The big July 4th weekend is coming up—and that means two things: holiday get togethers—and a recess for Congress— a Congress that has yet to do anything significant to help us with the increasing heavy burden brought about by high gas prices…

Last week, Senator Joe Lieberman’s Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee held a hearing looking at excessive speculation in oil markets.

The committee heard from a variety of people who claimed the price of gas could drop TWO BUCKS a gallon with-in 30 days of the passage a bill curbing speculation in the oil markets. That legislation has been pending since April—as we told you in this post last week.

Some industry analysts say— speculation is adding between $65 and $75 dollars to every barrel of oil.

As you can read here—there are 9 different bills dealing with speculation currently pending before the house. But it seems unlikely they will deal with any of them before the July 4th recess…

Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the house COULD address the speculation issue the week of July 7th.

But, Michigan’s Bart Stupak–who is a big advocate of the legislation—-says he doesn’t see the measures being put to a vote till sometime in July…

Meanwhile—the price of gas—and everything that relies on it from power to food—continues to soar.

Perhaps we ought to use the July congressional recess to do a little lobbying of our own.

When our lawmakers come back to district— put their feet to the oil-fueled fire.

Demand to know WHY they aren’t acting on legislation that would help the already stretched- too- financially thin —average American.

Make sure that hotdogs aren’t the only thing Bar-B-Qed this holiday.

Let’s get Congress to do something more than blow hot air our way while they grow fat off our tax dollars.

—Steve

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They say a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind—and both my desk and my mind are filled with little nuggets of things that are bothering me…

That’s why it’’s time for more:

NAME GAME #1

What’s in a name? Depending on your perspective—a lot.

Shawn Replogle— one of my partners in the world of TV news— is expecting his first child…

Ultra-sound reveals he and his wife will be having a boy…

There-in lies the problem….

Although Shawn is one of the most agreeable guys in the world—he and his lovely wife can’t agree on a name for the baby.

Shawn—who idolizes the legendary Johnny Cash—wants to name his son Cash.

His wife prefers the more traditional Nathan.

In an effort to help our colleague out—another one of our photographers here at NBC-17 set up a name poll on his blog. Jeremy “J-DOG” Baker will keep the poll be active for the next 100 days.

You can help Shawn and Melissa with their baby name dilemma.

Link here to the poll, and tell them whether their kid ought to be named after a hotdog chain, an iconic singer or after the trouble-making colleague “J-Dog” who setup the baby-poll to begin with….

NAME GAME #2

Ever wondered what it would be like to have a famous name? A name so popular—you could even use it to become elected president?

Well, wish no more.

This little website will do that for you—the same way it did it for me!

Your chance to have fun comes at the end of the clip…

GIVING US TANKS—OR IN THE TANK?

Will congress actually DO something to help to dramatically lower gas prices here?

They’re being lobbied right now to pass a law to limit speculation in energy-futures markets.

As you can read here, oil industry analysts like Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co say passage of the bill could drop the price of gasoline to 2 BUCKS a gallon in as little as 30 days after the passage of the bill.

We told you about this bill last April—–and how it was just sitting before Congress

Here’s what we said then…

ORIGINALLY POSTED APRIL 28, 2008

~~~~~~

And WHY is the cost of gasoline jumping up every day?

Part of it is due to speculators in the market.

Gary Harris, executive director of the North Carolina Petroleum and Convenience Marketers Association told me that up to a dollar a gallon is tacked on to the price of fuel as the result of speculators.

He also says a bill sits before congress that would help control the costs generated by speculators— if only our lawmakers would act on it..

That legislation would require speculators to actually store a percentage of the gas they bid on…

Since most speculators are doing their business on paper and lack the storage facilities, experts believe that will reduce the amount of gas that’s traded as a commodity thus helping to control the price…

~~~~~~

That’s what clutters my mind….

What’s clogging up yours?

—Steve

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As the price of oil continues its relentless climb upward—some fear there is no end in sight.

And with some experts claiming we’ve past peak oil production on this planet—they say we have no option but to continue paying more and more for less and less raw product.

But—that view’s being challenged in a new book that claims the earth has more oil than we think—and the high prices are not due to shortage of product—but rather due to a shortage of refineries.

In their book, “Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil authors Jerome Corsi and Craig R. Smith claim among other things that:

• There’s more proven petroleum reserves than ever before, despite the increasing consumption rates.
• New oilfields are being discovered at an increasing rate.
• Since 1980, proven oil reserves have gone from 645 billion barrels to 1.28 trillion barrels.

Why so much oil?

Well, Corsi and Smith say the theory that there’s a finite amount of oil created by decaying dinosaurs is wrong.

In their book, they cite evidence they claim shows oil is abiotic.

That means the planet continually creates oil deep with-in itself—and that the spinning of the planet brings the oil up to obtainable levels through centrifugal force.

Their solution to our oil dilemma—drill more and refine more.

Granted creating the infrastructure need to do that drilling and refining needs to be built—-but crash programs could significantly cut the time needed to do that.

Say Corsi and Smith—there’s enough oil for hundreds of years—if only we fix the way we obtain it.

—Steve

Link to the video and the story Steve covered today on NBC-17

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