Posted on 05/17/2008 8:29:12 PM PDT by Cannonphoder
Crude Mistake
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted Friday, May 16, 2008
Energy: With the price of oil spiking above $127 a barrel, the search for scapegoats has begun. Some point to the Saudis, OPEC's No. 1 producer. Others blame the oil companies. We have a better candidate: Congress.
As President Bush traveled to Saudi Arabia to ask the House of Saud to open the oil spigots a bit wider, Congress showed once again how clueless it is when it comes to energy policy.
Underscoring its failure to grasp the nature of our current problems, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday refused to end its moratorium on oil shale development in Colorado.
"If we are really serious about reducing pain at the pump," Colorado's senior senator, Republican Wayne Allard, said, "this is a vote that would make a difference in people's lives." He's right.
But the shale proposal went down to defeat with Allard and 13 other Republican members in favor and 15 Democrats opposed. Once again, Democrats were on the wrong side, opting to keep oil in the ground and punish you with higher prices as a result.
This was no minor thing. Estimates put the amount of oil locked in shale in both Canada and the U.S. at more than 1 trillion barrels. Pulling out even a tenth of that would quadruple our current reserves.
This is the same Congress that refuses to allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which holds up to 20 billion barrels of crude, or offshore, where another 30 billion await.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
You know, that is something I've been thinking now for some time, but didn't dare suggest it as I feared being considered on of the tin foil hat crowd.
However, on the surface, it makes perfect sense to me.
While the enviro nuts do exert considerable influence, I have a hard time believing they can control that many in congress to do their bidding.
The Camel Jockeys and Sand Monkeys on the other hand are reaping the benefits of this spike in prices and it would definitely be to their advantage to NOT having us drilling for oil.
Who are the fifteen Dems? The only way to change is to go after them politically. Grass roots efforts in those states, i.e. email/letters/phone calls and recall threats. I would think even the Dem base would be interested because they’re getting slammed financially as well.
They will come around when or if they get all branches of government. People won’t remember a thing, and likely many will revere them for the lower costs of gas once they push through drilling and digging. They are working on retaining power before they have the power. Lots of things will end, such as high gas prices, complaints about the war on terror, etc etc. The Republicans had power but capitulated to the Democrat balks at every turn and then corrupted themselves in that power - now obviously they have lost it both in the house and senate and potentially the potus this next year.
Much of the rise in oil prices are directly a result of the big drop in the value of the US dollar.
Oil is traded worldwide in US dollars.
In order to buy that barrel of oil, it takes more dollars to purchase --- thus the big rise in price.
Yes, demand is rising also... as speculators and foreign governments (China, India) stock up on as much oil as they can.
It is a two-fold problem, with the drop in the dollar being the most critical.
When (if) the US dollar starts to rise, the price of oil will drop.
That’s a very simple, common sense approach to the Alaska oil opportunity. I’m sure that at some early stage long ago that Alaska signed over it’s control of it’s oil deposits for a few sheckles offered by the feds. Maybe not?
Time for an Abscam style sting operation of our congress critters. Catching Pelosi on camera taking a few hundred grand in exchange for not allowing drilling would be so special.
Republicans take opec money too but seem to have found a way around that sticky wicket.
We need to publish the donations (arab expecially and hidden, cloaked corps also)received by each house and senate member. This will stop a lot of hanky panky.
The term “LEADERS” bothers me. They are intended to be “REPRESENTAVIES”. Our government OF THE PEOPLE makes us the leaders. Herein lies the problem.
Is all this oil under government land?
Isn’t there at least some private land above some of these pools ?
And if so no government approval is needed, right?
Ref post #70.
I also have the same question.
It also amazes me that there are 300,000,000 of us, and we are letting 535 crooks ruin our country.
It's not just DemocRats causing the problems.
Have you seen any Republican do anything to change the situation, like naming names of DemocRat obstructionists or specific pieces of DemocRat legislation that block drilling or refining, or say anything beyond the same old tired phrases the 'Pubbies have used since the mid 70's about how we need to ween ourselves off foriegn oil? I haven't and I've been paying attention to this stuff since the Arab oil embargo of the mid 70's. All I hear coming from Republicans is lip service. The same old tired BS with no action. Meanwhile, I'm paying over $4.20/gallon for diesel I paid $3.00/gallon for just a year ago, while at the same time we have billions of barrels of domestic oil that our Congress, both sides, are blocking. This situation was created almost entirely by Congress, both sides of the ever blurring aisle.
It seems to me that if the 'Pubbies were truly serious about domestic oil production (and refining) they would be naming names, specific legislation and specific acts committed by the DemocRats to block domestic oil production. If there were ever a time to beat the DemocRats about the head with their miserable oil policies, it is right now. What do we hear out of the 'Pubbies? The same old crap we heard in 1978.
In human endeavors, when the facts don't add up, follow the money.....my guess is there is huge amounts of it being spread around by lobbyists on Capital Hill.....
I remember the gas crisis of ht 70’s quite well.
The price rose from $.25/gallon to $1.00..... quadruple.
The present rise is from say $2.00 to $4.oo only double
Is there a list of the votes somewhere?
That would make a great bumper sticker.
Better yet:
“Once again, the truth is that the Democrats don’t want a strong America. They want us weak and beaten in the face of our enemies.”
That’s correct as the Socialist/Democrats need a disgruntled society to effect their control. A contented populace seeks no “change”.
Who are the Republican leaders in the House and Senate?
Few people know that they are John Boehner (R-OH) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Nearly everyone knows Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, even when they were minority leaders before 2006.
Why do all the Republicans hide and leave the heavy lifting to GWB?
Nancy and Harry should be going toe-to-toe with Boehner and McConnell like the Democrats did against Newt Gingrich in the 90’s.
These Republicans are a bunch of wimps, quieter than church mice. There are no strong willed Republicans in Congress anymore. Even though many of the Democrats are truly hateful, they get all the media attention.
We need to drill the Democrats for a failed oil policy — with a constant beat of the drum from now until November.
At any time since the "Three Mile Island" farce, we could have replaced virtually all petroleum-generated electricity with nuclear power.
At any time since the original OPEC crisis, we could have advantaged domestic production with tariffs and by other measures.
At any time since Nixon went to China, we could have reversed the disastrous policy of incentivizing China to industrialize, and we still could (and should) wreck their emerging economy by simple legislative and regulatory measures.
Merging the US economy with the rest of the world was and is foolishness in the extreme. The underlying concept seems to be that they will become more like us, when in fact, we are now going to be forced to become more like them.
The present rise is from say $2.00 to $4.oo only double
My point wasn't the difference in the price rises. My point was that we are hearing the exact same BS from our elected representatives, particularly the Republicans, 30+ years later. Nothing has been done since the last time we had to endure these sorts of price spikes. This is despite the fact that the Republicans had control of both houses of Congress and the Whitehouse. This entire situation, for the most part, has been created within the walls of Congress. Remember that the next time you see a 'Pubbie Congresscritter mugging for the cameras and claiming "it's the evil DemocRats making gas prices so high!"
It's quite clear to me that politicians have no interest whatsoever in increasing domestic oil supplies by opening up the outer continental shelves, ANWR, and/or the Gulf of Mexico off Florida's west coat. Similarly, they have no interest in issuing permits to build new refineries or nuke plants.
The psychological effects of reversing these policies alone would likely drop fuel prices 30%, much like what we saw when construction on the Alaska Pipeline was announced.
Instead, we hear the same old tired BS from the 70's.......
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