Posted on 06/10/2008 9:32:29 AM PDT by pissant
The recent spike in oil prices and unemployment is dramatically changing this presidential campaign — virtually overnight. The near $20 jump in oil to $140 a barrel, the unexpected half-point increase in the jobless rate to 5.5 percent (the biggest monthly increase in 20 years), and the resulting 400-point plunge in stocks has created a new campaign issue right before our eyes.
Public worry number one is now oil, jobs, and the economy, with the inflationary woes of the U.S. dollar right underneath. The candidate who can connect with these issues will win in November. But so far neither Obama nor McCain are dealing with the new political reality.
In fact, it’s all about oil right now. The price has doubled over the past year while the economy has slumped.
But here’s an eye opener. Recent polling data from Gallup show the percentage of voters blaming oil companies for skyrocketing gasoline prices has dropped from 34 percent to 20 percent over the past year. At the same time, support for more drilling in U.S. coastal and wilderness areas has increased to 57 percent from 41 percent.
And the candidates remain blind to these shifts.
Obama continues to lambaste oil companies while congressional Democrats push for cap-and-trade. They’re missing the point, big time. The public wants more energy and more fuel to cut high prices and spur economic growth. But the costly cap-and-trade plan would produce less fuel and less growth. It would only raise gas pump prices while mounting a Gosplan-type taxing, spending, and regulating program that would be the moral equivalent of Hillarycare on nationalized medicine.
Sen. McCain has an opening here. Yet he, like Obama, would have voted for cap-and-trade, which went down to defeat in last week’s Senate vote. And while Mr. McCain favors some off-shore production and has been strong on nuclear development, he is against drilling in ANWR Alaska.
Then there’s the oil nobody is talking about. The Bakken fields beneath North Dakota, Montana, and Canada hold an estimated 400 billion barrels of oil. In comparison, Saudi Arabia’s biggest field, Gahawar, has an estimated 55 billion barrels, while ANWR has an estimated 10.4 billion barrels.
Hat tip to Mark Perry at the Carpe Diem blog site for these figures. Perry also is reporting a Bureau of Land Management study showing 279 million acres under federal management where oil and gas could potentially be extracted. But more than half of this is totally off limits. Off-shore, where another 86 billion barrels lie in wait, is also restricted. Then there’s liquefied natural gas, oil shale, and the various coal-to-liquid carbon-capture and sequestration technologies that would be priced out of the market by cap-and-trade.
The U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of coal, but we can’t produce. We’re still the world’s third-largest oil producer, but we could be the Saudi Arabia of oil if our companies were free to drill. Oil CEOs like Rex Tillerson of ExxonMobil and David O’Reilly of Chevron keep saying this. But politicians aren’t heeding their message.
Israeli saber-rattling against Iran could have accounted for some of last week’s huge oil spike. And the unemployment story may not be as bad as the May jobs report suggests. An unexpected inflow of teenagers probably bloated the jobless figure by a couple tenths of 1 percent. And economist Jerry Bowyer points out that an unprecedented hike in the minimum wage may be derailing students looking for summer work. However, in a sign of future job improvement, the civilian labor force grew by nearly 600,000, meaning that more people looking for work could signal recovery. Weekly jobless claims are near 350,000, not the 500,000 of past recessions. Overall, at 5.5 percent, unemployment continues to be historically low.
But the economy is still in a slump, not a boom. And the fact remains that Americans are very worried about the economic outlook. This could be a recession election. And right now voter economic anxieties are all about oil, even more than the sub-prime housing credit problem.
Sen. McCain has a great pro-growth plan to slash corporate tax rates, a move that would be a strong tonic for jobs and wages. But he must bolster that plan with a new emphasis on deregulated energy markets that can produce a total portfolio of conventional and non-conventional energy, including major new drilling. He should couple that with a strong-dollar message to curb both energy and non-energy inflation, which is shrinking consumer paychecks and damaging corporate profits.
More oil, more jobs, better wages, and low inflation. That’s a winning GOP message this fall. But what if Sen. Obama gets there first? It’s unlikely, but not out of the question. Either way, voters will move to the candidate who connects with their worries. Right now those worries are up for grabs.
Thank you. And if America would hurry and switch to diesel, in spite of the current diesel bubble, America would prosper as in the Bush era!!!
Yet they're the most "addicted" party. Addicted to government control, abortion, peace at all costs, high taxation and environmental madness.
Several groups are getting on the DRILL bandwagon:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=66441
Say it loud: Drill for American oil NOW!
Do record $139-per-barrel prices make you want to scream?
Posted: June 07, 2008
12:14 am Eastern
(c) 2008 WorldNetDaily
Oil priceshttp://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=66441> jumped
nearly 9 percent to a record $139 a barrel yesterday.
Are you ready to scream yet?
Have you ever wondered why with skyrocketing prices, American oil is still
in the ground?
Many Americans are facing tough choices about slashing their food budget
just to fill up at the pump.
If you’re among the millions utterly fed up with the situation, then be sure
to proclaim your call to action with WND’s new magnetic bumper sticker
declaring, “Drill For American Oil NOW!”
http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=2375
Let everyone know you’ve had it with the excuses from those who say it can’t
be done, the whiners who complain it shouldn’t be done and the anti-American
forces who want to destroy the greatness of the United States.
This removable, magnetic bumper sticker measures 15 by 3-3/4 inches. It’s
perfect not only for your car, but for your refrigerator, file cabinet -
anything metal, anything where you want to make a statement.
Don’t let the U.S. become a minor player on the world stage. Energy makes us
strong, and American-produced oil frees us from depending on volatile,
less-than-friendly countries overseas.
Say it loud! Say it proud!
“Drill For American Oil NOW!”
http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=2375
The short term solution is simple: increased nuclear power, increased drilling, and use all that coal we were using to produce electricity to make liquid fuels from (this is an old technology that I’m sure we can update and make even better).
Diesel autos are very popular in Europe. Rented one last time I was there. 45 mpg in a small van. Do not get why we do not have these cars in the USA.
BTW - the air was very clean because of nukes, killer train service and the latest tech on diesel.
Amen...Amen...Amen!!!
So SIMPLE--so doggone simple--have a good one, Fred!
“Have you ever wondered why with skyrocketing prices, American oil is still in the ground?”
Doesn’t this remind you of how the GOP lost Congress 2 years ago?
All they had to do was promise a wall and strong border control and they would have won in a landslide. (Just promise it!) And, they couldn’t even do that. The question is why.
All they have to do now is promise to drill in, and around, the U.S. of A. And they won’t do that.
Something is very wrong somewhere.
For the BEST overview of the historical and worldwide oil industry and why there are NO PRACTICAL ALTERNATIVES to oil, read the book “Gushers of Lies” by Robert Bryce.
Cy - Sneakyuses.com
All the more reason to drill more.
Notice that every freaking news story never mentions the drilling option. We have huge disinformation going on here.
That's a new one on me, can you tell me a little more about unclear power? P? Actually, I think it is nuclear power plant in downtown LA on a smoggy day, but of course I could be wrong.
Maybe we should burn that.
Actually we have more than that, but 100 years worth is good for a start. Anyone, and I mean anyone, FReeper or liberal, who thinks we can whip up an alternative fuel and do away with oil in the immediate future is either A: An idiot who believes in pie in the sky or, B: A person who is bent on wrecking the economy of the USA and prevent us from driving cars. Then, we we are at our lowest level, they will claim government control can save us! Actually it has already started but it will get worse unless we put our foot down, Now!
* Cease all ethanol production. It takes away from food production and the unintended consequence is higher food costs. As diesel prices go up, the cost of farming tips the balance of cost to make ethanol a bad idea. Just say "no" to ethanol! Even Jimmy Carter says that diverting farm production from food to fuel is dumb – even HE gets it. This will create only ONE "blend" of gasoline and will cease regional "boutique" blends (gasohols) which are stupid, costly, and meaningless. Trucking custom blends around the country is wasteful. Ethanol blends get fewer miles to the gallon, and adds to the cost of production and transportation. Newer cars do not need oxygenated fuels.
* 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-accessed 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 / Global Cooling / Climate Change Hoax. CO2 is not our enemy!
* Construct SEVERAL, regional Pebble-Bed Modular Reactors (or other similar modern designs) that are not considered "breeders", are rechargeable, and cleaner than any current nuclear generator design. Breeders are OK, but PBMR's are better. Refine spent nuke fuel for recycling. DO SOMETHING NUCLEAR to resolve energy problems.
* 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 don’t 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.
If you squint real hard, and read between the lines, the ‘manifesto’ will require the dismissal of all RINOs and LibDems and the election of some clear-minded conservatives to even consider any of the above.
Lindsey Williams, “The Energy Non-Crisis”
Available on line by chapter, the entire book sans illustrations. Scroll down to the bottom of the following page.
Drill here, refine here, R.F.N.!
Wind and solar would probably take up much more land than a nuke or hydro plant would.
“we have 100s of years worth of extractable fossil fuels readily available”
Probably even MORE, and most of it is UNTAPPED.
Also, somebody in the oil business told me that he didn’t think it was FOSSIL fuel, anyway. He said that fossil was mixed with oil, and that’s why they think it’s fossil fuel.
Of course, the jury is still out on that one.
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