Americans for Prosperity was out buying votes with discount gasoline in Sioux Falls yesterday:
The Friendly Fuel off of Benson Road was very friendly today, selling gas at just $2.38 a gallon.
…The cheap gas is being sponsored by Americans For Prosperity, a political organization, that’s holding events like this at gas stations all across America.
“Gas was $2.38 when our current President took office and today as you know it’s $4.50-$4.60-$4.70 per gallon and we are lowering the price of gas back to where it was when President Biden took office,” state director Keith Moore said.
The group says the Biden Administrations’s policies are contributing to skyrocketing prices, hurting South Dakota’s working-class families [Don Jorgensen, “$2.38 for a Gallon of Gas During a Political Event in Sioux Falls,” KELO-TV, 2022.07.19].
Right. And when President Joe Biden took office, it was January and coronavirus vaccines still weren’t available to the public at large. People weren’t traveling as much for work or play as they are now. Russian troops also weren’t traveling around Ukraine committing war crimes, creating global economic uncertainty, and snarling the petro-supply lines.
Instead of falsely blaming White House policies for high gas prices while handing out coupons at the gas station, Moore could more directly and honestly lower the price of gas by getting his Big Oil friends in Americans for Prosperity to let more of their record profits trickle down to the pump for real price relief instead of a one-day political stunt. Moore could also tell all those AFP money-men to stop being such chickens and invest in increased production.
No White House policies are stopping Moore’s Big Oil pals from making $2.38 per gallon the going rate at the pumps again. The higher price you’ll see at Friendly Fuel now that the billionaires have put on the puppet show with Moore results from oil companies themselves holding back on production and raking in profits from their tight supplies.
Didn’t he have his hand in the Gear Up cookie jar?
Well said – agreed on all fronts!
Yes, Scott, this is GEAR UP co-conspirator and profiteer Keith Moore. Moore knows quite a bit about inflating prices.
Why would A.F.P. need to spend money in a state that’s 70% Republican. Having trouble in Minnesota, Mr. Moore? Hmmmmm …..?
Oh, I know. Mr. Moore is distracting from the fact that gas is going down.
July 18,2022
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The national average for a gallon of gas fell 15 cents since last week to $4.52. The steady decline is due to lower domestic demand for gasoline at the pump and a much lower global price for oil. The cost of a barrel of oil is in the mid-$90s, down from around $110 two weeks ago.
Today’s Average = $4.46
https://gasprices.aaa.com/news/
Well, Americans always appreciate free money. If the billionaires who fund Americans For Prosperity want to redistribute their ill-gotten wealth, I’d be willing to fill up at their expense. Hell, yeah! But I still ain’t buying what AFP is selling.
I guess we should thank Trump and Noem for the low gas prices at the start of Biden’s first term. Their mishandling of the covid pandemic caused the extended period of lower gas prices in the first place. Only the insane would get in their SUV or on their Harley to come to get infected in Noem’s South Dakota covid wasteland, and there weren’t that many insane Trumpistas driving around hiking up the gas price during the Trump pandemic.
I have first-hand knowledge about this since I own a small amount of inherited mineral property in North Dakota. Wells that were going to be drilled before the pandemic were put on hold. Many oil drillers had gotten so far out on a financial limb prior to the pandemic that the cessation of financial lubricant inhibited the drilling and pumping, and caused bankruptcies. When the pandemic eased up,t he financial people would not again overextend loans. They had learn their lesson the hard way. Add to that, some oil wells has slowed or halted pumping. They wanted a more planned and rational growth, not boom/bust. Let’s call it a conservative approach to new drilling and pumping. That’s why it’s taken a bit of time, and some financial distress, to get oil back to where prices are now falling.
I can tell you I got notice a couple months ago that they will be drilling new fracking wells in a pool I have ownership in. Of course, there is no guarantee there is lots of oil in that particular geology, but it seems they’ve done their homework and think it will produce oil at a price they can profit from. And me? I’ll get a small piece of the profit, and give it to the Sierra Club.
It’s easy. Don’t go on any drives that aren’t necessary. When we have to go somewhere, the doctor, groceries, etc. We take our scenic route. Killing two birds with one drive.
It’s really simple. Of course they are not producing more gasoline. Why drive the price down? It’s a conundrum, but it makes their stockholders happy and they are happy.
It’s rather like when I asked my son why this drawing, cubist kinda, pencil, probably took 20 minutes and was priced at 36,000 dollars at the gallery he represented in Miami/Basel. I’d never heard of the guy. Jarrod said, well, he doesn’t do much work. Therefore they are rare. I realized that I was a fool.
For several years running Maverick Truck Stop in Hot Springs was my second largest Twin City Fruit account right behind Wall Drug. It took me a couple years of hard work and extra service to woo owner, Bob away from all the other vendors but we became partners in success. Our suppliers would offer periodic deals and when I presented discounts to Bob he would always say, “we screw the other guy then pass the savings on to you, right?”
That’s exactly what Amerikkkans for Prosperity are all about — they butcher the bird in the hand as a gamble on two in the bush.
larry kurtz
I used to go to the Maverick (Junction) Truck Stop (intersection SD highway 79/US highways 385/18) when I got tired of cooking for seven worthless relatives and paid for the best damned biscuits and pork sausage gravy in the northern United States other than the ones I cooked myself.
Other than the large bill, I remember there was a modest room with “gambling machines” that beeped and played the “hallelujah” chorus relentlessly.
Not to wade too impossibly into the Fall River here but the Stockman’s Bar in Buffalo Gap and the Hitchrail in Pringle were good accounts, too. Remember Gene’s Dew Drop Inn on 385 on the way to Wind Cave? After his wife died Gene was accused of molesting an employee then blew his brains out.
Nice town.
I was driving through Mount Rushmore National Memorial when NPR announced the fall of the Soviet Union the day after Christmas now I expect Republicans to end all life on Earth.
Shock and awe is the best metaphor todescribe the conflagration Black Hills Power and Light loosed onto Deadwood in 2002.
Curly fries and jalapeño poppers are bipartisanship concepts because they’re convenient and not because their sustainable.
Some people can’t see further than their nose.
Gasoline and diesel are up around the world.
https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/benchmark/
Same with inflation.
Not just a US phenomenon.
Road trip to Maverick Junction coming up. Mmmm gravy. There is still an offensive billboard by Ms. Fairbank’s house, however. My good friend Bob runs a tab at most joints down there so a fellow can slip a couple biscuits on there with little questions from the locals. If you know Bob.
Because of Dobbs, we will soon have border guards and visas to go to other states. Of course that means that those pesky folks from Minnesota will not be able to be bought off by the likes of Keith Moore. There, that’ll show them.
Um, Grudz. The b & g was way back when the old Maverick truck stop housed the Coffee Cup Cafe before it was torn down to make way for the present souless gas station and convenience store. Haven’t been there in years, but I’d be surprised if they had buckets o’ gravy to go. Just sayin’.
Not my fault, but I AM getting tired of that “Right to Life” billboard, too. Does anyone REALLY care if fetuses develop fingerprints at nine weeks? Jayzus, how did I ever sleep before knowing that….
Jerry, perhaps Keith Moore can ge permission from Kristi Noem to hand out AFP gasoline coupons at the pregnancy-interception checkpoints. On one side, he could put a big red X through a picture of President Biden; on the other, a glowing picture of Kristi and the slogan, “This cheap gas and the Strongest Economy in the Nation brought to you by Kristi Noem!” Maybe AFP could even set the gasoline price at $2.024, to emphasize Noem’s focus.
Your habit of stealing food will be mentioned at your funeral, grudznichts. That’s why owners tell the cooks to spit in your gravy.
But Larry, are they freedom fries or French fries? The jalapeño poppers, did they cross the border legally?
Potatoes, patatoes, whatever you call them just slather some tasty gravy on them and they’ll do just fine. As long as the spitters don’t have the Covid Bugs then all is good. That’s how the best chicha is made, after all.
I note despite the rising Covid Bugs nobody is re-instating mask rules, even in the most libbie of places. This is telling. Next weekend we can all gather in Freeman for Chislic Fest and there will be naught a mask to be seen, but plenty of chislic and gravy.