Do Americans Want to Drill for More Oil?

7/24/2008

            One of The Political Stray's pet peeves is when an obscure poll taker or some other eclectic group claims to speak for all of us. So we won't do that. We don't know what Americans want.

            Nonetheless, of  those Americans that do want to drill for more, how many wish to do so because of some of the inaccuracies they have been spoon fed by those with ulterior motives?

            Since the 1990's, the federal government has consistently encouraged the development of it's oil and gas resources and the amount of drilling on federal lands has steadily increased during this time. The number of drilling permits has exploded in recent years, going from 3,802 five years ago to 7,561 in 2007.

            Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for development of public lands increased by more than 361%, yet gasoline prices have also risen dramatically, contradicting the argument that more drilling means lower gasoline prices. There is simply no correlation between the two.

            Even if increased domestic drilling activity could affect the price of gasoline, there is no justification to open additional federal lands because oil and gas companies cannot keep pace with the rate of drilling permits that the federal government is handing out now.

            Don't be fooled by talk of new technology being perfectly safe. Californians remember an oil spill near Santa Barbara from a drill site that still rankles. The greedos chose to ignore the fact that some of the states they want to ravage depend on their coastlines for their living.

            We challenge the oil companies to tell us all about this new technology and incorporate into their leases guarantees that no oil spill will result from their work.

            We also challenge them to tell the American people how much per gallon the results of their drilling will save them.

And when that will happen.

            We challenge them to promise the American people that the oil obtained will stay in America, rather than be sold in the market to the highest bidder.

Pristine Drilling Site in Garden Gulch, Colorado

Google Earth KMZ file showing the location of the frozen "waterfall" created by a 1.2 million gallon spill of waste drilling fluids from a natural-gas drillsite on the Roan Plateau in western Colorado

Old Technology? This photo is from April 2008.

By the way, some of the double-chinned suits are spouting off about the drilling rigs in LA surviving Katrina without leakage. That's nonsense. (a lie, actually) Do a search. See for yourself.

Check the Library of Congress for new oil drilling bills being written that violate even the most fundamental sense of decency.

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.html

In the search box, type...oh, how about "American" and "Energy" without the quotes.

Click on one of them - then click on the summary. That'll tell you who put in up. Then check the text of the legislation. Browse  while you're there.

Some of these would take your first born too if they could get away with it.

It's nearly amusing to see how many bills get written right before breaks. Five weeks! Wow. Nice Vacation. Especially at over $160,000 plus a year.

Watch out for oil slicks and slick oil people,

The Political Stray

Source: The Truth About America's Energy: Big Oil Stockpiles Supplies and Pockets Profits June 2008 http://resourcescommittee.hous.gov

7/22/2008

              Okay. Today is the big day for those feeling the sting of gas prices. Remember, the House has passed the anti-oil speculation bill, now today we wait for the Senate.

              This is IMPORTANT. "Speculators" have been driving up our gas prices by snagging large amounts of it and holding it until the price goes up. See, then they can sell it and whatever the difference is, is profit. That's how regular stocks work. "Commodities" should never have been allowed to be worked that way. Roosevelt had smacked that down and it's only since 2000 when the illustrious Phil Gramm wrote a complex bill that our Congress approved by putting it under the general budget, that it's been legal.

              This is bad because it artificially raises the price. (as if everything wasn't bad enough) Artificially, because technically, it has no effect on the supply.

              So, those that keep blaming this on "supply and demand" are full of it. While that is a problem, it's one we have been working on. It's not the entire reason the gas prices are spiking like they are.

              If you want to sum up both the mortgage and the gas price problems, it boils down to too many indifferent, if not worse, congresspeople and senators.

              Nearly every damn one of our problems were at one point fixed.

              You and I need to get control of our pension plan money and every other chunk-o-money we have floating around out there. If a plan doesn't offer you 100% transparency (fancy way to say they tell you what they're doing with your money) – then move it somewhere where they do.

              You should really check on your money anyway. The other night I was watching TV and heard this one woman saying something on the order of ..

              "We are placing pension plan money in higher risk ventures because that's what pension plans need."

              Yeah. I almost got whiplash when I turned on that one. By the time I got to my desk, she had vanished.

              Yes. You actually should check to make sure that whatever your pension plan people tell you is the truth and that you're okay with it. For example, I don't want my money going somewhere that promotes the torture of small animals (or large) Your issues may be different. There are endless things to get angry about when it comes to where some of these currency-eating—less-than-truth-telling- suited-and-pantyhosed beasts are putting our money.

              There's a better than fair chance your pension fund people are contributing to the gas prices you're blaming Bush for. Better check. You won't get that much money from it – certainly not enough to cover what you're paying at the pump and everywhere else. (airline tickets….everything)

              Now remember, a key point is the number in front of the percentage sign. That's what amount of real money speculators will have to pony up in order to put a "hold" on these huge amounts of oil that they've been freezing up.  Experts have recommended from about 25 to 50. Well, the experts on our side anyway.

               Did'ja realize that there are those in the Senate that are pushing to keep the percentage at about 5-7. Uh-huh. To heck with us. Grrr…How many are stealing food from their golden goose, the American public…hm?

              Smart CEO's know that having the morals of a rabid coyote is never a good long-range plan.

                In a perfect world, or at least one where Congress cared if they got reelected, they would reinstill the old protections. (We've got to put more restrictions on where an ex-politician can go after they're tossed out. Hm?)

Let's see what they do. Sssshhh….you don't want them to know we're watching.

Power to the People,

The Political Stray

7/23/2008

            Well, I had my doubts, but our Senate even dumbfounded me.

            To make a long story short, with the bill - they barely touched on the oil speculation problem. To add insult to injury, they declared it a "procedural hurdle". The anemic bill is being attacked by Republicans anyway. They aren't going to let it pass until they get something out of it, i.e., more drilling. So, they'll have to vote again.

              The vote was unanimous, but it really didn't matter a whole lot by the time they were done with it.

            I've really never seen a less responsive Congress. Not only do they ignore our opinions, they constantly act against our best interest. How long has the mortgage help for real people been tied up? Now this? Just looking through some of the things they've ignored or fought over makes your (my) head spin.

            Now they're preparing to go on holiday? Again? This is all a dream right?

(shaking head)

            Well, that's not going to help you, is it?

            Okay. Here are the names of some of the folks that keep hammering at getting more drilling permissions. I mean, come ON. They are preventing others from fixing a problem that never should have been.

Big Oil Folks – Are any of them yours?

  New August 2, 2008

   Congressman Adam Putnam - Florida 

   Congressman John Peterson - Pennsylvania

   Congressman Neil Ambercrombie - Hawaii

    Two of these guys were promoting a new "American Energy Bill" on Lou Dobbs. The bill is pretty obnoxious - but you check it yourself. I tell you how at the top of this page.

              I'll add to this as I see them. These seem to be the loudest. There will be more, I assure you.

              I'll be back with some of the real expert's opinions on all of this. It's serious. It's been serious for a long time. These oil speculators increased oil prices more than China did. China!

              When (If) they debate this again, let's take more names…the lies being thrown at the public are atrocious.

              Even oil men are starting to come out on this…financial people…they're shouting for us to listen. Lets. We have to do something.

              By the way, we have some rock hard steps for congress to take written by those pros on the link page for gas prices. I'll put those up too so you know what to watch for.

More to Come...

Still a little shell shocked at the indifference…

The Political Stray

How Much?!

Sorting out the nonsense about the higher numbers on our gas pumps. Together.

          There are bills in congress that could help gas prices without letting oil moguls snark up any more of the America we are trying to keep beautiful. No. I'm not a tree-hugger exactly, I just don't want all of America paved.

          And in my limited opinion, I'd say if they're wanting to tear up the Rocky Mountains in Colorado to dig out "shale oil", they ought not hold their obscenely greedy little breaths. (shaking head in amazement)

          As for the rest of it, if the oil companies want to look for more oil and they don't want to do it on the land they have already leased, (there's a lot of it) they need to start by telling us why. Honestly.

            It may shock them to find out us real Americans are quietly listening. They are used to that noisy carping that the media tries to pass off as us.

            Pull in your claws and put away your shotgun granny. These oil company people may not be as guilty as you think. There are no saints there, but it may not be a demon den either.

            Here's the gig. In the "market" – you know, those "Dow Jones Hysterics"…There are regular old stocks and you know how those work. If not, find out from one of the pages that explain. Not here. We don't need to reinvent the wheel, we got bid'ness to do.

          Now, in addition to those stocks, there is something called "commodities". That covers the real hands-on important stuff we all need to survive, like wheat, rice, dairy and etc. You can't invest in commodities like  you do regular stocks because you artificially elevate prices (with little actual investment) This is common knowledge in the world of finance and steps were taken to prevent it years ago.

            In the last few years, someone messed about and undid those. (Leave it to the money people)…sigh… (update pending on this-got some names for you all)

          Now it's a damn free-for-all in which every idiot with a few extra bucks, including those idiots holding your pension money can invest. There's even a loophole that allows foreign investors to ANONYMOUSLY skirt regulatory rules.

          Now if that doesn't toast your biscuits, you'd better check your pulse.

            This over simplification is explained more fully here. I like the pdf file that has the testimony by Michael W. Masters that includes the info he tried to get through the bony thicknesses of our collective Congressional heads. Check it out. 

            (Don't whine. It takes a little work to be one of the "Super Voter's" that restores America to her finer self.)

            A good portion of our politicians appear to be listening to this fine man while plugging their ears with their fingers, humming and singing, "I can't hear you."

          Just think, it may be someone you voted for that's contributing to our gas price problem. Hard to believe, huh? (snort) Those that voted against this in the House are posted in "Politician Watch". The jury is still out on our Senate. I'm sure they'll let us know. (snort again)

          Part of the problem could even be an agency that you and me and every other American is paying to see that we don’t get scr….er…taken advantage of by investors that only care about a select segment of people rather than all of us.

             No..no..it's not the FDA for a change. (chuckle)  This one is called CFTC. That stands for "Commodity Futures Trading Commission".

Close enough. Let's get 'em all!

Just kidding. Forge ahead.

            The House*  bill "Energy Markets Emergency Act of 2008" passed -- but look at what the Senate**  is doing with it:

*(that's where we store our "Congressmen/Congresswomen")

**(that's where Senators are kept)

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.03205:

S.3205
Title: A bill to direct the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to utilize all its authority, including its emergency powers, to curb immediately the role of excessive speculation in any contract market within the jurisdiction and control of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, on or through which energy futures or swaps are traded, and to eliminate excessive speculation, price distortion, sudden or unreasonable fluctuations or unwarranted changes in prices, or other unlawful activity that is causing major market disturbances that prevent the market from accurately reflecting the forces of supply and demand for energy commodities.
Sponsor: Sen Cantwell, Maria [WA] (introduced 6/26/2008)      Cosponsors (None)
Latest Major Action: 6/26/2008 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
END

Oh oh.

          Sometimes bills make it out of committee, but more often they don't. In the interest of "Ah Ha!" let's give them a wee bit o' time to send it out. If they don't, well, we'll need to contact the committee members to find out why. We'll also need to contact our Senators too, I believe.

          It's ten o'clock. Do you know what your Senator(s) are doing and why?

            We also have to ask ourselves why an agency such as the CFTC, created to do what this bill is asking them to – needs this bill. (update pending here too)

            Now, if we had a media that was into being a tool for the public interest, this would be what they'd be screaming instead of insisting upon telling us what color some young rock singer's panties are or what we think of the war…or which candidate we like.

             On suggested solutions, often given by people we might rather see behind bars--- at the top of the "scream it loud" list is drilling for more oil here in the U.S. We're not against drilling for oil here, we just don't want it to create slices of American wasteland.

             People that know of such things say that the quantity of oil we know about is hardly a drop in the bucket. If that's so, then how much are we willing to sacrifice for it?

              Just so you know, the oil companies have already leased a massive amount of land and are in the process of exploring it. Already, they cannot keep up with what they have.

         Allow us to be the cynic here. Are these pro-drilling people trying to get us to believe that once the oil companies DO get more oil from American lands, that they will give Americans a price break? Why do I feel like this is about as likely as peace in the middle east before the next election?

           As I recall, I saw a bill that required the oil companies to keep the oil they find in America and it was actually fought against!

           That's a lot like the "lenders" and credit card companies that are screaming about the fixes our congress are working on. Talk about audacity! It's like someone robbing you and then getting mad when you want your money back!

        Somehow, it's sounds to me as though those that invest in oil and the oil companies are trying to gain more yardage while Americans are in a lather about it all.

         Like I said, cynical.

          Have our oil companies made good use of their tax breaks and subsidies? What have they come up with as far as new ideas for energy?  If you know, please point us in that direction.

          Have we put the fox in charge of the henhouse? Well, duh. Do you try and imagine an oil company CEO sitting back in his fancy leather chair and thinking:

            "Let me see…what can I come up with that will seriously damage this business empire?"

          How reasonable is this?

           Have we asked science for help here? If we have, what kind of restrictions have we put on their solutions? That's what the unprovable scuttlebutt is--That we tie their hands.

          Why DON'T America's scientists seem to be more involved here? We may not be able to compete money-wise with private corporations for these hyper-intellectuals but serving the interests of the American people has a rather heroic quality to it that no amount of money could buy. Heroism is currently severely underrated. Something to think about for those that feel their soul is like a pebble rattling around in their chest.

Sincerely,

The Political Stray

More to come…

Here's Another Good Link for You "in-depth" folks:

http://www.consumerfed.org/pdfs/2008gasolineprices.pdf

The Political Stray's question of the day:

         Why aren't more big bucks folks getting mad about all of this oil price shuckin-and-jiving? The trickle down effects have got to be flooding them too.

          Or are they?