Posted on 05/29/2008 12:25:05 PM PDT by kellynla
As Congress last week headed into the Memorial Day recess, the Senate held yet another hearing to “get to the bottom of high energy prices.” One after another, Judiciary Committee members grilled oil company executives “on their roles” in the rising cost of fuel for their constituents. The Institute for Energy Research (IER) submitted the following ten questions for Judiciary Committee members who participated in the hearing:
1. Do you understand the fundamental economic principle of supply and demand for commodities pricing in the oil market?
2. Oil is a global commodity, bought and sold on the world market. Given that the nine largest private oil companies hold less than 5% of the entire world’s proven oil reserves, isn’t it more likely that the law of supply and demand is “manipulating” current prices than the five corporations represented at your witness table?
3. As a U.S. senator, you have control over oil production on U.S. federal government lands. Taxpayers own these lands and the energy that lies beneath them, but 97% of the federal OCS and 94% of onshore government lands are not being used. Are you willing to help increase the world’s supply of oil -- and thus reduce the price of oil and gasoline -- by allowing more U.S. energy to be produced from these lands?
4. The corporations represented at the hearing today produce roughly two million barrels of oil per day in America, for American consumers, with an American workforce. How many barrels of American oil, based on Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates, have each of you voted to produce?
5. How often have each of you voted against supplying American consumers with 10.4 billion barrels of oil from ANWR, 85 billion barrels of oil from the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), and 2 trillion barrels of oil shale in the West?
6. For those of you who have voted to restrict American energy supplies, especially during periods of increased demand, how are your actions any different than those that you have frequently ascribed to OPEC?
7. The sum of the American resources noted in question five is 2.095 trillion barrels of oil. The total proven oil reserves in the entire world is 1.3 trillion barrels. Which number is bigger?
8. As the gap between supply and demand expands, oil prices increase, and oil company profits rise. What’s the best way for oil company executives to send the entire U.S. Congress a “thank you” note for keeping energy supplies down and corporate profits up?
9. At today’s prices, the United States is sending $1.5 billion overseas -- per day -- to import oil from foreign countries. Do you think it would be a good idea to spend at least a fraction of that sum producing oil here in the United States?
10. When was the last time you filled up your own gas tank?
ping
You will have to speak slowly to them and try not to use the big words in the questions.
Ask them why they have nationalized the energy sector here in the US?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2022965/posts
All excellent questions. However, we are being undercut by John McCain who compares drilling in ANWR to drilling in the Grand Canyon and who refuses to drill off the Florida coast.
If we really had a conservative nominee we could have the left bleeding and bruised on this issue.
Waste of breath. The Senate is taking up Leiberman’s carbon cap and trade bill next week. Think energy is expensive now ?
Everyone in America should cut and paste that into an email to EVERY congressman and senator in Washington.
Maybe they’ll start to get the picture after that.
I think those complex "which number is larger" math questions are really gonna trip them up.
McCain either changes his position or he will lose votes, especially from people who can still think.
You have voted to mandate that auto manufacturers provide us, within a relatively short period of time, the implements that will lower the cost per mile driven of all new vehicles sold in the US. Since the automobile provides the principal competition for mass transit, how do you square this vote with your vote to further subsidize AMTRAK?
11. How will Cap and Trade rules lower our electric bills?
We convinced McCain he was wrong about the border;
we’re just going to have to convince him that he is wrong about drilling in AK...
I think he “gets it” about nuclear...
some Sailors just need to be “hit over the head” a little more than others.
BIG SMILE
I couldn't agree more. I have been thinking this exact scenario for a long time now.
I am more than willing to take a few weeks off, march on DC, and put these tyrants in the witness chair to answer these and many more questions.
Cap & Trade/Carbon Credits are the “Indulgences” of the Religion of Gaea...............
“Everyone in America should cut and paste that into an email to EVERY congressman and senator in Washington.”
No time like the present. :-]
Senators of the 110th Congress Contacts:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
U.S. House of Representatives
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
I had to keep it simple enough so even a dim could understand it.
What do us peons think? That we can question the “House of Lords”??
“I just sent letters to my 2 worthless Senators saying basically: “Drill now, Drill here, build refineries, one blend of gas for all 50 states, your obstruction isn’t fooling anyone”.
Good for you.
I did the same thing. And if you think you’ve got it bad, I’ve got
Boxer & DiFi. I might as well be talking to myself. LOL
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