Imagine using a market economy to drive the price of gas down or encourage competiveness between American oil companies as well as the scientific community exploring new and competitive ways to access alternative fuel sources for energy conception.
Just Imagine!
JRH 2/17/12
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Breaking OPEC's Grip
By Lisa Piraneo, Director of Government Relations
Sent: Feb 16, 2012 at 11:04 AM
Sent from: ACT! For America
THE OPEN FUEL STANDARD ACT: ACT! FOR AMERICA HELPS MAKE PROGRESS ON THE HILL WITH AN IMPORTANT ALLY
If you’ve been tracking recent news from Iran, you know that their state media recently reported that the country plans to cut oil exports to six European countries as a retaliatory measure for new sanctions. Though the U.S. does not purchase Iranian oil, the threat alone has an impact on the price we pay for gasoline. Why? Because Iran is a member of OPEC and the cartel largely sets the worldwide price of oil.
Frankly, the trending price of gasoline even before Iran announced its recent threat should certainly cause you much concern. Today it is higher than it ever has been before at this time of year and the expectation is that it will continue to increase as summer approaches. But this is nothing new—this up and down trend is a pattern we’ve been seeing since the early 1970’s!
But there’s a solution—and you can play a role in achieving it.
The Open Fuel Standard Act, legislation that will finally free us from OPEC’s stranglehold, continues to gain bi-partisan support from Members of the U.S. Congress. Why is this issue different? As one such federal legislator recently told me, “Because when it comes to national security, we need to look at things differently.”
The beauty of legislation like the Open Fuel Standard Act (H.R.1687 in the U.S. House and S.1603 in the Senate) is that the only thing it mandates is competition—something we don’t currently enjoy when it comes to transportation fuel. The legislation doesn’t stipulate WHAT kind of alternative fuel must be used in gasoline powered vehicles produced or sold in America, just that it must be something in addition to gasoline.
As Brigitte Gabriel points out to our elected officials when she travels with me to the Hill, one of the great things about the United States is that we have the option of choice for goods and services—our preferred cereal, our preferred hammer, our preferred pet food. But why not our preferred form of liquid fuel?
The Open Fuel Standard Act can change all that…at absolutely no cost to the Federal government and less than $100 per vehicle to the consumer.
Would you pay $100 to stop funding terrorism, kick OPEC in the teeth, have a choice about what fuel you purchase (resulting in saving you $1,000 per year per car under today’s price levels), and spur job creation in America—all at the same time?
The article below describes how one man brought competition to a once closed system of producers. This man, Marc Goldman, now works closely with us as part of the Open Fuel Standard coalition.
But it’s critical that your elected officials don’t just hear from Marc, Brigitte and me. They need to hear from the folks back home, or this bill won’t ever see the light of day. You have the power to make a difference!
Have you written a letter to your Representative and Senator encouraging their support of the Open Fuel Standard Act? If not, please do so today by selecting the two Open Fuel Standard links on our Contact Congress page (one for the House bill and one for the Senate).
Frankly, the trending price of gasoline even before Iran announced its recent threat should certainly cause you much concern. Today it is higher than it ever has been before at this time of year and the expectation is that it will continue to increase as summer approaches. But this is nothing new—this up and down trend is a pattern we’ve been seeing since the early 1970’s!
But there’s a solution—and you can play a role in achieving it.
The Open Fuel Standard Act, legislation that will finally free us from OPEC’s stranglehold, continues to gain bi-partisan support from Members of the U.S. Congress. Why is this issue different? As one such federal legislator recently told me, “Because when it comes to national security, we need to look at things differently.”
The beauty of legislation like the Open Fuel Standard Act (H.R.1687 in the U.S. House and S.1603 in the Senate) is that the only thing it mandates is competition—something we don’t currently enjoy when it comes to transportation fuel. The legislation doesn’t stipulate WHAT kind of alternative fuel must be used in gasoline powered vehicles produced or sold in America, just that it must be something in addition to gasoline.
As Brigitte Gabriel points out to our elected officials when she travels with me to the Hill, one of the great things about the United States is that we have the option of choice for goods and services—our preferred cereal, our preferred hammer, our preferred pet food. But why not our preferred form of liquid fuel?
The Open Fuel Standard Act can change all that…at absolutely no cost to the Federal government and less than $100 per vehicle to the consumer.
Would you pay $100 to stop funding terrorism, kick OPEC in the teeth, have a choice about what fuel you purchase (resulting in saving you $1,000 per year per car under today’s price levels), and spur job creation in America—all at the same time?
The article below describes how one man brought competition to a once closed system of producers. This man, Marc Goldman, now works closely with us as part of the Open Fuel Standard coalition.
But it’s critical that your elected officials don’t just hear from Marc, Brigitte and me. They need to hear from the folks back home, or this bill won’t ever see the light of day. You have the power to make a difference!
Have you written a letter to your Representative and Senator encouraging their support of the Open Fuel Standard Act? If not, please do so today by selecting the two Open Fuel Standard links on our Contact Congress page (one for the House bill and one for the Senate).
Newsmax
The Milk Man’s Lesson: Car Choice Can Work
Friday, February 3, 2012 11:46 AM
By: Christopher Ruddy
Christopher Ruddy's Perspective: Can the United States create jobs, lower the price of fuel, reduce emissions, and become energy-independent all at the same time?
The answer is, “Yes — and rather quickly.”
The simple answer correlates with a rather simple solution being evangelized by Marc Goldman, a former milk company executive from New Jersey.
Marc is not a household name, but he once made big headlines in New York for taking on the state’s powerful dairy interests and a system that kept milk prices artificially high by limiting competition among dairies.
Marc spent a small fortune and considerable time in court challenging that system, and in January 1987, won the right for his Farmland Dairies to sell milk in all of New York City and its suburbs — a victory that led to a sharp drop in milk prices for many New Yorkers.
The milk story really has nothing to say directly about energy, but it does have something to say about Marc, who has sold his milk company and now lives in Boca Raton, Fla.
Today, Marc spends his time on another worthy crusade — promoting the Open Fuel Standard Act of 2011, known in the House as H.R. 1687 and in the Senate as S. 1603.
The proposed bills create a “free market for fuel,” just as his victory in New York created a free market for milk, by requiring car manufacturers to give owners a choice in the fuel they use in their vehicles.
The bills call for “fuel competition” to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign imports through greater use of domestic energy sources, and for an annually increasing percentage of automobiles sold in the United States to be flex-fuel capable.
This new law would require vehicles to be manufactured flex-fuel ready, adding less than $100 to the cost of each car, which would allow drivers to easily change the type of fuel their engine uses — from gasoline to other types of fuels, such as methanol or ethanol.
Such an option is available today in most cars in Brazil, where massive production of sugarcane ethanol has made Brazil the world’s first sustainable bio-fuel economy. It’s no accident that Brazil’s economy has been booming in recent years as the United States’ sags under high petroleum costs.
Rightfully, critics have complained that if the United States sharply increased the production of ethanol, made from corn or sugar, food prices would skyrocket globally.
This would be bad for everyone, and especially harm the poor.
But Marc points out that the United States has huge reserves of natural gas — by some estimates over 2,500 trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves. He notes that natural gas is easily converted into methanol, and methanol use could save drivers at least 80 cents per gallon for the same energy a gallon of gasoline today provides.
Marc’s point here is that once the fuel option opens up in Americans’ cars, the free market will work to meet the demand. Natural gas will boost demand and spur other forms of biomass fuel to be mass produced. And, as demand for oil drops, the fall-off in petroleum prices will be catastrophic for suppliers.
Today, the lion’s share of global oil reserves is under the control of OPEC, a cartel with many member states that are openly hostile to American interests.
As for environmental concerns, experiments show that methanol and ethanol fuels yield fewer hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions than gasoline.
It’s a win-win for consumers, the environment, and the country.
To the bills’ opponents, perhaps energy expert Dr. Robert Zubrin, an aerospace engineer and author, puts it best in a National Review article:
“In whose interest is it that Americans should continue to be denied fuel choice, that America’s vast natural gas, coal, and biomass remain unusable as a source of liquid fuel, that America continues to give hundreds of billions of dollars each year to foreign potentates bent upon our destruction, instead of paying our own people to make fuel out of our own resources, that a foreign cartel retains unlimited power to raise the cost of our fuel?
“We can set ourselves free, but action is required.”
© Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Link to original: http://www.newsmax.com/Ruddy/OPEC-Open-Fuel-Standard-Act-energy-independence/2012/02/03/id/428428
REMEMBER, YOUR VOICE COUNTS! IF EACH OF US DOES JUST A LITTLE, TOGETHER WE CAN ACCOMPLISH A LOT!
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ACT for America is an issues advocacy organization dedicated to effectively organizing and mobilizing the most powerful grassroots citizen action network in America, a grassroots network committed to informed and coordinated civic action that will lead to public policies that promote America’s national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of radical Islam. We are only as strong as our supporters, and your volunteer and financial support is essential to our success. Thank you for helping us make America safer and more secure.
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P.O. Box 12765
Pensacola, FL 32591 www.actforamerica.org
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