Arkansas Blog

Political Wisdom: Best Energy Plan Goes to Paris Hilton

http://blogs.wsj.com/politicalperceptions/2008/08/08/political-wisdom-best-energy-plan-goes-to-paris-hilton

Ah, Paul Krugman, the former Enron consultant.

I don't know if they (GOP) are all that dumb ed down anti-American (as reemphasized /promoted on FOX news like the preempted Iraq invasion) or they think we are that dumb and that makes it worse and me madder than hellfire.

We need refineries to lower gas prices. Certainly not going to let anyone get away with building a nasty refinery in the US. It's why we invaded Iraq.

"We need refineries to lower gas prices"

Point made.

No one in Arkansas that voted for Mark Pryor or Blanche Lincoln can call Republicans stupid without pleading the fifth. I, however can call both parties stupid and often do. I'm waiting for deviation from the script.

Gas prices have fallen for the 22 day in a row, 7% off the record high in Mid July
Oil slid beloiw $119.

Better hurry and drill for more oil while it still fetches a pretty penny. We can't have the oil companies losing profit in drilling for cheap oil.

A posting for an unregistered reader:

The only proper answer to what makes America so great is-

No matter how illegal or corrupt or dishonest or evil an administration is, there is always the opportunity to change it out every 4 years (whether we are smart enough to do this is another issue).

-- Fed Up to Here

"A majority of Americans now believe approving more offshore drilling would reduce gas prices within months."

Yet Obama and Pelosi think that releasing a 3 day supply from the Strategic Oil Reserve will reduce gas prices too? Gimme a break.

"whether we are smart enough to do this"

Does "smart enough to do this" imply we should prosecute those responsible for not counting thousands of absentee ballots and denying thousands of minority voters in Florida? Let's face it, election fraud is a reality. I would much rather have Mark Pryor work on election fraud than safe toys and internet "cleansing." Things won't get fixed in this country by voting for corporate candidates. When will people learn? My only hope is that Obama is a liar. If I knew he was just lying to prosecute these right wingers after they vote him in, I would be volunteering for him now. I'm normally against lying but I'm very anxious to see the Nixon/Reagan/Bush gang on a plane to the Hague.

Other evidence of the party of stupid might be issue oriented voting. I've always believed that prolifers will vote against their own best interests in order to get a candidate who supports the ending of Roe V Wade, and there is a poll on Gallup that shows those against abortion use that as their primary reason while prochoice voters do that less often.

I'm a Democrat because I believe they 'generally' provide programs and policies that benefit the nation as a whole even if one here and there goes against what I would wish. Republicans, on the other hand, I believe, try to legislate their hates and enrich those who can keep them in power.

Hey folks I've been around industry for a while so saying we need more refineries is not what we need.. They are running those we have right now at about half capasity.. Besides you don't build new you repair the ones that exist and if need be YOU ADD to them. The parts of a refinery that is worn out can be torn down and a new one put in it's place.
That is the best way to do it.
Although the oil conglomerates have enough of our money to build a refinery in every state and all the other countries around the whole world now.
I know that both parties have a lot of stupid people in them.
Whatever floats always come to the top.

(before I say this, here's a disclaimer: I'm not for opening up offshore drilling)

As much as I wish it weren't true, opening up more places to drill would likely bring down prices, even though it'd be a decade before any of that oil was put into Max's Volvo. Why? A big factor in the price of oil is commodoties trading. Opening up more places to drill would likely curb speculation investing and bring the price down.

This issue is killing us. Nancy Pelosi saying things like "we're trying to save the planet" certainly isn't making it any easier in the Midwest, Rust Belt, or south...where we HAVE to be competitive to beat McSame.

There is such a thing as winning battles but losing a war. This is a war we can't afford to lose.

I agree, ChasV. I doubt anything in this oil situation truly is as advertised. They blamed China when the prices skyrocketed and now that the prices are falling some, they blame curtailment of use in the US. So which is it? Neither - the oil companies probably decided they'd squeezed about all there was a a drop of a few cents would fool us into buying more and driving with abandon again.

If only there were 24 hour news channels that had the time discuss the issues, facts, and solutions in detail, with the experts, rather than hour after hour of inside baseball, whos up, whos down, after the last series of spin, lies, propaganda, misinformation, et al.

The republicans are successful as the party of stupid because stupid sells.

If only there were 24 hour news channels that had the time discuss the issues, facts, and solutions in detail, with the experts, rather than hour after hour of inside baseball, whos up, whos down, after the last series of spin, lies, propaganda, misinformation, et al.

The republicans are successful as the party of stupid because stupid sells.

The oil companies have manipulated the prices for years. They will be below 350 by labor day, below 300 by election day. Pure and Simple.

"We need refineries to lower gas prices". bugeyed

As chasv has already pointed out, this is bogus. bugeyed, where and how many times have you been waiting in line to pump gas recently? Answers- nowhere and zero.

Check the blue name for refinery capacity in the U.S., amount being used and surplus capacity for 1985 to present. If you Google 'U.S. refinery capacity' there is plenty of info on refinery capacities, utilization, unused capacity, etc. It is true that expanded capacity of U.S. refineries in recent years has not kept pace with the increased demand for gas. It is also true that foreign refineries take up that slack.

With demand for gas in the U.S. having dropped sharply in recent months it will be interesting to see how the numbers change in re utilized versus unused refinery capacity.

Re opening up drilling in more areas (offshore, ANWR, etc.)- another bogus issue. Anyone on this blog could buy a single hybrid vehicle and reduce gas usage all by yourself more than opening up every single acre on earth to drilling would save in the next year or two or three. No additional drilling would produce a single drop of oil on those millions of acres. The oil companies already hold leases on tens of millions of acres of land on which no drilling is taking place.

My biggest fear for the country is sheer ignorance on important issues that affect us all. Are we once again a 'Flat Earth Society'?

Big oil sets the discussion.. From buying out Congrescritters in both major parties to the same major stakeholders in big oil, MIC, and big media.. they own nearly all of it. They decide what the discussion will be about. As long as we let them.

Big oil can and does spend millions per day on propaganda control. It works quite well for them don't you think?

Nevertheless, I found a pretty interesting point by point argument of what I expect will happen while the Republicans play big oil footsie and continue their kabuki in DC up to the time of the D convention. It's all for show on the Republicans and Democrat part.. But big oil wins as long as we are not talking about facts in general, specifically facts on diversifying our energy structure. Pelosi is more than right when she says she is trying to save the planet. Even if you completely reject the idea of global warming.. the pollutants are building up and destroying or ecosystem on so many levels... from the oceans to the outer atmos.

We likely have more oil under North Dakota and surrounding shale areas than there is under the sands of Saudi Arabia.. it's just difficult to extract, they say.. I ask, more difficult than waging needless wars and occupations? Lets have a war on North Dakota shale instead! Oh and nationalize that oil.. for security reasons, of course.

(below or at my name, clicky)
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/08/gang-of-10-obamas-checkmate.html

I don't endorse this idea, but the more I watch team Obama and their Clintonian triangulation. I expect this to be a pretty good guess as to what will happen. When we send the likes of Repub-lickers, Lincoln and Ross and Pryor to DC to work with Obama.. what more can we reasonably expect? It ain't Obama that's so bad, it's big money playing the whole system from all sides..and the AR Dems who screw over logic as much as any GOPer on FOX ever hoped to.

I don't have reliable refinery stats, so I'll back off. Either way, we're all getting bent. My recollection is that gas prices took off well ahead of the crude oil prices. My understanding of the law of supply and demand puts the bottleneck somewhere between oil in a barrel and gas in my tank. The only gas shortage I have personally experienced is when my local c-store could no longer cash flow a truckload of gas from sales of the previous load. However, I saw no reduction in traffic on the interstate across the Arkansas last weekend.

I'm not just a member of the flat earth society. I'm the president.

CharlesV nailed it. Chasv for Governor of Arkansas. Way to pull us through chasv. We don't need to
subsidize our food grains to use as fuel and even subsidize the process. Shame on Mike Beebe.

This a gas-market bubble and I will wager anyone it will burst by the end of 2010 perhaps sooner. They last approx 7 years.

There's no oil shortage. There's a truth shortage. The truth is Bush's deficits have pushed up the price of imported oil.

Thanks bugeyed. Of course the real test will be the Razorbacks first home game. Wanna bet the highways are clogged bumper to bumper?

So much for the nonsense of no drill from the 'keep your tires inflated crowd'. Read it (if you dare) and weep:

Maybe someone can send a copy of the latest Chatham House report to members of Congress for their summer reading - at least those who bugged out of Washington DC without voting on opening American oil resources for drilling. According to the latest study from the British think tank, only a major global recession will keep oil from hitting $200 per barrel in the next 5-10 years. The reason? A lack of will to drill:
A "supply crunch" will affect the world market within the next five to 10 years, the Chatham House report said.
While there is plenty of oil in the ground, companies and governments were failing to invest enough to ensure production, it added.
Only a collapse in demand can stave off the looming crisis, report author Professor Paul Stevens said.
"In reality, the only possibility of avoiding such a crunch appears to be if a major recession reduces demand - and even then such an outcome may only postpone the problem," he said in The Coming Oil Supply Crunch.
The lack of production, and not a lack of raw materials, is to blame for the supply crunch. OPEC has not expanded its production capabilities despite promises to do so by 2005. Meanwhile, governments have begun imposing protectionist policies on extraction, forbidding or at least discouraging international oil companies from drilling in favor of less-efficient nationalized oil concerns.
Part of the problem stems from a lack of investment by oil companies in long-term extraction. Too much of their profits go back to shareholders in the form of dividends or cash to accounts. In the US, however, the government blocks investment in oil-rich targets, such as the OCS and the shale formations. They also have difficulties in investing in refining capacity, which would have to expand with any serious increase in domestic production of crude.
What does the report recommend? Emphases mine:
To avoid a crunch, energy policy needs to reduce the demand growth of liquid fuels, to increase the supply of conventional liquids or to increase the supply of unconventional liquids. Ideally it should be some combination of all three. However, when discussing policy it is important to remember the long lead times between applying any policy instrument and any significant supply or demand responses. Only extreme policy measures could achieve a speedy response and these are usually politically unpopular. It would therefore require some form of crisis to allow such policy measures to be introduced - an issue developed below.
To reduce liquid fuel demand requires either greater efficiency or fuel-switching. In reality, both would probably take too long to be effective in the time frame suggested by this study. Only a major recession in the short term could reduce demand growth and even then the probability is that this would merely delay the supply crunch.
Increasing supplies of conventional liquids requires persuading IOCS and NOCs to invest more in expanding crude producing capacity, and producing it. IOCs can be encouraged to increase investment by improved fiscal terms and perhaps by governments helping to open up acreage. In the US this would involve removing current restrictions on drilling offshore and in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge.
In other words, this is not Peak Oil or evil speculators. It is a supply crisis, brought on not by natural shortage but artificial, government-imposed shortage. The US government is especially culpable, being the only industrialized nation that blocks oil drilling on large proven reserves - and we do this while demanding increased production from Saudi Arabia and complain when they don't comply.
Every member of Congress should read this report during the recess. Every American should do the same.

And then there's the Democratic party with ideas for spending every dime of your money. The party that thinks the government should be involved in every aspect of your life. They're certainly the party of ideas - very bad ideas.

Thanks strangelove for pasting disproved White House talking points. Even chasv agrees this is a repeat of the fake oil crisis of 1974. Let the big oil companies drill on the land they've already leased, then after that's going, we can talk about off shore drilling. It's like Ma when she told me I could have desert only if I cleaned my plate.

And Sev....it's a great to say Democrats want to spend every dime of your money....only problem, Bush-Cheney have already spent it. The ticks have already sucked the old dog dry. There ain't nothing for Democrats to get. And talking about political parties wanting to be involved in every aspect of your life......how much more aspect can ya get than Cheney-Bush digging in my phone calls, my snail mail, my email, my Internet searches, my medical records, my library check out records....11 and 1/2 inches up my urethra......you name it. I yell watch out every time I wipe my ass these days. Since Gonzales can't find a job, they probably got him on toilet duty. I really regret I have to say this...but you 2 guys are so totally full of shit.........Look out Frado...here comes a two-fer load!!!!

You know, if they weren't going to ship any oil extracted here in the US to other countries, then it would possibly maybe make sense to drill more, but they will.

Makes more sense for us to push the alternatives big time, and wean ourselves off fossil fuels once and for all. Solve all kinds of problems, like adding new jobs, getting ourselves out of using our military to protect oil in other countries, and global climate change.

So simple, yet so dismissed by so many.