HAPPY DAYS...LOWER GAS PRICES WILL BE BACK

Think for a minute. When's the last time you read or heard someone use the term "joyriding," or "cruising"? Not only have the high gas prices changed our way of life, they've even had their effect on the way we even talk. Doesn't it seem so long ago that you could actually fill up the tank and go joyriding? Seems like eons. But despite all the cultural calamity we've suffered from 4-dollar gas, some good things may be lurking on the horizon at the gas pump. But this seems unlikely due to all the negative momentum out there from the high prices.

But the good news is, the way to cheaper gas is as close as the local ballot box. In November, just vote out all these entrenched incumbents in Congress, who come from the school of thought that professes..."We can't drill our way out...we need to move to new energy alternatives instead of dirty oil"...blah-blah. But how un-American of an attitude is that? We cant? We can't what...drill? Oh yes we can Ms. Pelosi. 72% of Americans are saying "yes we can"; and they sure won't be voting for Barack either. The yes we can man is "no we can't" on drilling offshore. And he's made his electoral bed on this issue, along with the rest of the democratic crowd that all poll-parrot the same negative refrains about our energy situation.

The democrats like the high gas prices. They hope that's enough to get them elected because, "the public will blame Bush". It's that simple. Of course this begs the question: "Well jeez, aren't they trying to protect the environment?" Yes folks; there are unfortunately a lot of idealists who support Obama and the democrats on this cover story for their real objective...they want the power of the electoral triumverate; House control, Senate majority, and chief executive.

Currently the anti-drillers continue to block changes in our no-new-domestic-drilling policy. The continental shelf and Anwar shall not be touched by the drill bit. But this only has served to embolden our commodity friends at the NYBOT (New York Board of Trade), who then bid the future price of oil even higher, knowing that ever growing world demand won't be offset by any new world supply coming online any time soon. But is that trend about to end?

The key word here is FUTURE. If congress were to sign off today on drilling in the outer shelves, and ok'd ANWAR, the price of crude oil would plummet overnight. The commodity traders who are "long" (i.e. those who have bet the future price of crude would go up) would immediately sell, driving down oil prices below $100.

What's important here is traders are always betting on future prices (that's why they're called futures contracts). So with any percieved new world supply from the USA coming online, oil's upward flight would be grounded. How low it would go depends on politics. And with the majority of Americans being pro-drilling, it portends that prices may fall even faster than when they went up. And at around $70 a barrel we would see 2-dollar gas again.

We may be stuck with the high prices for now, but we have technology and the 'net. We have many visionary people with an innovative entrepreneurial spirit, and intense determination. Even if the democrats win in November, we're still a country of free enterprise an free thinking. The old saying goes..."when you get a lemon, you make lemonade". The smart money is on the side that bets that we'll literally THINK our way out of this...that innovation will enable us to evolve to a solution. And we'll eventually be able to free ourselves from the OPEC fat cats.

Learn more about this author, Rich Sabatini.
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