1984-1987 was a Rio Vista/College Station/Houston mix and from 1987 on has been mostly Houston with a little Fort Worth thrown in. Just about everything pre-1984 was full service and everything since has been self-serve. Every tank shown was “super” unleaded (92-93 octane).
Three curves are shown on the first plot. The upper, black curve shows the actual price paid for each gallon. The lower curve is the data adjusted for inflation using April, 1979 as the datum. That is, the data in this curve has been adjusted to “April 1979 dollars”. The “CPI-All Urban Consumers for all items less energy” was used to adjust the data using monthly average data interpolated to the actual purchase dates. The CPI data is from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The third, faint line, shows the average price for the entire U.S., also from the BLS.
The plots contain data from 1274 fill-ups.
More on this issue … Think Progress writes:
In a 51-47 vote, 43 Senate Republicans and four Democrats filibustered to protect $24 billion in tax breaks for Big Oil. Although a majority voted for Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) bill, itfell short of the 60 needed. The only two Republicans to break rank were Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME).
A Think Progress Green analysis shows how oil and gas companies have funneled cash to the same senators who protected its handouts:
– The 47 senators voting against the bill have received $23,582,500 in career contributions from oil and gas. The 51 senators voting to repeal oil tax breaks have received $5,873,600.
– The senators who voted for Big Oil’s handouts received on average over four times as much career oil cash as those who voted to end them.
– Overall, Senate Republicans have taken $23.2 million in oil and gas contributions. Democrats received $6.66 million.
– Since 2011, Senate Republicans have voted seven times for pro-Big Oil interests and against clean energy three times.
Democrats who joined the Republicans in defeating the bill include Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Begich (D-AK), and Jim Webb (D-VA). Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) broke ranks and voted to cut the tax breaks. Two senators, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) didn’t vote.
Republicans have taken an overwhelming 88 percent of oil and gas contributions this election cycle. While showering politicans with cash, the oil industry also spent over$146,000,000 on lobbying last year.
Although 55 percent of Americans want to see Big Oil welfare end, the GOP once again largely acted in-line with their Big Oil donors.