One item that’s fallen off the news radar the past few weeks is gas prices — no more the hand-wringing stories of people going without food to fuel their vehicles and all is well.
Out of sight, out of mind?

You betcha.

Yesterday, I put another $20 worth of gas in my Jeep with the pump price still at $4.49 a gallon for regular — it’s stuck at that price and although national pump prices fell $.06 cents to $3.84 a gallon and overall prices are 1.3 percent lower than a year earlier, up here in northern California, time seems frozen.
The state average has dropped 1.7 cents to about $4.18 a gallon for regular.

An IMF consultation document reports oil and mining companies might be “under-taxed” relative to their profits and internal rates of return.
No fracking’ shit, sherlock.

(Illustration found here).

Just to keep the oil flowing, barrel prices rose with reports there’s been growth in U.S. and Chinese manufacturing sectors, creating a demand for way-more energy: Benchmark crude rose $1.29 to finish at $106.16 per barrel in New York. That’s the highest settlement price since it hit $106 on March 28. Brent crude increased 19 cents to $119.66 per barrel in London.
The drop in gas prices is due to US peoples cutting back, this while oil-related profits are NOT cutting back.

However, as long as the GOP has breath in its collective assholes, there will be no change in the tax schedule and the money keeps flowing.
No matter the harm, no matter the long-term side effects of a major f*ck-up.
Just ask the most-wonderful BP.

Via Think Progress:

Two years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, BP is reporting profits of $5.9 billion for the first quarter of 2012.
…
BP has also returned to pre-disaster levels for campaign contributions.
It has nearly surpassed 2010 spending with $122,410 in political contributions so far this cycle, 65 percent of which has gone to Republicans.
Its lobbying is much more expansive, with $8.1 million in 2011, and nearly $2.2 million so far this year.
Meanwhile, CEO Bob Dudley received a raise of $6.8 million in compensation, while BP paid out $1.1 million in shares to former CEO Tony Hayward, who resigned in the wake of the Gulf disaster.

And all is indeed well in them warm, sweet Gulf waters: We are also finding eyeless crabs, crabs with their shells soft instead of hard, full grown crabs that are one-fifth their normal size, clawless crabs, and crabs with shells that don’t have their usual spikes … they look like they’ve been burned off by chemicals.”

The GOP and Mitt Romney keeps the subject on the DL.
From Politico:

What does Big Oil get in return for its $200 million investment in Romney?
It gets to keep its billions in special tax breaks every year.
So middle-class families pay twice — high gas prices when they fill up the tank and $4 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies for an industry where the top five companies combined made $137 billion in profits last year.
At the same time, Big Oil gets one of its own dictating Romney’s energy policy.
Harold Hamm, Romney’s top energy adviser, is a billionaire oil executive who says clean energy is a “magical fantasy” and wants high gas prices.
He admitted as much when he declared in 2009 that cheap oil would be a “disaster.”

Welcome the elephant to the room.