I see strange happenings on TV! No, not horror movies, just Democrats and Republicans trying to give solutions to the price of oil and gas prices. They, with due respect haven’t got a clue!!
To me it’s simple, OPEC can control oil prices by production of their drilling. And we the USA are like ‘chicken little’, ‘ the Sky is falling’. etc. We’re like little chicks with our mouths open waiting for our next feeding.
Just as in sports, you have to psych out your opponents.
We should throw our system in the Legislature and the President, propose a fast track on building multiple refineries at record speed and propose drilling anywhere we have a chance for oil.
When that shows up on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and all TV news channels all over the world, the price of oil will fall like a ton of coal.
OPEC will panic and gas prices will be cut in half PRONTO!
Angry Old Salt
From a blue state airport to our house is 55 miles WT. The GA$ prices varied from $4.12 to $3.81 and a difference of .31 cents yesterday!
DRILL in ANWR and IN THE GULF OF MEXICO and build MORE oil refineries NOW!!! This is an ECONOMIC war of survival….
We should have built those refinerys when I was a kid in jr and sr high school! But the liberal weinie butts shoved all that “eco” stuff down our throats and we caved. ANWR is NOT that big and it’s not in a pristine area of Alaska! We have to have the refinerys first, though.
I’m tired of relying on foreign oil and having to wonder whether I’ll be able to fill the tank or buy something for my kids because they were really good this week.
The US built its last refinery 35 years ago. The ones we have today run full tilt and generally at 100 %.
Then they have to produce ‘designer fuels’ I think there are 25 or more. These are fuels for specific location, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York etc.
Liberal Special Interest groups and the democrat congress get in the way of the United States’ looking and drilling for its own oil. Therefore, no energy independence, no national security, everything this country does depends on Oil.
As usual they look for someone to blame, they blame Bush, no. 1 of course then it flows down hill, Big Oil, and of course the greedy consumers. There solution, Taxes, increase the price of gas and the stupid consumer will have to curtail their travel and driving habits.
Well the revolution is coming. When the ‘Stupid’ American consumer reaches the ‘Critical Mass’ point they will be heard and Washington will shake like San Francisco during one of its huge earthquakes.
Yesterday I paid, 4.09, for a gallon of gas, $4o dollars to fill up the tank. It won’t be much longer before every item we buy starts rising like the gas prices. And that will help accerlate the critical point to explode.
As you say, Nick it is time for a change in Washington and this summer should decide which way it goes.
I don’t think that it would be cut in 1/2 but you are on the right track. I have made a couple of posts on my site about drilling for oil. I don’t ever anticipate vacationing in Anwar and we should have been drilling there. We are currenyly prohibited from drilling within 250 miles of our coast. China will be drilling within 90 miles at the least and potentially as close as 45-50 miles off of Florida in Cuban waters. Domestic US oil companies have been invited by the Cuban government to participate but are barred from doing so by the US embargo of Cuba. We have huge reserves trapped in oil shale and tar sands. What about nuclear. My most recent post was on Representative Maurice Hinchey’s (R-NY) proposal to cap gasoline prices at $2.49 per gallon. This will ensure that we don’t have any gasoline. The wacko left and their enviro-friends are ensuring that we soon will not have a country as we know it.
Everybody here is on the right track. We know America has oil and gas and can build nuclear power plants. Our government restricts us and blames everyone else.
I am with AOS. If America announced today that we are immediately going to start oil and gas recovery on our own territory and building refineries and nuclear plants, oil prices would drop like a rock. I think the price would go down to under $50 bbl very quickly. The OPEC guys would be in panic mode and the Wall Street speculators would have the rug pulled out from under them.
And that is not even considering our coal deposits which may be the largest on Earth.
I think drilling for oil and building more refineries is a good start but just that….a start. I’m not sure how quickly the OPEC prices would come down because they know it takes time to build the refineries and get them on line….especially with the environmental regs US companies have to go through. The same is true for drilling. But it should be started and let them know we are through kissing butt!!!!
The other thing we should commence immediately is finding a viable alternative fuel or means of transport. And we need to spend more energy and money doing that as we do anything else. I am simply amazed that we could start a space program in the early 1960’s and land men on the moon before the turn of the decade. Not to mention put probes on Mars and other planets, help build a space station, make enormous progress in medicine.
AND WE CAN’T OR WON’T FIX OUR DEPENDENCY ON OIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whatever we do, we better start doing it d**m quick!!!!!!!!!
Sometimes I think being in my 60’s is a blessing!!!!
Nick, you raise interesting points and stimulated some good discussion.
I am on the same page as John and am also in my 60’s. The more politicians talk about energy the longer our supply stagnates at inadequate levels. To make matters worse, China, India, and other nations energy demands have skyrocketed and have changed the whole oil and gas supply and demand model.
The only way out for the United States is for presidential leadership in the mold of JFK and the 10-year mission to land a man on the moon. I don’t see either John McCain or Barack Obama with the vision, leadership skills, or desire to actually tackle and fix our energy problem.
The United States needs to IMMEDIATELY create a NASA-like agency to address the nations energy and related transportation needs. It must be staffed starting with a group of independent experts and proven leaders of successful major projects. The agency’s initial 10-year charter and mission should be to publicly and regularly identify and report on the nation’s immediate, short, medium, and long term energy needs along with recommendations and solutions for any shortfall.
The agency should motivate a new and profitable energy environment and industry. The goal is to make the United States the world’s leader in new energy research and creation.
There are many band-aid energy technologies on the table but will never make a real difference in our current political warring environment and a Congress committed to restrict any solution to our energy problem.
As everyone on this blog recognizes, our only way out of this problem starts with the removal of unnecessary regulations preventing the building of new refineries and construction of new nuclear power plants. It also includes the immediate go ahead to drill for oil and gas in ANWR and off of the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines.
Sorry for the long soap box rant, but our politicians are the problem to solving our energy needs and they piss me off.
I just wanted to say I think Les is right on in his assessment. The idea of a special energy agency is a great idea. The trick is to get the qualified people and funding without political interference. I just don’t think McCain or Obama have the intelligence nor desire to make it happen.
Les……maybe this concept needs to be discussed even more.
John — Thanks for the comments and feedback. I wish there was a forum to discuss this special energy agency more as it is key to finally making something constructive happen. If anyone knows of a blog or forum dealing with this issue please let me know. Chrissie has my email address.
When it comes to doing something simple or very complex there are always two groups of people that stand out. One, those who give you all the reasons why it can’t be done. And two, those who figure it out and just do it. The second group is much smaller, but this great country of ours should have the right mix of obvious leaders who can and did figure out how to make things happen with large and complex tasks and projects. They have a track record of achievement.
Part of getting things done is to recognize that oil, automobile, and power companies are not the enemy and instead necessary partners in the solution. Similarly, the environmentalists need to be partners in solving our energy needs moving them from being obstructionists with all the reasons why something can’t be done to creative participants and leaders in how things can be done and still be responsible to the environment.
A special energy agency would stimulate research and make the United States a magnet for new energy academic and business talent. It would stimulate new businesses and product that would create new jobs and grow the economy. The energy agency would get the various players to work together and share knowledge as a team instead of the many battling factions and warlords of today.
Unfortunately, a special energy agency can only come into being with the strong leadership of the President. John McCain would be wise to tap the skills of a few leaders who have the experience and track record of making big things happen to come up with a special energy agency plan to address the nation’s energy shortfall and critical future needs.
If he campaigned with a bold “land a man on the moon in 10 years” energy vision and plan it would go a long way to making him our next President.