I just posted two petitions on We The People of whitehouse.gov, on gas prices and ethanol, two topics near and dear to my heart. You can check them out at the links below, and if you agree with them, please sign them, and pass them on.

Thank you!
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You can view and sign the first petition here:

http://wh.gov/iDJUx

Repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard which requires ethanol to be blended into gasoline.

A small number of big corn growers are making huge profits from the requirement to put ethanol into gasoline, at the expense of the majority of the American people. Diverting corn to make ethanol fuel is negatively affecting food prices, which is unconscionable at a time when so many people are going hungry. Ethanol in gasoline harms older cars because it is corrosive and absorbs water from the air. It also costs Americans more money because cars get lower mileage on ethanol-gas than pure gasoline because ethanol contains less combustion energy. It takes energy to make ethanol, so it does not really save any oil. Gasoline consumption is declining in the U.S. and oil production is increasing - there is no need for this illogical
ethanol requirement.

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You can view and sign the second petition here:

http://wh.gov/iDJR3

Take any and all measures to end the financial speculation which is manipulating the price of oil.

Financial speculators control the price of oil, not consumer supply and demand, which is causing extreme price fluctuations and artificially high costs. Oil is a strategic resource that underlies the cost of everything. Financial manipulation has hurt the American people, and damaged the economy. This is an unconscionable transfer of wealth from the many to the few. The only way there will be any stability is if the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 and The Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 are repealed, and along with them, ending the 16 to 1 leverage allowed by current margin rules for oil futures trading; require that all purchasers oil futures contracts take physical delivery of the oil; and require that
all oil futures trading be on a regulated exchange.

 

 

Don't mess with Big Oil.
Didn't you see "Three Days of The Condor"?

 

Yeah, I am upset too...

Down under (Australia) we are currently paying $1.65 AUD Per Litre for premium fuel or about $6.60 a US gallon...or $1.32 for standard unleaded or $5.28 a US Gallon.
E10 here is about 50 cents a gallon cheaper again.

Just thought you may be interested..

 

Seriously, one of the worst things about the ethanol subsidy is that farmers are farming previously fallow grassland and watersheds and even cultivating federal land with no oversight, leading to the erosion of more topsoil and more contamination of streams and rivers with pesticides, herbicides, and nitrogen from fertilizer, which is increasing the already large dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
Compound that with the enormous damage from the Deep Horizon oilspill disaster (for which BP has the nerve to say that the Gulf is "open for business"), and the Gulf region is becoming more fragile all the time.

 

I got to spend some time with a US oil bigwig last week while at a convention (unrelated).

If you think the US had anything to do (directly) with the recent drop in prices you are naive. OPEC dumped oil onto the market to shake up our perceived independence from them.