Saudi rejects Bush Begging for Oil - Shame on U.S.

Yahoo ^ | May 16, 2008 | Jennifer Loven

[headstamp 2]

This situation is shades of Dubya’s father traveling over to the Japanese “hat in hand” at what was to be the end of his presidency also.

We are a nation bent on committing economic suicide and until people wake the hell up and demand we find our own energy any way we can, it will only get worse. We simply must STOP relying on other countries for our energy security. They simply do not and never will give a damn about us. It's time we act in our own interest in this area.

[farlander]

Well technically I think they have *NO* spare capacity. They’re probably pumping as much as they can, and, as bad as it sounds, it’s easier and better to say ‘we won’t’ as opposed to ‘we can’t’.

That said, I agree with all the points regarding increasing domestic production.

[Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]

When I talk about building refineries, what I'm saying is that

1) We need more, because we are at maximum, and whever one goes down for mechanical reasons or storms or etc, it causes a huge crisis.
2) We need more to refine the oil we should be pumping from our own reserves.
3) We need to difuse the refineries, as they are targets, and they are huge job sources. Building then, then operating them, will boost our economy.

[Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]

I don't buy the "George Bush is responding to media pressure" argument.

When it came to the war in Iraq, Bush has the courage and leadership to do what he thought and knew was right. Bravo. And the media, and left wingers, and even middle of the roaders, are all whining about it, but he ignores it all and keeps going.

I don't belive for a minute that a Guy who will start, stay in, and plan for a war, despite crushing popular opnion against it, would turn around and beg for oil from terrorists just because the same people are whining about gas prices.

[Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]

Actually, there is literally no capacity left. Refineries on US Soil are at 100% capacity. Due to whining liberals, whining environmentalists, prohibitive regulations and building-enviro restrictions and all the huge business interests making so much money off artifically high prices, we have not built a refinery here in decades.

All the foreign crude gets shipped here in tankers, dumped at the refineries, and they are producing as much as is physically possible.

What we are NOT utilizing is our massive untapped resources of crude oil. The moritorium of all off-shore oil drilling (thank you liberals, treehuggers, and feel-gooders who dont like to see rigs), the refusal to drill in Alaska, the massive prohibiting resrictions, regulations and costs which has led to the near cessation of drilling on-land...we do not HAVE to rely on foreign oil, we choose to do so.

[verity]

Most of us agree as to our needs. However, no one can offer a methodology for overcoming the impediments to a successful execution of any plan.

[gathersnomoss]

Thank you for elaborating with a dead on point. I now work from home when possible, and the cars, yes 3, sit when possible.

Trends that I have noticed. Slower driving, less outdoor lighting being used at night, carpooling is in vogue.

Also, people are ticked off, well at least I am. The middle class has just been lowered a notch or two, thanks to income redistribution.

Socialism will fail in the US, but the experiment must go on for the good of the whole.

[LZ_Bayonet]

"Saudi officials stuck to their position that they are already meeting demand,"

"Supply & Demand" - Shouldn't this Saudi statement drive oil prices down? I understand the effect a rising Euro has on the price, but from what I've been reading about speculators involvement, this is just a bubble waiting to POP!

Speculators: 1. ROI on oil speculation better than stocks.
2. China and India demand (But there is NO Shortage!)

The White House knew what Saudi Arabia was going to say before he went there. Maybe what Bush is trying to do is make a big media deal out of what the Saudi's have been saying all along, thus lessening speculation and lowering the price.

[Joe Boucher]

Pretty good job of summing things up there Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh,
Good job

[weegee]

“Saudi Arabian leaders made clear Friday they see no reason to increase oil production until their customers demand it, apparently rebuffing President Bush amid soaring U.S. gasoline prices.”

I thought we ARE a customer and our president asked for it. Should he have demanded it?

[weegee]

I gave up on unessential driving (especially at night) because of the highway robbery trend in my community. 4 or 5 police cars will sit and wait in their speedtrap to write waves of tickets every couple of minutes. I guess the extra car is there in case they accidently get someone with outstanding warrants.

A single traffic stop can include numerous offenses (including the speeding ticket at a base rate of 1-5 miles over the limit).

I’d rather not fund more billionaire playgrounds (sport stadiums and coke/X dealing nightclubs).

[PapaBear3625]

IMHO - This will only increase our reliance on oil we do not control. Instead, I would suggest that we need to construct electrical generation plants, coal, hydro, whatever; even nuclear (though they take 10 years to build). And, we "immediately" undertake a national effort of "land a man on the moon" scale or greater, to maximize the use of the electric "plug in" vehicles (pure electric or hybrid) which are very close to being introduced.

We need to set a national goal of doubling our electric generating capacity, and to have 80% of our electricity be generated by nuclear. We should take a good look at the "pebble bed" reactor, which is a modular design which allows for a 2 to 3 year construction period. Due to modular design, you can add more capacity to an existing reactor site by adding more modules.

And it would have an effect on prices NOW, as the Saudis realize that, once the new reactors come online to power electric cars, they will have a greatly restricted market for their oil

[steel_resolve]

Nothing short of a National Catastrophe that brings out martial law and some sort of executive order(backed up by armed forces) ala the Chertoff-border fence decision will open these areas up to exploration and drilling. They will not stop, they will not stop.

[Southerngl]

I am so sick of the excuse makers on FR with the blah blah blah refinery crap.

What does refinery output have to do with the price of crude oil per barrel?

[linn37]

I agree ,no oil,no defense.

[Southerngl]

What Saudi Arabia MEANT was, China and India are willing to pay this price and until they aren’t, we will continue to pump what we are pumping and get alllll this money and to hell with you America.

[rightinthemiddle]

Only one third of our oil is used for transportation...the rest for heating, manufacturing, etc.

We shouldn’t be using oil to generate heat! All those Northeast liberals still burning heating oil should get a clue.

[Labyrinthos]

Here is my post from a similar thread:

Why should Saudia Arabia increase oil production? We have plenty of our own oil in Alaska, off the east and left coast, and in the Gulf of Mexico, but we lack the vision and leadership to effectively manage and use our own natural resources.

Since the first oil embargo in 1973, and despite the fact that Republicans controlled the White House for 23 years since then, including 12 years when we also controlled both houses of Congress, we still do not have an meaningful, comprehensive energy policy. Every Republican president begining with Mr. Reagan should have been hammering this issue day in and day out. He should have been using the power of the bully pulpit and the veto pen to shame and punish both Republicans and Democrats alike for failing to advance the policy. He should have been using executive orders to advance the policy. He should have been tying Federal revenue sharing, from highway and transportation funds to agricultural subsidies, to a State’s willingness to advance the energy policy. If the losers in France and in the other Euroweenie countries can safely convert 80% or more of their electric grid to nuclear power, than we should have able to do it also.

If you want the price of oil to go down, then show the world that we as a Country are very serious about putting an end to OPEC by doing everything that we can to become energy self-sufficent, including (a) the construction of dozens of nuclear power plants, windmills, and solar panels; (b) the aggressive exploration for oil and natural gas within our own borders and waters; (c) the construction of state of the art oil refineries in all regions of the country; (d) the education of our citizens about the importance of energy conservation; (e) the reallocation of foreign aid from subsidizing the OPEC countries to subsidizing our own domestic energy research, exploration and production; and (f) the prosecution of OPEC interests within the jursidiction of our Federal courts for anti-trust violations.

Saudia Arabia is not to blame - WE ARE!

[Amendment10]

We're not learning from our mistakes concerning our dependence on foreign oil.

I'm keeping an eye on developments in biofuel production.

First, the bad news about ethanol. Ethanol fires are evidently harder to control than gasoline fires.

Ethanol fires hard to control 1
Ethanol fires hard to control 2

Hopefully, ways will be developed to make controlling ethanol fires easier.

On the brighter side concerning ethanol, there's now evidence that people might get as much, or more, bang per buck for their gas dollars with gas / ethanol mixtures.

Gas-competitive gas / ethanol mixtures

Also, I was surprised by the introduction of a machine (popularly known as a still) for making home-made ethanol.

EFuel100

In stark contrast to the 1700 gallons of water required to make one gallon of corn-based ethanol as indicated by the OP, the EFuel100 uses only 170 gallons of water to produce 35 gallons of ethanol In other words, the EFuel100 uses less than 1% as much water as corn ethanol, under five gallons, to produce one gallon of ethanol (corrections welcome).

But watch out for fines for violating biofuel regulations.

Fines for violating biofuel regulations

Also, progress is being made in the development of other non-corn ethanol production technologies as well.

Non-corn ethanol

Finally, I've also been hearing good things about biodiesel production but need to find some links.

[LZ_Bayonet]

"I thought we ARE a customer and our president asked for it. Should he have demanded it?"

They are already meeting demand. The only thing they could do is over-produce and end speculation by using oil tankers as holding tanks. Do the speculators, who are responsible for most of the price increase, really need to see "anchored tankers" to understand that there is no shortage of oil for shipment.

DO YOU REALLY THINK BUSH HAD TO GO TO SAUDI ARABIA TO GET THIS ANSWER FROM SAUDI ARABIA? DO YOU THINK HE WOULD SET HIMSELF UP FOR THIS RESPONSE? IMHO-Bush knew what was going to happen before he left the White House, and the MSM and the Dems are in the process of "misunderestimating" Bush again. The scenario: The speculators finally say, "If there is plenty of supply, why would I want to be the last idiot to buy high, from someone who speculated that demand could not be met? If there is no supply problem, the price could fall at any minute!" We'll see.