I think that Senator John McCain has thrown in the towel. He continues to run yesterday’s campaign. His campaign was handing out tire gauges with Senator Barack Obama’s name on them, like that was Obama’s whole energy plan. As anyone who reads knows that Obama proposed a comprehensive energy plan that has at its heart the goal of eliminating our dependence on foreign oil. By the way, shouldn’t that be our goal?
I was recently sent an email arguing for for drilling in ANWR. This email dovetails very nicely into a recent Republican strategy which can be summed up in a phrase: drilling our way out of the oil crisis.
For everyone over the age of 25, we’ve been here before. In late 1970s, as oil prices began to skyrocket, we had a debate in this country over oil and energy independence. Our president at the time was Jimmy Carter argued for conservation. Carter and a Democratic Congress who pushed for higher fuel standards in cars. He asked Americans to turn down thermostats. He even had a fireside chat from the White House wearing a sweater. He argued for development of alternative energy. President Carter went so far as to put solar panels on the White House.
Since 1980, we lived under a Republican dominated government. President Reagan could not wait to take down solar panels. There was no push from the Reagan administration or either of the two Bush administrations for conservation, for higher fuel standards or for developing alternative energies. Instead, slowly but surely, we’ve injected more and more of our money into oil technology. The pinnacle of the strategy was for the current Bush administration to actually give our tax dollars to the “failing” oil industry. The results of these policies is nothing short of déjà vu all over again. We are currently in another oil crisis. We have the opportunity to either learn from the past or to push America back into oil dependence.
I’m not an energy expert but I do know that we have to decrease our dependence on oil. I guess there are two ways to look at this. We can either wean ourselves off of our dependence or we can stop cold turkey. It is hard for me to understand how drilling anywhere, whether in northern Alaska or off our shores, will help us reach our goal of energy independence from the Middle East (remember they are the guys that hate us). Instead, more drilling seems to be the equivalent giving just “a little bit” of heroin to a heroin addict.
Either through regulation or through tax incentives, we have to encourage business to pump tens of billions of dollars into developing alternative energies. There won’t be one simple solution. Instead, there should be multiple solutions to our energy problem. In some areas of the country solar panels make sense. In other areas of the country, wind power and tidal power may be the answer. As far as nuclear energy, I think France has shown that nuclear energy can be done safely. My problem with nuclear energy is that we end up with radioactive waste that will decay over thousands of years. We, as a country, have not decided what to do with this nuclear waste. Nobody seems to want it in their backyard. Therefore, until the problem of how to dispose of nuclear waste is decided, it seems reckless to build more nuclear reactors.
Finally, we have to address the politics of this situation. Republicans have clearly had a mutual and symbiotic relationship with big business over the last 30 to 40 years (probably much longer). If Republicans are pushing an idea, you can be guaranteed that the idea is not helping the average American worker. Instead, the idea helps big business. Drilling everywhere will clearly help big business. How does it help the average American today and tomorrow? With the oil industry owning over 4000 undeveloped and unexplored oil leases off the American coasts, it seems to me that we need to develop what we have before we look for more. We can help the average American worker by developing energy alternatives which will open tens of thousands of jobs in these fields. Now, that’s a plan that will put money into the pocket of the average American worker.
Keith Olbermann tells us how John McCain and his chief economic policy adviser former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas help develop then maintain the Enron Loophole. This Loophole has allowed energy speculators to pump up the price of gas. This is an excellent report.
Obama has given a major speech stating that he wants to close the Enron Loophole.
As John McCain does this impossible dance in which he tries to sell to the American public that he is NOT George W. Bush but at the same time he is telling the Republican base that he will support the policies of Bush, I’m just enjoying the contortions. Because the dance isn’t possible. You can do one thing or the other thing and McCain is trying to have it both ways. So, to separate himself from the policies of George Bush, John McCain announced in Texas that he supports off-shore drilling. The crowd went wild. This is a flip-flop from John McCain’s long time opposition to off-shore drilling. Just to prove that he will do anything to stay in John McCain’s good graces, Governor Crist of Florida now supports off-shore drilling. Then to complete the trifecta, George Bush announces something truly surprising. He wants to lift the ban on off-shore drilling and for good measure drill in Alaska. Interestingly, his father imposed the ban by executive order. Junior could lift the ban by executive order but he has chosen not to. I wonder why?
Happy Friday the 13th, a day late. Tim Russert has died at age 58. My Guests - Daniel Weiss from the Center for American Progress and Heidi Shierholz from the Economic Policy Institute. Outstanding show. Enjoy.
One of the great things about You Tube is priceless moments on the floor of the House or Senate can be brought to our attention. C-Span records the proceedings but someone else edits those 3 and 4 hour marathons down to 2 minutes of pure stupidity. Representative Darell Issa serves up tonight’s course.
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From TP:
ISSA: We are going to miss Tim Russert when it comes to the people on both sides of the issue of why we have $5 oil — $5 gasoline and $135 oil. I think Tim Russert would have been just the right guy to hold people accountable, who would talk about the 68 million acres that are, quote, inactive, while in fact 41 million are under current lease and use and are producing millions of barrels of oil and natural gas a day. […] (more…)
There are times when I feel that I’m blogging about the same things day after day. Then there are days like today. News galore.
I think that we will find out in the next 2 - 4 years that this was nothing. Just like the 70’s. This is artificial. These high oil prices are high just because greedy men want to make more money. That’s my guess but what do I know.
From NYT:
Oil jumped more than $10 a barrel today to a new record above $139, sending financial markets tumbling. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down nearly 400 points.
Further jolting the economic and political landscape just as the general election season begins, the nation’s unemployment rate shot skyward last month to 5.5 percent, the biggest leap in more than two decades. (more…)
Here’s my spin around today’s news:
I just was robbed at the gas station. Sixty-three dollars were sucked out of my wallet. This is a crime. This isn’t market forces. It is oil company greed. Where’s the Outrage!!!!
Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow discuss John McCain’s comments from a recent townhall meeting. John McCain was talking about his new energy plan and he said, “That will then prevent us from having ever to send our men and women in conflict again in the Middle East.”
Wow! Where’s Reverend Jeremiah Wright to cover this up?
A new commercial by Barack Obama. Short and sweet. No digs at Hillary Clinton. Just the honest reflection that we haven’t made any progress on energy independence since Jimmy Carter.
I wish I had an uncle or a cousin or nephew who was a oil baron but I don’t. So, I have to look at the oil prices, like the rest of America, and know that there isn’t any logical reason for this retarded spike in oil prices. Well, there is a reason. It is creed.
It can not be a coincidence that Oil companies are raking in profits by the tanker and both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are oil men. So, as prices at the pump surge, what are we to do? Well, we can keep handing our paychecks to the oil companies who have made over 1/2 a trillion dollars in profit since 2001 (a half a TRILLION), we can pressure our congressmen to fight back. The oil tax breaks that are killing our economy need to be rescinded. Secondly, we have to look push for renewable energy. We need more legislation like HR. 5351. Finally, we need to get over the I’m not sure that this or that is clean enough. We need to get started. We can sort out what is working and what isn’t once we pass GO!
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From AP:
Gas prices jumped Friday to their highest level since June, a possible preview of what many analysts believe will be a record spike in pump prices this spring.
But the current price surge could be short-lived. While gasoline has risen sharply in recent days in response to oil’s dramatic climb to a new record above $101 a barrel, gas supplies have quietly grown to their highest level in 14 years. (more…)
There are times when blogging is very easy. It seems that everything that you type is clear and precise at least that’s the way that it feels when I type it. Tonight hasn’t been one of those nights. I looked at dozens of stories before I thought anything was worth blogging about. I know that everyone was focused on Hillary and Barack fighting over something that Robert Novak said. Robert Novak who has a double secret source. Robert “I outed Valerie Plame” Novak. Why does he have a job? Are writers that hard to come by? For my money, I would prefer that you left his spot in the newspaper blank rather that print anything that he has to say.
Another article in the NYT focuses on experience. The voters in Iowa are now focusing on the economy and experience. What does experience mean? There are only 3 or 4 people in the world who have US presidential experience - Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Alexander Haig. That’s it. Sitting next to the president isn’t good enough. If it was we should get Monica to run. President Kennedy said that there was no job in the world adequate enough to prepare you to be president.
New Iowa poll (what has there been now about a billion Iowa and New Hampshire polls) by ABC News - Washington Post shows Obama leading Hillary with John Edwards a close third. Interestingly Bill Richardson is in a strong fourth. (View the poll here) Independents will be very important in this race. I’m not sure that “normal” polling includes them. Look for the Tom Bradley effect to make polling results almost meaningless unless exit polling is done the day of the race.
We are being played like an old banjo. Gas prices. The oil companies are shaking us down until we begin to complain. When there are a couple stories in the media about high fuel prices, the gas prices magically fall. A few months pass then the oil prices raise again but they raise just past the price they were at before. More outcry then the prices fall back. All the while, energy CEO’s and their boards are raking in money by the truckload.
It has now been 18 years since the Exxon Valdez disaster. Tons of crude polluted the Alaska coast. Exxon was fine $5 billion. They appealed. The fine was lowered to $2 billion. Exxon-Mobil’s net profit last year was $39.5 Billion. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear their case. At stake is can you and I hold companies accountable for the actions of their employees.
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From RS:
The US Supreme Court said Monday it would examine the legality under maritime law of damages of 2.5 billion dollars awarded against ExxonMobil for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker disaster.
It is the latest twist in a long-running saga which began when the Exxon Valdez crashed into a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989 spilling 11 million gallons of crude into the waters.
It was the worst oil disaster ever to hit the United States, and afterwards ExxonMobil spent some 2.1 billion dollars cleaning up the polluted coastline and more than 300 million in compensation for fishermen and locals affected by the catastrophe. (more…)
I know that experts will say that there is instability in the Middle East and that there is decreased supply in the face of increased demand. Horse Feathers. I don’t think that’s why the price of oil is climbing. I think that the oil companies are trying to get in their last minute mega-profits while George Bush is in office. Under a Democratic President and Congress there would be investigations into price gouging. Congress will roll back the tax cuts that the Bush administration gave to the Oil industry.
We are seeing greed. Soon we will be paying for greed also, at the pumps.
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From MSNBC.com:
Oil futures retreated from a record $89 a barrel Wednesday, ending lower after government data showing larger-than-expected gas and oil supplies outweighed worries about tension in northern Iraq.
Trading was volatile throughout the session as oil futures were buffeted by a number of headlines, including news that Turkey’s parliament approved a government plan to attack Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and word of an explosion at a small refinery in Montana.
Reports by the Energy Department, the International Energy Agency and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries over the past week have all supported a view that oil supplies are falling as demand is growing. (more…)
Yet, another reason for oil prices to artificially high. I truly don’t believe that anyone has a good handle on gas prices. There aren’t enough refineries in the US some say. Why not? Because, in my humble opinion, there is no downside for oil companies to choke of gas supplies and allow the price to rise. If they make too much gas then gas prices fall. Therefore, no new refineries. By choking off supply at the refinery level the oil companies build a cushion or a supply of crude just in case something happens. Hugo Chavez goes nuts or a Russian pipeline blows.
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From CNN.com:
In Saudi Arabia gasoline costs about 45 cents a gallon. In Iran it’s 33 cents. Venezuelans pay less than a quarter.
These absurdly low prices are a direct result of massive government subsidies.
While these numbers are not adjusted for cost of living, it’s fair to say that drivers in those countries are getting a good deal.
But it’s straining government budgets. More importantly, it’s not allowing the free market to do its job. Higher prices on the open market are not leading to a drop in demand, which is keeping the cost of oil high for everyone else.
“Roughly two-thirds of new oil demand is coming from countries that have subsidized oil markets,” said Christopher Ruppel, a senior geopolitical analyst with the consulting firm John S. Herold. “So demand is not going to be affected if oil goes from $60 a barrel to $80.” (more…)
The rich continue to get richer. There are no market forces in place that I can see that would account for the sudden and dramatic rise in gas prices. This is the greedy taking one last bite at the apple before Democrats control the White House.
I have to laugh when I hear there is a problem with gas prices. When gas prices spiked last summer, I called and talked to several oil experts. They told me that the oil pipe line in Alaska (that was corroded) plus continued problems in supply from Hurricane Katrina disruption were the major issues. We had problems with a bottle neck in refineries which limited production. Finally, we had the problems with stability in the Middle East which is a source for ongoing nervousness in the market. That’s what I heard last summer. So with predictions of gas prices going over $4 per gallon what happened, gas prices dropped by .50 - .75 cents per gallon. So, all of that told me one thing, no one really understood what was going on.
So, with gas prices going up, the experts are out in force, again. Let me tell you what I do know, no matter what the oil prices do the oil companies will rake in billions of dollars in profits. The oil executives will made millions just in bonuses.
Keith Olbermann looks at yesterday’s testimony. Inhofe shows that he is in the pocket of big oil.
Errington C. Thompson, MD, is a surgeon, scholar, fulltime sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats...
