Watch what the Democrats do...

now, when the President tries to make the situation better here. just so you know obama is fighting it too.

McCain and Bush are responding to pressure from constituents.

People are torqued over high gas prices and a smart enough to see that there will be huge increases in food prices and energy for heating this next Fall and Winter.

It will interesting to see if congress will thwart these efforts again.
I would think even those dolts can see the hand writing on the wall.:wink:

Obama’s “solution” is to tax those big bad oil companies.

Now ask yourself this:

If the government came along and decided to increase taxes substantially on YOUR business activities, would you raise or lower your prices?

Them Dems don’t seem too bright, now do they?

Saw a snipet from McCain that he would remove the offshore restricitons.
Obama said that drilling offshore will not help right now.

Neither mentioned ANWR - what is it with the Eskimos?:roll:

“Eskimos” isn’t proper, one the word is incorrect, and two, ANWR, is a barren ice waste land. Very few people even visit that area.

tom

dearly pandering to his drug addict supporters. The rest of us understand sometimes you have to work hard first before seeing the rewards.

Tom <Not a fan of “Obama’s quick high campaign.”>

“Eskimos” was tounge in cheek - as far as ANWR you made my point - why aren’t we getting the oil from there?

FYI -
from dictionary.com

Es·ki·mo
Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciationes-kuh-moh] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun, plural -mos, (especially collectively

http://cache.lexico.com/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.png

) -mo for 1. 1.a member of an indigenous people of Greenland, northern Canada, Alaska, and northeastern Siberia, characterized by short, stocky build and light-brown complexion. 2.either of two related languages spoken by the Eskimos, one in Greenland, Canada, and northern Alaska, the other in southern Alaska and Siberia.

So, it might not help right now, just think how much better off we would be now, if the politicians would have done something back in the seventies. Even if they don’t really do anything now, Opec will get scared and lower prices immediately below what it would cost for us to get our own energy, to keep us from gaining energy independance, we have to beat them at their own game. Have you ever wondered why Europe has been paying $5 & $6 a gallon for years now, when we were just paying less than $2? Because Europe was made up of a bunch of small countries which could not get together and come up with a plan of their own, or have the resources to do so. We can, if these stupid piliticians which have sold us out, will get out of the way! It should be law that all government vehicles, Federal & State, should run on Natural Gas!

ANWR is not a barren wasteland, it is a thriving ecosystem, which can be protected while we get the resources out from under it.

Darwin would be smiling every time one of them got into a single car accident after a night of hard drinking. :wink:

Being a fire fighter, this is just another way to expand government. Since the devastation I’ve seen with CNG is so great, we will be paying many widows, and needing to expand our forces.

NIMBY!

:wink:

Drilling anywhere will not help right now. That’s the sentiment that got us into this mess,i.e. thinking only of the quick politically expedient fix. If we had been drilling and building refineries and been building nuc for the last 5 years we’d have much lower prices now. If we had done it for the last 10 years, we could tell the Saudi’s where to shove their oil. Drill Now or see prices double again in 5 years.

I can tell you this we will not solve our problems using the failed old tired polices & techniques that the Bush Administration has enacted in its pitiful eight year reign.

One thing we know for sure… the oil problem and the energy crisis will not be solved through more drilling. If we directed 1/3 of the resources we are currently pissing away attempting to become an empire through invading & occupying sovereign nations we would not be in this crisis.

There is no easy way out of this if there is a way at all, and there is no quick fix either. It is time to stop electing leaders who manage by crisis and put those folks in power who have a long range outlook and a world view that does not begin and end with the escalation of aggression as the first line of diplomacy.

BTW, what is our list of “Right Now Fixes For High Fuel Prices?”

tom

Agreed, that’s why it bugs me when I recently heard McCain say we shouldn’t drill in ANWAR just like we shouldn’t drill in the Grand Canyon. :roll::roll::roll:

Visitors to:

Grand Canyon = 5 million/year Grand Canyon Photos
ANWR = ??few hundred top?? ANWR Photos

Let’s not forget that the proposed drilling area is 2,000 acres within ANWR’s 19.5 million acres. Do the math.

Do you think we can somehow manage to to use this minuscule amount?:roll::roll:

Why is the ‘oil shale’ in the Dakotas against the law just to explore?

tom

Sticking our head in the sand and saying drilling known reserves will not help has been the Democratic line since the Carter administration.
I would remind you that extensive diplomatic means including sanctions was tried against Iraq.
The world view that includes-if we just leave them alone ,they will leave us alone has proven a miserable failure over many centuries.:shock::roll::shock:

Mike,

You know I’m all for drilling, but didn’t “W” sign an executive order prohibiting off shore drilling?

  1. Starting new drilling will not help the supply problem, immediately. Takes time for a new site to start being productive.

  2. The ban on offshore drilling has also been a bad on offshore exploration. It is known that there are some substantial off shore deposits (and not just oil, but also natural gas) but the total number of these reserves and their size is not completely known. The exact extent and size of the ANWAR deposits is noty known.

  3. Once exporation is done (which can be done very quickly) and the extent of the reserves is known, this WILL help to stop the rampet speculation that has been going on. This will cause an immediate, good result.

  4. Remember, oil companies do not set the price of oil. That is set on the global market, where suppliers and buyers, from all over the world, bid on oil that has not even been produced yet. The price is set:

  • Well in advance. They are currently bidding on oil that will be produced in August and September, and won’t be gas in your tank until December of January.
  • Based upon how much oil is being produced. The supplier countries set, through OPEC, determine (using a number of factors, including how much they want to screw the world) how much oil will actually be taken out of the ground and put on the market.
  • By buyers, who try to anticipate their companies (or countries) needs in the future. If they messed up and need to cover a shortage, of they anticipate a future shortage in supply, they buy more, and have to bid higher against others. Prices go up.
  • There are oil brokers, those not buying oil for their own use, but to hold the contract and hope that the price will go up. They buy a futures option, say for December, at $130 / bl., and hope that by December, the price will be $150 / bl. They then get the oil and sell it to someone else and make $20 / bl. These are the real speculators.
  • Different countries want to screw with us, or other countries. Chavez owns the state oil company in Venesula. He can (and has) manipulated the price as a way to “punish” the U.S.
  • Remember, we only get a little less than 14% of our oil from the Middle East. Most comes from Canada, with a little from Mexico and Venesula.
  • We could put oil shale production on line in a little over a year. The shale is there and the production facilites are al ready in place, but their production was stopped (some years ago) when a) oil prices went down and b) the Sierra Club shut them down.
  • What some congressional members call “huge profits” are not calculated like most people calculate profits (Revenue - costs) and do not include many of the costs that the oil companies incure. Remember, Congress has “investigated” the oil companies about 12 times, since 1977, and have NEVER found any illegality, problems or gouging. The loud calls for investigation always get heavily publicized, but the results of the investigation, you never hear about it. It serves the purposes of some people to call out blame, even when they know that what they are claiming is not true. Besides, it sells newspapers and helps get one re-elected.
  • BTW: Based upon national averages, 8 cents per gallon of gas is oil company profits (i.e. paying the cost of the gas to be obtained, refined and delivered to the station) while the various governments (feds, state, county and local) get about 14 cents per gallon. Who is gouging us?
    *]Market forces, which always control these things, will work this out. how quickly they do will be based upon how much Congress and the Government messes with it. Let the market work, because no matter what you do, it will always work.
    Hope this helps;

His Daddy did.:frowning:

The Congressional moratorium was first enacted in 1982, and has been renewed every year since. It prohibits oil and gas leasing on most of the outer continental shelf, 3 miles to 200 miles offshore. Since 1990, it has been supplemented by the first President Bush’s executive order, which directed the Interior Department not to conduct offshore leasing or preleasing activity in areas covered by the legislative ban until 2000. In 1998, President Bill Clinton extended the offshore leasing prohibition until 2012.

Thanks for the clarification.