Bush's energy plan from 2001. The Dems successfully killed any implementation of this. Thanks Aholes. Comments in parenthesis are mine.


US President George W Bush has unveiled controversial plans for meeting the future energy needs of the country.

Mr Bush said his national energy plan would "light the way to a brighter future" for the US, and tackle a decade of neglect in the energy sector.


If we fail to act, Americans will face more, and more widespread blackouts

George Bush
The US president emphasised the importance of conservation and energy production "at home".

He said the plan would "expand and diversify our nation's energy supplies", by encouraging more oil exploration and greater use of coal and nuclear energy, while offering incentives for conservation and renewable energy sources.

With American households facing high petrol prices (average price in CA for reg was $1.67 in 2001) and California braced for rolling blackouts this summer, Mr Bush has made overhauling the nation's energy policies a priority.

"If we fail to act, Americans will face more and more widespread blackouts," Mr Bush said.

He also warned that America could become more and more reliant on foreign crude oil, "putting our national energy security in the hand of foreign nations, some of whom do not share our interests". (No $hit)

Specific measure

The White House has earlier warned that the US faced the most serious energy shortage since the oil embargoes of the 1970s, with a fundamental imbalance between supply and demand.


The plans include increased oil exploration in an Arctic wildlife reserve (7 years later that oil would be coming to market TODAY) , and an easing of regulations on oil refining, coal extraction and the building of new nuclear power plants (For future electric cars like the Chevy Volt).

The new energy policy includes plans to license 1,300 new power stations over the next 20 years, and to streamline the licensing of new nuclear plants to speed their development(gosh, we could have been 7 years ahead of the curve building clean nuke plants).

Tax breaks for fuel-efficient cars and energy efficient homes are also planned, in what is being seen as a change in attitude towards conservation measures. (Of course 7 years later we have nothing but talk.)

Bush discusses plan with cabinet
Mr Bush will announce the proposals later on Thursday
Mr Bush had entrusted Vice President Dick Cheney (Doctor Evil. Since Cheney is involved it must be defeated.) to review policy in an area that is now the most contentious matter on the new administration's agenda.

The president said the plan had come up with "more than 100 recommendations that light the way to a brighter future through energy that is abundant and reliable, clean and affordable" (We can't a Republican accomplishing that of course).

Critics

Correspondents say that initially the administration was scornful of conservation, but the tone has now changed, with tax breaks for those who use energy-efficient cars and buildings totalling $10bn over 10 years.

Critics say the administration is full of former oil executives, from the president down, and its election campaign was heavily funded by the industry.

House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt and Democrats criticised the plan
The Democrats have already criticised the failure of the plan to provide a short-term solution. (there is no SHORT term solution you idiots)

And environmentalists have attacked the plan for its reliance on inefficient and polluting energy sources.

James MacKenzie, a senior associate at the World Resources Institute in Washington DC, told BBC News Online: "The administration's biggest failure is that it has simply not recognised how we have eventually to move from oil to hydrogen to fuel our transportation.

"The writing is on the wall in the US. We're importing about 55% of our oil now, and in 20 years it'll be 70%. Yet we're out there now, driving these gas-hungry sports utility vehicles. We never learn in this country, except in a crisis."
_________________________________________________________________________

Just think if instead of playing politics and painting Cheney as the Boogie Man, we would have actually listened to the President instead of that well known rocket scientist Dick Gephardt?

Seven years of doing nothing has finally come back to bite us and we have the Dems, lawyers, and environmentalists to blame.

We are looking at $225 oil by next year.

_____________________________________________
January 6,1991: The last post season victory for the Bengals.

..here is the answer in that quote.

James MacKenzie, a senior associate at the World Resources Institute in Washington DC, told BBC News Online: "The administration's biggest failure is that it has simply not recognised how we have eventually to move from oil to hydrogen to fuel our transportation.

Bush's solution was oil based. Short sighted, not comprehensive, drop in the bucket difference but kept OIL as the prime fuel source. Wonder why?

Moving toward hydrogen the last 7 years would have been great except it would have done nothing to solve our current problems because the infrastructure to manufacture and transport hydrogen as well as the fuel cell technology and vehicles to use it Did and Do Not Exist in an economical form.

The ridiculous notion that in 7 years we could have converted to anything close to even a 10% hydrogen based fleet of vehicles makes your selective quotes meaningless. We don't have anything close to the power necessary (i.e. Nuke or Coal) to manufacture hydrogen via electrolysis, and the other more efficient method, extracting hydrogen from natural gas, would have dramatically increased the price and availability of natural gas for home heating and for the production of fertilizer (natural gas is the main ingredient for most commercial fertilizer). Ethanol via corn is already taxing our natural gas supplies as corn is a very destructive crop (destroys farm land unless you fertilize).

Also there is currently no way to transport hydrogen in liquid form other than by truck. The current pipelines can not be used for hydrogen transport since hydrogen is EXTREMELY caustic and volatile. We would have had to lay ALL NEW PIPELINES THRU A LOT OF LAWYERS AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS BACK YARDS. No way the dems ever agree to this. Do you really want a massive fleet of trucks on the highways shipping this stuff? No way. After the first one goes off like a roman candle, they would be shut down by the safety nazis.

Should we be moving to something of this nature? Yes. Could it have been done in 7 years without massive bi-partisan government intervention? No. Was there any chance Republicans and Democrats would agree to this. No.

Bush's proposals were based on reality. Quickly insure and increase our current domestic supply of oil for the short term and plan for the future by building more efficient power plants and increasing energy production dramatically for future needs i.e. hydrogen production and/or electric vehicles. Furthermore, there were plenty of government subsidies for alternative energy creation and use in his plan.

7 years later our power grid is barely able to handle current peak demand and we many times we can not produce enough energy to handle weather extremes. Just think if 20% of our vehicles needed to be recharged every night?

So here we are, 7 years from Bush's absolutely spot on accurate speech and almost 30 years from the energy/oil crisis that first woke us up to the danger we faced. What have we accomplished 4 Presidents later? Nothing.

Raising CAFE standard 1/2 MPG per year over the last 30 years would have done wonders. Simple stuff.







_____________________________________________
January 6,1991: The last post season victory for the Bengals.

Big energy basically wrote that plan. Bush incorporated many of their recommendations verbatim. Like dacow said, it wasn't satisfactory with its continued emphasis on oil.

"Get a clue jack azz! Stop reading your history books" - quote from "Murf's Guide to Survivin' in Da Hood"

May require nuclear to make it practical.


Funny story-- About 20 years ago when I started practicing law, a partner called me in to his office to hear some crack pot on the line asking for help. He was at a pay phone and you could hear cars wizzing by. He kept saying "they are after me, they are after me." I asked who and he said "the oil companies or gov't" WHen asked why he said "I developed a car that runs on 2 parts hydrogen to 1 part oxygen" I quickly remembered that 2 parts H to one part O is water. We told him we couldn't do anything for him and to seek mental help.

15 years later, I read in the newspaper about the hydrogen fuel cell which runs on hydrogen and oxygen and the only byproduct is water. I coulda been on the cutting edge 20 years ago!

...Bush's energy plan from 2001. The Dems successfully killed any implementation of this. Thanks Aholes. Comments in parenthesis are mine.

Lets see--in 2001 the R's held the majority in the House--check
the R's held the majority in the Senate--check
the R's held the White House--check
the R's were 7/9ths of the Supreme Court--check

It was the Democrats fault------LMMFAO.

Uhh, you still have to have 60 votes in the Senate to prevent a filibuster. It never had a chance in the Senate so it was never voted on nor never made it out of committee. 9/11 occurred and it was relegated to the back burner for a few years. You act like the Republicans had a super majority which they did not. The same thing happened to Clinton when he tried to pass legislation Republicans hated. Furthermore, there were a few RHINOs i.e. Olympia Snow and Alan Specter who would not have supported it.

In 2005 a watered down version that still didn't let BIG EVIL oil drill anywhere was passed.

By the way, if you want to figure out the best way to cure your cancer you would probably want to see the best doctors who actually practice, not some doctor in a classroom.

If you want to find out the best way to increase both oil and energy production, you probably want to talk to the EVIL companies that actually have some expertise in the field, not some Harvard professor who has never worked in a real world environment. Its funny how so many people will label a guy who spent most of his adult life in a classroom an actual expert instead of the people who actually do the stuff for a living.

Even Kelly Johnson, the legendary aircraft designer of such aircraft as the SR-71 and U-2 figured out Hydrogen was just too unstable to use in his exotic aircraft. Its really nasty stuff.

My father was Polaris A-1 and A-3 nuke missile subs in the 60s. One of the most dangerous things that happens on a nuke submarine is recharging the batteries and producing oxygen to breathe (the subs never surfaced while on 45 day patrols). The fear was the proper handling and venting of the hydrogen produced. VERY EXPLOSIVE and volatile.



_____________________________________________
January 6,1991: The last post season victory for the Bengals.

Excellent post SF2

This is one of my favorite subjects.
First of all I work as field engineer in the oilfield.

Colorado has a huge amount of natural gas which they do drill for. This summer they will drill hundreds of more wells tapping into the natural gas. As far as oil, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming have between 1.8 trillion to 3 trillion dollars worth of recoverable oil. What does this number mean well if you were to take all the Middle Eastern companies and combine their oil reserves it still wouldn’t equal what the U.S. has. That’s right believe it the United States has more oil than Saudi Arabia.


Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Canada make up over 90% of the oil that we use. Saudi Arabia also has a huge influence over OPEC. There is no reason for Opec to release more oil. Instead it wakes more since to lesson production and drive global cost up. They learned this lesson the hard way by producing as much as they could and driving oil down to under 10 bucks a barrel. Why would OPEC want to release more oil, so they can make less and tap into more reserves? Economically that makes no sense.

Colorado, Utah and Wyoming oil Shale:

Oil shale is basically oil that is trapped in rock. Nature with the lack of heat and pressure in the region was unable to finish the work to produce it into oil. In order to make oil shale into oil you have to heat the shale to over 600 deg. In the 70’s in Colorado they used giant heaters on a pad site to produce oil shale into oil. In today’s market oil has to be over 50 dollars a barrel for this to be economical for oil companies. After the bottom fell out of the market in the mid to late 80’s companies closed down oil shale production. It has only become economical to produce it again since 2001. The problem is the environmentalist and the government won’t allow oil shale production. Up to 3 trillion dollars worth of oil is just sitting there and the Government won’t let us have it.


The average price for a gallon of gas in Saudi Arabia is less than 1 dollar today; Venezuela is around 12 cents a gallon.

Now, since we know the United States leads the world in recoverable oil reserves why don’t we drill for it. Instead let’s preach about how we need to rely less on foreign oil and do absolutely nothing at home.

How much are you as an individual willing to pay for a gallon of gas before you start demanding the United States to drill. This is the only question.

"The film details the California Air Resources Board's reversal of the mandate after suits from automobile manufacturers, the oil industry, and the George W. Bush administration. It points out that Bush's chief influences, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and Andrew Card, are all former executives and board members of oil and auto companies."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_the_Electric_Car%3F

If the Repubs were so adamant they could have gotten it out of committee at least. When you control the White House, and both houses of Congress, you can at least get a vote. What Dem Senator was gonna risk his political career tying up Congress in a days-long filibuster over an energy bill at a time when prices were set to skyrocket?

They could have made some concessions and stolen a few votes in exchange for some pork. That's how politicians get things done (unfortunately).

And it's not like Dems are anti-Nuke. Maybe their constituents but not the politicians. Excelon is the largest nuclear utility in the nation, and one of Obama's largest contributors. NRG dabbles with nuke and donated significantly to Hill.

And their is no proof that "oil exploration" would result in now, 7 years later, significant amounts of new oil. Maybe it would and maybe it wouldn't, no one really knows for sure.

Did you know that Mexico and Canada are 2 of the 3 largest importers of oil to the U.S.? Mexico's oil company is state-owned, maybe we should bust up their state monopoly and suck them dry instead of using our oil first. Then we can make a fortune of all the stupid Mexicans when oil hits $300 a barrel and we have shipped them all of our no longer practical, used-SUVs. I can already picture Jesus in a low-rider Hummer with naked bitches and flames on the side and hood.

Bush and his apologists are such incredible victims. The democrats wouldn't "let" him enact an energy solution? How hilarious.

He's committed blunder after blunder, including a strong dose of treason, but somehow democrats didn't let him have his way. What a pathetic wienie.

I wish a Clinton could restore a measure of dignity and honor and intelligence back into the White House.

Keep believing we don't have enough oil of our own. That's what they've wanted you to believe for the last 40 years.

http://www.rense.com/general82/gull.htm

Gas Price Manipulation
And Gull Island Oil
By Joel Skousen
World Affairs Brief
5-18-8



It's well and good that Congress vote to stop filling the US Strategic Oil reserve because the US already has billions of barrels in the ground in Alaska--entire oil fields capped and drilled, but kept off the market. The filling of the Strategic Petroleum reserve is merely one more attempt to keep fuel in short supply. I will be blunt. There is a conspiracy to raise fuel prices and it is pernicious. No one is targeting the collusion we see daily between the oil companies.

Fred Cederholm in a Baltimore Blog noted these careful observations during the latest and suspicious run up in gas prices--too rapid and too well coordinated to be a result of natural market demands. "It must have been some pricing strategy by all of the fuel retailers because the spike [of 13 cents a gallon] occurred everywhere, regardless of the company or the brand, at almost the same moment [within 2 hours]... I had already been on-line checking world-wide news and developments when a friend and neighbor stopped at the house to tell me I had better fill up immediately because a price jump was coming. I logged off and topped off my gas supplies for all of my fuel thirsty vehicles and gizmos. I then went back on-line to find out why the spike occurred. I found not one single development, catastrophe, or explanation. I found nothing to justify the jump!" Later, the media will always be fed some event used to justify the increase, just like their servile explanations that "the stock market rose today due to some company performing better than expected." Nonsense.

PUBLIC NEEDS TO DEMAND OPENING OF THE GULL ISLAND OIL FIELD

I have long maintained that the US government is purposely keeping US oil discoveries off the market in order to allow insider oil companies to drive up prices and save US supplies for the next war. Evidence continues to confirm that charge. A massive oil/natural gas field exists under Gull Island, located in the waters of Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, according to Lindsay Williams. Williams was an Alaska oil field Chaplain who was so successful at boosting moral during the building of the Alaskan pipeline that he was given special access to many high level meetings at the Atlantic Richfield company. At one of those meetings, he witnessed, first hand, discussions confirming a successful find of a massive new oil field near Prudoe Bay in Alaska--at Gull Island the day before the meeting.

A few days later, the chief operating officer of Atlantic Richfield for Alaska, Ken Fromm, who had invited Williams to the meeting, called him and told him he must never mention this new discovery--that the US government had classified it and was ordering it capped. It is still being held off the market and is not part of the environmental lock-down of oil in the Arctic National Wilderness. Williams was given a British Petroleum memoranda [probably by Fromm] which related the statements of upper echelon oil officials from Arco which said that Gull Island would be kept under wraps, limiting domestic supplies so Americans would someday see prices hit up to $10 a gallon at the pump.

Lindsey Williams decided to violate that informal ban and publish a book, The Energy Non-Crisis, about the scandal. Ken Fromm was finally fired by Atlantic Richfield for allowing Williams in on the meeting and for helping correct technical details in Williams' book. He told Williams that the Powers That Be were making sure his book would be suppressed and would not get any establishment media coverage.

Here's an excerpt from Chapter 17 The Energy Non-Crisis. The entire book is online and on U-tube videos: http://educate-yourself.org/cn/lindsywillaimsvideos22may07.shtml

"Gull Island just proved what the oil companies have believed for some time. It authenticated the seismographic findings. Seismographic testing has indicated that there is as much crude oil on the North Slope of Alaska as in Saudi Arabia. Since the Gull Island find proved to be seismographically correct, then the other testings are correct also. There are many hundreds of square miles of oil under the North Slope of Alaska.

"To clarify what I am about to say, let me first re-emphasize that the government permitted the oil companies to drill and prove many sites (subsequently making them cap the wells and keep the proof of the finds secret), but they do not allow them to produce from the wells. This is why I have referred (below) to a number of wells having been drilled (after I left the North Slope). The only production permitted is from the small area of the North Slope.

"Gull Island is located five miles off shore from Prudhoe Bay. It is in the Beaufort Sea. The chemical structure of the oil at Gull Island is different from that of the oil in the Prudhoe Bay field and the pressure of the field is different, proving that it is a totally different pool of oil from that at Prudhoe Bay... Three wells have been drilled, proven, and capped at Gull Island. The East Dock well also hit the Gull Island oil pool (you can tell by the chemical structure). For forty miles to the east of Gull Island, there has not been a single dry hole drilled, although many wells have been drilled. This shows the immensity of the size of the field.

"Only recently, just west of Gull Island, the Kuparuk oil field has been drilled. Again, this is a totally separate pool of oil from either the Prudhoe Bay field or the Gull Island field. The chemical make up of the field and the pressure of the field is different from the others, proving it to be a totally separate pool of oil. In an entirely different area of the North Slope than the 100-square-mile area of the Prudhoe Bay field, the Kuparuk field is approximately 60 miles long by 30 miles wide and contains approximately the same amount of oil as the Prudhoe Bay field.

"From 1973 through 1980 we were being told continually that America was in the midst of a major energy crisis, yet no oil production was allowed from the Kuparuk field. It wasn't until 1981 that permission was finally granted for production. Why the delay--if there really was a crisis? The reason Mr. X made the statement that there is as much crude oil on the North Slope of Alaska as in all of Saudi Arabia is because the oil companies have drilled all over the North Slope and have proven there is that much oil there, but still they are only allowed to produce from the small area."

"Americans will also be shocked to know that almost all Alaskan crude is shipped overseas (most to Japan) while America has to import most of its oil. "Possibly you have heard it stated that the Alaskan crude oil has such a high sulphur content that it cannot be refined by most oil refineries in the U.S. We are being told that this is the reason why the Alaskan oil is not helping to solve America's energy crisis. This is also the excuse that is being used for shipping Alaskan crude oil to other countries. It has also been reported that major power companies are even telling this to their customers, using it to justify their need for rate increases....[However] An August 11, 1980, analysis of the Prudhoe Bay crude oil, which is flowing in the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline, reads as follows: Sulphur content - 0.9% The sulphur content of the Prudhoe Bay Alaskan oil is low in comparison to oil from other sources in the U.S., as well as many foreign oils."


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http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/gull_island_oil.html

Alaska�s Gull Island Oil Fields Could Power U.S. for 200 Years

By Mark Anderson

�Crude oil is the real �currency� of the world,� said Lindsey Williams at a gathering of the Midwest Concerned Citizens group in Kansas City on July 22. But Americans will never hear about huge oil and gas reserves in the United States, which, if ever tapped, would bring today�s fuel prices at least as low as $1.50 per gallon and make America more energy independent.

As a Baptist missionary in the 1970s, Williams said he rubbed elbows with members of the world�s power elite�who boasted of detailed 30-year and 50-year plans to control the flow of oil and information.

A huge quantity of crude oil and natural gas exists under Gull Island, located in the waters of Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, says Williams. He cited key British Petroleum memoranda and related the statements of upper echelon oil officials who told him that Gull Island would be kept under wraps, limiting domestic supplies so Americans would someday see prices hit up to $10 a gallon at the pump.

�Every issue in the world today relates to crude oil,� said Williams. The U.S. occupation of Iraq and the saber rattling about attacking Iran fit into the crude oil matrix.

Iran is being targeted because it�s one of several countries that want to use their own currencies for oil sales, rather than using the U.S. dollar. Williams told AFP that any country that doesn�t want to �play ball� with the U.S. government and the financial and oil interests is, in essence, put on a hit list.

The United States, he said, learned that Iran intended to form its own bourse and not use the dollar for oil sales. Therefore, the notion that Iran is a menacing �almost-nuclear� country was trumped up, presented as fact via the corporate media and Iran is now in the crosshairs.

Other nations wanting more independence from U.S. meddling include Norway, Venezuela, Nigeria, Bolivia, Sweden and Russia.

The 30-year plan, which was first proposed three decades ago and is nearing fruition, included smug assurances from oil officials that the United States will triple its crude-oil usage and alternative fuels will not be allowed to gain enough ground to make a difference. They also noted that all foreign oil production will be scaled back to the United States and that Americans soon will pay $4 to $5 a gallon at the pump and could pay as much as $7 to $10 down the road.

In the early 1960s crude oil was selected as a tool of world control, Williams said, adding, �What we pay at the gas pump is a form of taxation.� The American consumer�s dependence on crude oil thus far has enabled people from foreign oil-producing nations to buy T-bills (U.S. treasury notes) in order to support the U.S. national debt and continued deficit spending. The need to support that debt puts the U.S. government in a bind, forcing Americans to remain dependent on foreign oil.

Williams, as a chaplain in 1970 when the trans-Alaskan oil pipeline was finished, ministered among the pipeline workers. However, as time passed he made a favorable impression with the top brass and was asked to improve worker-company relations. Next thing he knew, he said he was sitting at meetings of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and various meetings of oil executives over a three-year period.

He told AFP that the IMF-World Bank acts as a middleman between oil producing nations and refineries. In so doing, they set oil prices, he said.

The big event in that three-year period was in 1977 when an Atlantic Richfield oil executive told him, �We have just drilled into the largest pool of oil in North America�[and] in the world!�

That pool was Gull Island. It was said that there was enough natural gas to supply America for 200 years. But to this day, �not one drop� of that oil has been released to American refineries, Williams said.

Williams said the executive had warned him that the Gull Island find was highly classified. Do not repeat any of this, he was told. Obviously, that warning did not stop him.

(Issue #33, August 14, 2006)

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"...I am afraid that there is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don't want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public." -Booker T. Washington, 1911

good read Chris,

I have also worked up in Prudhoe bay, Only for one week though way to cold for me on the slope. There are huge reserves there that arent allowed to be touched as the article stated. Also the enviromentalist put a lot of demand on the oil companies up there. For instance you mainly only work up there in the winter since the EPA dosent want any roads built on the tundra, only ice roads are allowed. Also extremely limited in where you can drill and man camps have and all structures have to be built on stilts so it wont desterb the tundra.

Any which away there is huge untaped reserves on the slope, the dakotas, of the coast of florida and in the rockies. If you were to add up all of our reserves you would have more oil than is in the entire mideast. Also were not allowedto drill in these fields. Most of the fields that are currently beinng drilled in are fields that were developed in the 60's

The U.S is by far the leading ****ry in oil reserves, but we are allowed to tap into only a fraction. Generally when oil gows below 40 dollars a barrel oil companies cap the wells because it costs more to produce than they actually make. The last time they were caped was in 1999 when oil hovered around 10 dollars a barrel. Now wells in the U.S are flowing again but we are not allowed to tap into our huge reserves.

Why?

The "environmental reasons" are a ruse for them to justify high oil prices so they can bleed us dry and eliminate the middle class. Just another swell part of the globalist agenda. The oil companies are beholden to no drilling zones. I'm not saying they're not a part of the problem, but for this government to basically prohibit them from drilling anywhere, and then blame them for not producing enough oil, is just typical "gov-speak." And then you have idiots like Maxine Waters threatening to nationalize the oil companies if they don't produce more oil. lol. Hey idiot, you might want to let them drill where the oil actually is!

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"...I am afraid that there is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don't want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public." -Booker T. Washington, 1911

The oil price problem is not a supply issue. We have plenty of oil. Its the speculators that are driving the price up, and no one is going to argue about that.

"Get a clue jack azz! Stop reading your history books" - quote from "Murf's Guide to Survivin' in Da Hood"

Speculators or traders on the global market base the price of crude on a simple equation supply and demand.

China and India are both demanding more oil every year because their industries and economy is growing. Opec on the other hand will not release more oil which stands to reason since Opec wants less oil on the market and prices to go up.

Opec nations sell their oil and gas to their people at an extreme discount. Why they don’t can afford to since they control the world’s oil supply.

The United States controls the largest oil reserves on the planet. Yet the United States does not wish to tap into the huge reserves. The oil companies want to drill if oil is above 50 dollars a barrel but are not allowed to.

The United States government for some reason wants you to pay huge prices at the pump. For some reason the government seems to want you to be more dependent on them.
A Child could tell you and Government alike that if you produce more oil prices go down if you produce less prices go up.

Below is a link to a petition on American solutions.com. So far 418,000 Americans have signed the petition to tell the government that we are tired of high gas prices. The petition is to tell the government to allow the oil companies to start drilling now.

http://www.americansolutions.com/actioncenter/petitions/?Guid=54ec6e43-75a8-445b-aa7b-346a1e096659

Article on how the US Goverment has banned oil shale production.




YET CONGRESS RECENTLY VOTED TO MAKE IT ILLEGAL TO DEVELOP U.S. OIL SHALE RESOURCES

With oil prices at an all-time high, Americans are facing escalating gas, diesel, and aircraft fuel increases. Oil prices are projected to increase further.

Congress, however, has made it illegal to develop vast domestic oil resources in large parts of the United States.

The most startling Congressional prohibition on domestic oil production concerns the recently enacted ban on the development of oil shale resources in parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming in the Green River Formation. According to a Rand Study estimate, this reserve contains over one trillion barrels of oil, with 800 billion barrels fully recoverable, or three times the current oil reserves as Saudi Arabia:

The largest known oil shale deposits in the world are in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates of the oil resource in place within the Green River Formation range from 1.5 to 1.8 trillion barrels. Not all resources in place are recoverable. For potentially recoverable oil shale resources, we roughly derive an upper bound of 1.1 trillion barrels of oil and a lower bound of about 500 billion barrels. For policy planning purposes, it is enough to know that any amount in this range is very high. For example, the midpoint in our estimate range, 800 billion barrels, is more than triple the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Present U.S. demand for petroleum products is about 20 million barrels per day. If oil shale could be used to meet a quarter of that demand, 800 billion barrels of recoverable resources would last for more than 400 years.

(James T. Bartis, et. al., "Oil Shale Development in the United States: Prospects and Policy Issues" (Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 2005), p. ix. http://rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG414.pdf) (emphasis added)


The same RAND study indicated that technology exists today that would allow oil shale extraction and that the process would be cost effective once the price of a barrel of oil was $95 (p. x). The price of a barrel of oil today is around $130.

However, Shell Oil has been investing in technology that would make extraction much cheaper than standard pit mining:

Shell Oil Company has successfully conducted small-scale field tests of an insitu process based on slow underground heating via thermal conduction. Larger scale operations are required to establish technical viability, especially with regard to avoiding adverse impacts on groundwater quality. Shell anticipates that, in contrast to the cost estimates for mining and surface retorting, the petroleum products produced by their thermally conductive in-situ method will be competitive at crude oil prices in the mid-$20s per barrel.

(James T. Bartis, et. al., "Oil Shale Development in the United States: Prospects and Policy Issues" (Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 2005), p. x. http://rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG414.pdf)


In short, if the Congress removed its prohibition, America could develop a substantial amount of its oil needs from domestic oil shale resources rather than relying on foreign governments.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 specifically declared that it was the policy of the United States to recognize oil shale as a strategically important domestic resource. Section 369 states:

DECLARATION OF POLICY.—Congress declares that it is the policy of the United States that—

(1) United States oil shale, tar sands, and other unconventional fuels are strategically important domestic resources that should be developed to reduce the growing dependence of the United States on politically and economically unstable sources of foreign oil imports;

(2) the development of oil shale, tar sands, and other strategic unconventional fuels, for research and commercial development, should be conducted in an environmentally sound manner, using practices that minimize impacts; and

(3) development of those strategic unconventional fuels should occur, with an emphasis on sustainability, to benefit the United States while taking into account affected States and communities.

(Energy Policy Act of 2005, http://www.epa.gov/oust/fedlaws/publ_109-058.pdf)

Yet, buried in a Department of Interior appropriations bill passed in December 2007 was an amendment that prevented establishing regulations for leasing land to drill for oil shale. The House passed that amendment, proposed by Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado, on June 27, 2007, by a vote of 219-215.

On May 15, 2008 in a 15-14 vote, the Senate Appropriations Committee rejected an amendment by Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) to allow oil shale drilling and overturn the Udall moratorium.

(http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/15/panel-defeats-attempt-end-oil-shale-moratorium/)


Article on U.S oil reserves:



The United States has vast oil and gas resources onshore and offshore that are currently illegal to develop and therefore inaccessible.

U.S. law prohibits the development of approximately 38 billion barrels of undeveloped oil resources (19 billion barrels onshore and 18.92 billion offshore).

U.S. law prohibits the development of approximately 180 trillion cubic feet of undeveloped natural gas resources (94.5 trillion cubic feet onshore and 85.7 trillion cubic feet offshore).

SOURCES:

Onshore Resources

(Inventory of Onshore Federal Oil and Natural Gas Resources and Restrictions to Their Development, p. vii-viii, PHASE III INVENTORY – ONSHORE UNITED STATES IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE ENERGY ACT OF 2000, P.L. 106-469 §604, AS AMENDED BY THE ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2005, P.L. 109-58 §364, Prepared by the U.S. Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, and Energy 2008, Accessed on the Web Site of the Bureau of Land Management on June 2, 2008, www.blm.gov)

Offshore Resources

(Report to Congress: Comprehensive Inventory of U.S. OCS Oil and Natural Gas Resources, p. 72, Energy Policy Act of 2005 – Section 357, Prepared by Minerals Management Service Offshore Minerals Management Program For the U.S. Congress, February 2006. Accessed on the Web Site of the Minerals Management Service on June 2, 2008, www.mms.gov)




Again The U.S. goverment by its actions want to continue to rely on foreign oil and make it's citizens pay higher gas prices.

Why? Good question.

"I wish a Clinton could restore a measure of dignity and honor and intelligence back into the White House."

I can’t believe you typed this with a straight face. This has to be the most hilarious post I’ve ever read on this board……what’s even funnier is you actually believe this.

I can see the dignity and honor having a few holes in the theory, but William Jefferson Clinton is undoubtedly 1000 times more intelligent than Dubya.

Im sure even Franklinite will agree with that...

"The American Cancer Society says uninsured patients are 60 percent more likely to die within five years of their diagnosis."

Actually, Franklinite, I was enjoying making a dig at some of W's Kool Aid drinking apologists. But there was more than a grain of truth to the knock.

Wild Bill got himself a couple of hummers and tried to deny it. Idiot W committed international idiocies, and then committed treason in a reckless attempt to hide his shame.

Any Clinton trumps W on intelligence, stewardship and, especially, honor.

Hook, don't sweat it about Franklinite. We've had the same arguement. He doesn't have a sense of humor/satire/sarcasm. He doesn't get it... like most Bush supporters.

I have not read one ligament post on this forum of why we should not drill in our reserves.

NOT ONE?

This is not an issue of party affiliation, it is a simple truth.

The United States leads the world in oil reserves.

The United States refuses to drill in the reserves.

CONCLUSION HIGHER GAS PICES.

Who is the smarter president? What does that have to do with the price of tea in china?
The United States as well as the world’s infrastructure has been based on oil for over 100 years. Ethanol, Hydrogen, or solar energy is not going to change this over night. Vehicles today, gas stations, Plastics, Tires and many other consumables are made from oil. It would take humptine years and trillions of dollars to change this.

Someone who is supposedly as stupid as dubya understands simple facts. What is the excuse of the rest of the politicians?

It was Clinton who allowed advanced missile guidance technology to the Chinese so they could dramatically improve the accuracy of their orbital missiles which was not legal BTW.

Explain how W committed treason? Which foreign country did he sell our secrets too?

Speculators are not driving up the price of oil/gas very much (some of it is speculation). Current demand is higher than the current ability to produce the product. BTW, Saudi Arabia is not pumping more oil because they are basically at peak, non destructive production. Venezuela is pumping ABOVE peak non destructive production as is Mexico. This is why their production is continuing to drop on a YOY basis.

This has all happened in the space of about 5 years but most people who actually understand this stuff knew this was coming.

(non destructive production: rate of oil removal which does not collapse the oil field or cause oil flow to create vacuum gaps thus reducing or possibly ending flow. Basically, if you remove it too fast,the flow will slow down much quicker that if you pump it out slower. The slower you remove it the more you will get out in the long run.)



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January 6,1991: The last post season victory for the Bengals.

Yes, he absolutely committed treason. But his motives were not for personal money.....if anything his motives were more dastardly than that.

Bush let his pansy staff (you know the kind, they never put on a uniform but loved to prance around and recite military slogans) out a legitimate CIA agent who was working on projects to stop the proliferation of WMD. By outing her, he also outed her entire network of contacts.

And then Bush compounded his treason by commutting the sentence of a felon who got caught lieing to the FBI during the investigation of this matter.

PURE TREASON.

I've heard that bs about Clinton authorizing the sale of some rocket systems to China. Yes, something happened, but I'm betting you know as little of the details as I do.

But here's a few facts that can't be disputed:

W's regime didn't do anything to stop or retract or denounce it.

The republican-controlled Congress didn't enact any fact-finding investigation in protest of it.

The initiative came with the advise of the US' top intelligence networks.

Clinton didn't receive any money or gain any petty revenge by enacting the sale.

W entered office with a country that had added over 17 million new jobs in the previous eight years, a military that was brinning with vigor and technology (it did over-run Afghanistan in a few weeks, something the Russians couldn't do in 10 years with 10 times the personnel) and an intelligence community that had Osama Bin Laden in its gunsights.

W squandered it all with idiocy, imcompetence and a good dose of treason.

I’m not a total Bush supporter, but I don’t let pure hatred and political slogans guide my decisions as do the staunch haters of Bush. Bush for the most part is a very intelligent person, but since he does not conform to the media and all there hype about what they think he should be, he is portrayed as a dumb@ss. He reads about four or five books a month on a plethora of subjects and is well versed on political science and philosophy. I Agree with his tax policies but totally disagree with his reckless spending. We need a balanced budget along with the tax cuts made permanent to make them work. We do not need a raise in taxes on capital gains or anything(Talk about killing small business). I do not agree we need bigger government nor do I believe we need more taxes to implement more government run enterprises, because our government screws up everything it runs.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,538412,00.html

'"Supply and demand cannot explain the high prices," says Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co., a leading commodities analyst. Like many in his profession, Gheit believes financial investors are driving up prices. He's reminded of the Internet bubble around the turn of the millennium. According to Gheit, oil is also seeing "excessive speculation" at the moment.'

"Get a clue jack azz! Stop reading your history books" - quote from "Murf's Guide to Survivin' in Da Hood"

Yeah the Oppenheimer analyst has been so spot on the last year. A year ago in March he said oil stocks were too expensive and not to buy them. They are up over 20% in a year while the S&P 500 is down 4%.

Sorry but quoting one anaylst is laughable. I can still remember the "expert" Henry Blodget telling everyone what Tech stocks to buy and everyone on the edge of their seats waiting for his next great words of wisdom.

If you are getting your research Free and from the web, I feel for you. I spend about $7500 a year on private research and would NEVER trust anyone associated with an investment bank or major investment firm. They don't live in the real world and don't get their hands dirty. Dinning with the CEO or CFO is about as useful for "REAL" info as dinning with Mike Brown and Katie although filet mignon has to be better than ground chuck steak with Mikey.

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January 6,1991: The last post season victory for the Bengals.

"I Agree with his tax policies but totally disagree with his reckless spending. We need a balanced budget along with the tax cuts made permanent to make them work. "

How about the borrowing?

"The American Cancer Society says uninsured patients are 60 percent more likely to die within five years of their diagnosis."

There are many similar reports out there, I simply chose one randomly to illustrate my point.
If you think simple supply-and-demand are driving oil prices through the roof you're woefully misinformed. Here's a source that should be right up your alley: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,166038,00.html

"Get a clue jack azz! Stop reading your history books" - quote from "Murf's Guide to Survivin' in Da Hood"

How about the borrowing?

The answer is either raise taxes or cut spending.....I'm all for cutting spending and against raising taxes.

and against borrowing?

"The American Cancer Society says uninsured patients are 60 percent more likely to die within five years of their diagnosis."

SF2 made some comments on Peak.

Peak oil has been speculated about since the 70’s and drove oil prices up. At the time they thought they found all discoverable oil and it was set to decline.

Below are some charts from the oil drum. Basically the charts show decline in the Saudi fields. This is not speculations but facts. Have the Saudis reached peak.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2353

In Venezuela they are basically relying on their huge oil reserve in Lake Maracaibo. Even so they only produce a fraction of the world’s supply around 3.2 million BBL/Day. While the world production is 85 million BBL/Day.

Speculations do drive prices but by how much?

The leading contributors to prices are supply and demand. With China and India increasing demand. Which china is accounting for 40% of increased demand and oil production nearly stagnate prices obviously will increase.

The United States which imports most of their oil also at the same time has done little to increase production. Congress wants to continue to tell people we need to rely less on foreign oil but not produce the huge oil reserves we have here.

If you look up world consumption versus world production you will notice that they both are close to the 85 million bbbl/day. This would indicate that there is more demand than actual supply. Now if you take into consideration peak plus the decline in the Saudi oil fields you have an ever increasing price.

The United States is producing around 8 million bbl/day if we was to increase production to let’s say 15 million bbl/day this would accomplish two things. First it would even out the supply and the demand and cause oil speculations to go into a decline. Also since we import around 12 million bbl/day it would cut foreign dependency by half. Let’s not also consider the economic benefits at home.

Peak of the world’s production unquestionably is on the horizon. Investments and technologies need to be implemented over time but the only way in the short term to reduce consumer prices is by the United States tapping into their vast reserves.

I stated in a different post that speculation is part of the problem but you are woefully misinformed if you think it is most or even half the problem.

The problem has many parts.

One is the price of oil has not gone up as much in the rest of the world as it has in the US. The simple explanation is that due to the idiots in Washington who DO oversee our banking system, spend like drunken sailors, and a Federal Reserve that worried more about an economic slowdown than inflation, the US Dollar has dropped dramatically in value. Part of the oil price increase is due to dollars being worth less (worthless might be the case soon). Inflation is a factor.

Another is without a doubt an increase in global demand, particularly in China and India. A growing working class in both countries is increasing demand. Some oil producers are diverting oil there because they want to be paid in a different currency to diversify their cash holdings.

Third is countries like Venezuela, Mexico and Nigeria are not able to produce as much oil as they did just 5 years ago. Venezuela and Mexico are over pumping and not improving their current oil fields since nobody will go in and help them. I guess thats what happens when a country nationalizes its oil fields and throws you out of the country. Nigeria has a lot of oil that is fairly easy to get to. Its the guys with the AK-47s, machetes, and RPGs that are the problem there.

Refining capacity is not really an issue except we don't have enough SOUR crude refineries in the country. With oil at $130 + refining sour crude is now economical and could slow the increase in prices and quickly increase supply. The Gulf of Mexico and Canada have large areas of sour crude that had not been developed due to the high cost of refining the stuff. Takes a much more expensive refinery to do this.

And yes, speculators are driving up the price as well. No doubt.

In final, we are currently JUST able to meet global demand for oil with a small reserve in capacity left over. Unfortunately, any disruption like a terrorist attack in Iraq or Nigeria will cause dramatic spikes.

This was not forseen by most oil people. It is too bad our media has painted the industry the way it has.



_____________________________________________
January 6,1991: The last post season victory for the Bengals.

Bronco.. There will always be borrowing and thought the history of the US we have borrowed against debt. The ceiling for this debt is very fluid and set by congress. It was recently raised by congress in Sept of 2007. If you want to curtail the debt, lower taxes, get rid of pork barrel and frivolous spending and stop giving congress free rain on our money so they cannot implement programs designed to run peoples lives because they are to stupid to figure out what’s good for them. For example, the warning sign that congress mandated you put on fan belt covers telling you not to install when engine is running. How much time did congress waste on debating this? How about that five hundred dollar hammer? How about the grants given to scientist to figure out why people are fat or why the cockroach can live so long after its head is removed. Come on! How stupid is the average American? Controlling spending is something our government does not understand. Sure it knows how to raise taxes, but to cut spending they act like your cutting off their nuts. Controlling spending should be the norm along with any tax debates but, they talk about it, they campaign on it, but it’s never done. So am I against borrowing …no… but let’s just use common sense and a balanced budget to get where we need to be. IMO Raising taxes now would be ridiculous, actually cutting spending would be the right move err go less borrowing…

...One is the price of oil has not gone up as much in the rest of the world as it has in the US. The simple explanation is that due to the idiots in Washington who DO oversee our banking system, spend like drunken sailors, and a Federal Reserve that worried more about an economic slowdown than inflation, the US Dollar has dropped dramatically in value. Part of the oil price increase is due to dollars being worth less (worthless might be the case soon). Inflation is a factor.

BINGO. Nail meet head, head meet nail. This is the BIGGEST reason why gas has gone up, the dollar has gone down. Seems that the deficit spending ideology that has been in place by the Republican administrations since Reagan has repercusions. W. told his Treasury Secretary that "Reagan proved deficits don't matter." W. is proving they do.

Treason applies correctly and W should be the subject of impeachment proceedings.

A covert CIA agent was outed for vindictive motives after her husband revealed as a hoax that the intelligence community was firmly behind the Nuclear WMD storyline. Not only was the agent outed but, as a consequence, her entire network of operatives was defacto outed in the process.

Ironically, this CIA agent and her network were working on investigations into the possible proliferation of nuclear WMD into hostile countries and terrorist communities. If Wild Bill would have pulled off something like this, the dittoheads would be foaming at the mouth and trying to storm the White House perimeter.

And to polish off the debacle, W commutes the sentence of a convicted felon who lied to FBI agents who were investigating this treason. This occurred after the dolt in the White House proclaimed outrage that the agent was outed and promised full cooperation in the ensuing investigation.


It only adds to the W poison that he's a dolt to boot. He openly admitted at one point....AFTER the Iraq invasion......that he didn't comprehend the difference between Sunnis and Shias. Heck, they're all Arabs aren't they? What do you expect from someone who only reads at a comic book level.

And to the energy theme that started this thread, one dastardly Bush/Cheney legacy that shamefully has lost focus is that no details of the actual strategic energy policy sessions, chaired by Cheney and attended by US energy executives, have ever been released. These occurred at the outset of W's first term.

Once more, accountability on public policy has been sacrificed on the altar of executive privilege.

Give me back the days when the economy was bustling, our intelligence forces were targeting Bin Laden and our military was the technological marvel of the world. For America's sake, I can overlook a few dalliances for those glory days again.

Wilson in 2002 had been sent on an unpaid make-work job to Niger to "investigate" whether Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium ore from Niger. Wilson's method of investigating consisted of asking African potentates questions like: Did you commit a horrible crime, which, if so, would ruin your country's relationship with the United States? I have no independent means of corroborating this, so be honest!

On the basis of the answers he got, Wilson concluded that Saddam had not sought uranium ore from Niger. Since "Africa" means "Niger" and "British intelligence" means "Joseph Wilson," Wilson realized in horror that Bush's statement referred to Wilson's very own report! Out of love for his country and an insatiable desire to have someone notice his worthless existence, Wilson wrote an op-ed in The New York Times calling Bush a liar.

The whole story was already nutty enough to be believed by every columnist at The New York Times. But then journalist Robert Novak revealed that Wilson had been sent as an unpaid intern to Niger by his wife, a chair-warmer at the CIA who apparently wanted to get him out of the house. This in turn provoked our own Walter Mitty to accuse Karl Rove of outing his wife as an undercover "spy" in retaliation for his attacks on the Bush administration. (And P. Diddy told me Britney Spears is out to get me! I'm a spy too!)

In response to Wilson's crazy behavior, he was made an adviser to the Kerry campaign. He was also fawned over by Vanity Fair magazine, embraced by Democratic senators like Jon Corzine of New Jersey, hailed as a patriot in The New York Times, awarded The Nation magazine's "Award for Truth-Telling" and given a lucrative book contract.

According to The Washington Post, Wilson began whiling away his once-empty days discussing "who would play (his wife) in the movie" and fantasizing about how his obituary would read. His favorites were: "Joseph C. Wilson IV, the Bush I administration political appointee who did the most damage to the Bush II administration ..." and "Joseph C. Wilson IV, the husband of the spy the White House outed ..."

The Senate report on the CIA's intelligence gathering concluded that, contrary to Wilson's statements about his own report, his findings had bolstered rather than undermined the case that Saddam had sought ura