Posted on 05/23/2008 12:38:17 PM PDT by markomalley
Have you seen the television spots produced by oil companies? If so, you might be under the impression they were in the business of selling sunflowers and good vibes rather than energy.
In general, oil executives have done a horrid job of defending their industry, opening themselves up to fact-deprived populist attacks that ignore the complexities of the energy mess.
This week's sham of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing saw Big Oil executives from ExxonMobil, Chevron and three other companies take the stand. With quivering voices, they explained basic economic principles to Senate demagogues who, incidentally, bear far more responsibility for high prices than the execs themselves.
The lead demagogue, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, leveled numerous preposterous charges. He claimed that there was a "disconnect" between supply and demand and the gasoline prices that consumers are wrestling with at the pump.
Leahy, one hopes, knows that oil companies have little to do with the price of oil per barrel. He knows full well that they can't control OPEC production or Hugo Chavez or the dramatic increase in oil demand by China, India and other developing nations. So in this case, the only "disconnect" is between facts and Sen. Leahy.
Most of the senators moaned about "profits" — a topic that has nothing to do with the fundamental problems we face. And though $40 billion in profit sounds massive to us, in the context of the entire fossil fuel industry, it's far less magnificent.
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter asked "why profits have gone up so high when the consumer is suffering so much." Good question. Perhaps Specter can also ask why government seizes more in profit per gallon of gas than the wicked oil companies. Then, he might want to discuss why Congress continues to obstruct the search for more energy and the import of smart energy.
Start with ethanol (the good kind): The massive farm bill — supported by every senator on the Judiciary Committee — continues the policy of applying high tariffs on Brazilian sugar-based ethanol to protect American companies. Instead of opening this market, Congress is continuing mandates and subsidies for corn-based ethanol (the bad kind). That's a price consumers pay whether they want to or not.
Talk about nuclear energy: The cleanest viable large-scale energy source available to us already provides around 20 percent of our electricity. Congress has done little to promote more use. Leahy's state of Vermont enjoys this clean and relatively cheap energy. Why not the rest of us?
Talk about exploration: Any mention of drilling in the tundra of Alaska incites apoplectic reactions. Yet a sliver of land in Alaska's 19.6 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could yield 10 billion barrels of oil. It wouldn't dramatically affect prices in the short term, but the long-term benefits are clear and numerous.
Talk about refineries: Can we get a new one? Please? It's been 35 years.
So what has Congress come up with instead? It creates unrealistic expectations about renewable energies (and some have great futures) and advocates for punitive "windfall profit" taxes to diverge more money from private industry to centralized government.
How any of this helps consumers or alleviates foreign energy reliance is a mystery.
"Stop ripping off the American people. Ride your bike to work, everybody," yelled a protester from the far-left group Code Pink at oil executives. (She, undoubtedly, had just pedaled her 10-speed to Washington from Fantasia.)
Riding bikes out of necessity — as folks in Third World countries do — is exactly what we can look forward to if energy policy continues to appease the Code Pink crowd rather than help the American people.
CNBC put up a poll asking who was to blame for the current oil situation. I voted on the website and because i could only choose one, my top choice was congress. I would have chosen congress, consumers (too many gas guzzlers on the road) and speculators. As of last check, poll shows that 34% blame congress.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/24775533
More specifically, blame old hippies.
And pray they are out of our national picture sooner rather than later.
On CNBC this morning, the hosts were shocked that in their “Who’s to blame for high oil prices?” poll, Congress came in as #1 with 30%, while oil companies came in the lowest with 4%. They just didn’t figure that the US consumer blames the good-for-nothing Congress for putting our oil production on hold for the past 30 years with regulations forbidding drilling in ANWAR, on federal lands and off the continental shelf.
Yes, hopefully the voters will hold every politician who voted for these bans accountable for the $4/gal. gas prices they will be paying this Memorial Day and through the rest of this year.
Don’t sweat it. Shooting down increased drilling? For shame. Congress has gone too far this time, and We The People will respond by rising up and re-electing all of them again (and again, and again...).
Not entirely clueless, these oil companies. I’ve been in Texas most of the winter, and I repeatedly heard a radio spot that went:
“Ever wonder who owns the big oil companies?”
“Chances are, it’s YOU”.
They then go on to point out that most mutual funds and 401Ks include oil company stocks, and that a LOT of middle-class and even not-so-middle-class people have 401Ks and/or mutual fund investments.
It was well done, not sensational, and ought to be expanded to the entire country!
BTW I liked the way the oil company execs testified to Congress this time. They are beginning to show some backbone.
It'd be good to blame republicans for not educatin ghte public that they and the 'rats are to blame.
Where's John Boner when his country needs him?
“More specifically, blame old hippies.
And pray they are out of our national picture sooner rather than later.”
Here! Here!!
I didn’t catch the hosts surprise this morning, but i don’t tune in until after 7 am west coast time. My husband laughed when he saw the poll, but as I pointed out, the cnbc viewers are more in tune to how the economy works and probably more aware as to who is responsible for not allowing more drilling in this country than the average joe out there.
“In general, oil executives have done a horrid job of defending their industry”
I’m not sure they’d ever be able to do a good job, really. The American people are, by and large, ignorant of how economics work.
Dems thought they’d get a replay of the tobacco company hearings where they won brownies for beating up on the CEO’s of an indefensible product. These oil guys fired back pretty good and the hearings made them look bad.
The best was Maxine Waters. =) Nationalize oil. Glad she said it.
Current Results
Who is to blame for America’s oil crisis? * 9011 responses
OPEC 4.5%
President Bush 16%
Congress 35%
Speculators/Investors 26%
Big Oil 3.8%
Consumers 15%
Not a Scientific Survey. Results may not total 100% due to rounding.
No incumbants
No incumbants
who’s poll is that?
Voted Congress as the main reason for the “oil crisis...”
Not sure it is really a crisis. The market is reacting to a confluence of situations that brought on by deliberate decisions. The decision not to drill domestically is huge. Of larger concern is the lack of new refinery and nuclear power production capacity (30 years or so).
All of the above brought to us by the efforts of NIMBY, left-leaning, fire-hating, chicken little eco-dweeb congresscritters.
Thanks to nobel laureate al “the sky is falling” bore, the industry of green will most likely wreck any hope this country has of recovering from shortsighted congresscritters....all in the name of saving a planet not in need of saving.....
ruefully
I love my gas guzzler! It fits, carries everything I need it to, gets me from where I am to where I want to be (perfect mass transit), and does all this in at a high level of comparative comfort and safety.
Speculators/Investors are basing their figures on how much oil is available which makes it a congressional issue. So both answers are nearly the same. But for most it does appear to take the heat off of the real problem.
bttt
Someone got the message, many congressional opponents to drilling from Alaska have changed their mind.
Actually, the word she used was "socialize", before she caught herself. And she called herself a "liberal" twice.
For those 16% who think Bush caused this situation, please explain your thinking.
“Actually, the word she used was “socialize”, before she caught herself. And she called herself a “liberal” twice.”
She was either searching for the term “nationalize” or didn’t want to use it. The oil CEO got it....saw this movie before, Chavez.
If I were an oil exec, I'd lay the blame right at Congress's feet where it belongs. I realize the politics are such that this wouldn't happen, I'm just saying I'd love to see one of them have the stones to do it.
If Congress would get out of the way, this plundering by speculators would be met by drilling and innovations that weren’t practical at $25 a barrel. Congress has effectively stopped the one market reaction that would send speculators searching for a new bubble to burst.
Who changed their mind?
The Oil Execs could take a clue from Howard Hughes on how to handle the crooked/lying/dumbazz in Congress.
It is time for pitchforks and tar!
So...tell me how you really feel! :>)
I agree. I wish the oil executives would have told Congress to “shove it” and walk out the door. I’d absolutely love to see Maxine Waters blow a jugular when she gets snubbed by one of those CEOs.
Very true. I got to thinking however, what exempts them from the "pain at the pump" and the rising price of Granola?? I know those b*****ds have got to be infuriated too. Well now, Nancy Pelosi in '06 I think it was (remember when they took over?) said that she had a "common sense" solution to the gas prices (wasn't it less than $2.00 then??), well.........still waiting.......
(Too) slowly - but surely - the American people are catching on to the reality that many liberal policies enacted by congress and the acts of blocking drilling for accessible oil on U.S. lands is downright stupid and a direct cause of our current high gasoline prices. Blaming 'big oil' is easy and the uninformed do it on a regular basis.
I only caught a few seconds of that dog-and-pony show they laughingly called a senate hearing. The execrable, six-term Senator Patrick Lahey (D-VT) was grilling the oil company executives about their annual incomes, making each one 'admit' they were paid in the millions. This, as Senator Lefty, er, Lahey no doubt intended, would lead the uninformed to believe that oil company executives are raking in millions in compensation at the expense of average Americans now paying much more for every gallon of gas they buy. It was patently unfair to the squirming oil company executives and deliberately misleading, but this is a Marxist Democrat seeking to whitewash his counterproductive, anti-business votes and misdirect Americans attention to oil companies and their executives instead of to the real cause of much of our current high gas price: idiotic decisions by leftist congressional politicians that refuse to allow drilling for our own oil on our own land.
Some day, maybe a hundred or more years from now, historians will look back on America at this time, see those foolish politicians and their ridiculous decisions against drilling for American-based oil and marvel at our collective stupidity in allowing these pompous fools to help destroy our otherwise-thriving economy in the name of environmentalism'. Too late, then.
Somehow I doubt you'll find any of them here. But in any event the process used to arrive at their answer may be many things, but thinking wasn't among them.
HEY ATLAS!
Producers - OIL COMPANIES
Looters - Congress/Senate
We eat ‘sweet’ corn. Ethanol comes from ‘dent’ corn. While it IS edible, it’s mostly used in processed foods and corn syrup/ corn based products from corn flakes to plastics.
Food prices are rising because of speculation. Corn producers are still being paid NOT to grow as much as they can. Don’t fall for the scare tactics of nay-sayers.
Also, ethanol from cellulose is getting closer to reality every day.
My husband, Dow chemical engineer 35 years, is part of a project to make ethylene from sugar cane in Brazil!
The "movie" star?
It's funny, but my Father-in-Law was saying these exact things yesterday, and he's in his 70's, only his news from TV and the newspaper, and does not use the internet at all. He lives in a senior community. He was talking about ANWR, and the fact that we can drill sideways, and that there hasn't been a refinery buit in 35 years, and that the Democrats haven't done anything in 4 years. He seemed to have a really good grasp of the situation, and to me, he is no genius, having only finished high school, and never really having a full-time job. There really is no stopping the truth from getting out.
Given his performances to date, he needs to look into a new line of "work".
Voted in favor of Congress.
I'll probably grind it up into corn flour for winter bread,
Waters = an equal affirmative active black person. She has no bidness being a representative of anything!
I resemble that remark!
My little black dress is tie-dye.
old hippies know how to make $$$$$$
old hippies don’t mind walking
tie-dye clothes aren’t very expensive
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/05/should_us_tap_oil_from_alaskan.html
Washington - Rep. James Walsh says he will support a new proposal in Congress to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration.
Walsh, a longtime opponent of oil drilling in the Alaskan refuge, changed his position Thursday, saying the nation is in an “energy emergency,” and $4 per gallon gas in Central New York and surging world demand for oil convinced him to change his mind.
A bill in Congress would open about 2,000 acres of the 19 million-acre refuge to oil and natural gas development.
Should the US drill for oil in the Alaskan refuge? What else should be done to counter rising gas prices? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
Walsh changes stance on tapping oil from Alaskan refuge - 05/22 blog entry w/ more than 50 reader comments.
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