Comments (138)

I think the whole issue of oil boils to its economic impact. It is certainly going to hurt the western economies, led by the US. But US and other western economies have long been working on alternative energy resources and have developed the alternative energy technology to a point where high global oil prices will over night turn the previously uneconomical alternative energy resources economical. The worst affected therefore will be the developing and underdeveloped economies. In developing economies China and India stand at the top as a major threat to the western economies, particularly the US and Europe. We have seen that soaring oil prices have literally strangled these two giants economically. They need more and more oil to keep the wheels of their economies turning but today they find oil too expensive and access to oil rich states of the Gulf falling to the control of the US and Europe one by one. So, while the western economies will be able to make successful shift to alternative energy resources, emerging economies including China and India will not find the transformation and shift that easy due to lack of access to alternative energy technologies, which can literally strangle their economic competitiveness in the face of soaring oil prices. The future political and economic developments in the world, specially with reference to energy and energy resources, will be quite interesting to watch.

You know that the administration is behind the high oil prices. We are occupying Iraq. Oh, by the way Iraq hold more than 20% of the oil in the world & they owe us according to Bush's administration after all they are always asking for our help to free them. Right??!!! Why aren't we asking them to increase oil production? They owe us right? No, Bush decide to ask Saudi instead? What is wrong with Bush? 12 of the september 11 hijackers were from Saudi yet we struck Iraq. Now, Iraq is greatfull for freeing them. Why are not we asking them to increase production? Hell, we aren't we increasing production in Iraq? Duhh. Bush's adminstration are just so corrupted. We are becoming a third world country because the people are not voting and acting. Lets have someone with a brain push for oil prices regulation just like we did to airlines?

In my opinion:
NOT ONLY DID BUSH STRIKE OIL - BUT BECAUSE OF THAT STRIKE HIS LARGESS IS OVER THE TOP! THIS ACTION BEGS FOR AN AUDIT AND PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF THIS INFORMATION.

Bush’s Blind Trust: is just that! Blind! Do some due diligence here to see where this trust dollar levels are today
Furthermore, the callous disregard to the citizens of this country should not be surprising. Remember, the election that put this current resident in office, was greatly flawed, abused and misused. The people were lead down the road by an inept and academically challenged person, who is now residing at 1600 PA Avenue. The only hope we have is that this term will be his last, and if the American people really want their voice to be heard, make sure they steer clear of the republican party and their cohorts. The very idea that John McCain may succeed Bush in this upcoming election is frightening and fraught with apprehension and outright fear of again, having to do on-the-job training for someone who should know what the requirements are for this office.

The problem with the price spike can be leveled directly at the Bush administration. Common sense dictates that because of the conflict, oil producing countries who have taken up the residuals formerly belonging to Iraq, are now charging the USA for that conflict. It does not make sense. However, the USA should demand immediately, that the oil prices be rolled back to the price at the time of the invasion. No exceptions! Our national security is at stake, and it seems no one is interested in protecting our great country! Why?

The Bush administration should lead be example, and not follow poor judgment so far displayed by foreign and outside interests. This administration has made selling off America, bit by bit, a priority. To question why these prices have sky-rocketed, go and ask that person residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and I do not mean the spouses of these numbsuchs.

Problems are not that difficult to understand. What the problem is; is lack of comprehension and forethought to the needs of the citizens of the United States of America. The next resident should be very careful not to continue the abuse and misuse of the public’s sacred trust! However, given Bush's penchant for mis-information, I do realize this effort could be rendered moot! Why? Beats the heck out of me!

The contempt with which the Arab world scorned at Bush suggests the fellow has even lower ratings around the world as compared to US. He reminds me of the least popular student in my school who would try to do more of the same to further irritate his friends and encourage his enemies. I think the bunch of clones around Bush, the neocons or the zionofascists, keep prodding him to further humilate himself ensuring no other president would be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

The sad fact is that oil at $130 a barrel is probably cheap, when one considers the analogy constantly being made of oil being the lifeblood of modern civilization. Uh, how much is YOUR blood worth to you? I kinda think you'd pony up mucho dinero if so required to keep breathing. So, America, get used to a steady stream of US politicians with their hats in hands pleading for 3rd world despots to please, pretty please open your spigots just a little bit more. And get used to a lot more changes in imperial America's lifestyles of the once rich and now-too-infamous just around the corner.

Vince wrote:
Oil is history hydrogen is the answer.The only thing we don't have is the leadership that will take us there. Lets just hope Obama will be the one to declare war on oil...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..

Hydrogen is not a solution. It is just a surrogate to distributed fuels (why else would Cheney smirk). Most of us will go electric because of simplicity and cost.

Read with great amusement the mostly wrong ranting in the blog..Facts are:
1) World demand has been growing at ~2% per year,for the last ten years: this is from Exxon's 2007 annual report, and as the world's largest oil company, they would know more than the Texas fly-boy what the facts are
2) Do the math, 2% growth in demand can not cause a rise in oil price from $20 to $125 in six years!
3) There is no shortage of oil or gas anywhere..In the OPEC embargo in the 70's, there was an actual shortage and gas lines
4)The very high price in US is a result of the following: decline of US $ against Euro (about 50%), OPEC is pricing oil in Euros so that they get more dollars for the oil the sell to compensate for it's declining purchase power in the world. The decline of the dollar is directly related to the criminal policy of Bush/Cheney regime: spend more than $500 billion dollars todate in the invasion and occupation of Iraq; giving a large tax cut to the wealthiest 10% of the US population. The federal defict has gone up by 50% since Bush came to power; cumulative budget and trade deficits drive the value of dollar down since the US govt is basically printing money to fund the deficits
5) Increased insatbility in mideast by creating chaos in Iraq, and constantly threating Iran with bombing (Iraq/Iran are in the top 5 oil producers)
6) Conspiracy by Cheney with the large US oil companies to keep supply constrained by limited refining capacity..Remember the secret Cheney meeting with energy policy in the US in 2001.. Refused to publish who attended and what was discussed

Experts state that demand-based oil should not be more than $50-$60/barrel.. So the Bush-Cheney/big-loil junta has been able to fool the US public to directly provide ~100%+ profit for every gallon of gas we buy
If the gullible US voting public elect Bush 3 (McCain) as the next President, we have earned the right to be stupid.. If you behave like sheep, don't be surprised when they take you to the slaughter house (after a period of nice fleecing!)

DisgustedDem WROTE::
Man, if the environmentalists and the democrats would get off thier high horse and allow us to drill here in the US we could get another 200 uyears worth of oil, this would relieve pressure on the commodities exchange and allow us to persue alternaative means of energy.
But once again the only answer dems have is Bush is bad, Bush is dumb.
How about coming up with a viable plan thaat average american can afford instead of Bush derangemeent syndrome.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
There is maybe a few years of useful oil under our feet. This has been known for quite awhile. The time for leadership for an alternative energy plan was decades ago. More importantly it has been during the Bush administration because oil funds Islamic terrorism (and poppies). So yes while Bush has been reading "my pet goat" upside down for the past few years and brownie is doing a heckofajob we have squandered too much time without a coordinated energy independence defence plan. At the same time, the status quo of fossil fuels is dumping too much carbon into the air creating another problem that Bush is finally admitting to.
Now it is understood that nuclear proliferation is inevitable when nuclear power is pursued in civilizationally challenged nations. They can argue that they have a right to it as long as other have a right to it. The only way to say no is universal rejection of any nuclear activity.
So the final solution? Solar, wind, etc.! Has anyone ever heard these words come from Bush's mouth. I think not.
Doing nothing is a crime when something needed to be done.

Sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees.
Oil is history hydrogen is the answer.The only thing we don't have is the leadership that will take us there. Lets just hope Obama will be the one to declare war on oil...

The sad fact is that oil at $130 a barrel is probably cheap, when one considers the analogy constantly being made of oil being the lifeblood of modern civilization. Uh, how much is YOUR blood worth to you? I kinda think you'd pony up mucho dinero if so required to keep breathing. So, America, get used to a steady stream of US politicians with their hats in hands pleading for 3rd world despots to please, pretty please open your spigots just a little bit more. And get used to a lot more changes in imperial America's lifestyles of the once rich and now-too-infamous just around the corner.

The President has the power to reduce oil use significantly in a very short time by reducing the speed limit on federal highways from 65 to 60 or 55 mph.
Many truck drivers have already reduced speeds to these levels to reduce fuel use.

T. Boone Pickens is my new hero, he just plonked down Fat Cash to set up I think it's 4,000 MW worth of wind power. That's awesome. He's advocating solar power development, as well. Equally awesome, 2 sources of renewable energy.
It's something that's going on globally, too, you've got a couple-three different countries where they're turning out the Big Windmills, Japan with Mitsubishi Heavy, The US with G.E., and Holland, I think it is, check for yourself, with Vestas, not sure if they produce their own equipment or buy it from another company, but suffice it to say that 3 parts of the world are now working on developing wind power. Wind blows, turny-thing turns, usable electricity is generated...doesn't get much eco-hippy-non-oil-dependency-groovier than that...the solar plant thing from Spain is pretty impressive, too, it's all done with mirrors. Then there's good old space-age solar panels. I'm happy to see it, though, because it means we truly ARE moving into the 21st century on energy, even if it means going 'retro' a few centuries for the basic methods of doing so...

Many are blaming Mr. Bush for the sorry state of affairs in this country today. I, for one, blame those who elected him.They are the ones who made the big mistake and now everybody is paying the price.

Everytime I read about oil prices rising, I pull out my commodities book which lists all of the oil traders. The people who really set the price of oil are the oil traders, not governments or even OPEC. OPEC may say they are raising the price of oil to a certain level, but the trader invariably ratchet that up to pad their profits.

You don't think the Saudis and the rest of the

Arab world, which OWNS the oil, is getting tired of forking over oil to the US --to use in

savaging Iraq, planning to bomb Iran and paying for Israel's genicide in Palestine?

And do you think firing up the planes, tanks and
humvees daily in Iraq

And the tanks we gave the Israeli to flatten palestine... don't use OIL?

Yes, well...such a world.

Nationalize U.S. Oil and Energy Industries for National Defense.

Nationalize U.S. Oil and Energy Industries for National Defense.

Nationalize U.S. Oil and Energy Industries for National Defense.

Oil was $24 a barrel when Republican Bush took office and now Oil is $124 a barrel.

The Oil men conspiracy worked well to enrich super-capitalist Oil criminals and rob the American People of Our United States Treasury.

The American People are taking back their Country and Government. Republican crimes against Our Country will be prosecuted.

Since I am the senior among American citizen, I am the one to speak, and everyone else has to listen and that includes the beachgoers and partygoers and happies and smilies and the early retirees and retiring baby boomers and fund managers.

Each leader in this country at my level has options strategies clearly worked out on paper and it there for all of you to read (and that includes political and business leaders).

So when a particular event occurs all I have to do is pick the option path that would optimize my profits. And if that option path means world's LEADER#1 has to go all across the world with hat in his hand knealing before the saudis, so be it.

And that includes you, Yoo too.

For all of the crazy conspiracy comments...do you have proof or is that just something you heard from someone and believe without questioning?

It was Sep 2001 when the rule to raise minimum equity required to trade stocks and options to $25000, to prevent market price fluctuation was instituted.

Recession and Depression has started to affect my memory, you know.

Bush has been striking big profits for the House of Bush and oil cronies ever since he was promised an office.

The only reason to drill ANWR is to export the oil to the Far East, just like they did the last energy crisis in the 70s after we capitulated and turned the North Slope into a full-on environmental disaster.

Never again.

Just try looking up US oil export figures. Since Shrub and his oily pals took office, they magically stopped publishing them, at least as far as I can find.

What we need is a coordinated national strike. Everyone stay home - don't drive. Turn off all the lights. Then watch what happens when the gasoline supply chain starts backing up. Tighten your belts now when you have some control, or do it later because you have no other choice.

In Sep 2002 Bush and team came up with the idea to raise minimum equity required to trade stocks and options to $25000, to prevent market price fluctuation.

Now that kind of policies are hurting the commodity prices, where the large fund managers are trading commodity futures the way they want, to create huge profgits for themselves.

In part the beachgoers and partygoers and happies and smilies and early retirees are to be blamed, for whom the poor fund managers have to work so hard.

Amazing how people dont know that the iraq war is a huge reason for the high oil prices. When iraqis blow up an oil pipe the price of a barrel of oil goes up 10 dollars. Before the iraqi war a barrel of oil was 25 dollars.
The media keeps people in the dark.

Interesting referral to the Carter Administration. If we had continued with those policies, developing alternative sources of energy and reducing consumption, we'd be laughing at the high price of oil today. And instead debating what to do with the surplus from the federal budget of a peaceful USA.

Bush's visit to Saudi Arabia is, in the long run, not going to make one iota of a difference in our energy costs.

By saying "no" to Bush, and then a later saying "yes" to commercial customers; the Saudi's get to look strong to fellow arabs by "defying" the imperial americans. But Bush also gets to appear competent by claiming his visit ultimately influenced the Saudi's to up production.

It's all a game. But ordinary american citizens shouldn't expect to be the winners.

It doesn't matter since American refining capacity cannot meet increased demand. Moreover, Saudi Arabia is the owner of a refining system in USA, the old group of Texaco's refineries east of the Rockies that was put into a 50-50 joint venture with SA about 20 years ago and eventually sold to SA--Star Refining.

So, it is just a hollow gesture, worthless and a hoax so that Mr. Bush can look hopelessly presidential by going to SA and "pressing" for lower prices. Given the higher demand than available refining capacity in USA, the better gesture would be to allow refineries in USA expand their capacities as endusers want gasoline, gasoil, etc. and not crude oil!!

Bush is a clown and considered as such by most people now. He just does not understand diplomacy or politics and is a disaster as a statesman.

Let's say Bush's appeal for increased oil production is well meaning, but hopelessly "too little too late". Too little, means there is no effective energy plan operating in the United States. For many years, presidents have said, "let's reduce the reliance on foreign produced oil". Yet nothing has been done to reduce demand for oil. Indeed, there have been two mounting pressures on increasing demand. The federal government has been stockpiling oil for the so-called Strategic Reserve. News reports indicate the Strategic Reserve stands at approximately 60 days of oil imports. The strategy is predicated on an oil embargo that occurred over 20 years ago. This strategy of stockpiling large oil reserves, reduces the supply available to actual users of oil, and drives up the price of refined products because the oil available to refinery operations is reduced. The other pressure on oil prices is coming from commodity buyers, who attempt to buy oil and stockpile it for future refinery operations. Commodity buyers are hoarding oil, at lower prices, and then selling it at higher prices. This market manipulation only works when prices continue to trend upwards.

Because there is no energy policy at the federal government, and there is an unchallenged assumption that the market will self-regulate oil prices are presumed to trend upward. The federal government is hoarding oil, and commodity buyers are effectively hoarding oil. Neither actions represent a true demand for oil -- both are artificial demands that result in less oil available to economic users (commuters, business operations, and transportation).

Domestically produced oil is traded the same as foreign oil -- using a commodity market. This is the wrong economic model to use for something like oil because it is essential to continued economic activity. Electricity is produced and sold in a highly regulated market. Natural gas is regulated. Oil is produced and sold in a so-called Free Market (in principle unregulated).

Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon was recently interviewed by Matt Lauer on NBC Today. Mr. Tillerson made plain the business focus is to satisfy Exxon stockholders. There is no national business equivalent for electricity, nor natural gas. There are no private stockholders for a national electricity company (nor natural gas). Electricity is produced and sold by a combination of federal operations, public utility districts, and some private companies.

For instance in the Pacific Northwest, the Bonneville Power Administration, a Federal agency, operates a number of hydro-electric dams on the Columbia River. Most counties operate a Public Utility District, and a few cities, like Seattle, operate electric generation and distribution networks. Thus, electricity production and distribution is managed by and for the public, not stockholders who demand a profit.

Why oil and refined products, which are essential to our economic activity (just like electricity) are managed by free market entrepreneurs is an energy policy mistake. This model of economic activity is not in the best interest of the american public.

A serious energy policy would nationalize oil production and refinery operations. Most other countries have taken this step. In those oil producing countries you see oil is regulated like electricity and natural gas (and perhaps even water).

Even the Saudi's have indicated that oil production is mismanaged by the united states. The current free market model has failed to account for the total costs assigned to transportation in the united states. It is strange to build roads, using public tax payer funding, but expect truckers, business users, and commuters to pay artificial, unregulated prices for gasoline.

With no energy policy that puts truckers, business users, and commuters first there is no reason to expect any relief from the upward trend in oil prices.

Stop invading and destabilizing places like Iraq (with Iran next on the list). These countries have the largest crude oil reserves in the world. Then get rid of the flim-flam artists running the Federal Reserve with their below inflation interest rates. They are destroying the dollar and impoverishing the poor and the middle class.

Raise the federal gas tax until our prices are in-line with Europe. We already pay the highest gas taxes in the world; we just don't pay it at the pump. We pay for it with oil company subsidies, write-offs, tax breaks; SuperFund expenses; water treatment costs, additional medical expenses from the oil-based chemicals lurking in our bodies. We pay for it in foreign aid, which consists mostly of subsidized sales of weapons to the non-democracies with oil. Let's include terrorism, which we've fueled in the Middle East and elsewhere, for a century. , The lifetime debt we must honor to support those whose bodies have been mangled in the pursuit of oil . Not to mention the lives lost, the families destroyed. Oh, yeah, then there's the collateral damage of all those innocent "dark" people killed in our names. But hey, they are cheap, $6-700 a kid. We need a gas guzzler tax. But make the automakers pay one too. Carbon credits is just a way to let CEOs make more money, while someone else's neighborhood gets the fumes.
Maybe eco-terrorism will make a comeback. Let's shoot paint balls (rubber darts won't stick) at all SUVs occupied by a single person. Five paint splats and you take the bus.
Nothing more exciting than a 1-ton diesel quad-cab dually pickup truck idling in traffic with an empty bed, and a size 6 hat in the driver's seat. Or a soccer mom with a cell phone at her ear, trying to figure out how to turn a Suburban through a corner, or how to drive down a residential street with curb parking.

Its the money managers playing in the commodities market and sucking billions every day from the common people.

The best is yet to COME

Add another notch of failure to Bush's belt. Way to deal with the problem George. The Saudis have no incentive to raise production. The U.S. isn't the only market on the block now. They could just start pumping more oil to China and India. Besides, more oil doesn't mean squat without more refining capacity, a fact that America and this administration has successfully ignored. Conservation is the only way to solve the problem and unfortunately it appears that higher prices is the only way to force conservation. Lets raise CAFE standards again and add a displacement tax on anything with a motor larger than 3.5 liters. It is pretty sad that most 2008 sedans get pretty close to what their 1988 counterparts get. Why don't we challenge our auto industry? Show the world that American engineering is the best as we turn up the efficiency of our entire society. Lets ditch this whole ethanol dream until we can decide to make it from something that actually CREATES energy rather than waste it (as making it from corn currently does). Only our government which is blind enough to get follow what the corn lobby tells them to do would put this much weight behind a wasteful form of alternative energy. Wrong, wrong, wrong is the trend here. Lets listen to some facts for once. Energy positive alternative fuels are the answer including solar, harnessing the tides, and yes...the bad word...nuclear. Stop dropping the ball and build some reactors and reprocess the damn fuel to reduce waste.

The extra oil that the Saudis have is not what oil consumers want--it is heavy and sour, meaning when refined, it produces less gasoline and has a high sulfur content. Bush was making a political gesture, perhaps to reassure us (though from a quick skim of the comments, I don't think it worked). He can't control the markets. We get it.

And, as mentioned many times here, the US need to moderate demand, not increase supply. Usually high prices take care of this, but not so much these days. When the price is high enough, investment dollars will go into alternative technologies--this is happening.

But to the big question of my life:
Where's my jet pack?

Bush in Saudi Arabia is so reminiscent of Oliver Twist saying, "Please, Sir, May I Have Some More?"

HECK, LET'S INVADE CANADA, THAT'S WHERE OUR OIL COMES FROM!

Perhaps if he were only to give up another sport....

From: "Head of State"
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/05/golf-as-expiation.html

Thursday, May 15, 2008
Golf as Expiation

From The Guardian:

"U.S. President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he quit playing golf in 2003 out of respect for the families of Americans killed in the war in Iraq."

Many have criticized President Bush for his statement that he gave up golf as a way of making a personal sacrifice to show solidarity with those fighting and risking their lives in the war in Iraq, a war that he largely created.

However, I think that it is difficult to see the value and importance--the weight and value of such a personal sacrifice--until we examine it more closely.

I recall meeting with Mobutu Sese Seko, I believe it was in the late 1960s. He had just finished his plundering of the Zairian (now Congolese) economy after deposing Joseph Kasavubu in a bloody coup, raping the natural resources of the nation, and had lured the former Minister of Education back to the nation on the assumption that he would be amnestied, only to be tortured and then murdered by Mobutu's minions.

I recall the scene vividly. Seko sat atop an ornate Louis the XVII original, running his right hand through a bag of rubies, and said: "I am satisfied, Doctor, but I cannot yet find full and complete satisfaction. There is a vague feeling of irritation, or disquiet. Perhaps I am taking my people in the wrong direction."

Table tennis, I recommended. Give up table tennis, your favorite sport after your evening repasts. With this sacrifice, you will show that you too are willing to deny yourself what is important, that you too will bear the burdens of want, as does the nation. Seko smiled, as several rubies fell from the bag to the floor.

I, too, remember vividly, the events of 1973. Pinochet had just overthrown Allende in a bloody coup, and he had just then declared himself "Supreme Chief of the Nation". The General had begun his "disappearing" of political opponents, in which over 2000 were killed and about 30,000 tortured.
"Doctor," he said one evening, as we sat in the Massage Room of the Presidential Palace, "There is a pain in my lower back that emerges whenever I hear the shouts of imprisoned former associates from the courtyard, a pain that no massage can remove. Please, tell me, how can I rid myself of this continuous suffering?"

I looked to the plate of Maté and Alfajores (fried Argentinian bread) that sat on a tray beside the massage table. "You must make a show of sacrifice to rid yourself of the tension of the difficult removal of your treasonous enemies, General." I pointed to the tray. "General", I said, "Mate' es fine. No mas."

He smiled, instructed a satrap to remove the tray. The following day, the vanishing of the Disappeared once again flowed without imposition or bar.

It was only months later that I sat with Nixon and Kissinger. It was late at night, the three of us seated in the Oval Office, tumblers of scotch before us--all but Nixon's untouched--and Nixon's shoulders hunched low over his desk, the desk lamp against the night sky framed in the window behind him casting his face in an eerie glow.

"It's the goddamn press, Henry. They want to hang us. Why don't they realize what I am trying to do for them, Henry? Peaceniks, Hippies, Yippies, and the damn New York Times. One day, when this has all passed, passed us on, then they'll realize, then they'll understand how hard I worked, how hard I tried..." The tumbler shook in his hand, and all that could be heard was the ice lightly clinking against the heavy glass. "What can I do, Doctor? What can I do?"

I looked to the gilt framed picture on his desk, of Nixon playing the piano, Pat beside him. "You must sacrifice. You must abstain. The piano is your sacrifice to the lives so bravely being lost in Vietnam. Just as they have given up their freedom to play stringed ebony instruments in the Southeast Asian jungles, so you too shall put aside this desire. For them. "

He looked at me with a silent, poignant smile, as a tear slowly ran down his cheek. "Henry", he said, waving his hand "Tell Ramon to remove the piano from the East Room and put it in the basement. And have him bring another bottle of Scotch."

There are many such tales of deep sacrifice for the good of one's nation, taken with a full and insightful vision of what the nation has suffered, and with a full understanding of what that suffering entails.

The sacrifice of golf is no mere folly, not a trivial and thereby horrifying statement by a man so out of touch throughout his entire life with the meaning of actual suffering, by a man whose lifelong values have been so skewed by the cosseting of pain, infliction of deprivation, error, and the human consequence of his actions by an ever-present familial safety net that he cannot even conceive of the notion of risk inherent in actual sacrifice, by a man so in thrall to his own limitations and such fears of those limitations that he has walled himself in from all that might possibility contradict it.

No.

Golf is a sacrifice, a man giving up the very peace and solace, the removal from daily life, that his war has removed from those that his actions have sent into sands of Iraq.

And so I say, Mr. President, put your putter aside with honor, and with pride. And with the knowledge that you too have made a great sacrifice, fully in keeping with the actions and goals that you have cast upon this nation.

Cite:
Head of State
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/05/golf-as-expiation.html

Dear David, I give respect to those who earn it and deserve it. Bushy deserves jail, not respect.

Who needs more, or cheaper gas? I'm having a grand ole time finding ways not to use it. Besides most Americans are so rich, they don't mind paying $100 to fill-up their Escalade, or Sierra, or Expedition so they can ride solo.

Way to go Dackerman!

GINNDUP KENNEDY:
Tree huggers seem to forget that without oil our economy will stall out. The U.S. is a "BIG BAD_SS SUV" and it needs affordable gasoline to continue up the road of prosperity. If you think other wise - see your 401k.

--

Tree huggers?

Grow up. SUVs are the machines idiots drive. Lemme guess. You have an SUV.

Someone gets it. Oil was the fuel of the 20th century and China and India have finally caught up with that. The supply across the world now has buyers across the world. But if Bush sees this as some reason to rip up our own nation without taking even basic steps to make better use of the supply, he's proposing only half the solution to the problem, Not surprisingly it's the half that makes money for all his cronies.

Yes, the Republicans and Democrats will be pointing to each other, and offering no soulutions while doing so.

The Bush family has already struck oil with its' affiliation to the Saudi royal family.

Had I been King Abdul, after I stopped laughing, I would have said “Let me get this right, you want me to produce more and you will not produce more in your own country - you will not drill in ANWAR or on your east and west coast continental shelves, you will not build refineries, and you will not build nuclear reactors. You have the audacity to hope that we will deplete our reserves so you can retain yours. No! Go hug a tree!”
http://brokengovernment.wordpress.com

Better still, implement tiered pricing structure for commuters and beachgoers and partygoers and happies and smilies of this world!

Consumption Tier Oil Price/gal
0.00 - 25.00 USD 8.99/gal
25.01 - 50.00 USD 12.99/gal
50.01 - 100.00 USD 19.99/gal
100.01 - ad infinitum USD 24.99/gal

Pathetic to see the oh so macho, cowboy of Texas on his knees to the Saudis. What has become of this country to be reduced to this? And message does THAT send to terrorists?

"The oil-rich kingdom makes a gesture, but it's a small one."

Umm, like the raising of a single finger, perchance?

Ration Fuel (100 gal/month/household)!

When US Defense forces ration its fuel needs, why the f**k should beachgoers and partygoers and happies of the world be let off so easy.

king brickhead didn't strike oil. he simply proved once again that his failed policies in central asia and the middle east has rendered u.s. foreign policy inoperable until after the election. 300kbbl's of new oil? nothing more than a token drop in the bucket. the saudi's are doing the right thing by protecting their own future production capabilities in light of the current regional instability caused by the "go for broke" gambit orchestrated by the economic neo-fascists whom have navigated this administration into an unworkable conundrum of backlashing foreign policy failures. the administration thought it could control the world energy-wise. instead they have dashed the ship upon the rocks of externally imposed isolationism. it will be a long and winding road back to credibility.

It is said that utilizing the oil in ANWR and in the offshore areas we currently keep off-limits to ourselves, it wouldn't last long enough to be worthwhile.

But the amounts thought to be in those areas are about equal to the reserves from which we currently get the 40 percent of so of our total oil supplies which come from our own domestic sources. So either the new areas contain worthwhile amounts, or we could cease production in our currently producing areas and it wouldn't matter much, by the same token.

Does that make sense to anyone?

We could cure our oil price problem and still develop alternatives. If we decide not to, could we at least cut down on the whining?

I am ashamed that world's LEADER#1 had to go with a hat in his hand all across the world to kneal in front of the Saudis.

What is the matter with Iraq? Why are we spending so much in Iraq if it cannot even fulfill our fuel needs?

it is disgusting that this proud nation has been reduced by this president to begging from a corrupt, fundamentalist Islamic state that spawned Bin Ladin and seventeen of the nineteen terrorists that brought us 9/11.

It will take a new generation of leadership to restore our economy and international stature. Every true American cringes when the likes of Paulsen have to go to China to beg for financial support, or our president has to plead with the saudis for oil and then see them ignored.

It is so easy for kids to learns from their mistakes, so how come world's LEADER#1 Pres. George Bush (undisputably the fittest man alive in a survival game) is still repeating same mistakes from past seven years.

Anadarko! (increase oil exploration)
Mass Transportation! (Conservation)
Ban fuel guzzingly commute vehicles! (Conservation)
Incentive to Telecommuters! (Conservation)
Restrict two vehicle per household! (Conservation)
Alternative Fuels! (Invention)
Build small cities! (Convenience)

Those who want to drill our way out of the supply
shortages in AK should be aware that we export a lot of what we now pump out of the North slope to Asia.

a robert f kennedy excerpt from vanity fair

Iceland was 80 percent dependent on imported coal and oil in the 1970s and was among the poorest economies in Europe. Today, Iceland is 100 percent energy-independent, with 90 percent of the nation’s homes heated by geothermal and its remaining electrical needs met by hydro. The International Monetary Fund now ranks Iceland the fourth most affluent nation on earth. The country, which previously had to beg for corporate investment, now has companies lined up to relocate there to take advantage of its low-cost clean energy.

It should come as no surprise that California, America’s most energy-efficient state, also possesses its strongest economy.

The United States has far greater domestic energy resources than Iceland or Sweden does. We sit atop the second-largest geothermal resources in the world. The American Midwest is the Saudi Arabia of wind; indeed, North Dakota, Kansas, and Texas alone produce enough harnessable wind to meet all of the nation’s electricity demand. As for solar, according to a study in Scientific American, photovoltaic and solar-thermal installations across just 19 percent of the most barren desert land in the Southwest could supply nearly all of our nation’s electricity needs without any rooftop installation, even assuming every American owned a plug-in hybrid.

GINDUP KENNEDY: This is your brain talking; please use me.

Instead of firing up the truck, I've been riding one of my horses up to the store when I just need a pack of smokes or whatever.

I'm thinking of building a buggy for my horse. I'm going to use it to transport fuel cells and solar panels.

I'm going to equip my buggy with WiFi, a loud stereo, and a racing stripe down the side. I'm thinking of marketing the buggy as the ultimate teenage dating ride. All kinds of time to neck, and basically a built-in excuse for getting her home late.

It will also have a programmable electronic sign on the back so I can type out nasty messages to any car behind me who thinks they are in a hurry.

There's going to be a new pace to life, folks. You can either get on board and enjoy, or you can be laughed at as a fool.

I can even read while I drive. I can read about heat exchangers, and maximizing crop yields. I can work on standardizing portable power packs and I can work on converting all those machines we love, like rototillers, to work on standard, rechargeable power packs.

You go ahead and keep worrying about oil. Don't mind me, I'm just getting rich and having fun.

Some of you will stand still, frozen in fear that the wells have run dry. Others see the need right now to move away from fossil fuels for many reasons. The DOE should be as well funded as the military because it has the capacity to drive economies. There is a lot of work to do.

Consider this: nature has created an automaton specifically designed, as best as I can tell, to bug the heck out of us. It runs on poop and garbage, moves rapidly in all 3 spatial dimensions, can rest on the ceiling, identify faces, evade hostile actions, and self-replicate on a large scale. Its offspring are little maggots. Its efficiency is off the scale when compared to anything man has created. The instructions for its replication and autonomous existence are stored in a double-helix molecule that is so cleverly arranged, that it would be like reading every other word in this blog and having it be a completely different and understandable blog – times ten.

Look at some of the new nuclear reactor designs - especially from Germany. They encase their fuel in glass spheres that get placed in a hopper. Every so often, one drops out the bottom, presumably spent, and a new one gets added to the hopper. The