Of course not! But today in an article in the Post-Tribune here in NW Indiana, a person interviewed told the reported something of that sort:

“The wave of $2-a-gallon gasoline that has been sweeping across the country finally hit Northwest Indiana.Mohammed Shad, whose family has owned the Speed Mart at Indiana 130 and Indiana 149 west of Valparaiso for five years, said he lowered the price for regular grade gas at the convenience store outlet to $1.99 at 6 p.m. Tuesday night after seeing the market continue to slide downward from $60 a barrel this week.”

There are actually two gas stations, the one above and the Family Express station at 130 and Tower Road, in a gas price war driving prices about 15 cents lower than surrounding areas. Next we get to the most worrisome part:

Evelyn Murchek of Portage said she was driving by when she spotted the sign and turned in for a fill-up that was 14 cents a gallon cheaper than her last one. “At first I thought it was the price for E-85. It probably has something to do with Obama,” she said.

What? Are you serious? That’s absolute hogwash. If anything the price drop on a gallon of gas is 80% the economic recession, and 20% the implicit threat from the Republican Congress that they will push again this year for more oil drilling domestically. Remember the #dontgo movement during the summer? Speaker Pelosi sent Congress home without voting on oil drilling, so the Republicans stayed in the dark with no microphones or media coverage and kept debating the issue to demand that Congress return. Barack Obama may have a lot to do with positive feelings for some, but he has absolutely nothing to do with gasoline dropping under $2.00 … If anything his environmental policies and ideas will push oil right back up to over $100 soon. And by the way, gas prices have been under $2.00 in lots of states for weeks … Indiana especially NW Indiana is late to drop because of foolish EPA rules that make us make special gasoline for our area, which costs more.

Editor’s Note: House Minority Leader John Boehner has faced criticism for not being a strong leader. The below is a look at a specific issue where relaxed leadership may not have been the best strategy.

By: Jack Flock

I would like to see new leadership for the house GOP. I think this past summer’s energy issue is a good example of how poor leadership from Boehner cost us making more hay from the issue.

Boehner allowed, or did not discourage, anyone and everyone from offering up some sort of energy legislation. As a result we ended up with 17-plus pieces of energy legislation swirling around the House.

This allowed every moderate Democrat to be able to “co-sponser” one of the many energy bills and then campaign back in the district that they are “for increasing domestic energy production” knowing full well that with support spread over 17-plus bills NOTHING would have enough support to actually move forward with any chance of passage. Knowing full well there was no danger of upsetting Nancy Pelosi and the extreme environmentalists.

 Baron’s been exceptionally transparent with his phony pandering of late, and the Indiana Daily Student calls him on it:

Lately, Baron Hill has been looking more like a populist than an economist. This was evident in his support of the Commodity Markets Transparency and Accounting Act, which recently passed through the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bill is supposed to increase regulation on oil speculators and lower the price of gasoline. The problem is that speculators aren’t to blame for the dramatic rise in oil and gas prices.

Hill would have us believe that this bill will significantly lower the price of oil, but almost any economist would disagree.

(Read more after the leap)

At a recent town hall meeting, Baron Hill proclaimed repeatedly his support for oil drilling:

Baron’s conversion did not exactly happen on the road to Damascus and it is not very believable. Once again, his assertions here in Indiana do not match his voting record in Washington.

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Or rather, her firm’s clients.

Wednesday, Linda Pence called on Attorney General Steve Carter to investigate the recent hike in gas prices in Indiana. She blamed price gouging.

Carter responded by pointing to busted pipelines, a hurricane closing almost five hundred oil platforms in the gulf, that big wind storm Pence was apparently oblivious to, and similar gas prices in neighboring states.

Carter then encouraged Pence to be forthcoming with any evidence of price fixing and collusion that might aid in an investigation by his office. Thus far, she hasn’t provided any.

Then Advance Indiana pointed out this:

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I thought that I would weigh in a little on the price of a gallon of gas in these turbulent times. The news has touched on this a little, but doesn’t give a great picture.

Unless you live under a rock, you have noticed a 20-30 cent per gallon rise in gas prices at the pump over the last couple of days. You have probably also noticed that the price of a barrel of oil has decreased, briefly dropping under $100/bbl today. The natural question is, “What the heck?”

The explanation is below the fold:

You probably stayed home this summer because the cost of everything seems to be going up, from gas to food.  Well, you weren’t alone.  House Republicans stayed at work too to fight for an “All of the Above” energy reform so we could start bringing down our energy costs.

(H/T – Red State)

By: Luke Puckett

Recent events have showed us how important it is that we become energy independent not only for our own economic prosperity but also for our own security. Over 30 years ago our nation experienced a severe energy crisis because 12% of our annual oil supply was provided by foreign sources of oil. Today, we are even more vulnerable as nearly 70% of our oil energy needs are met by foreign sources that are all too often hostile to our interests and our values.

The threat posed by our reliance on foreign oil is illustrated by the recent conflict between Russia and our brave but small ally Georgia. Russia’s irresponsible, unfortunate and inappropriate bullying of Georgia is not about liberating some radical groups from imagined atrocities. It is about Russia’s expansion of power not just into neighboring states but into the global scene.

A key network of oil and natural gas pipelines stretches across Georgia. This network, which was due for an expansion until Russia’s aggressive destruction jeopardized the construction of new pipelines, is a vital link between Caucasus oil and natural gas resources and the energy users of Europe and the United States. Russia’s drastic invasion has allowed them to seize strategic control of the pipelines and it has given them the power to negotiate for world acceptance of their heavy-handed and anti-freedom actions.

Also looming large as a threat to our security is Iran’s control of the flow of roughly 40% of the world’s daily oil output. Iran’s leaders have stated that it is their aim to end America and destroy the ideals of liberty. We may consider these thugs crazed and incoherent, but we must take their apocalyptic declarations seriously because they are even now building and honing their capacity to execute their dark visions.

The time for words should be over; the time for action is now. We must put the world on notice that we will not sacrifice the strength of our national security on the altar of outdated government red-tape regulations that form a nearly impenetrable dam to the flow of our own domestic energy resources. We must move boldly and quickly to allow for a dramatic expansion of environmentally responsible domestic oil drilling.

Our children should not have to grow up in a world where their freedom and their mobility is dictated to them by backward looking tyrants who desperately seek to maintain some semblance of control in a world where their ideology has been discarded as a failure. You and I have a responsibility to strengthen our security and secure our future. I pledge to you that if you elect me to Congress this November, I will go to Washington to fight out of touch politicians to lower your gas prices.

Luke Puckett is running for Congress in Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District on a platform of common-sense solutions. You can learn more about him by visiting his website at www.puckett08.com.

Congressman Baron Hill (D-San Francisco Seymour) just sent me an e-mail inviting me to the 2008 Southern Indiana Economic Forum. To be more precise, I was actually one of the dozen or so people who actually subscribe to Baron’s official Congressional e-mail list, “Baron’s Briefings”, and bother to read it when it comes.

The event is to take place on September 5th in New Albany and the second session is a panel discussion entitled “Gas Prices 101″. That one looks interesting. You see, Gas Prices 101 is much like Economics 101. In Economics 101 you learn that the fundamental process behind prices is supply and demand. When the supply of something stays the same while the demand rises, then prices go up. As applied to Gas Prices 101 this lesson means that when the supply of gas stays the same and the demand goes up, then gas prices go up. Politics 101 says that when your congressman votes against drilling for domestic oil he is effectively voting for high gas prices. After these three lessons, you, the voter, get to do a practical exercise in Government 101 by throwing the aforementioned congressman (who voted against domestic drilling) out of office.

Of course, you need to be voting for something, not just against something. Mike Sodrel and Luke Puckett both provide voters in the 9th and 2nd Districts respectively with something to vote for. In addition to being the only candidates in each race who have not voted against domestic drilling, the two of them have met first hand with energy experts to discuss what needs to be done to lower gas prices. Both men will be strong advocates for domestic drilling-and thus lower gas prices-when they get to Washington.

The News & Tribune has an article about Baron Hill’s efforts to close the so-called speculator loophole:

Rep. Baron Hill, D-Ind., plans on pushing stricter regulations for oil speculators when Congress reconvenes in September.

The idea of cracking down on oil speculators may sound like “Washington speak,” but the congressman feels it could result in lowering prices at the pump for the short-term, said Katie Moreau, communications director for Hoosiers for Hill, his campaign organization.

“What Baron wants to see happen is his bill enacted to put back regulations that were taken out in 2000,” Moreau said.

The basis of a measure Hill is pushing — which Moreau said will be supported by several other Congress members and will be presented to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi next month — is that speculators are artificially driving up the price of oil based on a presumed shortage.

As I have already noted in extensive posts, this is a crock.

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Earlier, I blogged about how Baron’s behavior at his town hall in Sellersburg earned him a letter scolding him in the News & Tribune for bad manners and rudeness.

I also noted that Baron tried with a written policy to prevent anyone from recording this event. A daring Hoosierpundit reader recorded it, however, and was kind enough to share the audio with me.

This is a clip reel; there are more examples of him being rude to the people that were present in Sellersburg that evening on top of this, but the audio for those sections is just horrible.

You’ll have to turn the sound up. The audio isn’t that good. Rest assured, it’s worth it.

(Below is an op-ed written by Mike Sodrel on the issue of energy and recent his trip to ANWR.)

I want to commend Congressman Mike Pence and my former Republican colleagues for taking a stand on energy independence for America. We are currently importing over 60% of our energy and exporting over $700 billion U.S. dollars a year.

Like most Americans, I’m tired of hearing what won’t work. “We can’t drill our way out of this problem” isn’t a solution. The fact is, we can’t resolve this problem without drilling either. It is going to take an “all of the above” energy policy to reach energy independence.

Our economy and our national security depend on America becoming energy independent. Energy independence is necessary to lower our trade deficit and our budget deficit. We must have American energy to grow our food and grow our economy.

Drilling is not the only solution to energy independence. In order to become energy independent, it will take an “All of the Above” energy policy. We need more wind energy, solar energy, water energy, and other renewable sources of energy.

Selling oil from our strategic oil reserve is the wrong thing to do. That oil reserve was created for our national security, not to manipulate the price of oil. We will need this oil to provide for our defense and essential services if foreign oil shipments were interrupted.

We can’t keep putting food in our gas tanks either. Using corn and soy beans for ethanol and bio diesel won’t work in the long term. It is driving up our cost of food. This hurts the people who can afford it the least.

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