Posted on 05/10/2008 7:10:19 AM PDT by reaganaut1
OUR THREE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES SHARE THIS PECULIAR infirmity: None of them has any backbone. If they did, then instead of blaming Big Oil for soaring energy prices, they would stand up to some real culprits responsible for the run-up. These are politically powerful coastal states like Florida, New Jersey and California, which time after time have placed their parochial interests ahead of the nation's critical need for energy independence by prohibiting the offshore production of natural gas and oil.
Of course, oil companies have no electoral votes. And wealthy Californians, some of whom own property overlooking the oil-rich Santa Barbara Channel, are never slow to underwrite the costs of presidential campaigns. This might explain why in June 2007 all three presidential candidates were conveniently absent from the Senate when a vote came up on Virginia Sen. John Warner's proposal to allow drilling off the Virginia coast. It was roundly opposed by colleagues from New Jersey, Florida and California, on the nose-under-the-tent theory.
There are an estimated 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas under the Outer Continental Shelf that technically is recoverable. The government says 54% of that energy is in the Gulf of Mexico and 31% is off Alaska. Florida alone, according to a 30-year-old energy survey, has an estimated 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 3.88 billion barrels of oil within 125 miles of its Gulf coastline. There's probably more, but Florida officials won't countenance a probing of the seabed within 125 miles of the state's coastline, citing environmental concerns.
The fact is, drillers have an enviable safety record and arguably have done less damage to mother earth than have the construction and tourist industries on shore.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.barrons.com ...
Too little too late to avert the present shortage. It would take years for this to impact US production.
NONE of them (including the 3 remaining presidential possibilities) deserve to be elected or re-elected IMO. Why should our choice in November be between two candidates who will be far worse presidents than Jimmy Carter?
Sounds like we need a “maverick” nipping at the ankles of the candidates.
Will McCain’s maverick please stand up!
Ping
“And wealthy Californians, some of whom own property overlooking the oil-rich Santa Barbara Channel”
Will they wait till real estate falls another 40%
They said that in 1997 when Clinton put ANWR off limits. I think 1-2 mil bbls a day from there right now would be looking pretty good. Do nothing, and then 10 years from now, we will be in worse shape. Typical American attention span of a gnat. we want it all, and we want it now.
H. Obama wants a public works campaign to put people to work. Building bridges and roads. The private sector could do MUCH more if we opened our waters and lands to drilling for oil and nat gas. If you want any proof of that, look no further than Pennslyvania where the Marcellus Shale deposits are turning poor farmers into wealth lnadowners overnight. Those farmers
those who oppose the drilling and refining of oil, one our abundant resources, are not only doing a great disservice to the American people, but are also weakening the nation’s defense and economy, are causing hardship on citizens in a dozen different ways and, IMHO, acting in an extremely anti-American, if not treasonous manner.
They should each be fully exposed for who they are.
—IMHO, if legislation passed our jackassified Congress and was signed that forced drilling of the mentioned areas , along with the promotion of refinery construction (over the graves of assorted environuts, if necessary ), the ink wouldn’t be dry on the President’s signature before petroleum futures would take the fastest, longest drop in commodities trading history-—
The price of oil would drop instantly if the President would declare through executive order the lifting of all restrictions on domestic drilling and refining. And then do it.
And it was judged "too little too late" to have helped in the last shortage. But if we start NOW, it might help us survive the NEXT shortage better
From the politician’s perspective, it has nothing to do with the environment. I think it is quite simply the politicians pleasing their voting base, or doing what’s good for the country. And which is more important to democrat politicians?
I agree on privatizatiion. Fact is, our visionless politicians and enviros put us here, it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
once the process begins, the foreign suppliers and manipulators will reassess and begin to see the writing on the wall. We can get this thing under control with some dedicated leadership in Congress.
Exactly what Clinton said when he vetoed the energy bill to drill ANWR in '95.
As long as producers know that we are willing to be held hostage by our own gov't, oil prices will continue to escalate whether demand does or not. The minute our elected officials free us from our self-inflicted wounds, the ME producers will pump like mad, flooding the market with oil, trying to bring the price down below where it would be feasible to drill for our own resources.
We need a right wing military coup to smash down these anarchists and eco-traitors and get this nation on a correct energy course. It won’t happen any other way. It can be like Pinochet is Chile. Military rule for a decade then let intelligent civilians come into power.
don’t just look at presidential candidates. How do the Congressmen from YOUR state vote on matters concerning drilling and refining??
By your yardstick do they belong in Congress?? My Senators are for it, but not my congressman, for whom I have not voted.
Idiocracy
Ever see that movie? The idiots take over America because they reproduce more and faster
Here in California, our Congress is elected by the welfare populations of San Francisco and Los Angeles. The rest of the state pays the taxes, provides the water and agrarian economy; but, has no effect on Federal elected officials.
“The price of oil would drop instantly if the President would declare through executive order the lifting of all restrictions on domestic drilling and refining. And then do it.”
I don’t know if he can do that by executive order.
But the President has the power of Pardon. He could pardon all oil companies for past, present or future drilling activities. I think he could apply this to both civil and criminal issues.
I am not sure, but is there any Constitutional scholars here on FR who think otherwise?
Gads, you're right! That movie was funny because of its basis in truth.
Yeah that’s a great reason not to drill, because it will “take years.”
Like time stand still, and by the time those wells are producing, all of humanity will be long gone.
Funny you bought up that movie. I thought the same thing, this is a liberals dream.
If Bush wasn’t the traitor I know him to be, he’d tell the Sierra Club and all other orgs that oppose building refineries to take a hike and would sign an executive order directing the building of refineries all over the U.S. though preferably near ports. The Feds could then sell these refineries to private companies.
The wealthy of Florida and California don’t care if gas goes up..it just eliminates some of the traffic that gets in their way. They are also invested in oil companies and firms that profit from higher prices(and could profit from drilling in US waters).
Then there are lot of good people who still believe that drilling and production and transportation of oil will spoil their enviroment..even people who have worked in the industry but now live in Florida or CA.
It will take even higher prices for the ordinary people to rise up and demand more drilling. Perhaps when they see their new utility bills for their new 3500 ft home in the snowbelt..and their 20 mile commute in winter is costing them already.
Brazil went from desperately using ethanol to asking to join OPEC because they started using the best technology offshore and struck it rich.
It's a simple problem of aesthetics.
Design the oil rigs to look like a crack pipe and these people will be perfectly happy.
The price of oil would drop instantly if the President would declare through executive order the lifting of all restrictions on domestic drilling and refining. And then do it.
____________________________________________________________
He’s not going to do it, nor would McCain, Clinton or Obama.
There's no shortage of oil only, refineries.
In PA, the Republican party is the the other wing of the Republicrat party, so there is no support in either party for a conservative politician and most are sell-outs before they ever get to D.C. Do they care about the country? Hell, no. They represent THEMSELVES and THEIR interests. Do they belong in Congress? NO.
There is no political will for off-shore drilling at this time. Same for nuclear power. When gas is $15 a gallon, things may change.
Right in front of Barbra's house.
On a serious note - there does not appear to be a strategy to assure (or to recover) secure oil supplies at tolerable cost.
The Fairbanks North Star Borough is spending $1.3 million to check into coal-to-oil conversion locally since the oil crisis will be a community disaster by next year. The study won’t matter at all but it is the thought that counts and maybe Sen Stevens can earmark $250 million to construct the plant sometime in the next decade or so.
It was President Carter, who by executive order, banned domestic oil exploration off the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico.
I think that is part of the problem.
The other part is, as a country, the only way to finance the liberal giveaway, is a national debt. And that national debt needs to be bought by OTHER countries to keep it going. These other countries use the money WE pay to fill up our cars, to buy our country from us. Our politicians aren’t about to stop building this house of cards called the US.
We don’t own our country anymore. The politician over the years, have sold us to the Chinese and the Arabs.
That's the trouble with politics and politcians, everything is short term. We need to be looking long term and begin right now to develop all those areas.
Exactly. And if you and I knew it, so did they when they did it, which is why I'm certain they were willing to do it for their own profit. The bill is coming due for us very shortly, and these people deserve to be strung up like the Ceausescus.
Because it may cost some votes, and if something ever goes wrong, ie storm damage, oilspill etc, they don’t want to be associated with it.
They will profit at our expense.
I am just amazed at the stupidity of the average American. Sigh.
“Too little too late to avert the present shortage. It would take years for this to impact US production.”
That was being said decades ago. We gotta start sooner, not later. The longest journey starts with a single footstep. Correction, it starts with getting off ones a$$.
This is utter nonsense. The reason that it will take years is the time figured in to fight and win all the litigation that will be thrown at ANY proposal by the environmentalist movement.
Even the deepest oil well can be drilled in a couple of months at most.
.........................................................
Quote from Barack Obamas book, Dreams Of My Father:
THE PERSON WHO MADE ME PROUDEST OF ALL, THOUGH, WAS MY [half brother], ROY..HE CONVERTED TO ISLAM.
From Dreams of my Father, IN INDONESIA, I SPEND TWO YEARS AT A MUSLIM SCHOOL ..I STUDIED THE KORAN..
From Audacity of Hope: LOLO (Obamas step father) FOLLOWED ISLAM....I LOOKED TO LOLO FOR GUIDANCE.
From The Audacity Of Hope, I WILL STAND WITH THE MUSLIMS SHOULD THE POLITICAL WINDS OF WAR SHIFT IN AN UGLY DIRECTION..
From The Audacity Of Hope, WE ARE NO LONGER JUST A CHRISTIAN NATION, we are also a Jewish nation, a MUSLIM NATION, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.
HATRED OF WHITES:
From Dreams of My Father, I FOUND A SOLACE IN NURSING A PERVASIVE SENSE OF GRIEVANCE AND ANIMOSITY AGAINST MY MOTHERS RACE. Barack Hussein Obama
From Dreams of my Father, The emotion between the races could never be pure, even love was tarnished by the desire to find in the other some element that was missing in ourselves. Whether we sought out our demons or salvation, the other race (WHITE) would always remain just that: menacing, alien, and apart. Barack Hussein Obama
From Dreams Of My Father: That hate hadnt gone away, he wrote, BLAMING WHITE PEOPLE some CRUEL, some IGNORANT, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives. Barack Hussein Obama
From Dreams Of My Father, There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs, he wrote. It remained necessary to prove which side you were on,to show your LOYALTY TO THE BLACK MASSES, TO STRIKE OUT and name names Barack Hussein Obama
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!
A WHITE CANDIDATE WOULD HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED FOR MAKING SUCH STATEMENTS!!!
.
.
http://www.examiner.com/a-536474~_Trapped_between_two_worlds_.html?cid=dc-article-obama
* Cease all ethanol production. It requires more energy to make than it yields and the unintended consequence is higher food costs. Corn production shifted from feed-corn to subsidized corn for ethanol. Just say "no" to ethanol!
* Immediately create only ONE "blend" of gasoline and cease regional "boutique" blends which are stupid, costly, and meaningless. Even if this is the "cleanest" blend, just make it ONE and be done with it. Trucking custom blends around the country is wasteful.
* Lift the restrictions in order to drill for oil in Alaska, Gulf of Mexico, and other sites in the CONUS as a matter of national security.
* Encourage the petro industry to construct state-of-the-art refineries and/or retrofit current and dormant ones and crank up production for our newly-found oil in the CONUS.
* Make all carbon credit scams unlawful. Discrediting Algore should have been a slam-dunk a long time ago. Stop electing Reps who buy into the Global Warming Hoax.
* Construct SEVERAL, regional Pebble-Bed Reactors (or other similar modern designs) that are not considered "breeders", are rechargeable, and cleaner than any current nuclear generator design.
* Use the residual heat from the reactors above to process motor fuel from coal and/or shale. Even though Clinton "stole" some of the best coal reserves, we still have a lot to use.
* Become independent enough to make the cartels (i.e. OPEC) inconsequential.
* Convince local taxing bodies to lift or cap the sales tax on gasoline so that as gas prices go up, the local tax collectors dont see a windfall revenue jump at the expense of the consumer. The Federal government could compel the states (and locals) to cap the fuel taxes.
Seriously, I'm using your stuff to send to my Congressman and others, also my local newspapers ect.
All of us should do the same.
Thanks!
Seriously, I'm using your stuff to send to my Congressman and others, also my local newspapers etc.
All of us should do the same.
Thanks!
I am flattered. Look for more tweaking as this continues, in other words, the 'manifesto' will show up again here, much to the chagrin of some, and the enjoyment of others.
Coming soon is a targeted manifesto regarding ethanol.
The 'energy manifesto' was sent to Sen McCain's website (intact) asking him if he wanted "straight talk" on the energy policy (or lack thereof) for this country.
It was also sent to VP Cheney (early, shorter version) and I got a "canned" response thanking me for my interest and assuring me that the VP is too busy to reply individually.
You may also see a paper "institute" that cranks out FAXes to the news media, like many other paper "institutes" quoted in the news that is nothing more than a guy in his PJs sending stuff out from his basement!
True, but it would probably hit the market sooner than ANWAR oil could. Any candidate who does not advocate expaned exploration off the continental U.S. in addition to ANWAR is playing politics with the issue and isn't serious about reducing our dependency on foreign oil.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.