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Charles Krauthammer: Critical Thinking on Energy
townhall.com ^ | June 20, 2008 | Charles Krauthammer

Posted on 06/20/2008 6:18:29 AM PDT by Tolik

Gas is $4 a gallon. Oil is $135 a barrel and rising. We import two-thirds of our oil, sending hundreds of billions of dollars to the likes of Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. And yet we voluntarily prohibit ourselves from even exploring huge domestic reserves of petroleum and natural gas.



TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: charleskrauthammer; drill; energy; krauthammer; oil
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1 posted on 06/20/2008 6:18:30 AM PDT by Tolik
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To: Tolik

“...we voluntarily prohibit ourselves from even exploring huge domestic reserves of petroleum and natural gas.”

It’s really too much! If we want grain, lumber or steel we don’t go begging. Why should oil be any different?


2 posted on 06/20/2008 6:21:43 AM PDT by SMARTY ('At some point you get tired of swatting flies, and you have to go for the manure heap' Gen. LeMay)
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To: Tolik

I’m in NY, McCain has no chance, I’ll vote for third party candidates.


3 posted on 06/20/2008 6:21:44 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Tolik

‘environmental imperialism’

great line!


4 posted on 06/20/2008 6:21:58 AM PDT by penelopesire ("The only CHANGE you will get with the Democrats is the CHANGE left in your pocket")
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To: Tolik
President-select Osama will be successfully marketed to the sheeple using guilt and "cuteness", while blaming hangnails on President Bush and therefore Sen. McCain by proxy.

Time for actual conservatives to get off the bashing bandwagon and let Sen. McCain's people know what Americans desire in the energy policies.

5 posted on 06/20/2008 6:23:57 AM PDT by kcm.org (Soros declares crude oil prices are a bubble)
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To: Tolik
Just two weeks ago, Krauthammer was calling for a gasoline tax increase of fifty cents every six months plus price floors at $4.00 per gallon.

What a jackass.

6 posted on 06/20/2008 6:24:04 AM PDT by rabscuttle385
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: SMARTY

I read this on another thread..... If I was starving, and there was a field of beans down the road, and I could pick all I want for free, but just before I left to pick, a government man showed up at my door and said “ Don’t go there, you cannot pick you way out of this”, I would punch him in the face and go pick some beans....maybe it is time for this tactic...


8 posted on 06/20/2008 6:28:05 AM PDT by joe fonebone (The Second Amendment is the Constitutions reset button)
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To: Tolik

Thanks for the ping!


9 posted on 06/20/2008 6:33:52 AM PDT by DCPatriot ("It aint what you don't know that kills you. It's what you know that aint so" Theodore Sturgeon))
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To: joe fonebone

If you were starving, forget those beans.

Some liberal would put an excise tax on those beans, buy them for himself using his own consultant company funded with govt grant money, serve them at his daughter’s wedding, and tell you to seek alternative food. And get another govt grant for his company to publish a pamphlet on grass recipes.


10 posted on 06/20/2008 6:38:53 AM PDT by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: joe fonebone
No maybe's about it Joe.

It's time! In fact it has been past time ... for decades.


ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE

11 posted on 06/20/2008 6:40:45 AM PDT by G.Mason (Duty, Honor, Country)
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To: Tolik
McCain's unwillingness to include ANWR lacks even political logic. His policy on offshore drilling is a flip-flop from his past positions. Perfectly justified, but a reconsideration nonetheless. If you are going to take the hit for flip-flopping and for offending environmentalists, why go halfway?

No one should be surprised that Obama jumped on this. But the article nails it...McCain needs to go all the way and open up ANWR. Indeed, his opposition to this is one of the largest stumbling blocks to my support for him (like he cares).

Another good point is that we're talking an area measured in tens of thousands of square miles but drilling in only a few hundred square acres.

Finally, what would it hurt to use these few acres when millions remained unchanged? How many of you are planning vacation trips north of the Arctic Circle to visit mosquitoes big enough to have FAA numbers painted on their sides. Other than a few caribou (which you can see much easier at other, less remote, sites), what's the big attraction of a "pristine area" that's so remote no one in their right mind would go there? Even if you wanted to go, simply alter your destination a few miles in another direction and you can fight the caribou and mosquitoes to your heart's desire in perfectly pristine conditions.

Personally, I don't care if these few hundred acres look like Newark on a bad day, the social benefits to drilling far outweigh even the worst-case scenario the tree huggers can dream up.

McCain is simply wrong about ANWR and he needs to hear the wake up call from the 87% of Americans who would like to see him do what's right rather than what a minority of lefties want.

12 posted on 06/20/2008 6:41:20 AM PDT by econjack (Some people are as dumb as soup.)
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To: rabscuttle385

He might be right or wrong on the taxing cheap oil (when it was cheap), but jackass he is not. He supported his view with arguments, you did not.

To summarize his point in my own words: taxing an economic activity is the most strait forward way to make an effect on it. Better than any other convoluted way to improve energy efficiency, that has proven to be not effective, but costly anyway. And not just costly, but hidden from public view. Plus, a part of his plan was to return the taxed away money in a form of lowering income tax.

Now, I am not convinced by this argument, and would prefer the markets work unobstructed. But it is a valid argument.


13 posted on 06/20/2008 6:41:41 AM PDT by Tolik
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To: Tolik

Abolish the gas tax.

Threaten the Sultan with supporting the Jihadists who want him dead unless he up productions and lowers prices.

Confiscate the driver’s license of anyone who supports to global warming mythos and ban them from taxis and livery services. Most of congress will be forced to take the bus.

Urge scientists to hurry up with the magical clean cheap energy thing.


14 posted on 06/20/2008 6:44:08 AM PDT by Impy (Hey Barack, you're ugly and your wife smells.)
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To: DCPatriot

Anytime.

Charles Krauthammer bump.


15 posted on 06/20/2008 6:44:30 AM PDT by Tolik
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To: Tolik
The entire Arctic refuge is one-third the size of the United Kingdom (which includes Scotland and Wales). The drilling site would be one-seventh the size of Manhattan Island.

Great post, Tolik. Thanks.

16 posted on 06/20/2008 6:51:08 AM PDT by GOPJ (ANWR is 1/3 the size of the UK -the drilling site is 1/7 the size of Manhattan Island.Krauthammer)
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To: rabscuttle385

He was, at least, proposing a corresponding decrease in income taxes.


17 posted on 06/20/2008 6:54:06 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Tolik

I hope someone from Senator McCain’s campaign is monitoring this thread. IMHO, the Drill Here Now theme should be complimented by the theme of MORE GREAT PAYING JOBS HERE NOW IN THE ENERGY INDUSTRY. When we drill on American soil, mine coal, process shale oil, or convert coal to diesel the jobs are created HERE. Instead of enriching OPECKERS we enrich our own workers, companies, and government. We should be EXPORTING ENERGY and hyrocarbon products to meet growing world demand. The environmental movement has not stopped world demand for hydrocarbons; they have just hamstrung America’s economy.


18 posted on 06/20/2008 6:54:36 AM PDT by darth
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To: SMARTY

The Libs have figured this out.


19 posted on 06/20/2008 6:56:18 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: rabscuttle385
Krauthammer was calling for a gasoline tax increase of fifty cents every six months plus price floors at $4.00 per gallon. What a jackass.

I just re-read the editorial he wrote 2 weeks ago and I think you may have missed the point, which is things will change when it becomes the economically wise thing to do. I think Krauthammer is on the money here. Again.

20 posted on 06/20/2008 7:03:15 AM PDT by Zevonismymuse
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