Fitzgerald.

I loves me my Honda.

tis too little too late. sorta like everything the admin has done– too early or too late– no real work, just blowhardian tactics. come on Fitz…

Good for Nancy, I guess she really let them have it today. I just love how Bush makes these disaster decisions, let’s just blow all that shit right up our noses, ‘eh George, that’s a real solution. How about not letting the oil companies write the legislation and how about making them pay a nice chunk of that obscene profit to drop the price at the pump? No, your solution to pollute and stop adding to emergency supplies with hurricane season around the corner makes so much more sense. At least your buddies can still fill up their Dodge Rams and Hummers for thier month-long vacations and hunting trips.

Jane,

Earlier I posted my suggestion for a campaign slogan for the Democrats: “Get Real.”

It’s time for America to “get real.”
Real national security.
Real health care.
Real oversight.
Real solutions to real problems.

Real leadership.

Democrats in 2006

The pukebots are out wall-to-wall with the “enviro-whackos” talking point.

Well, first of all, there is no “crisis.” We still pay some of the lowest prices in the world for gas.

30 years of the Democrats beholden to the extreme environmental movement, we haven’t built a refinery.

Yo, Hannity, you cobag. Follow the Froomkin links:

Throughout the 1990s and into this decade, the major oil companies have continually reduced their working inventory levels for gasoline – even while the demand for gasoline has risen. In 1990 the supply level was about 30 days. In 2000 it fell to 23.8 days and more recently to about 22.7 days. This is precariously close to the 20 days of supply considered a bare minimum.

Much of this inventory isn’t even available to meet demand, but is needed to keep gasoline flowing through the refinery into the wholesale and retail system to the consumer: it’s line fill in pipelines, tank bottoms, in-transit flow, etc. The companies explain that their inventory reduction improves efficiency and lowers costs. No doubt this is true, but even assuming all of these cost savings are passed through to the consumer, is the consumer better off?

Matt O, I think that’s really good. Maybe it should be combined with TeddySF’s mantra – “had enough (fantasy)?”

maybe the US could increase supply by NOT bombing pipelines in Iraq and then contracting with KBR for the rebuilding–paying millions for nada? For once, the NYT was all over this, and did it well. So what was Redd’s communication to Cafferty? Inquiring minds and all…

Thanks Sharkbabe.

I think the fuckwads with the R after their name and the shitheads like Hannity need to be reminded over and over again that, you know the great ideas Shrub has about alternative fuels and fuel economy and energy independence? Yeah, well, someone already ran for President on that platform, and you guys laughed and slapped your knees and derided the whole idea. Remember that? His name was ALBERT FUCKING GORE so blow it out your incredibly tight assholes.

Cozumel says:

April 25th, 2006 at 4:59 pm (previous thread – post # 119)

Do you have a link to Christy’s e-mail?

Apologies for expletives in previous rant.

But seriously, how can Bush steal from Gore with a straight face like that?

God these people make me furious.

TeddySanFran, nice quote by your gal Nancy P., exhibiting worthiness of your dogged defense of her.

And did Mr. Democratic Strategist ask Hannity which he likes better: our gas money profiting undesirables like Chavez, Saud, and Obasanjo in addition to our friendly neighbors to the North and South, or gas money profiting our infrastructure like, you know, roads.

If he didn’t, why the hell not? Can’t anybody play this game?

Of course mentioning that blaming Democrats after they have been in out of power for a decade in Congress is pretty thick in itself would have been oh so shrill of Mr. Democratic Strategist.

Saying that we have oilmen in the White House who said they would just jawbone the oil producers to open up them spigots and why the hell isn’t Mr. Bush screaming “Mr. Saud, open up this spigot!” would have gotten Mr. Strategist disinvited from at least six cocktail parties next month.

op99 -

I agree. More Democrats need to come out swinging like that. This isn’t rocket science.

Stephan,

“Do you have a link to Christy’s e-mail?”

It will be in the CNN transcript a bit latter when they put it up. I just caught the general tone and COCKTAIL WEENIES so I knew it came from here. I ran to the screen just in time to see it was from Christy in West Virginia ; )

ohdave, I found your expletives totally fucking eloquent and apropos.

http://www.freedomtofascism.com/index.html

Just got this link in the mail, this doc looks powerful, you can watch the trailer. Screening schedule has ended, but updates are available. Interesting.

so now we’re talking about dogs?

Thinking real seriously about buying one of these:

http://www.bgladd.com/Europe_t…..e_THIS.JPG

60+ mpg. They were EVERYWHERE in Paris when I was there.

how about this for a t-shirt:

I VOTE
I’M THE DECIDER

I just heard on the radio, here in california, that some consumer advocacy group has already done a study and found that gas prices in California are not high due to restricted demand, but due to price gouging by gas stations in anticipation of a heavy driving season.

Anyone else hear this or who commissioned the study?

zennurse, angie, sharkbabe -

Whu’sup? I got major jet lag today. Glad to be home.

BobbyG -

One thing I don’t get about the electric car models is that they always look very awkward. Do they have to design them like strollers?

The U.S. is a very materialistic nation and we won’t buy anything that looks “weird” no matter how good it is for us or the planet.

I know Honda’s hybrids look like normal Hondas but everything else is just plain funky looking. It looks like a ski lift.

Update – Greenwald’s book up to #12.

I posted this one earlier today. Re-posting for the people now coming in.

156 mpg car. parts on the shelf already for other cars. Don’t let them tell you they can’t do it and cheaply.

http://www.loremo.com/index_en.php

Big props to Chicago Tom for linking to this HuffPo post from Jamie Court on a prior thread today:
Memos Show Oil Companies Closed Refineries To Hike Profits
“If you believe the oil industry’s response to Katrina, you’d think demanding environmentalists are to blame for $3 per gallon gasoline because the tree huggers shut down refineries with tough new rules. President Bush even mimicked the industry excuse by waiving environmental standards in the wake of Katrina. Well, the industry’s own internal memos show the intentional shrinking of American refinery capacity in the 1990s was the oil companies’ own idea to pump up profits.
ake this internal Texaco strategy memo: “[T]he most critical factor facing the refining industry on the West Coast is the surplus of refining capacity, and the surplus gasoline production capacity. (The same situation exists for the entire U.S. refining industry.) Supply significantly exceeds demand year-round. This results in very poor refinery margins and very poor refinery financial results. Significant events need to occur to assist in reducing supplies and/or increasing the demand for gasoline.” The memo went on to discuss a sucessful campaign in Washington State to shrink refined supply by removing other additives in the gasoline that filled gas volume.
Another Mobil memo shows the company promoted tough regulations in California to shut down an independent refiner. A Chevron memo acknowledged the industry wide need to shutter refineries and discussed how refiners were responding in kind.
Large oil companies have for a decade artificially shorted the gasoline market to drive up prices….”

Matt O -

That “Smart” car is gas powered. 2-seater. Wouldn’t wanna tangle with an 18 wheeler, or large SUV even.But, I’d sure use it for work commuting.

BobbyG 22 – yeah, I loved those teensy smartcar thingys. Paris is also lousy with scooters. They don’t mess around with conservin the petrol in Europe.

Does the price of gas show if we are winning or losing in Iraq?

I drove a Prius in Los Angeles, I loved it. I would totally buy one when my lease is up in January. Aren’t they thinking of doing a slightly bigger (hate to use the term “SUV”) version? Three big dogs, it would be helpful.

Jane, count me in on the book discussion, prior thread.

Maybe we just need to do like Pakistan and ask for Chinese help on developing oil resources:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/d…..2006_pg1_4

NewsHour is doing a segment on the leaks stories — half past the hour.

sharkbabe -

Scooters in Paris, ahhh.h.h… yeah:

http://www.bgladd.com/Europe_t….._hotel.JPG

Yep, also everywhere.

Along with elegant mass fucking transit, hello?

Bobby G -

Ahh okay. But my question still stands. For electric cars, are there design limitations?

BobbyG – mostly same old, Chimpy’s still going batshit, Redd’s back & in fine form, and as you can see, Operation Swiftboat the Liberals for Gas Gouging is gearing up.

Toyota Highlander and Ford Escape are two hybrid SUVs currently on the market.

In Germany I saw those smart cars. I even bought a small replica of it. I’d hate to be hit in one.

SF Chronicle on-line headline re gas prices:

“It’s Hard Out Here at the Pump”

On those European midget cars, is the reason we never see them here because they don’t meet crash test standards or some such? I’d take my chances anyway, personally.

Matt O. -

Yes, I would think. My neighbor in my last ‘hood worked for Nevada Power. He had an electric car that was pretty cool. The braking system fed/generated the batteries. Way sensible. Conventional brakes just turn the braking energy into heat and brake pad dust. We could probably design a turbine/flywheel car (hydrogen?) that would do the same; feed brake energy back into the flywheel.

The solutions are mostly politcal, not technological.

BobbyG- welcome home and am gladd all turned out as well as it did!

http://www.fordvehicles.com/suvs/escapehybrid/

http://www.toyota.com/highlander/features.html/

Im sure they could do better, but it’s a long-overdue start.

ck, wrt News Hour, the U. of Chicago Constitutional scholar, Geoffrey Stone, made the identical point that FDL’s Mary has been making for weeks. Nobody signs a contract to remain silent about government law breaking, because it’s not a contract.
I bet the twitchy guy with the WH talking points in that segment is on Republican welfare at a 501(c)3.

Matt O,

For a small car there are certain limitations, weight being topmost. Otherwise, Think locomotive. The big diesel motors don’t actually do the work of moving them. They run generators that power electric motors that do the actual work.I worked on the dredges that cleaned up the Columbia river after Mt. St. Helens blew in 1980. 3 locomotive engines and generators to run one GIANT electric motor. 22 feet tall.

A local news station in the Twin Cities (13th largest media market in the country) recently ran a story about people pawning possessions for gas money. It’s a pretty harsh thought. People are being forced to give up their things to get enough gas to get to work, hoping to buy back their items on payday. This is not the American dream.

Thanks, angie. Still waiting on some pathology results, but signs are hopeful thus far.

My jet lag is exacerbated by my straight off the plane indulgence last night, LOL!

http://santafeandthefatcityhorns.blogspot.com/

Had to see my boyz.

Along with elegant mass fucking transit, hello?

Yes – when not on strike :) Good entertainment too.

And nobody does the whole-family-on-a-bicycle like Amsterdam…or a couple out on a date, the leggy blond riding sideways on the back

ok, ’nuff nostalgia

Schumer wants to bust up oil giants.

Buffalo News (I can’t get the link to work)

I sat my 6′3″ 215# self in one of these cars this weekend at Maker Faire. Very nice!
The “not enough refineries” BS is the same crap they threw at us in California when Enron jacked us up a few years back. Tired stuff.

“I don’t pretend to understand all the complexities that might lead to a solution to the current gas crisis.”

come on, this is far simpler than the fritz investigation. if Americans stop using oil, the problem goes away. there are cost effective alternatives to oil and oil products everywhere, but the greedy mufhuer f’ckers in control of the government prevent solutions from happening.
.

Yes, it was indeed my e-mail to Cafferty. Thought it would give him a chuckle, but I never thought he’d give it air time. And I missed him reading it — dang. (Plus, because it’s CNN’s form thingy, I don’t have a copy of it and was all snark, alla time.) But at least he seems to have put my Wolcott cocktail weenie homage on air for the masses. *g*

another way for a group to get around Paris – pedal power

Check out the GEM car at
http://www.gemcar.com/

Made in the USA and coming out with a six-passenger model. [Maybe that’s even big enough for Jane’s doggies!]

way to go Christy– welcome back really! I write to Jack at least 4 times a week, no publication yet. No problemo, though, happy to keep trying and driving them all crazy at CNN.

CAFFERTY: Tony Snow, Wolf who labors over there at FOX News, he also does a radio talk show and in fact isn’t a bad guy, is likely to take the job as White House press secretary. Might even be announced by tomorrow. Sources say that they expect Snow to announce his decision within days. The question we ask tonight is how would you describe the relationship between politics and the media?

Christy in Clarksburg, West Virginia. “I think it’s a sycophantic, cocktail weenie circuit echo chamber most of the time, where the truth takes a back seat to maintaining connections. In other words, the public gets only what the media and the politicians think we need to know, or what makes them money. Truth is irrelevant.”

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRA…..om.03.html

yay, Redd!!

A very belated welcome back Christy.

Christy,

Excellent!

People are being forced to give up their things to get enough gas to get to work, hoping to buy back their items on payday. This is not the American dream.

saw a report last night of a woman who pawned her friggin wedding ring and one heirloom ring for gas to get her husband to work.

For Christy and all — you can make a copy of your mailings to folks like Cafferty. If you’re in the website’s form [like this] highlight and copy your message before sending, then in file send the link to yourself and paste in your snark, er, commentary. Makes a nice temporary “save” if you want it, and definitely helps if the Internet gremlins somehow eat your post.

Alternately, when sending a message via your email, include yourself as a bcc.

nicely skewered, them weenies.

OMG, Right on!

Jane- Yeah there are two hybrid SUVs available. One from Ford- one from Toyota. Both look exactly like the non hybrid versions.

Toyota now has a hybrid version of the Camry- and Honda has the Civic with their hybrid power train.

Within a couple of years, there will be hybrid pickup, mini vans- and anything else you like. If you look at Toyota- they now have a 110 HP hybrid- a 180 hp model and the biggie that goes in the SUV- which is in the 250 hp range as I recall.

Keith Olbermann just skewered the crap outa Tony Snow over his documented anti-Deciderer remarks. Gonna be interesting watching Snow at his first WH presser, trying to disavow/dissemble all that stuff. LMAO.

Let’s also remember a) at the very start of the Bush presidency Cheney convened an energy policy committee made up of industry big wigs including Ken Lay, and refused to allow the public to know who participated and what was discussed, and b) Justice Scalia’s “proudest” moment of his Supreme Court career was when he refused to recuse himself on the case that might have forced the revelation of what went on behind those energy committee doors, after he, Scalia, enjoyed a fun duck hunting trip with one of the parties to the case, Vice President Cheney. And for good measure, c) when all the energy big wigs got called to testify before congress, they didn’t have to swear to tell the truth (I guess that’s sort of like when we were kids and lies didn’t count if you crossed your fingers behind your back).

http://www.slcblues.blogspot.com

John Casper @ 29

So if I infer correctly from your link and from Jane’s post:

Bush’s relaxation of environmental rules means less additives which means that the result of this “action” will actually cause supply to be decreased and therefore prices to rise.

Wow, that is amazing. This is as bad as Dubai Ports World and Iraq and it easily affects every single voter in America. I thought “gas prices” was a silly thing for Dems to talk about until I read these posts. This shows yet again that the government is on a fire-sale. We need to shout Dems won’t sell your government like Republicans have. See example: Saying you are trying to help with gas prices while really enriching your campaign contributors…AGAIN!

The outrage continues!

Nice work, Christy! Great first day back.

RE: people struggling to pay gas bills — it’s a horrible conundrum. Is lowering gas prices going to do much to get us off an oil addiction? I’m sure it won’t. But people on limited incomes just can’t afford to function at these prices. It’s a terrible problem, the result of truly awful leadership.

The small cars and scooters in Paris are more a function of the parking nightmare than the fuel prices. Almost impossible to find a place to park your land yacht. The biggest advantage of the “smart” car- is that you can park it head into a three foot wide space.

Christy–Out of the park with Cafferty. I must say that I’m beginning to believe in fairies–that pixie dust saw you through Disney World with a toddler and back to cable coverage of your always smart and sassy commentary. I’m so glad you’re back!

LOL

I think that transcript was edited…

“Tony Snow, Wolf who labors over there at FOX News”

Here’s what he said on-air…

“Tony Snow, Wolf who labors over there at the F Word”

Message to self, Get computer hooked up @ g/f’s. Missing out big time.

gotta go.

Peak Oil. The broader problem is that we’re entering an era where world supply of oil about equals world consumption. This makes for a REAL tight market. China is a huge player…they’re quietly buying up HUGE gas/oil contracts while Bush runs his Abrams around Iraq. Russia’s economy is still in fits…but get a little bloom in their economy and the rest of us are in a world of hurt.
Add to the mix that places like Venzuela have figured out that dropping production actually makes them MORE money…boy oh boy.
Bush’s massive shortcoming is that “vision thing”. He didn’t see, or refused to see…what was so obvious to many. Instead, his “vision thing” seems to be that we should create, via M16s, little democracies all over the Middle East. Stupid, stupid, stupid. A president should look ahead and LEAD our country. Hell, even as much as I disliked Reagan, at least he too looked ahead and saw that the then super-powers need to start to disarm. And Bushie? Why waste time talking of his shortcomings when most here say them more eloquently.
The actual “today” price of gasoline is a point to argue for Democrats…and I think a well written/spoken position on this administrations complete lack of foresight into the broader problem can be a winning argument. But…(sigh)…you gotta GET IN THE GAME if you’re gonna win.
Ghostman

BobbyG 44: The solutions are mostly politcal, not technological. Yes–we need leaders with the political will to buck the oil and auto lobbies and use the technologies that are already available to give us better fuel efficiency in the short run and greater (complete?) independence in the long run.

OT, but since we don’t have any current Fitz threads: Jane, are you back home yet? If you are, you were going to check your notes for that Fitz story you mentioned, to see if you could share it with us . . . just a li’l reminder.

Glenn Greenwald’s book yesterday #50,925 and today it is #5 !!!!!!!!!

Busted – I have left a long post on the end of the last thread for you.

Don’t know if this has been said already–probably has. But, here’s how you respond to that dumbass Hannity statement:
I blame George Bush and his Rubber Stamp Republican Congress. His disastrous policies has made the Mideast less stable. His incompetence and poor leadership have caused the instability we are seeing now, at the pumps.

We need to nip this one in the bud. This was all over the Sunday chat shows–GOP apologists shrugging their shoulders and saying, “Poor George has no control over gas prices.” The hell he doesn’t. He can sure make ‘em worse. And that is exactly what he’s done. If you hit a bee hive with a stick, YOU are responsible for the damned swarm of angry bees. Don’t send your apologists to blither-blather with Chris Matthews about how poor Mr Bush can’t be blamed for the swarms of bees. “Bees swarm! What can you do? It’s not his fault, Chris…it’s, it’s… Hillary’s!”

I remember the gas shortage we had in 1973. It was when you had odd & even days. Well, one station had a very long line. A man in a white suit and cap came to each car on the line and said that $10 was the most you could get and collected the money to make the line go faster.

When the guy got to the end of the line. he took off on a motorcyle with everyone’s money. I guess he starteed in the middle of the line and worked his way down….

On the “relaxed environmental regulations” gas thing: so, we get to have dirtier air (and ITS concomitant externality costs) in return for … ????

Is there gonna be a Bush edict REQUIREMENT that the oilcos pass along the nominal savings to the public dollar-for-dollar? I’d be watchin’ the fine print here. I rather doubt it. Might just be another way to line oilco pockets with the ruse of short-term public interest action.

JohnC – between lhp and Geoff Stone, I am a happy girl. ;)

Re: Oil prices – isn’t it about time to revisit the Cheney energy task force and if the President is serious, or if Congress is serious, shouldn’t they be HAMMERED to out this info? Especially after the unanimous FIBBING of the oil execs when asked about it all?

Speaking of Cheney and RE: the secret rendition prisons, isn’t it about time to revisit the original “leak” concept? Remember that the Republicans pitched a fit – with each other (Yeah, I had forgotten too – Clemons didn’t though) bc apparently Dick Cheney showed up at a Republican Causcus and filled in the fascionable Republicans on them?

The Generals have keep firing at Rumsfeld (Army Times has bad numbers for him), but who is “Mr. Popularity” with the US public? They guy who will also be featured prominently in Scooters lawsuit? I say it’s time for a concernted effort to mention Dick Cheney’s private Energy Task Force MEetings that included Enron every time gas prices are mentioned. And mention Dick Cheney’s leaks REpublicans about secret prisons and to Scooter LIbby about how to bamboozle the NIE info every time leaks are mentioned. Add in a “You know, Dick, who shot a 73 yo old man in the face and made HIM apologize?”

Drip drip drip.

On immigration, every time it comes up, I think someone should ask why we never hear anything about the secret immigration study information that Ashcroft’s chief of staff leaked to Jack Abramoff and which Abramoff managed to get DOJ to kill so COngress never got to see it. YOu know, it’s STILL buried; like the classified report on mobile labs that said the opposite of what Bush told us in speeches and which he still won’t declassify.

Just a few things that come to mind.

ccmask says:
April 25th, 2006 at 6:04 pm

I remember the gas shortage we had in 1973.

*****

As do I. I was on the road touring with Merrilee Rush at the time. Truckers were shooting at each other and dropping cinder blocks off overpasses aimed at those not observing the boycott. It was a scary time. We never knew whether we’d make it to the next gig. Sat in a lot of long lines to get $5 worth of gas, which didn’t go far in the equipment truck and motorhome in which we traveled.

Tortoise, Had one arm in my coat,so hold on.

Wtf w/ the troll shit?

The importance of the price of gas as a political issue can’t be overstated; and is one of the few issues that could actually erode the seemingly rock solid support conventional wisdom says Bush will always have come hell or high water. To the 25-30% of Americans who are his most solid base, the price of gas is like the holy grail. This is the issue that could cause them to turn on him, and presents a very big opening to Democrats.

Pelosi’s remarks are good. Better is if a Dem actually runs on a platform of alternative energy. Something along the lines of a comparison to the day when Sputnik went overhead, stiking fear into the hearts of Americans that Russia had gained a real strategic advantage over the US and initiating the space race. Americans spent hundreds of billions of dollars on space technology to go to the moon and for space exploration. The Democrats should use this as a model; frame the oil cost in terms of national security with a solution in alternative sources of fuel. Economically, it could generate a boom the magnitude of which we saw with the advent of computers and the information age.

I ask my father-in-law, a retired aerospace engineer, “do you mean to tell me that you guys figured out how to put a man on the moon, and the issue of alternative fuels for my car and for energy has you stumped? I don’t believe it!” He doesn’t have a good response to that.

As Pelosi said, with 2 oil guys in the white house, this doesn’t get done. But with an agressive candidate who will push federal spending on this problem the way it was done for the space program, the Democrats come up with a positive response to the Fox pundits who are blaming the liberals for no new refineries etc.

The plan can appeal directly to the pocket book of Americans, and give them a mission to sever entanglements with the unstable regimes we seem to have to depend on for energy.

Don’t feed the trolls. They quickly get bored and move on.

Somebody turn off the troll-be-gone spam guard?

I bought the Honda Accord Hybrid last year. I fill up once a month and I’m getting nearly twice the mpg of my older Toyota Supra and three times the mpg of the pick up truck in both city and highway driving. Besides the electric battery that charges when slowing down or braking, it shuts off 3 cylinders when cruising and when waiting at a stoplight it shuts down the combustion engine completely. Starts up as soon as I take my foot off the brake.

Redd ,I see that Illinois and probably soon California state legislatures have started proceedings to call for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Does this force congress to take the issue up, or is it political grandstanding?

I’m with Ghostman, though I don’t think people really know whether it’s peak oil, or the low part capacity part of a long run investment cycle. But BushCo may have blown it Big Time, and I hope just in time for the next election. BushCo are crazy enough to believe some of their fantastical propaganda slinging. I think they thought that with all them tax breaks, and opening up the west, and gas exploration rigs, and (cough cough) an Unleashed and Properly Financed and Managed Iraqi Oil Industry, well, then those fossil fuels would be flowing like water now. Big Rock Candy Mountain Time.

And conservationa and energy is just OK for wussies to feel that personal virtue crap.. but it does nothing at all… It helped solve the CA electricity crisis, but they are commies and assholes, and don’t vote for us, so…

Here are some interesting links, if people are interested in cool graphs and what some economists think.

Angry Bear
refinery capacity seems to be minor consideration in sudden price jumps
http://angrybear.blogspot.com/…..terms.html
http://angrybear.blogspot.com/…..oline.html

Econobrowser
oil and consumer sentiment
http://www.econbrowser.com/arc….._of_1.html
says drop in oil production due to remaining Katrina damage to Gulf coast facilities
http://www.econbrowser.com/arc…..igher.html
spot and futures market in crude and price predictions
http://www.econbrowser.com/arc…..0_a_b.html

oil and gas and stocks and refinery capacity: see interesting comments
http://www.theoildrum.com/stor…../8204#more

The combination of solar power and plug in hybrid cars offers a compelling solution to oil prices in the midterm. In the short term- there are several things that could be done- the dem idea of eliminating the corporate handouts to oil companies and cutting the gas tax is probably a winner politically. Best thing is- goopers won’t go for it- and gas prices will soar during the summer.

This is good for dems chances in November- and will “prime the pump” for meaningful solutions in 07. I like what’s happening.

going hybrid when my lease is up a year from now. leaning towards the Accord.

if the democractic programs were in place which were rescinded by this administration and the reagan administration we woule be very close to oil energy independdant

in addition, we can be energy independant in ten years

wind, tide, solar, liquid coal, hybrid technology, renewable like alcohol and natural gas

it’s rediculous that we are highjacked by the presidents pals like they are some kind of corenr street pusher making sure we remain addicited to a source he has plenty of

these are the slogans for the democratic party;

“Energy Independant in ten years”

“stong military”

no corporate rape of the Anerucan economy”

“no exporting American jobs to countries that allow their bussiness to rape their workforce”

things as dramatic but as realistic and doable as those slogans are what we need

I predict ~$4/gallon gas by summer. I saw $3.18.9 in places in Florida over the weekend.

I remember the gas shortage we had in 1973.

I do too. Matt O doesn’t, but he is still one of my favorites bc he called me ma’am. I live a life of being called hon and I love getting a ma’am now and then. :-)

THere are a lot of factors pushing prices, but don’t tell me that Bush could not have done something about the energy bill that he demanded and received from his Republican Congress and which gave huge tax handouts to the industry (I actually like big chunks of the industry and work with it – but that was the stupidest thing I have ever seen).

He had iron fist over his party and veto power and he is the one who pushed for, not a “good” bill, but an “immediate” bill.

He also has put us so in debt to China and alienated So. America so, that he has lost vital bargaining chips.

The $$that have gone into Iraq, heck, the $$ that have gone just into the embassy-to-be, could have underwritten a big start on the infrastructure that we need to really get hybrids – or more importantly hydrogen cars – maintstreamed. If the infrastructure was being laid, Detroit would have been thrilled to roll out the cars and we could be leading and cutting on the edge, not watching everyone else go there faster and better.

All that without even factoring in his Middle East debacles.

Worst President Ever.

Tortoise , A quick reply as it is ot and I don’t want to hijack the thread. So sorry to hear about your quick deterioration. I just found out about it. been coming ,just been stubborn and not address the problem. My father has same problem and has exactly said the same as you. Great.. Being a mechanic, it really fucks with me. Can’t see wtf I’m doing. Not going to worry about it. The Good Lord takes care of me. Something will work out. I sure hope it does for you too. And if I have to deal with multiple lenses, so be it. I have already chipped my new glasses. So far, 1.25 far away. 3.25 to read. Thanks for the info. Now I really have to go.

How much will a gallon of gas be after Bush’s pre-emptive Pearl Harbor against Iran? IIRC, gas about doubled during the hostage crisis. I can’t imagine that $6.00/gallon gas would help Bush’s popularity none. He’d end up in single digit JARs.

PELOSI VIDEO LINK

People – Aside from the Fitzgerald Investigation, I have one other obsession, which is that I cannot for the life of me understand why democrats cannot learn to communicate forcefully.

Listen to this video clip — the way she says “HOW DARE YOU …”. Why can’t ANY OTHER DEMOCRAT use that tone of voice? I’m disgusted with Pelosi for any number of reasons, but right now I think she’s the only democrat with a clue. It doesn’t matter what you say if you don’t know HOW to say it so that people can hear you.

I can’t understand why no one else seems to get this. I mean, Jane gets how to talk like this her own self, but she’s not running for office. No one seems to get that we need candidates who can raise their voices in anger and accuse frikkin’ Bush & Cheney of being the big oil sluts that they are (and everything else that they are).

This is why they say “spineless flip-flopping democrats”. It’s not WHAT they say, it’s the lack of conviction and directness and RAW RHETORICAL POWER.

Think Martin Luther King. It’s time for some candidate to stand up and say “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore”.

My grandfather worked pumping gas in the 1930’s. I have pics of him pumping gas. There is a sandwich sign behind him which reads “Due to shortages, no gas will be sold at this station from 7 PM to 7 AM–Sbol bros. Socony Vacuum Co (same I think, as Valerie Plame’s company)

Valerie Plame’s front company likely took its name from the late Brewster Jennings, a president and founder of the Socony-Vacuum company, which would later become Mobil Oil, and then merged to become part of Exxon-Mobil.

I’m going to get a good digital of it and see if Jane will post it maybe:) It would really be cool.

Why are gas prices so high…peel back all the layers of bullshit reasoning and its staring us right in face

the market is being gamed…

THINK ENRON

The Toyota hybrid solution is superior to Honda’s. The Prius is the centerpiece- a great car- I rented one to try it out and got sold. It’s a hatchback- so it gives lots of cargo room- and 44 miles per gallon.

There’s a company in LA who will retrofit Priuses for plug in power- meaning they stick in a much larger battery that you can charge at home overnight and get the first 40 miles of driving for “free”.

If the govt. were to force automakers to offer the option- it would be a major breakthrough. 100- 200 MPG. Take that OPEC!

Check out this video of the Smart car going from ‘70 to naught’ in one second:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/…..car_crash/

luLu

Hyperinflation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In economics, hyperinflation is inflation which is “out of control”, a condition in which prices increase rapidly as a currency loses its value…….

…

I will repeat my opinion, borne of long study:

The barriers to large scale (and localized, point-of-consumption) production of hydrogen fuel (made from water, NOT by idiotically taking the H2 out of hydrocarbons) are almost entirely political/economic, not technological. Maybe $5-$6/gallon gas will push us there.

During the last oil crisis- I was working at a job that required almost constant driving. The company I was working for leased an abandonded gas station and arranged for a gas dump- so that we could avoid waiting in line for hours.

One problem- as soon as you pulled into our station and turned on the pump- a hundred cars would line up behind you- nightmare!

I remember hearing a while ago that the oil companies closed a lot of the refineries to keep the prices higher. And that there are abandoned refineries all over the country.
So to blame the environmentalists for the shortages now is bull.

I think in Pelosi’s mind, the idea of “Speaker Pelosi” has gone from being an idle daydream, as attainable as becoming Mrs. Brad Pitt, to something that could actually happen. She can see it now, and she’s motivated.

obsessed @ 98 thanks for the link.

Wow. You are correct Pelosi was on fire. Did you hear her use the Rubber Stamp meme?

I sure did. Good job ladies.

The US hit peak oil in the early 70s (1971, I think). We have a dwindling reserve, and we should hang on to what we’ve got. Environmental issues aside (and they are important), it doesn’t make sense to pump our oil till we absolutely have to.

Oil prices are rising and will continue to rise, mainly because the growth of demand is outstripping the growth of supply. Consumption is growing 6 times faster than new oil is being discovered.

In fact, sometime in the next decade or two (at the latest) the world will hit peak oil. At that point production will flatten and then begin to decline. If we have not curbed demand before then, prices will go through the ceiling.

In the meantime, with Iraq out of production, the Saudis apparently unable to boost production, instability in Nigeria, and the liklihood of disruption in Iran’s production, prices are going to go up. This is just the beginning. You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Consider that your dose of doom & gloom for the day. :)

Bobby G – that is the info I get repeatedly as well. .

regarding the “still the cheapest gas in the world” meme – bullpucky. when this argument is cited please keep in mind that european gas taxes pay for education and healthcare and that public transportation is readily available and ubiquitous.

The refinery issue is not as simple IMO as that, but I won’t go into a tome. I will say – if all the state

Bobby–The trouble with freeing hydrogen from water- is that it takes electricity to do it. It takes MORE electricity than is contained in the hydrogen you get. For that reason, hydrogen actually is a means of STORING power- not a source of power. That’s not all bad- but it’s not a solution to the energy problem.

Combined with- say- solar power- hydrodgen becomes interesting. You can produce hydrogen in the daylight hours- for example- and use it at night when there is no sun. But free energy? Nope.

(that was odd – my scren just jumped) if all th stats had uniform refining and at pump, it would make things easier all around.

Hannity is a moron. Again in an environment of a manipulated media the blame game is always misplaced.
If your old enough to recall the gas crisis of the 70’s and having to fill up on odd and even days, ask yourself what has changed. Nothing, zip nada.
Does anyone really believe that the oil industry and our government with its billions in profits over the years, never generated an internal study that just might have said that maybe in the next 35 years since the last crisis, that the nation wouldn’t grow in population and that there wouldn’t be the need for more cars? Now ask yourself where all this additonal distilled product was going to come from. They haven’t built a new refinery to take up the slak in all that time. You can have all the oil in the world, but if you can’t refine it into something useable, then what’s the point in having all that oil?
Secondly, I haven’t heard much talk about the government cutting the federal tax on gasolene. Last year ( 2005 ) the federal government collected 1.34 Trillion in taxes and yet not one penny is spent increasing refinery capacity while India is presenlty building twenty such refineries and China another twelve.
Lastly, it is past time that people like Senator Kennedy whome I highly respect, stand down on issues such as not wanting to see wind farms off shore in his state. this mentallity of “not in my back yard” has got to go. Because if we don’t start doing something NOW, you will wake up one day and go to turn on a light and nothing will happen.

The oil companies haven’t built more refineries for a simple reason- they aren’t very profitable. I used to work for a company that owned one- and the profits were disappointing.

Oil companies are run by geologists. They tradtionally make their money at the wellhead. Refineries are a necessargy evil- as is retailing which they actually HATE.

“I remember the gas shortage we had in 1973.”

I do too. I lived in L.A. at the time (Hermosa Beach). Just up the road in El Segundo oil tankers were backed up waiting in line to off load as far as the eye could see, miles! Shortage, right.

I can’t stand to hear “still the cheapest gas in the world” either. They pay the same price per gallon as we do. They have a lot more taxes tacked onto it.
Just imagine if none of us had to pay for health care or school taxes out of pocket like we do now and paid more for gas at the pump to pay for those things. That’s what europeans do.

the way things are going in this country, we could very well have our first female President: Nancy Pelosi within the next 1000 days … a rough transition to be sure but definitely feasible !

new thread

This problem won’t go away. We are now facing up to the fact that as world demand rises- world production is not increasing- or not increasing as quickly. We will soon be seeing world production REDUCED- as we pass the peak oil point. Some say we’re there now- some say it will be ten more years- but it will happen- and relatively soon. At that point- Katy bar the door- cause there’s no way of adjusting the situation except to use less oil. Goopers can’t amend the laws of physical science.

rwcole -

If you burn coal or natural gas to make H2, you’re spinning your wheels or losing ground. Yes, you can’t drill for H2, you have to make it. NO fuel comes without extraction/production cost. Ethanol is also argued to be a major net BTU negative.

High temperature solar cracking, bro’. (electrolysis has problematic scaling limitations) Yeah, you couldn’t do it anywhere (large-scale, that is), and, yeah, it’s not a total solution, but it COULD be a big one. Again, those are political/economic choices, not tech barriers. The technology is actually rather mundanse. Moreover, the hidden externalities vis petrol fuels probably mean the true cost is closer to what the nominal cost of H2 would be.

Again: political. I don’t bite on “perfectionist fallacy” stuff in this area.

The Democrats should point out that Bush/Cheney have NOT lost control of oil prices, or energy policy. They chose this path when they announced that fuel cheap enough to waste was “the American Way of Life.” (I think some spokesman actually more or less said that at the beginning of the administration.)

I think some market gaming and goudging might be going on, but it is small taters compared to these big price run ups over the last year.

BushCo placed their bets six years ago:
-forget conservation
-forget fuel economy
-forget alternative energy production (unless it was some bogus tax break for Big Energy)
-act like a freaking Cecil Rhodes on bad speed and shoot people for oil production capacity (in you know where)
-place rest of bets on magic new production in US
-and for the rest, decide that any profit by Big Fossil Energy is a Good Profit.
So, they placed their bets and they may have lost.

This IS the BushCo energy policy. And the self-contradictory stuff he is pulling (suspending deliveries to the reserve, having some show-trial profiteering investigations, etc.) should be called. More BushCo, either with Bush, or after with GOP heirs to Bush = more of the same.

A few months ago I looked into getting the Toyota Highlander Hybrid- Dealer told me there was a six month waiting list.

That’s great that people are pawning stuff to buy gas- with any luck, mass McMansion forclosures won’t be far behind. Can homeless yuppies vote?

There haven’t been any refineries built in 30some years because no one wants to build one. The current tight supply situation suits the oil companies just fine. Why spend a billion dollars to open a refinery if all it’s going to do is lower gasoline prices by increasing supply?

…they announced that fuel cheap enough to waste was “the American Way of Life.†(I think some spokesman actually more or less said that at the beginning of the administration.)

****

GW Bush: “High energy consumption is part of the American way of life. I was elected to defend the American way of life.”

He said that. You can probably find the exact quote.

CNN-TV has the WH confirming Tony Snow as new spin-meister.

I wouldn’t mind paying $3.00 all the time if it included car insurance. No more un-insured cars.

http://nocasa.blogspot.com/200…..html#links

jane – and anyone else that doesn’t understand the “complexities” of the high gas prices. Check out the Raymond Learsy columns since Jan 2006 – some of which have appeared on Huffington Post – on rising wellhead prices after VP George HW Bush visited the Opec cartel major players in 1986.

It’s called a global cartel – supported by the Bush admin, managed by OPEC, all for the benefit initially to keep the American oil bigs in business – by keeping WELLHEAD prices artificially high by limiting production in the Mideast.

Higher gas prices start at the WELLHEAD.

“how about reality”

yeah

that’s enough for democrats to stand for.

just discuss with people in an honest fashion what the problems we face

as

a community

a city

a state

or

a nation.

and then work thru some possible solutions.

this does not require that the democratic party publish some fake “contract with america”

in order to manipulate americans into voting democratic.

it does not require that democratic party publish some sort of inane consultant-written “goals and objectives” statement.

a dialog with voters about potential real problems sorts out what folks think is a problem and what is not

and

what solutions seem sensible for the important problems.

the way things are going in this country, we could very well have our first female President: Nancy Pelosi within the next 1000 days … a rough transition to be sure but definitely feasible !

holy crap — that really is a possibility. fredo and the puppetmaster are impeached and removed from office. who’s next in line of succession — speaker of the house. assuming, of course, the dems take the house.

Yes the oil firms control the supply coming from the refineries. They haven’t needed to increase the number of refineries because they have developed and applied improvements (increased capacities) at the existing plants. BUT JUST ENUF TO KEEP UNDER THE INCREASED DEMAND CURVE ! They are having their cake and eating it too by blaming environmentalists for what doesn’t even exist – a limit on refinery productivity.

From a WH press conference five years ago. Evidence that what we see today is the Bush plan. It just didn’t turn out quite the way he thought it would. I don’t know if BushCo has been conspiring with Saudi Arabia to suppress production, as charged above, but with his administration’s attitude, I’m not sure it would make much difference whether he did or not. They would have probably acted the same way regardless.
***
Q Is one of the problems with this, and the entire energy field, American lifestyles? Does the President believe that, given the amount of energy Americans consume per capita, how much it exceeds any other citizen in any other country in the world, does the President believe we need to correct our lifestyles to address the energy problem?

MR. FLEISCHER: That’s a big no. The President believes that it’s an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one. And we have a bounty of resources in this country. What we need to do is make certain that we’re able to get those resources in an efficient way, in a way that also emphasizes protecting the environment and conservation, into the hands of consumers so they can make the choices that they want to make as they live their lives day to day.

But the President also believes that the American people’s use of energy is a reflection of the strength of our economy, of the way of life that the American people have come to enjoy. And he wants to make certain that a national energy policy is comprehensive, that includes conservation, includes a way of allowing the American people to continue to enjoy the way of life that has made the United States such a leading nation in the world.

…
MR. FLEISCHER: There’s also a reflection of the fact that 88 percent of America’s energy comes from fossil fuels. The remaining 12 percent come from renewables, biomass, wind, solar. It’s a very small percentage. And among that 12 percent — you also have nuclear in that mix. And so the amount of energy that can come from — let me put it to you this way.
The place that the American people get most of their energy that we are dependent on to preserve the American way of life does come from fossil fuels. And within the remaining portion of the energy that the American people use, the President is committed to a conservation program to help Americans to conserve more.

[See, energy efficiency is mainly a matter of getting more fuel to people as cheaply as possible. The last passage seems to indicate that BushCo did not think that the 88% of energy from fossil fuels should be part of a conservation plan. Just the remainder.]

…..

Q Ari, you’ve sent a pretty clear signal that there doesn’t seem to be anything in the short term the President is inclined to do, even if gas prices go to $3 a gallon in prices like California and the Midwest. Does that mean that he feels gas prices going to $3 a gallon would not imperil the economy, would not imperil the recovery that we may be in now?

MR. FLEISCHER: There will be things that can be done in the short term to affect conservation, for example. There will be a series of actions that can be short-term helpful to America’s broader energy needs. But the focus of this program is going to be what the American people have been looking to Washington to do for so long, which is to demonstrate long-term leadership. ****If five or 10 years ago people in Washington had focused on these issues, the United States would not be in the position it’s in today.****

****emphasis added****
[When it the price was high just in Pacific Coast Bush could swagger, probably good politics to show he could blow off the sissie socialists out there. Now that the whole country is close over $3 -in 2001 money- Bush is singing another tune.]

May 7, 2001
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news…..10507.html

Attention Democrats: We have a Blue Light Message Special! Repeat after me –

The reason for high gas prices is clear as day. It’s in the notes from Cheney’s Energy Task Force meetings. “Pump price of gas up 90% thru 2006. 30% of increased revenue earmarked for GOP Black Ops, disbursal thru K. Lay’s office in Houston.”

It’s Cheney’s fault.

End of message.

__________________
Jim Talent – Too Gay for Missouri?

The Smart (www.smart.com) is imported into the US in very limited quantities by Zapworld of Santa Rosa, CA (www.zapworld.com). There are some modifications they have to make for emissions, but the major hurdle they had to get through was a legal dispute with DaimlerChrysler (the parent company of Smart) over the right to distribute the cars here. They’ve got a number of dealerships lined up, including one in the Seattle area. I’ve been wanting to get one for five years.

3.00 a gallon gets em thinking. 5.00 a gallon gets rid of the 10 mpg SUV and the pickup truck that has never been dusty much less been to a job site, and Detroit will suddenly discover lots of fuel saving innovation. Why do Toyota and Honda have efficient cars? Try 6.00 gas in Japan. Somebody had to pawn to buy gas? For what? A Chevy Suburban? There’s no God-given right to $1.80 gas. Every gallon of gas ends up as cash in Texas bred wingnut politics or nice places like Saudi Arabia where the driving is limited to those who happen to be male. (But the gas is real cheap).

o.k., class:

1. the world is running out of oil. it is happening. easily refinable oil is especially scarce (light sweet crude).

2. finding and harvesting oil is very hard work. the people that do it, do it because they hope to make a lot of money. they aren’t altruists.

3. the american public are victims of their own habits and expectations:
a.) we have had artificially cheap gasoline going back fifty years or more.
b.) we like big cars. none of those boxy, smart cars for us!
c.) we don’t like to walk or ride bicycles.
d.) we don’t like to use public transport (other than airplanes).

our laziness, and our addiction to oil is well known. do we expect the dealers of our drug of choice not to take advantage of this (whether they be arab, russian, venezuelan or american)?

the politicians have contributed their share to the problem, mainly by sweeping it under the rug. this is not like the abramoff fiasco which was almost entirely a republican job. this shameful mess came to be because it was ignored by both the republicans and democrats. jimmie carter and al gore tried to talk some sense to us. did we listen? and we know what happened to carter and gore.

finally: the elephants in the room are china and india. let’s hope that they don’t make the same mistakes we’ve made. even if they don’t, they are taking a big chunk out of the petroleum market and their chunk will soon be bigger than ours. we will then no longer be number one!

we might as well just tell codpiece to go to his room. he might decide to do something which will make things even worse……….

The “crazy environmentalists” have regulated a known carninogen, now found in many communities’ ground water, out of our gasoline. Getting the same performance out of gasoline without MTBE costs big $$. I’ll bet when the fine print settles, MTBE is what W wants to put back into our gasoline, so that he can claim credit for easing gas prices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M…..utyl_ether

I want to say very clearly and distinctly that lowering the gasoline tax, even temporarily, is a very very bad idea. We want to decrease our use of liquid fuels… don’t we?

Or are Democrats just pandering to the national delusion that use of 25% of the world’s oil by less than 5% of the world’s population can go on, and on, and on… forever?

If Dems are going to take over by pumping the country full of impossible dreams just like the Republicans do, why even bother with elections? Oh, right, I forgot, the Republican dreams are nasty, brutal and perverse. Rambo does a threesome with Ann Coulter and the Marlboro man in the back of Jeff Gannon’s hospitality trailer.

So, yeah, get rid of the Republico-Fascists, but please don’t bring me any Democratic Party wet dreams that are just nicey-nicey versions of Commander Codpiece’s USA Uber Alles.

Remember who took the Department of Energy down from its cabinet level position? It was GHW Bush (Reagan was clueless, of course). We got cheap oil, they got cheap votes, and the Republic Syndicate got rich. This has been 30 years in the making. The bill is coming due and we are paying for it in blood. Energy is the #1 national security issue and we have our future in the hands of a thrice busted oilman.

We need to understand the equation-

Republicans = Big Oil = Wars without End = Dead End
Democrats = Alternative/renewable energy = jobs = a real future

HELLO!!

CAN ANYONE SAY GLOBAL WARMING??!!

THIS YAMMERING ABOUT THE BLAME GAME OF GAS PRICES IS ABSURD!

WHAT WOULD AL GORE SAY?

(how’s that for a new bumper sticker?)

SO FAR AS I’M CONCERNED, $10 or $100 A GALLON MAY BE BAD FOR GM & GDP BUT GOOD FOR THE PLANET.

Innocent Bystander: that’s the ticket!

Mary #83

Cheney’s Energy Task Force exposed here:

http://www.democracynow.org/ar…..25/1343214

and lots more about oil, Iraq and Bush

Republican free marketeers and chickenhawk warriors are the cause of the sudden rise in the cost of gasoline.

$20 dollars out of the current $72 is simply to cover jitters about “geo-political conditionsâ€. If the USA gets out of Iraq and starts talking to Iran, petroleum costs will immediately decrease. With gasoline prices decreasing, oil companies will stop price gouging.

The Petroleum Industry is completely deregulated. Subject to natural wild swings in pricing which will only get worse as the supply dwindles. The only alternative is regulation. A moot point with a Republican federal government that won’t even admit that re-regulation of electricity rates in California ended Enron’s blackouts.

I scrolled all the way to the bottom to post, only to find that #147 is spot on.
Does anyone have longer than a 5 minute attention span? Oil rocketed last week on saber-rattling by Condi, and when CNN decided to broadcast ever word/mumble/groan from the Iranian president.
And then the disaster scenarios re: the Strait of Hormuz was trotted out. Then oil went up $10.

Oil contracts are FUTURES contracts- and the future is uncertain so of course there is a premium built into the price for that.

How does this affect all the oil companies?
They make millions everytime we some idiot decides that it is a “good idea” to leave the nuclear option on the table.
If there is market manipulation – I’d be really surprised – it is probably local/regional level with GASOLINE distributors (not oil co’s) adding a dime here or there.
Not exactly the find that is going to quell the masses or cool the prices

Oil is expensive b/c the US has a voracious appetite (25% of world consumption), and now other countries are using more of it (just slight increases in India and China).
Americans see it as their God given right to commute 100 miles to work, drive a car everywhere, laugh at bikes, avoid public transportation – and live in the middle of nowhere and complain about high gas prices instead of taking an objective look at the situation.
There is very little spare oil capacity- and supply and demand is working its magic. Slight changes in demand/supply have a much bigger effect now, when demand is almost exceeding supply (causing the big spike over the past 1.5 years). Not to mention we haven’t had an external shock to the market yet (war, hurricane). You can blame all the oil co’s you want, but that is not going to change the price on the NYMEX. Neither is breaking up oil co’s- if anything that’ll drive the price higher as companies have less to spend on risky/expensive projects which are now needed b/c oil is much harder to find (hence much more deep water drilling).

People should also remember how stupidly cheap oil is right now. We are going to run out of the stuff, fairly soon – and it is still cheaper than bottled water! Come on!!
Not to mention there are zero costs added in the price for externalities like completely destroying the environment, fighting wars for oil access, etc.

Seeing all this upheaval now is kind of disturbing, considering we are just starting our venture into peak oil. $3 will soon be the good old days…
What are the chances that by the time oil is $6 we’ll be drilling in ANWaR and in just about any other state park that has oil?

Ben

The real reason gas prices are so high is oil price is determined by oil traders who ARE speculating that they can send the price of a barrel of oil higher because someone will buy that oil.

People are at the mercy of gamblers in the oil market. There is no price control but greed.

Oh, fuck you, Hannity.

The US military is the single biggest user of oil in the woreld, on a daily, and ongoing, basis

Solving the problem in the short term probably would be accomplished merely by calling for a 10% cut in energy use, something that could be easily done. But that would require some minimal Presidential leadership, and violate Republican dogma.

Bush is solely responsible for recent gas price increases!!!

We are paying over $3.00 a gallon because Bush wants to start a war with Iran.

Connection? The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

In response to the rising gasoline prices nationwide, Bush stated that he will temporarily stop depositing crude oil into the SPR, crude oil that could be going to the refineries to make gasoline.

Immediately, people spoke up saying that this relatively small amount would have a negligible effect of gasoline prices.

Peter Beutel in a CNN.com story said only 30,000 barrels of crude were being deposited daily. A Dow Jones report stated that the figure was 70,000 barrels a day. Weird. Why the large discrepancy and from where did they get their figures?

For background, Congress authorized the expansion of the SPR by 250 million barrels of crude oil, from about 750 million barrels to 1 billion barrels…and Bush ordered the maxing out of the SPR crude oil supply. Odds are that Bush/Cheney also ordered their Republican-puppets in Congress to increase the SPR’s capacity.

Now, concerning the 250 million barrels of crude oil needed to fill’er up, at 30,000 barrels a day, it would take over 20 years to top off the SPR. At 70,000 barrels a day, it would take about 10 years.

But we all know Bush is an impatient brat, and with his desire to attack Iran (after such a huge success in Iraq), then he has to have ordered the speeding up of this timeline.

So,

1 million barrels of crude deposited in the SPR each day: about 8 months to fill’er up.

2 million barrels each day: about 4 months.

3 million barrels each day: just under 3 months.

Of course, at any of these “deposit” rates, the higher percentage of imported crude oil going into the being-expanded-as-we-speak SPR would mean less making it to our nation’s refineries, which would drive up gas prices at the pump. And this would be the major contributing factor to rising gasoline prices recently.

Is this why the Republican’s have gone on the offensive? Blaming the environmentalists? Like they blamed the environmentalists and environmental lawsuits filed decades ago for the New Orleans’ levee failures during Katrina? Trying to divert attention from what Bush let slip, when he revealed that he’d been secretly depositing an unknown amount of imported crude oil into the SPR, thus diverting it from the oil refineries? Thus driving up gas prices?

I went to the DOE’s SPR website. I didn’t find any mention of 30,000 or 70,000 barrels being deposited into the SPR. The only recent activity concerns oil companies that received an SPR oil “loan” last year after Katrina who are “paying back” the SPR to make up for what they’d received.

Has Bush classified what he’s been doing with the SPR (i.e. surreptitiously depositing whatever amount of crude oil into it at whatever rate) for “national security” purposes?

Hey, they’ve got a war to plan, and pumping as much crude oil into the SPR as possible beforehand would help offset any oil supply disruptions that might occur because of their starting a war with Iran…right?

Something’s fishy.

And the Strategic Petroleum Reserve often seems to be at the center of the Bush administration’s war planning. For example, in their lead-up to starting war with Iraq, the Bush administration also ordered the filling up of the SPR.

Hmmmm. Just a coincidence? I doubt it.

I’m pissed – the stretch limo crowd at the oscars who booed Michael Moore still haven’t apologized and Arnie ‘Hazlenutballs’ Swartznegger still runs half a dozen Hummer’s.

Bring on the revolution and BURN BABY BURN!

BobbyG at #22:

The Smart Car is widely used everywhere in the world EXCEPT in the USA. Supposedly it gets 65 mpg, which is a nice start, and it’ll do 85 mph. Ever try to find a parking space in ANY European city? It’s imported by a co. called ZAP which does conversions to match US safety and environmental stds. BUT, is selling for about $25,000. Mercedes was making a 4 passenger version, but I’ve never seen one. However, Mercedes does not sell any of them them here because it believes American tastes still run to SUV’s. Subject to change, and FAST!

we haven’t built a refinery. We’re not allowed to drill in the 48 states or off the coast of Florida or California. We can’t drill in ANWR.

Big oil didn’t want more refineries: they said so. We are drilling off the coast of Florida, it’s call the Gulf of Mexico. ANWR would take a decade to produce 1% of the energy consumed in the US in 2000.

See how dumb you would have to be in order to still be a conservative these days? Corporate money goes in, bullshit comes out, and FOX News viewers eat it up.

Pathetic.
.

Yeah ya always had to be dumb as shit to be “conservative”. I mean what is it they “conserve”?

But this is where the ReThug fostered ignorance of the sheeple comes back to bite them in their asses. Fred Fundie and Goober from Georgia aren’t gonna blame anybody but BushWhackey for high prices. That’s just how it is. Go check out Professor Polkatz’s work if yer don’t believe me.

Some good things will come of high oil prices. The first is to make alternative energy source more competitive. The second is to make it less likely that Bush will attack Iran. My guess is gasoline would go to at least $5/gallon in the aftermath of a major attack on Iran, and it could go higher than that if the hostilities persist and Iran takes actions to close the Straits of Hormuz.

In that light, it isn’t just political damage the Republicans are worried about, it is also having their hands tied wrt Iran. Though not much attention is paid to it, this is yet another example of Bush incompetence. One of the major ideas behind the invasion of Iraq was to free up Iraqi oil for pumping by US companies, thereby both lowering oil prices and upping Exxon/Mobile profits.

An alternative energy policy is doable, look at what Sweden is doing. They plan to be oil-free by 2020, in one generation.

http://www.planetark.com/daily…../story.htm

And, wind energy is growing in the US at over 30% per year and over 60% in Europe. DOE wind site studies show that there is more than three times as much wind energy available in the continental US than we now use. Arizona and Nevada are both building solar concentrators for generation of electricity that are in the multi-megawatt class.

Hydrogen is unrealistic; it takes more energy to extract it than it produces. Oregon State university has developed a credit-card sized device that can convert vegetable oil to bio diesel, and can be stacked together in the thousands to produce commercial scale output.

The “political will” argument is rapidly becoming obsolete; this will become a survival issue very rapidly. But it’s going to have to hurt badly (like $10 per gallon) before we change our lifestyles to fit reality.

And while I am on this rant, what will happen when the boomers retire, and their arthritic bones can’t navigate around the big box stores, and they shop by using the Internet, and have to have stuff delivered? We are looking at a tsunami coming, folks. Universal health care, efficient transportation, universal information access (Internet neutrality)… Yikes, I’d better stop now…

I did a quick google search yesterday and discovered a few fun facts that can be used to shut the pie-hole of everyone who trots out the overused lie of environmentalist impact on refinery building.
In fact, the last request for a permit to build a refinery was made (and granted) in 1992. The corporation subsequently withdrew the plan to build a new refining facility due to “economics.”
In fact, over the last 30 years over 100 refineries were closed down by the owner corporations.
In fact, actively reducing refining capacity while aware of increased consumption controls supply in the face of increasing demand.
In fact, this is called market manipulation.

All I did was a quick google search seeking refinery permit requests.

Reduced refining capacity? Check this out, from an ExxonMobil ad published on the NY Times OpEd page (A27), Thursday, 4/27:

“Today, for example, we are … continuing to invest in our U.S. refineries, where capacity growth over the last decade has outpaced growth in demand and equates to building a new refinery every three years.”

Hello?