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(Pictured: George W. Bush jawboning the Saudis.)
George W. Bush, 1/26/2000:
"What I think the president ought to do [when gas prices spike] is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots…And the president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price."
Oil prices reached a record close, surging above $104 a barrel after OPEC decided Wednesday to keep its production unchanged. The cartel ignored calls from President Bush to pump more oil into an ailing economy.
Oh well.
Incidentally, when Big Texas Oilman Bush was ankle-biting Clinton/Gore on gas prices in January 2000, crude oil was at $27 a barrell.
It’s now $104.52.
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Bush’s meds may need tweaking
The solution to high gas prices is to drive less. It’s something people are going to have to get used to.
Oil hits record near $106 on dollar
How dare you question the American lifestyle.
Here’s a fun little map for you — color coded gas prices nationwide. It kind of puts the DHS Terror alert scheme to shame.
Prince Shiteel,has devastated families,and doesnt give a flip,smirking devil
i agree…but commuters need to carpool
And if you want the fuel price numbers themselves, here’s AAA’s fuel gauge report.
You can drill down (so to speak) to get metro area prices as well. It’s not a pretty picture.
Anybody thought to overlay red/blue states on that?
Now the Saudi’s are doing the boning.
Bend over for your daily light sweet crude injection.
-G
Good Morning Blue Texan and Firedogs,
have used that image in the past to make stickers/decals to put on gas pumps – guess it’s time for the Decision 08 version – Hobby Lobby here I come :)
In the 2000 campaign, Bush warned voters that if they elected Al Gore, gasoline would cost $2.00 a gallon!
Too bad no one believed him.
That moving photo should be framed and mounted next to “Washington Crossing the Delaware” in classrooms throughout the country.
Are they holding hands?!
It sure is interesting that Texas and Wyoming appear to be the cheapest in the nation.
Goes hand in hand with the reports that Texas and Wyoming have the least burdened national guards too.
-G
Forgot to mention:
“Best Friends Forever!”
dumbass Merkins put this shitheel in place,to devour our collective ass
and 20% still love his theiving ass
There are a number of states cheaper than Texas on the list. I guess we deserve a lot of blame, but not all of it.
wearing his 5,000$ silver cowboy buckle,and 10,000$ cowboy boots……..i vomit at the sight of him
Yep. Apparently it’s a middle eastern custom for men.
and Jello Jay is about to give BLANKET immunity to these gangsterz
My Bush colored glasses make everything seem red.
-G
That Bush fella sure has a man love crush on the Sheik.
The Sheik has other ideas: “Okay George, you can hold my hand — but there is no way you are getting under my robes.”
You can’t see their feet, but they are also tapping their toes.
-G
Quite amazing Blue Texan, you would lead the discussion bitch’n about oil prices when in the Bush Clinton era our dependence on foreign oil now has now grown to 66% while we have less than 3% of the proven oil reserves. The US is in the most precarious and dangerous position it has ever been in. We should be a lot more worried about 66% than 4 bucks a gallon. And the Clintons will surely do nothing about this. Obama seems a possibility.
In 2000, LimpBaugh said, “If Al Gore becomes president, in a few years you’ll be paying $2.00 a gallon for gas.”
Well, Limpbaugh was right. Gore didn’t become president, and we’re NOT paying $2.00 a gallon. What prescience, eh?
In 2000, a Euro was worth about 80 cents. Now it is at $1.52. In 2000, our DJ stock market was at about 11,000 (up and down). Now 11,200. If you calculate the decreased value of the dollar on the world market, our stock market is now at about 6,800.
Way to go, Shrubbie!
But the iraq war has nothing to do with the failing economy! More tax cuts for the rich! That’ll fix things!
The DOW is at 12,100 right now — 12,000 has proven to be a very resilient floor for stock prices.
http://finance.yahoo.com/
Well, can we just bitch about unfulfilled campaign promises, sorta like “a more humble foreign policy” and “no nation building?”
Those gasoline prices are a ticking time bomb for the American economy. Ordinary people driving ordinary cars to take their kids to soccer games, do the shopping, drive to church, and get stuck in traffic, cannot afford $4.00 gasoline and still pay for much else. Did I mention heating and air-conditioning? Oh well. This is like a huge tax, and to judge from what happened to Citicorp’s attempt to get some of the oil loot recycled through their liabilities, it is not going to be coming back to the United States.
I suppose the good news is that as the dollar falls against the Euro, German and French firms will find it advantageous to outsource some of their less high-tech-heavy work to the United States. Our education system is made for step-n-fetch-it work.
The solution to high gas prices is to drive less. It’s something people are going to have to get used to.
When there is NO public transportation you still have to drive your kids to school and yourselves to work. Gas is killing us without driving anywhere but work and school. In Central California, 87 Octain gas is 3.72.
test 2, 3, 4,
Brokeback Bluebonnets
can’t seem to get links to work in preview – just testin’ it out
My new and improved GOP talking point.
The Republicans are going to run a campaign based on the promise of the future, not one that is mired in the past.
So please support John McCain, a man who was a war hero in the 1960’s.
-G
High gas prices also increase the cost of food. And there’s no way to avoid that extra Bush Tax.
I’ve seen this picture before, but I never noticed how tense the prince’s left hand looks. He’s really holding it awkwardly. It seems strange.
im very sorry……..when the hell will people TAKE to the freakin streets?
lemons are a dollar apiece here…1 lemon
hey there Blue Texan–
that link takes me to the youtube, but then there’s just a circle spinning around in the middle and it never starts playing.
pineapples F I V E dollars
Why is that ‘amazing’? Do you think I’m a Bush Clinton (whatever that is) partisan?
tomatos same price as beefsteak
The lemon in the WH has cost three trillion already
Bush himself may be ‘tweaking’.
By the way: concerning what even Alan Greenspan admitted was the real reason Bush invaded Iraq, here’s a blast from the past.
Seems that, in an April 14, 2005 press conference, Bush himself said that there was no need for subsidies or incentives to the oil companies if oil hit $55 a barrel. (”I will tell you with $55 oil we don’t need incentives to oil and gas companies to explore. There are plenty of incentives.”) Well, guess what? It will never be less than $55 a barrel — or even $65 a barrel — ever again. So why are Bush and his Republican colleagues in Congress so flatly opposed to the Democratic bill that takes the $18 billion in free money away from Big Oil and gives it to companies developing and selling renewable energy?
from Blue Texan’s post:
One progressive Blue Texan gives a shoutout to a very very bad Red Texan….*G*
(sorry folks, couldn’t help that one!)
a short loaf of 8 grain bread 3.50…lets not disscuss milk
Merkins will diet,not by choice
tell Nancy to get him outa there ASAP
im helping several famlies with food donations…im angry
I know it’s a middle eastern custom, but Bush doesn’t look the least uncomfortable. He even looks like he’s ready to take the lead if dancying breaks out. He’s far more awkward in public speaking or reading children’s books.
While banks tighten credit and oil and food prices skyrocket(Inflation) we are in for a world of hurt. Opec does not care(they have China and India),
the war has bankrupted us, Our debt is owned by China, Japan, and OPEC,and our infrastructure is collapsing while the crooks take 20% off the top through corruption and Tax cuts. Disaster Capitalism at its predatory best or worst depending on your status.
Praedor is right.
sometimes I REALLY miss “edit”
and one person,helping get his perscriptions….i hate this
I have many a time with other members of Peace Fresno. problem is it’s a red as hell region. You can still drive around and see more than a few of those damned W stickers on cars.
Grain speculators have shot the price of wheat up from $5 a bushel to $25 a bushel (it’s currently around $17), and only about $5 of that increase is due to oil costs. But yes, the high cost of oil affects everything. About the one thing that will have less of a hurt put on it is locally-grown organic food; since machinery and oil-based fertilizers and other chemicals are largely eschewed anyway, there’s less of a hit on these producers. But they still have to get their produce to market.
Heard Madeleine Kunin speaking on Democracy Now the other evening she said that we have “too much to do” so that impeachment would not be so good right now. WTF.
no worries folks – congress is on it.
why just yesterday the house passed H.R.951, “Condemning the ongoing Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations, and for other purposes” (roll call vote was 404 – 1)
here’s a bit to demonstrate how seriously our congress is dealing with ME violence, instability and human rights violations. i’m sure they will have it all sorted out sorted out soon. how reassuring to know that pelosi, hoyer et al are in charge.
Pepe Escobar at Asiatimes writes about Chimpy being outwitted at every turn by the wily Iranians.
If it weren’t so tragic and bloody, it would be funny.
-G
it is the answer to a myriad of problems…FISA,and another war(Iran) being front and center
i used to know some Iranians,they are extremely smart and wiley coyote
Regime Change Now!
OT
Funny thing, I just got home and someone sent flowers and an unsigned card. Certain language on the card leads me to believe that there is a Laker at the bottom of this caper! Thanks to any and all.
Forget about now, I’m talking yesterday.
If this had happened during a Democratic administration, the Propaganda Media would be howling to the moon. Instead, it’s treated as some kind of inexplicable natural phenomenon that can only be blamed, very carefully, on OPEC.
We have GOT to pass campaign finance reform, then revitalize the FTC and force balance upon the media.
i need more coffee for yesterday
While in Gaza the people suffer. But according to an overwhelming majority of our elected Representatives, they deserve it…
the dem party needs a major overhaul too.
sorry greenwarrior,
it was working 10 min ago. there’s a bunch over at youtube under: Bush and Saudi Prince, but that one emphasized the Lovestruck Chimp
The jawbone of an ass
Sometimes it is appropriate to take the Bible literally. When Dubya does any “jawboning”, a term taken from the manslaughter Samson wreaked on scores of Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, he is inherently limited to using the jawbone of an ass. Thus is the Word of God fulfilled! Amen.
OK A moment of good news
Yes, it looks to me like the injury you sometimes see on people whose arms were yanked as small children(that’s a nerve injury) or perhaps Parkinsons. Then of course, there is Bob Dole’s injury, but that was different.
Sadly, yes.
I have Iranian friends, and I have never yet met an Iranian who was anything but kind and courteous. In fact when I’ve dealt with Iranians I have always been struck by their “old-world” classic courtesy.
The idea of bombing Iran is as appalling as if someone told me they were going to burn down my neighbor’s house. My good neighbor, not the guy who plays 3 a.m. rock music. In fact, to beat the metaphor to death, it’s as appalling as if my 3 a.m. rock music neighbor told me he was going to burn down my good neighbor’s house.
PW @ 45…
ever the one NOT to learn the lessons of history, Bushie is apparently also “tweaking” his general who opposes action against Iran.
Prairie Today: Oil on his Hands
Amazin because the real problem is not gas prices, lower gas prices at the pump are just the opiatic solution to lead the American public way from the real problem which is 66% dependence ( and growing) on foreign oil. The Clintons talk about their surpluses and dot com economy when they were in the White House as mask to our dependence on foreign fossil fuels. The MSM which draws what percentage of its advertising revenues from the oil companies? The Clintons have never addressed our dependence on foreign oil in a meaningful way. And will not, because solving the problem will be expensive and will involve great hardship.
some more jawboning
Hey, now that Warren Buffett is back at #1 in the Forbes ranking of gabillionaires, and seemingly is making money faster than he can give it away, maybe he should set up a competition for something that retrofits all gas guzzlers and improves their fuel efficiency ten- or 100-fold.
He’s an admiral, I believe. At least the opposer who made the news yesterday. Undoubtedly there are more than a few generals who also oppose the insanity of war against Iran.
Or get us to the farm. I normally buy from a local, organic farmer. It’d be quite a ways by bike, but it could be done. As not young as I am, I haven’t had the courage/desperation to try that yet, but we may well get there.
you rang?
and what? nothing praising how israel is bombing and starving the palestinians in gaza?
Selise was commenting how the Dem party needed an overhaul and I replied sadly, yes. Great name btw.
I wish I had the link but limbaugh said “if gore is president don’t be surprised when you see 2 dollar gas
someone needs to find that quote
can you imagine, we invaded an oil rich nation and wound up with hire gas prices
these are maggots running this country
What’s the language Raven? Enjoy your flowers, dude.
my idea of a retrofit for a gas-guzzling SUV.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
the only thing that will save this nation
I am appalled, but not suprised ;(
bizniss as usual– as I said earlier this morning, the rest of the world is watching.
What is also appalling to me is that there is no daylight to be seen between the recent public statements from the candidates…
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002538
I’ve looked for it a lot of times. Unsuccessfully. I heard it on the radio back in the summer of 2000. He used it more than once back then.
OT but the Neocons haven’t taken over our Courts … yet …
From Newsweek … “The Canadian government is no longer using evidence gained from CIA interrogations of a top Al Qaeda detainee who was waterboarded.” Link
They obviously know the evidence won’t stand up in our courts … please toss out the Repugs in November and work hard to get more and better Dems in Congress … the Neocons are working hard to take over Canada …
Yes, but first comes habeas corpus – so we won’t get permanently arrested doing it. And then comes unconglomerating the media so we can get support and news out. And then comes creating non-computer fair elections to be able to elect people to do it. Then we can, with more hard work, do whatever needs to be done. That’s my strong opinion these days. I used to be an environmentalist before more urgent matters intruded on that work.
Thanks, that clarifies it.
Weel they mentioned mrs boo boo and I called her that here this morning. Boo boo was actually what we called Raven (our late cocker). We have called each other mr and mrs boo boo for years (I know, insane childless couple)but not that many people know about it. Pretty smart huh?
cute!
That works for me too!
Bush speaking March 5, 2008 at a conference in DC. From the official transcript. Audio and video also available.
First a moment of clear thinking:
…listen, let me start first by telling you that America has got to change its habits. We’ve got to get off oil. And the reason why is, first, oil is — dependency on oil presents a real challenge to our economy.
But only moments later this gem:
Now, all the countries we import from are friendly, stable countries; but some countries we get oil from don’t particularly like us. They don’t like the form of government that we embrace.
and a bit further on this:
Now, look, I understand stereotypes are hard to defeat. People get an image planted in their head, and sometimes it causes them not to listen to the facts. But America is in the lead when it comes to energy independence; we’re in the lead when it comes to new technologies; we’re in the lead when it comes to global climate change — and we’ll stay that way.
mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all?
Correct me if I am wrong but were us gas prices ridiculously low. . .and still are?
“The solution to high gas prices is to drive less. It’s something people are going to have to get used to.”
Jeez, if it were only that simple. Our economy relies on easily accessible energy-that’s what makes oil/gas so efficient. It runs cars, trucks, planes, trains. We make plastic out of it. The fertilizer for our food is petroleum based. The roads themselves have oil in them. Petroleum based products are so ingrained in our economy that weaning ourselves from oil dependence will be very, very painful.
It will take a wholesale restructuring of our society, where we work, live, play, what we eat and how we get it to break our addiction to oil (foreign and domestic).
Driving less has very little to do with it.
Very smart. What did you say about her?
Actually, i think he is holding his robes, i’ve seen that before.
sadly yes, sadlyyes.
Pulling up weeds to day to prepare for our garden (luckily we have a lemon, lime and orange trees) As for gasoline, we try and bike when we can. I suppose with the ‘touchy’ situation down there is southern oil land, it won’t get any better
I think you’re mixing up necessary & sufficient conditions. Conservation (driving less, for example) is a necessary condition for reducing energy use, an a powerful one. Also one of the best near-term tools. But you are right that it is not sufficient, given the magnitude of the problem. To fully correct the problem technology is required to restrurture the use of energy, in all its manifestations.
Three differing approaches to Oil Prices. Real life examples.
1972 -OPEC Embargo- Gas prices shot up to $1.50 in US when you could get it.
Reaction, Carter administration got tax credits for solar and other alternative energy. Reagan came in, credits gone Big oil rules.
Brazil, 1979, goes to switchgrass E-85 and now they laugh at us
Britain, kept prices arificially high and spent the money on energy independence, mass transit, and windpower.
We are a nation bred on overindulgence living beyond our means energywise.
I think it is important to realize the elaborate kabuki that is going on. OPEC is not going to open the spigots because they are pretty much flat open right now. There is myth that OPEC and Saudi Arabia in particular have 2-3 million bbls/day excess capacity, but the Saudi elephant fields have been pumping for decades and are either in decline or soon to be. Could they pump more? Probably, at the margins, but not in a way that would change market factors which are now dominated by the irrational bid ups of hedge fund speculator without any knowledge of or interest in market fundamentals.
The simple truth is that if we want to stabilize the price of oil, we need to develop a coherent economic policy instead of persisting in Bush-Republican goofiness. We need to put major restraints on hedge funds: force them to hold on to positions for up to a year, restrict their ability to leverage by requiring full collateralization on their loans, increasing the capital gains tax, and treating profits of hedge fund managers as income. And of course, we need to create a coherent and realistic energy policy.
Oil is going to go up no matter who is in the White House- why? Cause we’re runnin out. Under Bush we have had eight years of AVOIDING the problem. Eight lost years. Billions spent on bribes to oil companies to give us more oil-billions spent on ethanol- that doesn’t work. STUPID- beyond comprehension. Eight years in which we could have dramatically reduced cafe standards, reduced consumption, and be well on our way to replacing much of electricity generated through fossil fuels with wind, wave, and solar generation.
I don’t think that the next prez will reduce oil prices- but they damned well better begin the transition process away from oil and coal.
yo raven
ygm
At $4.00 a gallon, the only piece of paper you need to show you own someone, of course, is a share in an oil company. Minimum wage is a slavemaster and you don’t need to cut down a tree to prove it. Nice thinking Repubs.
A major issue that I see that is usually not discussed is the fact that in the northern half of the country, if you are outside of a city, you can heat your home with – fuel oil, LP, or wood(or corn or one of the other pelleted fuels). The last time I checked fuel oil, it was $3.99 a gal. A lot of houses in rural areas are old, energy-inefficient, uninsulated, etc. …and usually owned/rented by people who don’t have the means to insulate, get new windows, a new furnace, etc. etc. And no, at least in my area of Upstate New York, none of the utilities are doing “free home energy audits” any longer and are not offering low cost loans to do the work.
Thought the fuel in Brazil was coming from sugar cane.
You’re right. I stand corrected.
Brazil’s 29-year-old ethanol fuel program uses cheap sugar cane, mainly bagasse (cane-waste) for process heat and power, and modern equipment, and provides a ~22% ethanol blend used nationwide, plus 100% hydrous ethanol for four million cars. The Brazilian ethanol program provided nearly 700,000 jobs in 2003, and cut 1975–2002 oil imports by a cumulative undiscounted total of US$50 billion.[1] Today, Brazil gets more than 30% of its automobile fuels from sugar cane-based ethanol.[2]
The Brazilian government provided three important initial drivers for the ethanol industry: guaranteed purchases by the state-owned oil company Petrobras, low-interest loans for agro-industrial ethanol firms, and fixed gasoline and ethanol prices where hydrous ethanol sold for 59% of the government-set gasoline price at the pump. These pump-primers have made ethanol production competitive yet unsubsidized.[1]
In recent years, the Brazilian untaxed retail price of hydrous ethanol has been lower than that of gasoline per gallon.[1] Approximately US$50 million has recently been allocated for research and projects focused on advancing the obtention of ethanol from sugarcane in São Paulo.[3]
wiki
Ewwww.
Still, nothing annoys like seeing a Hummer with a Support our Troops sticker.
I fully agree, didn’t mean to imply conservation is not part of the equation. The solutions involve both technology and behavior changes.
Actually they use bagasse (sugar cane waste)
Gas is at a buck twenty in montreal. That’s for a liter. Multiply that by 3.8 to get a gallon. That’s 4.56 a gallon.
I hate giving my money to oil men.
I drive a basic four cylinder, manual transmission. When I’m going for a freeway jaunt, I’ll leave at one or two in the morning. That way, I don’t have to drive fast because every other driver is in a hurry. I’ve done a few trips to Atlantic City to see friends and good music(I never gamble). Driving at around 95 kilometers an hour(57 mph), I’ve managed up to 48 miles to the gallon.
It starts with me… Slower, better choice of automobile and a hatred of oil men.
Yes. Because they are virtually untaxed. Compare the cost of gas in the US with prices in other countries and you will see you are still paying quite low prices.
Like thinking houses are batteries!
The secret is to put a twenty dollar per gallon tax on gasoline. Suddenly it will become more cost effective to hire unemployed hippies to carry wealthy people around on litters, offering employment and cleaning up the environment as well.
Prediction: oil glut & falling prices in 2011 (+ or – a year), owing to supply & demand response to today’s high prices.
This DFH could use some of that*G*
Partly–as noted in the Wiki article posted above.
The same is true for the 8 years before that under the Clintons when our dependence on foreign oil rose faster than under the Bushes. What about that “experience”?
the downside of this is of course the labor used to harvest the sugar cane. Sugar cane plantations are located in the poorest area of Brazil (northeast). There was just a report that Brazil is getting their bio fuel on the backs of slave labor
And that proves…?
here is the link http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/7974/54/
The thought of the U.S. possibly importing this makes me ill
“I blame Clinton.”
International gas prices:
Price in USD Regular/Gallon
Netherlands Amsterdam $6.48
Norway Oslo $6.27
Italy Milan $5.96
Denmark Copenhagen $5.93
Belgium Brussels $5.91
Sweden Stockholm $5.80
United Kingdom London $5.79
Germany Frankfurt $5.57
France Paris $5.54
Portugal Lisbon $5.35
Hungary Budapest $4.94
Luxembourg $4.82
Croatia Zagreb $4.81
Ireland Dublin $4.78
Switzerland Geneva $4.74
Spain Madrid $4.55
Japan Tokyo $4.24
Czech Republic Prague $4.19
Romania Bucharest $4.09
Andorra $4.08
Estonia Tallinn $3.62
Bulgaria Sofia $3.52
Brazil Brasilia $3.12
Cuba Havana $3.03
Taiwan Taipei $2.84
Lebanon Beirut $2.63
South Africa Johannesburg $2.62
Nicaragua Managua $2.61
Panama Panama City $2.19
Russia Moscow $2.10
Puerto Rico San Juan $1.74
Saudi Arabia Riyadh $0.91
Kuwait Kuwait City $0.78
Egypt Cairo $0.65
Nigeria Lagos $0.38
Venezuela Caracas $0.12
experience poo!
I agree about ethanol. It was a politically motivated program which invoked energy concerns as a convenient rationale to sell a thinly disguised price support program for corn, and since corn and soy are tied together, on soy as well. Corn for energy is inefficient, polluting, depletes soil resources, and drives up world food prices harming the poorest people and nations. Paradoxically, it has driven up the cost of corn sufficiently that it has made new production of ethanol uneconomic. Go figure.
Excellent. You can even buy it online.
Now, where did I put that 8 grand?
ADM, subsidized by you.
just get the book, it’s cheaper :D
“dependance on foreign oil” is probably a distracting measure. We’re using more oil and the amount we can get domestically on an annual basis is declining. No president is going to make more oil. What’s needed is to cut consumption. It would have been difficult to do during the Clinton years when oil was less than $30 per barrel. The gift Clusterfuck has given us is oil prices that REQUIRE action.
Thanks again Clusterfuck!
takes more elbow grease tho.
Natural Selection Corporate T(r)eason and “Executive Oil”
A nation’s constitution usurped by a corporate aristocracy in the quest for endless profit, at all costs…….
Kings, Dukes and Corporate cohorts in colonial crime!!!
Wasn’t that the point?
Seems to me much of the oil price talk falls into the “blame the victim” category. Sure, people can change their behaviours, but it doesn’t change the underlying problem, and oil is used in a lot more places than just in people’s vehicles.
The problem is the oil companies and countries that literally can do most anything they want. Exxon and the others keep breaking their own PROFIT (not revenue) records almost every quarter over the last couple of years. Saudi Arabia doesn’t seem to be having any money troubles. I just read the other week about some other Middle East country that was surprised at how much they actually made this last year, and how they’re not sure what to do with all the extra cash.
Talking about supplies this, and unrest that is all smoke and mirrors IMO. If these people really cared about the world’s people and economies, they could simply lower prices on their own, and STILL make big profits. Why don’t they do that, and how can we make them do that should be our concern.
Since taxed dollars are being used to prop up big oil why can’t the state requisition oils’ profits and infrastructure.
Although it has not had much direct effect on the current spiral in crude oil prices, peak oil is out there and probably is already occurring. So gluts will be relatively small and temporary. The only way the supply/demand problem will be truly affected will be when major industrial economies like ours move out of a petroleum based economy.
If any jaw-boning of OPEC has taken place,
it’s been strictly Larry Craig style.
Amen.
VW may introduce a diesel-electric (yeah, something like a U-boat) car that ought to deliver 70 miles per gallon. Try:
(local gas prices in $ / gal) * (what your car gets in mpg) / (70 mpg) = (your new ‘local gas price’)
For me, driving one of these VWs would mean that it would be as though gas prices had just dropped to $1.10 per gallon, more or less wiping out the last disasterous 7 years.
i buy the possibility of demand collapse (not looking forward to that one if it’s due to worldwide economic troubles) but i have a had time picturing how we dramatically expand supply in 3 years.
care to elaborate?
RW, the US has only 3% of the world’s proven oil reserves which leaves us with coal. The problem with the Clintons was/is that as “Commander in Chief” they did nothing to get us off foreign oil dependency. The US has 19th Century battery technology. Imagine, we are using the same limited battery technology today that was used in the Model T.
When the Clintons got the 3 am call about our dependency on foreign oil, they slept through it, wherever they were.
The technology to get us off foreign oil dependency does not lie in combustion engines, ethanol, etc. The future is in long life, non leaking batteries, at least for cars.
hadtimehard time
hope you can translate my bad typing.
I believe America is being punished by “BIG OIL” because the GOP no longer has control of Congress in executing the “Iraq Oil Plot” as it did before the war started. The infliction of pain will in the minds of corporate oil compel Americans to fall in line when they no longer have money for the old six pack of bud light because the money has to go into the “gas tank,” oil’s cash cow!!! It is the economy stupid! Higher energy costs kill growth, except for certain energy interests????
Paraguay’s not on the list?
Actually, thanks. That’s nice to see.
Peak oil is a figment of oil corps imaginations.
I haven’t gone hunting for the basis of this factoid I ran across the other day, but FWIW: the best batteries available have a power density 1/100th that of BODY FAT! We have a need for greatly improved energy storage technology, and that need ought to be getting more attention that the moon shot under JFK.
You do recall that during the majority of his presidential term, that Bill Clinton was dealing with Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, most of whom are in Big Oils pockets, were and are anti-environment, and global warming deniers.
Given this fact, combined with all the rest of the craziness the Clintons were dealing with, what do you propose President Clinton to have done and how do you think he would have gotten it enacted?
I might add that the paradigm of “lowering consumption” does nothing to reduce our dependence on oil or foreign oil and leaves the oil companies in place. We need to begin moving off oil period.
The triple whammy: dollar plummeting, oil rising in price, and the twin budget/trade deficit. These three are going to make coming out of this recession really difficult.
Conservation is still the largest energy source we have available in the short term. We waste so much energy that with easily implemented conservation measures we could cut our oil use more than 30%; enough to significantly affect oil prices. A combination of measures [CAFE standards (accelerated of course), carpooling incentives, compact fluorescent lighting, lighting occupancy sensors (to shut off lights when no one is in room), use programmable thermostats in all places that use heating or cooling, etc.] would reduce our energy consumption easily 8% per year for the next 5 years.
Disclaimer: I am an energy conservation engineer.
I agree, but I believe these can be parallel efforts – in the case of habeas corpus, de-politicizing the Judiciary, followed by actual Constitutional scholars and rule-of-law personnel restoring our rights.
That one requires campaign finance reform, since the same people who own the media own the legislators who can make this change.
Actually, we HAVE a system of non-computerized fair elections – the existing paper ballot infrastructure. As with cleaning up Justice, we need to reinvigorate the FEC and return to traditional balloting measures, augmented by efforts to encourage participation.
I agree, I just think we can address some of these in parallel, some right away, but anything directly legislative will require CFR to get the influence of the corporations out of the way.
Thermal Mass’es!
My own perception has been that, the dependence on foreign oil became shockingly apparent, for the first time, with the OPEC embargo of 1973. Only then did we realize that virtually everything in our economy was dependent on the price of oil and we didn’t have enough to satisfy our own use. We also began to realize that it was finite.
The efforts to tighten our belts and adapt to life styles involving more fuel conservation and development of alternative sources reached an apogee during the Carter Adminsitration. But Americans found Carter’s continuous talk of belt tightening, lowering or raising house temperatures, and a declining standard of living to be depressing. Ronald Reagan’s “its morning in America” was found to be such great communication because it followed Carter’s grim, but pragmatic, speeches. With Reagan, mid-sized cars began to come back, urban sprawl continued, and we resumed the prior growth and expansion, with little regard for fuel. No administration since, Republican or Democratic, has done much of anything to promote conservation or development of alternate sources.
Unfortunately, in a democracy, most people don’t want to hear it unless and until it becomes and emergency. Any administration which really pushed it, like Carter’s, was likely to be a one term administration and achieve nothing else. I think it would be hard to find even many members of congress who strongly advocated stringent measures to reduce oil consumption, such as taxing oil to keep the price high.
So, to put the blame on the Clinton Administration, anymore that any other, or on American public opinion, appears to be mainly for current political purposes. I mean, to be honest, I lived 40 miles from my job and don’t know if I would have supported a huge gasoline tax before retiring.
You are right that this is not enough, but it is an important first step. I am for all the new technology and renewables, but these are going to take time. In the meantime lowering consumption is about all we can do. We use more than 4.5 times the World average per capita and more than twice Europe’s average. That is shameful. We need to use less.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html
Link to some handy facts on oil use.
68% of all oil consumed in the US is for transportation.
About 11 billion dollars a day Americans spend on gasoline, not sitting in traffic!! Talk about a negative balance of trade!!!
As Commander in Chief, the Clintons could have developed, through the military, non combustion engines for military vehicles using advanced battery technology much like Israel did and is doing. Congress has nothing to do with it. That technology could then have been adapted on a much larger scale in the same way as the technology developed by NASA which I sleep on. I would prefer not to have my tempeurpedic (sp) but instead some real deal battery technology.
The dysfunctunality (wd?)_of the Clintons extended to and extends to their inability to even address the problem of dependence on foreign oil, then and now. You know the Clintons were promoting the fossil fuel, foreign oil dependency the American economy and the surpluses created during their term of office. They could care less about the problem, much like the oil companies. The Clintons are just bureaucrats and office seekers. Obama has them pegged on that score.
And Republican majorities you refer to. That’s not how it started for the Clintons. But that is not the point anyway.
Seems the goal would be to have a war on energy to reduce per capita costs instead of lining the pockets of middlemen, then transferring that wealth to the King of Saudi Arabia! How about innovation and tech to export to the world! One problem. the likes Exxon Mobile and Executive Oil!!!
Yeah, I’ll concede the first two years of Clinton were with Dems majorities and consumed with the failed Health Care re-do and the faux Banking scandal. But how, in his role as “Commander in chief” could Clinton have directed the military to do this?
The funding for applied R&D efforts was still controlled by Congress. Why would the anti-Clinton, anti-global warming, pro-Big Oil Republican Congress have funded anything in this line when they were all set up to continue purchasing Big ticket, useless and unnecessary weapons systems like the Osprey and F22?
That is just silly.
Americans are largely in contol of their own energy expenditures.
An extra $20,000 invested in solar on the roof enables most people to pay close to zero for electricity.
Buy a Prius and reduce you gasoline consumption by 60%
Buy a motor scooter and reduce it by 80%
Or buy a monthly bus pass and ELIMINATE it altogether- cost for a senior in San Diego County—$16 per month.
Even at close to $4 per gallon, sales of lumbering giant SUVs are brisk. Fashionable ladies like ta drive 4 ton monsters down to Starbucks to get their Lattes.
As usual- the REAL culprits are the american people–who don’t give a shit.
Two things need to happen to bring oil prices down:
One, get very serious as a nation about conservation and alternative fuels. This requires leadership from the federal govt., something that was never going to happen with two oilmen in the White House.
And take baby steps in the process. Instead of asking people to car pool every day, see if once a week would be a start. Municipal vehicles other than police, fire, EMS, etc. should all be natural gas. Why does the Housing Inspector need to go 0-60 in 5 seconds?
Once the Saudis and OPEC see evidence of a slowdown in demand and rising reserves prices would begin to reverse.
Secondly, we need to impose vast restrictions on the trading of oil futures contracts. People are making insane amounts of money gaming the system by creating artificial demand for oil, which drives prices higher, which makes money for them.
There was a WSJ story not long ago when oil reached $100/barrel for the first time that explained how a trader pushed the price to $100 just so he could say he was the first to trade at that number.
Now there’s got to be something wrong with a system that allows things like that to happen. If it was that easy for him, imagine the effect trading from multi-billion dollar hedge funds has.
You know that research R&D is not directly controlled by Congress (except through oversight, assuming that exists) and you certainly cannot plausibly argue that the Clintons could not have developed new battery technology through the military. It is a simple point, that in the middle east “conflict” in Iraq, one of our greatest vulnerabilities is the dependence on combustion engines in the desert. So there is/was a bona fide military reason for developing non combustion, electric engines based on new, non acid based, battery technology. See Israel on this point. Have you read about the new electric cars in Israel?
So your “applied” R&D argument is a bit of a ruse. Of course, the Clintons do not and did not give a damn about the problem anyway. As our dependence on foreign oil rose dramatically from 92-00, the Clintons were telling us how great our fossil fuel economy was and would be.
Bottom line the Clintons did not even try to do anything about “it.”
i’d really like to see an extended discussion between you and ecahn on this.
While I wouldn’t say that, you have to acknowledge “peak oil” is fair game for debate, don’t you?
Just to let you know, I was working as a support contractor in that arena of DoD applied R&D for the period from the early 80s through the mid-90s. I can assure you, that Congress was paying attention and along with all the other pieces of military R&D, the funding battles meant that something like that, would have been a low priority across the board.
Doesn’t make it right, just makes it the reality.
The peak of crude & condensate production I think is still May 2005. One can easily find the figures online, and given that I don’t think its debateable.
Just to add some factual grist to the mill
Here are world oil production numbers for the last several years:
2004 82.9 million barrels per day
2005 84.15
2006 84.8
2007 84.62
The small decline in production in 07 may be significant (although it was compiled in Nov and accounts for only ten months of the year.) One could argue that oil production peaked in 06.
You are testing me but I do not agree. And certainly the Clintons offered no leadership on this issue and hence bring no “experience” to the fore on this issue in 2008. I wonder why you ignore the fact that Israel was able to discern electric batteries as a priority during the same time period and Israek now leads the world in automotive battery technology with 200 mile range electric cars. I could be in error on the range but I am advised by my electrical engineer friends that actually Israel has even better new battery technology.
Bottom line: The Clintons have never offered any leadership on this issue. Wonder why that is?
One can just as easily find figures online that show peak oil isn’t here yet. The world is a big place. As our technology gets better were finding huge reserves offshore we couldn’t access before.
Before I go any further, I want to make clear I’m all for conservation and more of it. I know, however, it’s in Big Oil’s interest to push the peak oil meme because it means “peak profits.”
A very strong case can be made there is more oil in shale rock in the Western U.S. than in all of Saudi Arabia.
The oil sands in Canada are massive, and will eventually provide us with 20% or more of our oil imports.
Again, this is not to revel in more use of fossil fuels; I’m just offering a different view on the issue.
There are probably a whole raft of issues that Clinton did not provide leadership on. Just as there are a world of issues that all other politicians have not provided leadership on. I believe they call it picking the battles.
Much as we may desire the magic wand to be waved and have the miracles occur, not every issue that is important to me is important to my leaders, of either party.
Is there ANYONE in ANY position of power in today’s US political scene who has provided leadership in these areas? And how successful have they been in advancing this leadership?
It almost sounds like you wish Clinton had acted like BushCo and done things without getting a consensus from an opposition Congress.
Most of these estimates come “cornucopians”. They keep predicting things like a return to $40/bbl oil. They just aren’t very credible. I am not sure what you mean by “huge reserves”. The real question here is can you find and produce enough new fields to compensate for what you are losing from older fields that are beginning to play out. The answer is no. Deepwater and other reserves tend to be more difficult and costly to produce. They also tend to be smaller. So no they don’t make up for what has been lost.
Total Canadian imports are about 2 million bbls/day. We use just shy of 21 million bbls/day currently. So say you could boost them up to around 4 million bbls/day or 20%, where are you going to find the other 17 million bbls/day we need (and this assumes our demand stays flat and does not increase)?
Oil sand and oil shale deposits are massive in north america- the expense to extract them are also very high. We are only now reaching the break even point for oil shale production according to wikipedia. This SHOULD, however, tend to keep world oil prices from going to $200 per barrel or more.
Production from oil shale apparently uses up about half of the energy extracted in mining, transportation, and heating to extract the ”oil”.
I am not interested in lowering the bar to the that presented by the Clintons during the their first administration which you seem to do and thus you limit my response to identifying positions taken by people “in power” during the Clinton administration. My point is that the Clintons provided no leadership on the issue of dependence on foreign oil (now 66%). You call that lack of leadership “picking battles”. I call that conduct lack of leadership. Obviously you do not consider 66% dependence on foreign oil to be an issue that could have been addressed by the Clintons during their last administration because no one “in power” would have responded favorably. That is not what leadership is all about or even what politics is all about.
We have gone ’round and ’round on this before.
I don’t expect to convince you of my opinion, so let’s just agree to disagree on this. None of us know precisely how much oil is left in any field, much less new ones that haven’t been tapped yet.
If anyone cares to read something that challenges the “peak oil” theme, check this out.
It certainly made sense to me.
First of all these fields need to be nationalized. If I am forced to pay $3-4 per gallon of gas I’d feel somewhat better about it if it was going to our treasury vs. Big Oil, Saudi Arabia &/or the rest of OPEC.
Just like a prominent Democratic candidate is fond of saying, I not saying any of this would be easy. The point is once we as a country got serious about tapping this source, OPEC loses it’s stranglehold on pricing.
Yeah, right. That will surely work as well as it did the last time we asked her to do that.
I’ve seen this picture before, but I never noticed how tense the prince’s left hand looks. He’s really holding it awkwardly. It seems strange.
Does King Abdullah normally carry a weapon, small sword perhaps? Of course he would not take it into a visit with a host head of state, but you know old habits. The gesture suggests control to me. His bios have no extraneous personal information in them.
gtomkins at 69:The jawbone of an ass
I recall hearing him use that expression one time and snorting at his born-again claims … you’d think he’d at least know the scriptures.