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"Bush "opposed additional incentives for oil companies with the price of oil where it is," said Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman"

But while Markey and other Democrats blamed the Bush administration, White House officials retorted that ***the incentives stemmed largely from specific decisions that the Clinton administration made in 1998 and 1999.**** At the time, the government was seeking to increase domestic oil and gas production when prices were comparatively low

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/15/business/oil.php

Seems your opinions are a bit ignorant. Remain so if you wish and endorse the Clinton's policies.

As much as it pains me to agree with Clinton, he was correct to cut royalty rates back in the days of super-cheap oil.

OPEC was dumping oil for the express purpose of harming the US domestic oil infrastructure --- making it so unprofitable to domestically produce that it would collapse, knowing that it takes 10 years or more to rebuild the infra-structure ---- at which time OPEC was free to jack up the price far above what it would have been, if we had domestic production.

Mean. .. This will be my last stab at replying as well ... those that don't want to get it won't.

NotSoSmart wrote:

Seems your opinions are a bit ignorant. Remain so if you wish and endorse the Clinton's policies.

I already knew it was a Clinton policy, ... and a good one at that. I've been paying attention to what's going on around me - probably longer than you've been alive. So, yeah, I endorse it. I'm not so stupid that I have to reject everything the stain did while he was in office just because it was him doing it.

As your own post states:

At the time, the government was seeking to increase domestic oil and gas production when prices were comparatively low. This was the right thing to do.

Shell Oil is benefiting from those Clinton era royalty reductions for the field that is being produced off it's MARS platform. This platform was deployed at a cost of $1.5 Billion dollars .. there is part of the risk they assumed.

It is located in 2900 feet of water in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico .. another risk they assumed .. with the following results after Katrina battered it wifor 4 hours with 175 MPH winds:

Before:

After:

It's been down since August and is not expected back up until the 2nd half of this year .. lost production for over a year from a platform which can produce 15% of the total US Gulf of Mexico output. Platform and refinery repairs from Katrina are estimated at $350 - $400 million dollars.

The risks were undertaken, in part, because of the incentives offered ... but now that the "bad old oil companies" are making a 9% - 10% profit on their risks, let us, by all means, change the rules.

Now, go to your room. After you've been quiet for 30 minutes you can go outside and play.