 willhelm says: Fact #4. The OPEC nations, those in the Middle East and including Venezuela, control 77% of the world’s known oil reserves. Like Russia and Mexico, where the oil industry is controlled by the state, it is generally poorly managed. Several Big Oil companies that were induced to undertake exploration and development in Russia and Venezuela actually had their assets nationalized or stolen at prices well below their investment and value. Fact #5. Energy is the master resource. All nations with any hope of growing their economies require it, mostly in the form of electricity, but also for oil’s role in transportation. The failure to have a national long-range energy policy that is based in reality can severely impact energy prices. Fact #6. The United States has, for years, pursued an energy policy based on environmental myths such as “biofuels” in which corn is turned into ethanol to reduce the import of oil, but it costs as much to produce ethanol as to refine oil and it provides less mileage per gallon, thus negating any reason for this additive. Likewise, suggesting that wind or solar energy can generate anything more than its current 1% of the nation’s electricity needs ignores their unreliability and the fact that they are heavily subsidized, a form of hidden consumer tax. Fact #7. It costs billions to explore, discover, extract and transport oil. It takes lots of lead-time as well. The United States Congress has... Fact #10. Democrats continue to demand that Big Oil’s profits be confiscated in some fashion and some of the inducements offered to explore for more oil be ended. Because the costs of exploration, extraction, refining, and transporting of oil represents billions of dollars, the actual profit margin of a company like ExxonMobil is about 10%, well below what industries such as pharmaceuticals and banking enjoy. For these and many other reasons, Americans are being impoverished at the gas pump because Congress has dithered and failed in one of its most important responsibilities. A vindictive person could criticize our choice of oil as an essential energy source, whilst ignoring the bleeding obvious. Democrats continue to demand that Big Oil’s profits be confiscated in some fashionIt's not just the Democrats. This is a Q & A with McCain: Q: Do you have a problem with Big Oil companies making these huge profits? A: Sure, I think we all do. And they ought to be reinvesting it. And one of the areas that they ought to be involved in is nuclear power. Nuclear power is safe, nuclear power is green--& does not emit greenhouse gases. Nuclear power is used on Navy ships which have sailed around the world for 60 years without an accident. And of course we ought to be investing in alternate energy sources. http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/John_McCain_Energy_+_Oil.htm Good find, sahara. Another reason I have no horse in this race this year. great clip, willhelm! BTW, I can't begin to express how disgusting Chuck Schumer's remarks were about how exploration and development would take twenty years to come online and save $.01 at the pump. What a retard! The countries you list as controlling the ownership of the vast majority of the world's oil nearly all have internal political instability or are controlled by dictators or non-democratic governments. However the most serious immediate problem for western type economies is the speculation. |
View the Top Clips from May 2, 2008
Embed This Clip In Your Site...
|
|
|
|
