Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Do you know who's in charge of OPEC?

Right now it is Rostam Ghasemi, who is the head of Iran's petroleum and energy departments.


As you're probably aware, the price of crude oil is one factor, a pretty big one, in the price we pay at the pump. And though the Saudis are generally friendly to us, obviously, the Iranians are not. And with support of Venezuala on the OPEC board, I would expect Ghasemi to do everything in his power to push the price of crude oil higher.


Currently crude is trading around $86 per barrel. The Saudis prefer crude to trade in the $90 - $100 range. But Iran needs crude to go for around $150 per barrel to begin to profit from their sales through the cartel.


If you're paying $4 per gallon now, a 67% increase in the price of crude would jump your gas to almost $7 per gallon. Remember how it was when gas hit $6 per gallon a while back? And don't for a minute think that is not exactly the type of calamity Iran and Venezuala want again in this country.


Struggling with crushing debt and unemployment, then coupled with a huge spike in fuel prices, it could put this country in a tailspin of unimagined consequence. And do not forget, crude oil prices effect more than just gasoline. Petroleum products are in every aspect of our lives, from plastics to Preparation H -- it is the magic of the substance, the myriad of uses that haters often forget about in their preachy, faux ecological whinings.


We have oil reserves under the ocean all around this country, not to mention in remote areas of Alaska. We have oil shale and coal sands between us and Canada that when coal-to-liquid technology is applied, would supply us with synthetic crude in quantities that dwarf what Saudi Arabia has in extracted crude, and at a fraction of the price.


And we have an administration in this country, so feckless and intent on socialist re-imagining of our society, that they handcuff and demonize the very industries that could get us out of this very dangerous situation. And those industries provide jobs, thousands of tax-paying jobs.


Remember that as this election winds up.