Snowolf

The fact of the matter is that the United States uses about 25% of the world`s oil and if we were to tap 100% or all domestic oil available, it would account for about 3% of our total usage. We would still need to import the other 22% of world oil. Not only is that "strategy" false, but the fact remains that they are not prohibited from drilling en mass and there are 68 million acres of known oil fields approved for drilling but have remained undrilled. Even if we were to go into full scale mad rush drilling, the payoff would be 7 to years off and would effect the cost of gasoline by at most 25 cents per gallon. In fact, there are over 10,000 issued drilling permits that have gone unused. It is speculation and Capitalist greed that has created artificial "supply and demand" crisis to drive the price artificially high in the same way the housing bubble burst.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/06/offshore_drilling.html

OIL/DRILLING

SPECULATORS IN OIL AND GAS – SAME AS THE SPECULATORS IN THE MORTGAGE MARKETS
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1933803520080619

More proof; Wall Street is its' own separate nation, unconcerned with the good of the United States; Street lobby working furiously to head off any regulation or oversight of oil speculation:

".....In a pair of lengthy and sometimes testy closed-door sessions in the Senate last week, executives from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, two of Wall Street's largest investment banks, made the case that their multibillion-dollar investments in energy contracts have not led to higher oil prices. Rather, they told Democratic staff members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the trades allow international markets to operate efficiently and that the run-up in oil prices results not from speculation but from actual imbalances of supply and demand. ....."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25253877/

GAS PRICES – THE FACTS!!!

- Republicans and Democrats have a fundamentally different approach to tackling high gas prices

- Republicans offer the same old tired slogans that they have touted throughout the Bush years and that haven’t done anything to combat the increase in gas prices

- More Drilling: Domestic drilling has not led to lower prices. Since 2000, drilling has increased dramatically – climbing about 66 percent– while gas prices continue to increase. and gas companies have shown that they cannot keep pace with the rate of drilling permits that the federal government is handing out – over the past 4 years they have received and are sitting on nearly 10,000 permits that they aren’t using to increase domestic production. Since 1999, drilling permits for oil and gas development on public lands increased more than 361 percent.

- OCS: The vast majority of federal oil and gas resources located on the OCS are already open for development - of all the oil and gas believed to exist on the OCS, nearly 80% of oil and 82% of natural gas is located in areas already open for leasing. In 2006, the federal government opened 8.3 million new acres in the Gulf of Mexico to drilling, yet gasoline prices have increased by $1.69 per gallon. Only 10.5 million of the 44 million leased offshore acres are actually producing oil or gas.

- Open ANWR: EIA estimates that if we open ANWR today, twenty years down the road, at peak production, gas prices would be lowered at the maximum by $1.44 per barrel, which translates to only a few cents a gallon. Increased conservation and the use of alternative technologies in the last three years have cut the projected need for imported oil between now and 2050 by more than 100 billion barrels (EIA) – ten times more benefit than what we might be able to get a decade from now from ANWR.

- More Refineries: We have excess refining capacity. Last week, our refineries were running at 89% capacity – well below the 95-98% capacity use rates we’ve seen this time of year for the last decade. Republicans argue that environmental regulations are preventing new refineries from being built in the U.S. From 1975 to 2000, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) received only one permit request for a new refinery, which was approved. In addition, oil companies are regularly applying for – and receiving – permits to modify and expand their existing refineries.

- Democrats are being aggressive today to lower prices and reduce dependence on foreign oil while thinking ahead to tomorrow

- Working to Address Rising Gas Prices

- Enacted legislation to increase oil supply by temporarily suspending the fill of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the nation’s crude oil stockpile. (H.R. 6022)

- Gave the FTC new authority to crack down on those manipulating wholesale energy markets to keep prices high in the Energy Independence and Security Act (H.R. 6)

- Approved the Gas Price Relief for Consumers Act (H.R. 6074) to hold the OPEC monopoly accountable for price fixing that flouts the free market and artificially drives up the cost of crude oil.

- Passed the Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act (H.R. 1252) to investigate price gouging by retailers who may be using the cover of high prices to unfairly inflate their rates even further.

- Investing in a Sustainable, Energy Independent America

- Enacted the landmark Energy Independence and Security Act (H.R. 6) that raised vehicle fuel efficiency for the first time in 32 years and increased the renewable fuels standard.

- Passed the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Act (H.R. 5351) to end unnecessary subsidies to oil companies making record profits and invest in clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

- Approved the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act (H.R. 6049) to renew and expand tax incentives for renewable energy.

- Passed the Food and Energy Security Act (H.R. 2419) that promotes the development of biofuels, including those from non-corn sources.

- We are continuing to talk with Committees about further possible action.

FLASHBACK - THE ENRON SCAM
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...agewanted=print

DARK MARKETS
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/17/...in4188620.shtml

Perhaps 60% of Oil prices are driven by speculation
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/e.../2008/0502.html

Source

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con3593

Snowwolf!!! Rescuer of truthiness!

mpdsnowman

The thing that always seemed to be the stumbling block in reference to domestic drilling is the impact on the enviroment. Now I beleive we can drill and not truly harm the environment. Alaska!!! they have the oil. Estimates indicated if we went full tilt gas in time would reduce itself by $1.47?? I saw that in the news.

Regardless we will always need import oils...as we need import everything out there. It really falls on the saudis for they truly run the oil market. Proof they are having a summit...its no summit its a meeting of rich powerfull assholes who are starting to take some heat for high prices. I tend to think gas will come down if they truly see the light..

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con3593

not completely true, if we disregard concerns for the environment, the oil in Colorado in the form of shale oil, totals more then that of all of Saudi Arabia. We could be just abuot self reliant if we weren't concerend about the environment. Then there is Canada with its vast supply of tar sand which we have begun to tap into

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I voted buckethead asshole,

Snowolf

Bottom line though from everything I am reading and hearing as well as watching in testimonies on the House floor on Cspan is this really is not a supply and demand issue. The oil is there and tanker ships are running full steam but are not backlogged. Refineries are running at about 85% capacity when generaly they run over 95% capacity. Demand from China and Indai is certainly up, but not up so rapidly as to explain why oil was arounf $66 a barrel last year and now it closes for $135 a barrel. The real issue is the same thing that allowed the Enron fiasco and the houseing market crisis. Oil futures on the speculative markets are being manipulated by the very companies selling the oil. It is speculation that is making up about $2.00 per gallon right now. Oil industry analyss and economist are saying that in normal supply and demand free market, the price of gasoling should be right around $2.50 a gallon. The other $2.00 is pure rape of the consumer.

While domestic production sounds like the answer it really is not. A dept of Energy report shows that 89% of all known oil reserves are in areas already permited for drilling and that only 19% of he rest is in sensitive areas and the total quantities are simply a drop in the bucket. America uses 25% of the world`s oil and acording to this DOE report, if we tapped all known oil sources and drilled to full capacity we could come up with about 3% of our total needs.

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con3593

I forgot to write this earlier, but the current "holes" we have been pumping oil out of have much more oil then we get...we only get about 1/3 of the oil from each "hole" before we move on

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I voted buckethead asshole,

mpdsnowman

I had a real interesting talk with someone last night. He is an oil rig driller and "chain linker" who works in Texas for a firm contracted by exxonmobile. He is a friend of my gf who is here on vacation.

Basically he told me they do monitor how much oil they pump out and he explained how they drill now utilizing the "mud" to keep the pressure at bay. They typically start in an area that has already been defined with oil based on test samples and modern infrared scanning of the soil. They can tell by the concentration samples of the mud as they drill how close they actually are footage wise before they hit oil. They are ususally accurate to 2 inches.

in fact...there is enough domestic oil to supply the us demand. Texas alone in the desert has been verified to the extent of the supply chain not to even mention AK and other pockets domestically. Their cost per barrel is the same as the saudis...

Believe it or not its not the environment(in his opinion) that holds up domestic drilling..its george and co.

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Snowolf

Exactly! As my references posted support, there are some 10,000 issued drilling permits currently unused and 68 million acres of known oil reserves already approved for drilling but they are not utilizing because they do`nt need to. It is a myth that is being propagated by right wing radio talk show hosts that it`s the Democrats and environmentalists that are responsible for high oil prices.

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hvalley76

Snowolf, I actually heard someone on TV make the same case as your first post...Bill O'Reilly of all people!!
I was blown away! He agreed that oil speculators were the reason for the high prices, not lack of supply. He said that oil companies already have leases on millions of acres of land that they are not drilling and they are just trying to use the current prices as a tool to accumulate even more. He mentioned that someone had proposed a law in which oil speculators would be forced to physically take posession of the barrels of oil they were bidding on, thereby forcing many of them out of the market. This law wouldn't really have much effect since the oil trade is heavily based in London but I was surprised to hear him support it anyways!

So I have a friend who is one of those "there is a conspiracy behind everything guys". He thinks the reason the government is blocking more drilling is not because they care about the environment, but because they have a "master plan" to let the middle east exhaust their supplies first then turn the tables on them 50 years down the road.

I know this will be an unpopular thing to say but I personally don't really have a problem with the price of gas. No one is going to invest the time & effort to convert to a more sustainable fuel until it is financially in their benefit to do so. If the price goes down people will just fire up the Hummers again, waste the resource, and then in the future we will have an even bigger crisis because there really will be a shortage of supply.

mpdsnowman

It doesnt shock me actually. Even Bill is paying over $4.00 per gallonAND he probably only drives a hummer

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