PDA

View Full Version : Current Oil Crisis



03SILVERSTREAK
06-15-2008, 08:29 PM
This colum was Written by none other than Chuck Norris and I must say , I am Impressed...


Congress, get off your gas, and drill!
<!-- end head -->

<HR SIZE=1>Posted: June 09, 2008
12:38 am Eastern

<!--- copywrite only show on NON commentary pages as per joseph meeting 8/23/06 ------><!-- copyright -->© 2008 <!-- end copyright -->

<!-- begin bodytext -->Last Thursday oil prices increased $5.50 per barrel in one day. Last Friday marked the biggest single-day surge in oil price history, rocketing $11 more to $138 (http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/06/news/economy/gas_prices/?postversion=2008060621) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In just two days, oil costs increased 13 percent.
Average Americans are literally driving to the poor house on financial fumes. With gas at more than $4 per gallon, roughly two cars in every household, and the average annual gas usage at 700 gallons, you do the math. Americans are being forced to use their hard-earned money that once put food in their stomachs to now put petroleum into their tanks, but to drive the exact same distances they drove a decade ago for four-to-five times the price.
As oil and gas prices skyrocket, Congress continues to play the blame game. In April 2006, with the Democrats poised to take over Congress with Nancy Pelosi at the helm, she released a statement saying, (http://www.house.gov/pelosi/press/releases/April06/Rubberstamp.html) "With skyrocketing gas prices, it is clear that the American people can no longer afford the Republican Rubber Stamp Congress." She followed that with the commitment, "Democrats have a common sense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices by cracking down on price gouging." So has the Democrat's commonsense plan worked? Average gas prices were about $2.50 a gallon at the time. Now they're $4 a gallon and rising. Some crack-down plan.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, they are going to discuss this week a cap-and-trade system, (http://news.yahoo.com/s/realclearpolitics/20080603/cm_rcp/cap_and_trade_trap) something that Obama and MCain both support. The main problem is official estimates say that it will increase gas by another $1.50 a gallon. Or as Newt Gringrich said in an interview recently with Glenn Beck (http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/10652/), "It should be called 'Raise prices and destroy jobs' because that's what it will do. It's going to raise the price of gasoline; it's going to raise the price of diesel fuel for truckers. It's going to raise the price of aviation fuel for an already ailing airline industry. It's going to raise the price of heating oil. It's going to raise the price of natural gas, and it's going to raise the price of coal."
From the steady decline in the value of our dollar, to trade deficits and oil dependency, our sovereignty is being sold out from underneath us. Might I remind the federal government what one of their original and primary charges is: to protect the American public from the tyranny of foreign powers – which is exactly what is happening through others' financial rule over us. It is sucking the life out of our economy. And Congress is virtually standing by and watching it happen.
(Column continues below)

Look at the energy chaos that our government has allowed. While we remain at the mercy of oil companies, cartels and OPEC, our government has tied the hands of states and citizens to tap even temporary energy relief from our own land. Here are a few key vistas on the oil and energy landscape at the moment:

Though we have more oil in the shale of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming than combined in the Middle East (800 billion barrels), liberals and environmentalists have made it illegal to touch it. (http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/06/news/economy/birger_shale.fortune/?postversion=2008060617)
It's illegal to drill in northern Alaska (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.287/pub_detail.asp)), or off the coasts of Florida or California.
Oil fields in Colorado are being shut down.
We won't develop shale oil fields in the Western states
It's illegal to explore in the Atlantic. (http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26744&s=rcmc)
It's illegal to explore in the Pacific
It's illegal to explore in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico
We're not receiving any more leases to drill in the Gulf of Mexico, while China, Venezuela and Cuba are. (http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=150 1&status=article&id=297645188487872)
We haven't built an oil refinery in 25 years and reduced in half those we have
There's enough natural gas beneath America (406 trillion cube feet) to heat every home in America for the next 150 years, but we can't tap it all.
We have the largest supply of coal in the world, but it's Germany who is planning to build 27 coal-fired electrical plants by 2020.
American airlines are in danger of going out of business.
American truckers are being stranded on the sides of the road.
American commuters are going bankrupt trying to travel back and forth to work, and are being forced to work locally for lower wages.If there isn't a conspiracy going on here, someone needs to make a movie about one!
Bill Clinton once said, "We just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse emissions because we've got to save the planet for our grandchildren." That is the type of mentality that got us in this trouble. I'm all for doing our best to preserve our planet, but not at the price of losing our nation in the process. Bill's words just might come true, but not as he or Al Gore might expect. We might save the planet for our grandchildren, and lose America at the same time, unless we turn around this energy crisis now.
Instead of whining and blaming, Congress needs to take some practical steps now to stop the insanity at the pumps, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, open up some temporary energy production avenues for economic relief (like shale development) and focus more of their taxpayer work time into establishing further alternative ways of producing energy for everything (from coal, electrical, natural gas, hydrogen, solar, nuclear, wind, etc.) Being the wealthiest nation on Earth, there is simply no reason or justification for us to be dependent on fuels that we can't produce in our country.
If you're sick and tired of giving away $2 of every gallon of gas to foreign dictators, making other oil-producing countries, cartels and tycoons rich beyond their imagination, and watching the federal government flail for energy solutions and bow to international powers –all of whom are sucking the very life out of the American people, economy and threatening national security – I implore you to sign and pass along the petition, "Drill here, drill now, pay less" (http://www.americansolutions.com/) at Newt Gingrich's American Solutions website. We're hoping to send millions of signatures to Congress demanding an immediate emergency session and resolution to our economic and national security crisis revolving around soaring oil and gas prices.
Our message: It's time to drill here and drill now (http://www.americansolutions.com/)! The petition is simple. It states: "We therefore the undersigned citizens of the United States petition the U.S. Congress to act immediately to lower gas prices by authorizing exploration of proven energy reserves and reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries."
Speaking of unstable countries, did I mention that the Iraq oil minister (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-06-07-iraq-oil_N.htm) just reported that oil production is at pre-war levels (2.5 million barrels a day), yielding earnings for Iraq of $28.5 billion in just the first five months of this year? What that means is, we'll likely soon be dependent and in debt to yet another Middle Eastern oil-producing country that we've helped stabilize and become wealthy while ours is going straight down the tubes.

Congratulations Congress – you're completely failing us.

Motorhead350
06-15-2008, 11:02 PM
I hate enviromentalists!

Master
06-16-2008, 05:15 AM
I don't hate environmentalists. I hate extremists. That goes for all types. Extreme envoronmentalists, religeous extremists, corporate extremists. You have to be smart enough to figure out where the truth lies. Someone who makes a 100 million in bonuses as the head of a petroleum company is NOT the best person to listen to. Just like the environmental extremist, they too have an agenda. Make Money! We need a balance and this can only be acheived by the masses themselves. Sadly, the masses tend to be very reactionary (the band-wagon or lynch-mob effect). We need to be able to reason things for ourselves.
Try this:
I get labelled because of the vehicles I drive:
1) Marauder - Its my hobey, my work car, etc.
2) F-350 - Well, what else would I haul a 10000# work trailer with?

But, now one sees these things:

1) The XR650 (about 45-50 mpg) in the driveway I never get to use because I work three jobs
2) The 86 Fiero 4cyl 5 speed (45 mpg) that I never get to use because I can't get out of the truck
3) The clothesline I use religeously because I hate using an electric dryer when nature gives me free energy with wind and solar
4) The cfl's I've had in every socket in my house since long before they became fashionable
5) The rain barrels I have at the corners of my house and garage for free water for all the trees and plants I've planted
6) The dishwasher space that I've turned into a recycle storage bin. I wash dishes by hand. Two gallons of hot water and a bit of labour.
7) The heat pump I've installed to get off oil
8) The solar panels I'm building to get off the grid as much as possible.
9) I've asked DR to investigate a propane conversion kit for the MM

So: Do you hate me? I think I'm an environmentalist in as many ways as I can be. You can be too! So we like cars. Big deal. We are a VERY small part of the pollution problem. If only enthusiasts drove cars and everyone else used what they only practically needed (no pickups to look cool, no SUVs to be one of the Jones's, no Corvette to fix your mid-life crisis), then we wouldn't have a pollution problem. We'd be polluting on a level so insignificant as to be immeasurable.
In the meantime, we leave as small a carbon footprint as we can in all other aspects of our lives. I see that as the price I pay for my hobbie. And, I don't mind doing it.

Too bad we get labelled just for the cars we drive. It shows the ignorance of the general public. Their arrogance both disappoints and angers me.
I am actually thinking of joining the local Green Party just so I can show up at meetings in the dually. This should spawn first angry comments followed by, hopefully, an informed discussion about how a vehicle isn't an appropriate label. From their, if we can move forward, I would like to propose a carbon credit system. People get credits for all of the green things they do in life. This would be rebated through a tax credit system.
BTW: The "Carbon Tax" is a money grab only. All revenues would only go into a gov't sluch fund anyway. And when it comes to fuel, it is already one of the best "User Pay" Systems we have. Buy an inefficient car or house and you pay more for fuel. No brainer. User pays. Why add a double tax? Because it is a money grab, plain and simple.

Rant over. Unless someone pokes me with a stick :)

ctrlraven
06-16-2008, 06:34 AM
I was reading something yesterday that some oil company up in Alaska finally got the OK to start shooting polar bears or "do what's needed" for them to do something up there.

Master
06-16-2008, 06:54 AM
Honestly, I don't have too big a problem with drilling or exploring IF there are a lot of safeties, controls and checks as well as contingency plans (good ones, duh!) for when things do go wrong. The problem is that I know from personal experience how these things work. Big business comes in, environmental agency goes limp. As always, money talks. And, when you get these kinds of jumps in pricing, it makes it easy for the gov't to justify cutting corners. Hey, people were hollering for us to do something, so we did it. Right?
I like my ride, and I really love motorsports. However, I don't think that my entertainment should come at the cost of the environment or the anhialation of species. Again, enthusiasts alone wouldn't be a drop in the bucket of world pollution. But if we just can't get things under control, then something's gotta give.

quota
06-16-2008, 10:13 AM
Come on !

Mr Norris is just describing a situation that everybody knows.

But tell me : what company would invest NOW in the drilling when the same drilling in 10 years will bring much more profits ? Putting today ahead the voice to environmentalists just gives the possibility to delay that drilling until next crisis. I bet that in 10 years or less (when the gallon will be over 10 bucks), these environmentalist will suddenly focus on some other issue.

JP

ctrlraven
06-16-2008, 10:53 AM
Their forecasting that whatever the price of gas/fuel is in August 2008 will be the constant price for the next year or until sometime in 2009 when it's projected to go down some.

Dr Caleb
06-16-2008, 11:01 AM
Rant over. Unless someone pokes me with a stick :)

:poke:

I agree with what you say, I just wanted to poke you with a stick.

Oh, and why kill an entire ecosystem over a dribble of oil, when:

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911&from=rss_home

Master
06-16-2008, 11:11 AM
Exactly. In the billions of barrels. Plus, they have found, what, 8-11 billion just off the coast of Brazil, right? They haven't even started extracting that yet, as far as I know. Also, I'm not sure why someone said its illegal to explore/drill in the Atlantic. It would come as quite a shock to the boys at Hibernia and Sable. Hibernia is still outperforming expectations, and Sable could still amount to something now that the political wrangling has settled down. Its a two-fold problem (well, two significant things). Overuse and overinvesting. Both are going to crash hard. India is just about to stop subsidizing which will help a lot. China, sadly, has no plans to stop, nor, from what I can tell, does the middle east.

sailsmen
06-16-2008, 06:52 PM
What 2,000 acres that produce what we currently buy from Saudi Arabia for 30 years is drippple? 3-4 times more oil in ANWAR than the North Dakota estimate you link.

Drilling on 2,000 acres will not kill an entire eco system.

"Oh, and why kill an entire ecosystem over a dribble of oil, when:"
Your statement is total marlarkey.

If we beleive what you are saying then we can only drill in Canada?

What we are expirencing is the "Enviromentalists" Energy Policy. Every time you fill up your car or pay you light bill remember this is exactly what the "Enviromentalists" want. Be sure to tell the "Enviromentalists" exactly how you feel about their policy.

Crown Vicman
06-16-2008, 07:31 PM
The beginning of the end?:dunno:

Master
06-17-2008, 03:58 AM
2000 acres is the narrow end of the wedge. Once you push it in, the precedent is set. We just had a line failure under a river out west and they do not even know how it happened. Do that up north and its a whole different story. The ecosystem up there is so fragile by comparison that it virtually cannot be compared to what we have in the south.
I don't get this section at all, though. Could you explain it for me?

"What we are expirencing is the "Enviromentalists" Energy Policy. Every time you fill up your car or pay you light bill remember this is exactly what the "Enviromentalists" want. Be sure to tell the "Enviromentalists" exactly how you feel about their policy."<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

sailsmen
06-17-2008, 05:46 AM
It means exactly what it says. The "Enviromentalists" have established the Nation's Energy Policy, to make Energy expensive to reduce the human population.

When I was in HS the Sierra Club I remember was about getting people to experience the beauty of nature and to respect nature by encouraging camping and so forth. Now I believe it is a political organization that believes humans are "killing the earth" and humans must be reduced.

I went to the regional Sierra Club for help, they ignored my emails and phone calls. Their website is mostly political, the most prominent item being a download for your desk top of the nations President as an animated monkey. I don't know what depicting the nations President as an animated monkey has to do with the environment.

The local chapter opposed a new state highway in our area. The compromise was to dredge a bayou and move by barge. When the state went to dredge the Sierra Club opposed that. The state has done 3 studies and laid out the location for the state highway. Why because the current highway is so overloaded it is dangerous, a friends grandmother and son were involved in a multi death accident.

The Sierra Club opposes the new state highway. I saw the Sierra Club debate a State Rep. The State Rep said a hgihway goes by my house and we have lots of wildlife next to the highway. The Sierra Club rep said if you build the highway "more people will come to live here".

I remember stepping on oil on the beach in FL and of course we blamed the oil tankers. Texas A&M did a study. Oil has a finger print. The oil on the beach in FL came from natural seepage off the coast of Mexico. More oil naturally seeps up from the sea bed in the Gulf than is spilled by industry.

The "Enviromentalists" have already started beating the drums about "water shortages". Where do they think the water is going? Do they think we are putting it on the Space Shuttle and shipping it to outerspace? The Earth is mostly covered with water there is plenty of it and it does not disappear.

Now that the Sun's warm Jesus cycle has ended and temperatures drop the "Enviromentalists" are changing their chant from "Global Warming" to "Global Climate Change". The "Enviromentalists" refuse to recognize that the Sun warms the Earth and the Sun goes thru 33 year cycles of increased/decreased actvity. % in that the ice caps on Mars wax/wain w/ our ice caps. Perhaps the Martians are generating too much green house gas from flatulation?

The "Enviromentalists" oppose Hydroelectirc, Nuclear, Refineries, Clean Coal Generators, Natrual Gas, Drilling and Exploration, Shale to Oil, Wind Generators. What the "Enviromentalists" propose is to stop using energy by reducing the Human Population. 80% of the land in the USA is not used by man.

Dr Caleb
06-17-2008, 08:59 AM
I don't get this section at all, though. Could you explain it for me?


He doesn't like facts, so he tries to make people angry. Like how he intentionally misreads statement to say something completely different (and negative).

Bolding the 'mentalists' as though being concerned with the environment is a bad thing.

We did evolve on this rock, and it is tied to us as we are tied to it. Thinking any differently requires ignoring reality.

Master
06-17-2008, 09:16 AM
On the topic of fresh water. The problem is just that. Most of our water is no longer fresh, or clean. The great lakes are a mess, we are rapidly polluting the ocean and the ground source water reserves are being depleted faster than nature can restore them. It is not that the water is going away so much as we are destroying what there is. Its a finite resource, just like oil. And sure, just like oil, it is renewable. The question is, will we be here to see it, or will we destroy ourselves and the planet long before it happens.

Master
06-17-2008, 09:21 AM
PS
GB is often represented in political cartoons as a monkey. It is a political statement about his degree of evolution. It is not uncommon for political leaders who lack foresight to be represented this way. Not sure why you would be surprised that they were using that cartoon as wallpaper. He stands for just about everything that they are fighting against. Right or wrong, they feel that he is not as evolved as they. The symbolism is simple, regardless of whom you think the neanderthals are.
In fact, I was tempted to post up a picture of a horse's ass that bore a remarkable resemblence to the Prime Minister of Canada, but the horse hadn't done anything to me, so I left him alone.

BruteForce
06-17-2008, 10:46 AM
His obsession with blaming mentalists is classic projection* based on his advanced state of cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance is a psychological state that describes the uncomfortable feeling when a person begins to understand that something the person believes to be true is, in fact, not true. In simple terms, it can be the filtering of information that conflicts with what one already believes, in an effort to ignore that information and reinforce one's beliefs. His livelihood (and likely his self image) are strongly tied to oil. He must maintain the illusion of control to avoid total ego collapse. So be kind... id** is not his fault.

*psychological projection (or projection bias) is a defense mechanism in which one attributes one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or/and emotions to others. Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted subconscious impulses/desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them.

**see Freud: id - ego - super ego ;)

Dr Caleb
06-17-2008, 11:55 AM
His livelihood (and likely his self image) are strongly tied to oil.

Just for the record - my livelihood is also heavily tied to Oil. I have worked at Syncrude, Suncor, Shell, Japan Oil, Gibson Petrol SAG-D and Petro Canada SAG-D oilsands plants.

I've seen the destruction, and it worries me. Syncrude alone leases more land area than 80% of the worlds countries. Imagine that square mileage dug down 300 -500 feet and strip mined, like is done for Gold. Then the missing part filled back in with 'tailings ponds' that are pretty much toxic to all life. Natives who are trapped between several oilsands plants experience much higher than average rates of rare cancers. The damage is already being done.

http://briarpatchmagazine.com/2008/06/09/we-can-no-longer-be-sacrificed/

But Oil won't last forever. We can ethier change our ways, or we can let our grandchildren inherit our mistakes. We are after all, borrowing this environment from them and we should return it in usable condition.

Master
06-17-2008, 12:01 PM
Well, when you put it that way, I guess we should just keep going the way we are. I mean, what have our kids every really done for us? And when we show the least signs of infirmity, dimentia or incontinents, they are going to race us to the nearest "rest" home and throw away the key.
I'm with the Russians: Burn it to the ground and retreat into the black.
;)

Leadfoot281
06-17-2008, 02:20 PM
Yawn... more name calling from the left.

How about suggesting some possible solutions instead? :confused: Perhaps something that values people and the engine of democracy more than bugs and snowy wastelands.

As far as the Seirra Club is concerned, they ARE wackos. More accurately, they have the MENTALLITY of wackos. These are the same folks that want to get Mountain bikes off public trails due to their "noisy engines".

dohc324ci
06-24-2008, 01:03 PM
Just for the record - my livelihood is also heavily tied to Oil. I have worked at Syncrude, Suncor, Shell, Japan Oil, Gibson Petrol SAG-D and Petro Canada SAG-D oilsands plants.

I've seen the destruction, and it worries me. Syncrude alone leases more land area than 80% of the worlds countries. Imagine that square mileage dug down 300 -500 feet and strip mined, like is done for Gold. Then the missing part filled back in with 'tailings ponds' that are pretty much toxic to all life. Natives who are trapped between several oilsands plants experience much higher than average rates of rare cancers. The damage is already being done.

http://briarpatchmagazine.com/2008/06/09/we-can-no-longer-be-sacrificed/

But Oil won't last forever. We can ethier change our ways, or we can let our grandchildren inherit our mistakes. We are after all, borrowing this environment from them and we should return it in usable condition.


I thought you were in healthcare?

Dr Caleb
06-24-2008, 02:14 PM
I thought you were in healthcare?

I am in Information Technology. Everything in Alberta is heavily tied to oil. I used to work for a company that serviced those oil plants, now I work for one servicing Alberta Health. My girlfriend is also a Nurse.

sailsmen
06-30-2008, 06:00 PM
Do a search of "Georgia Guide Stones".