Holy thundering tar balls...

All fine and dandy but for just a few small things...

Removing speculation pricing won't lower gas prices, but I think it will remove the peaks and valleys that have plagued the wallets of Americans since 2001, while at the same time reducing the percentage that gas prices climb over time. THAT is the example that I think Reagan's efforts give us... a flat, steady price for gasoline over extended periods of time.

I do think you're right about the "Algorians" and their efforts to drive the price UP so as to make alternative means more attractive... but you are also giving them far too much credit. We are talking about liberals and socialists... the quickest, most efficient means by which they can manipulate the price of anything is through taxes, and let's face it: the largest contributing factor in the cost associated with gasoline (or any petroleum product) cost is taxes. Federal drilling fees, shipping fees, building fees, corporate taxes, taxes at the pump... THAT is what drives up the cost of oil via the "Algorians" far more than the actual availability of crude oil on the global market.

If the cost of a gallon of gas is $3.00 a gallon, then $1.80 of that cost is associated and direct taxes implemented by the various Federal and State organs onto the cost to the consumer. That's 60% of what were paying right now... and without it, we pay $1.20 per gallon. In fact, without doing a ton of homework, I'm thinking the actual percentage of taxes built into a gallon of gas (on average... some states are higher than others) is more like 67%.

What would happen to our economy if THAT were no longer a factor? What would happen to consumer spending if that much could be saved in just one vital resource like gasoline? Just about every single thing we spend money on would reduce in price... seriously, every single thing.

On a slightly different topic...

Jambo is repeatedly talking about the coal-to-gas technology that allows coal to be turned into the primary ingredient of gasoline. This isn't science fiction, it is fact. Right here in Pennsylvania, the entire fleet of the State DOT is run on coal-to-gas gasoline. That is a good thing when the price of gas is over $3.20 per gallon... but when it is under $3 a gallon, then the cost is subsidized by the Commonwealth, and that means more State and local taxes. I don't bitch about this because it is nice to see PA doing something as a sovereign State for once, rather than as a lapdog of the Federal government... but it shows that the technology hasn't caught up to the actual market prices yet.

This ties in with Ryan's call for more power plants. PA has five operational nuclear power stations, which produce about 35% of the state's needs in electricity. I get power from one of these plants (Susquehanna 1, in Luzerne County), which has been online since 1983 and has had its operational license extended for another 20 years. PA also has licenses for an additional five plants that have not been built yet, and one of these would also be in my general area (Berwick, PA). The current cost associated with any one of these plants means that they need to operate at least for 51 years before they have paid for themselves. This isn't because PA residents are paying too little for their power... we are ranked 11th in the nation for cost of electricity... but because of the staggering cost associated with construction and maintenance of these facilities. Allowing the additional plants to be built would double the number, and more than double the amount of electricity produced, thus reducing the cost of electricity across the state while ensuring adequate power loads well into this century. It also means that traditional, older coal-fired plants would be able to operate at a greater profit and for longer lifespans (because they would not need to work as hard to keep power flowing) with less emissions (I shudder to say that, but it is a concern in this tree-hugging day) in areas where the nuclear power coverage is less-than adequate.

In the short version, building these five plants would cost the Commonwealth hundreds of millions in initial outlays and construction, but the rewards would be almost immediately felt once they were online. Removing the governmental barriers that are holding up construction NOW would be a great thing... but it wouldn't be easy and it won't be cheap. THESE are the kinds of deregulation we need, but I still maintain that the Reagan curbs on speculation pricing were a GOOD THING, and they need to be put back in place NOW... behind closed doors or not.