Free Republic

The Arctic holds as many as 90bn barrels of undiscovered oil and has as much undiscovered gas as all the reserves known to exist in Russia, US government scientists have said in the first state assessment of the region. The estimates could fuel the race among polar nations, such as Russia, the US, Denmark, Norway and Canada, vying for control of the region, though the study said Russia and the Alaska platform appeared to have the most undiscovered resources. Alaska's large estimated holdings are likely to stir the debate about opening protected areas of the state to development. The 90bn...

Liberals have done a U-turn on conservative billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens. Formerly reviled for funding the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" campaign against Sen. John Kerry, he's now adored by the Left — unfortunately, for trying to gaslight the rest of us on energy policy. This column recently spotlighted Pickens' proposed plan to get America off foreign oil by substituting wind-generated electricity for natural gas-generated electricity and then using the natural gas to replace gasoline. Already having addressed the proposal's flaws — and Pickens' plan to profit at taxpayer expense from it — let's consider how Pickens' marketing shades...

NEW YORK: The race for petroleum resources above the Arctic Circle is likely to speed up in coming years, as the polar ice cap melts and access to oil and gas reserves in many other places around the world becomes more challenging. The lure of the Arctic as oil's next big frontier was vindicated this week as a major geological survey found the region might hold as much as a fifth of the world's yet to-be-discovered oil and natural gas reserves. Many of these new resources, according to the survey, are to be found in Russia. If true, that would...

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh at lunch today, and he mentioned that Ms. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) was castigating the President for failing to release any of the "700 million barrels" of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (our emergency supply). Guess what? Nancy has been preventing the production of a lot more than 700 million barrels of our oil, and she has been doing it for years. Take a look here: http://www.mms.gov/omm/pacific/offshore/oil-gaspdfs/2000-063.pdf"Unproved reserves are estimated to be 1,316 million barrels of oil and 922 billion cubic feet of gas, in 25 fields."That's ONE BILLION, THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN...

WASHINGTON, DC –Today, United States Senator Ken Salazar declared victory for the communities of Colorado’s Western Slope. Efforts by Reps. John Salazar and Mark Udall and Senator Salazar will now ensure that language is included in the omnibus spending bill that will prohibit the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from issuing any final regulations for commercial-scale leasing of oil shale and from offering any commercial oil shale leases during fiscal year 2008. Senator Salazar was also able to work in language that specifically reiterates how important it is for the Department of Interior and BLM to cooperate more fully with...

Alaska House Approves $26.6B TransCanada Gas Pipeline Plan by Cassandra Sweet Dow Jones Newswires 7/23/2008 URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=64567 SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones Newswires), July 23, 2008 The Alaska House of Representatives approved a bill late Tuesday that would award TransCanada Corp. (TRP) an exclusive license to build a $26.6 billion natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to Alberta, Canada. The proposal, by Republican Gov. Sarah Palin, could go up for another vote by the state House on Wednesday, under what's called "reconsideration." If the bill doesn't fail in a reconsideration vote, it would proceed to the state Senate, which has...

A new gasoline tax that ensured high prices would accelerate the move toward fuel-efficient vehicles and provide enough revenue to allow a cut in corporate taxes. On the surface, the market's behavior on certain days of June and July has been so illogical that my brain simply has refused to accept it. Double-digit intraday swings in prices of stocks without any material catalyst have become routine. But last week's trading has finally explained what should have been clear for a while: Though current economic troubles may have started with lax credit and underwriting standards and the ensuing subprime-mortgage fiasco, they...

Gas taxes are for the little people not Democratic party dignitaries. The committee hosting the Democratic National Convention is using the city's gas pumps to fill up on fuel, avoiding state and federal highway taxes, officials said today. "There's something there that just doesn't seem right to me because, in a sense, you're saying then that the officials who pass the laws are not willing to live by them, and that concerns me," Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz said. ...Faatz asked if it was customary to have "fleets for dignitaries" not pay for highway taxes if they're using government fuel facilities. (Mayor...

As fuel prices rise, gas tax receipts drop, and money for roads and bridges dries up - Gas prices are soaring. That's the bad news.But as they soar, motorists drive less, and that produces some benefits: less air pollution and less congestion. That's the good news.And then there's the bad news about the good news. The federal gas tax is levied on a per-gallon basis. So the less people drive and the less gas they use, the less the federal government collects from gas taxes. So it is that recent record high gas prices have produced record low gas tax...

Possibly the first political spot in history to feature ecstatic cheers for the other guy on the soundtrack. Any ad that leverages the GOP’s advantage on drilling is a good ad, I guess, but this one does too much and too little, neglecting to hammer the Dems on that gas-tax hike they’re flirting with and seemingly blaming the global spike in oil prices squarely on, um, Barack Obama. (Maybe he is omnipotent.) Also, as a simple factual matter, it’s not true that Obama says no to independence from foreign oil: It’s that he wants independence from foreign oil exclusively through...

Good-bye summer gas tax holiday. Hello, higher gas taxes. If you are outraged that gas taxes might go up instead of coming down for the summer, we don't blame you. But the way things are going, it's a possibility that we will be paying more to Uncle Sam when we gas up. Just as the country was digesting the possibility of the 90-day hiatus on gas taxes for the summer to alleviate gas prices, lawmakers learned that a trust fund that pays for road construction and repair countrywide is actually heading in the red, and needs every dime it can...

Despite calls from the presidential campaign trail for a Memorial Day-to-Labor Day tax freeze, lawmakers quickly concluded — with a prod from the construction industry — that having $9 billion less to spend on highways could create a pre-election specter of thousands of lost jobs. Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel. Not so quiet any more, is it fellas? That's a 54% increase. That's not all. It seems they want to increase it by more than 100% by the...

Next time you step on a glob of tar on a beach in Santa Barbara County, you can thank the oil companies that it isn't a bigger glob.

WASHINGTON — The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died a quick death in Congress, losing to a view that federal excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel — far from dropping — will have to go up if they go anywhere

Link only. Gas tax holiday talk dies; Congress eyes increase instead

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some U.S. motorists sick of getting clobbered at the pump seem willing to do just about anything for free fuel, from giving up the right to name their children to stealing from day-care centers to donating blood. In Orlando, Florida, David Partin pledged to name his son after local radio hosts to win a $100 gas card as part of a contest. Partin will collect the card in December, when his son is born, if he can produce a birth certificate proving the baby is named Dixon Willoughby Partin, after the hosts. "(His wife said) this...

Get infuriated when you fill up your car? Wondering why gas is over $4.00 a gallon? Wondering why we aren't drilling for our own oil?  THREE REASONS!   There are 3 Grades of "NO" to lower gas. Regular  "NO" Plus  "NO" Supreme  "NO"

WASHINGTON: Upon entering Congress in 1987, Representative Nancy Pelosi quickly became part of the solid California front against oil drilling along much of the nation's coast. The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill and the steady push to tap the potential reserves off the state's rugged coast had galvanized Californians and made opposition to offshore drilling part of the political DNA of up-and-coming figures like Pelosi.

The Hybrid vehicle: The diet cola of saving the world. So I drive a H3. Yes, I know I’m an evil, evil man who should be shunned (and if some had their way, stoned or attacked with organically feed dogs). As the price of gas increases so do the unabashed looks of disgust and sneers. Little do most know that my H3 get’s (and yes I checked it) 17 in city/hwy driving and 20 on the highway (at 65-70 mph), but I digress, this isn’t about the maligned Hummer. Now I have absolutely no problem with people wanting to conserve...

...The bill initially failed within the house, but reports surfaced yesterday that Pelosi and Reid had been holding private meetings with moderate congressional Democrats who have refused to support the bill, in an attempt to revive the legislation. Of course, with my inquisitive mind, I decided to actually look into the bill and determine why Pelosi and Reid are pushing so hard. What I discovered, is that hidden deep inside the bill are some ...

ToughTimes, Tough Decisions (MATURE CONTENT) BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - During these tough economic times, many people are struggling to make ends meet. The city's housing market is in a slump, gas and food prices are rising, and some say it's either sink or swim. Now, some women are going to great lengths to make some extra cash right in Baton Rouge. It's a fantasy, an escape for some attempting to close off the outside world. However, for the women inside who are barely clothed and strapped into high heels, exotic dancing can be a way to survive. "All of...

...Senator Reid and House Speaker Pelosi have both stated that they will not allow drilling legislation to proceed, although they are both aware that the legislation now has enough support to pass both houses. Senator Reid yesterday acknowledged that only 80% of the Senatorial Democratic Caucus opposed lifting the moratorium. If that were the case, then that would mean that the legislation would have close to the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster. The argument of Reid, Pelosi, Obama and several other congressional leaders has shifted in the past few weeks from an attitude that we cannot drill to...

Today is our independence day and join us in our email initiative. The form below is a simple form that we have developed. Complete the form and press submit. An email will automatically be generated and sent to the direct email addresses of Senator Reid, Speaker of the House Pelosi, Senator Obama, and other members of congress who are holding up offshore drilling legislation. All with one click...

OPEC's policies spurring price hike Dailyrecord.com, NJ - Jul 5, 2008 While it is true that the United States gets most of its oil from non-Arab countries, it is in fact the Arab oil-producing nations that are driving up the price. He states that the "price of oil is dictated to a large extent by U.S. oil companies." That is not the case. OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is a cartel of 12 member nations, with all but one, Venezuela, a Middle Eastern country. A cartel is, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, a combination of independent business...

(IsraelNN.com) The Kuwaiti daily al-Siyasa reported today that Hizbullah has acquired the chemicals needed to make chemical weapons such as nerve gas or mustard gas from North Korean suppliers and is allegedly preparing to arm its Katyusha rockets with chemical warheads. The Kuwaiti paper also declared that the assistance of Syria and Iran was crucial for Hizbullah’s efforts. The reports were based on information provided to al-Siyasa by Syrian opposition figures in the United States.

snip -Saddled with payments on a gas-guzzling truck and SUV and facing escalating food and gasoline costs, the Poway couple expect they'll be left with few options to economize should gasoline prices continue their rapid ascent. For now, their $925 monthly rent is reasonable, but any increase could be financially debilitating. snip-In extreme cases, some could even face homelessness, financial counselors fear, as surging oil prices snowball into higher costs for everything from utilities to a carton of milk. Less calamitous but still worrisome is the economic fallout facing middle-income families, many of them unaccustomed to adhering to strict budgets...

Drill For OIL HERE NOW!This past Independence Day weekend I decided it's time to do something about the idiotic energy policies of our present democrat controlled congress. Instead of going out to see the fireworks and grill some hot dogs I stayed home and created a website based petition. I’m just a regular nobody who is trying to get a real grassroots movement going. I thought that besides just taking down folks name and email like other petitions, I would setup a nice comments feature so people can vent! Comments are very important and allow us a way to get...

The plan must be comprehensive and certainly will not please the extremists on either side. Senator Obama, Harry Reid, and democratic leadership who control the agenda of congress have made no attempt to put forth such a plan. Both the Bush Energy Plan and Democratic Energy plans were partisan driven pieces of legislation that provided no realistic hope for an improved energy outlook. If congress is unwilling to act immediately, then those obstructionists must be removed come November. For his part, Obama does not comprehend the...

MBTA general manager Dan Grabauskas is spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars urging suburban commuters to “Dump the Pump,” brave the heat and take the T, yet the transit boss continues to drive to work from Ipswich to Boston in the cool comfort of his T-owned SUV. Grabauskas was observed by a Herald reporter on several occasions over the past seven weeks, including yesterday, driving his agency-owned 2008 Ford Escape hybrid to his office at the state Transportation Building in Park Square - a roughly 60-mile-a-day commute round-trip. The T chief also drove his roomy, air-conditioned ride to a...

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Expecting to lose an estimated $10 billion this year because of skyrocketing fuel costs, chief executives of the country's biggest airlines Wednesday resorted to begging their customers to press Congress for tougher regulation of energy markets.

(Ft. Lauderdale)-Our strategic oil reserves are maintained for use during an impending emergency. Speaker Nancy Pelosi's call to divert resources from those reserves shows that she lacks the vision to see beyond a knee-jerk, band-aid response to today’s high oil prices that will only weaken us in the event of a real emergency. And now Congressman Ron Klein, who campaigned on a slogan that he would “lead, not follow,” has once again followed Speaker Pelosi’s ridiculous plan and signed onto this pathetic display of ineptitude. No wonder Congress’s approval rating is at 9%. Speaker Pelosi does seem to understand the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A top U.S. Democratic senator said in a newspaper interview published Wednesday that he would consider supporting opening up new areas for offshore oil and gas drilling. "I'm open to drilling and responsible production," Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin told The Wall Street Journal, adding that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could also support the move. However, Durbin said his support for opening new areas to drilling was contingent on setting requirements that oil and gas companies begin production within a specified time frame on acreage they have leased from the government. The spike in oil...

This past Independence Day I decided enough is enough and wanted my voice also to be heard. I spent all weekend creating a website and on-line petition to allow myself and others to vent our frustrations to Congress on their idiotic energy policies. I also included many helpful gas saving tips and articles to support the cause. Freepers, please help me get this petition off the ground. You can even leave a comment! This is a true grassroots attempt to have our voices heard! Drill For Oil Here!

Lawmakers returning to their districts over the July 4 recess received an earful from constituents angry about gas prices... The sour national mood doesn't appear to be hurting the majority Democrats, whose approval ratings are strong even as those of Congress remain low... Rep. Robin Hayes, a Republican...said high gas prices is all anyone wants to talk about. "People at home are seeing red..." Mr. Hayes blamed Democrats, especially Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for not doing enough to boost domestic energy production. "That is exactly what's on working people's mind. It's gas prices. It's gas prices. Last but not least, it's...

A Hertz-eye view of the global economy NOTHING is more irksome about hiring a rental car than knowing you will be ripped off if you return the car without a full tank of petrol. The rental-car firms invented over-priced gas long before the world’s oil markets discovered it. Now Hertz, the world’s leading rental-car company, is throwing customers a bone. On July 1st it ended the practice of charging a huge premium for filling the tank of a returned car. Instead, customers will pay a flat fee of $6.99, and the average market rate for petrol at the three nearest...

High natural gas costs expected to boost heating bills this winterBy THOMAS CONTENT tcontent@journalsentinel.com Posted: July 6, 2008 Consumers should expect energy price sticker shock to continue well past the summer driving season, as pain at the pump is poised to give way to furnace frustration next winter. The price of gasoline, above $4 for the past month, is on people’s minds — and it’s visible at nearly every major intersection. But another energy jolt may be coming as the price of natural gas, the primary fuel used to heat Wisconsin homes, is at historic highs for this time of...

To find the future of the auto industry, Doug Pelmear looked to the past. He says he's perfected an engine developed by his grandfather 60 years ago. An engine that gives his 1987 mustang 110 miles to the gallon. Doug Pelmear says "my grandfather had the idea back in the 40's that he can make a difference then. There was quite a need at that time also with the war going on and everything, there was quite the need then." And quite the need now. So, Pelmear, a mechanic in Napoleon, has been tweaking this engine for the past 10...

Record-high gasoline prices are causing Americans to rethink their opposition to drilling for oil and natural gas in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other federal areas... A nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center shows half of Americans now support drilling in ANWR, up from 42 percent five months ago. And a CNN poll released Thursday found 73 percent of Americans favor exploration for oil and gas off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. The public’s changing energy priorities are most evident in the growing percentage that views increased energy exploration — including mining and drilling,...

Just for purposes of curiosity: Do you plan to travel for the July 4th weekend? and why or wny not? Pesonally, i wasn't planning on it, but that's par for the course. It's been years and years since i sought to go anywhere but to the local fireworks celebration, and I think this has saved me much grief. But, if I were one to go to big amusement parks, or going to visit relatives, I still would likely not go this year, not because of panic, or being so short of funds that I could not literally buy the gas...

Senate Democrats promise to kill Alaska drilling plan Hearst Newspapers WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats vowed Thursday to block a White House plan to open 1.5 million acres of protected Arctic wilderness for oil drilling and exploration, calling it "dead on arrival" one day after it was approved by the House of Representatives. The Senate will debate the plan after Labor Day. At issue is a swath of the 19 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)

The consequences of a military attack on Iran to thwart its nuclear intentions could have a devastating economic impact. NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel warned on the July 1 “NBC Nightly News” an attack by Israel could send oil prices soaring – sending gas prices into territories never imagined.

FORT WRIGHT, Ky. — Police in northern Kentucky arrested a woman who officers say traded sex for gasoline. Police in Fort Wright set up a prostitution sting and said one of the suspects they arrested engaged in sex for a $100 gasoline card and other gifts. Angela Eversole, 34, of Fort Wright is charged with prostitution and doing business without an occupational license. She pleaded not guilty at a Tuesday arraignment. Police also arrested a man they said paid Eversole. He is 50-year-old Kenneth Nowak of Avon, Indiana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tef7je4HMdY&feature=user

Seven women pile out of a massive white Chevrolet Suburban and unload the vacuums, mops and buckets of their trade. Gasoline may cost $4 a gallon, but the Chevy's driver and business owner Leesa Baldwin has no intention of downsizing to a smaller vehicle. "I love my Suburban. I don't like paying for the gas, but it simplifies my life," said Baldwin, who bought the used 7,000-pound SUV two years ago for her cleaning business and hasn't looked back. As many Americans abandon SUVs and light trucks for more fuel-efficient vehicles, analysts and automakers alike are scrambling to gauge how...

RUSH: From the Associated Press, ladies and gentlemen: "Four-dollar gasoline has stolen a beach vacation from Julie Jacobs' family... exotic bath washes from Angela Crawford... Phil English has had to sell his beloved but fuel-guzzling red pickup. Like a plague that hits every economic class, race and age, soaring [gasoline] prices are inflicting pain throughout the US. Nine in 10 people are expecting the ballooning costs to squeeze them financially over the next half-year, says an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released" today. But here's the money quote from the story: "As a political issue in the presidential campaign, gas prices...

ExxonMobil and other oil companies have a responsibility to their employees and shareholders to make a profit and maintain corporate stability. Oil companies need profits so they can invest in finding and producing more oil. And the media don’t look at profits versus expenditures in context. Over the last 25 years, ExxonMobil, for one, has reported profits of $331 billion. It has invested $355 billion back into its business over the same time period, according to spokesman Gantt Walton. “We’ve invested more in the business than we’ve earned,” Walton said. “You can’t just take snapshots in time because it’s really...

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, whose nation is the world's number one oil exporter, called on consumer countries to get used to high prices in comments published on Tuesday. "Consumer countries have to adapt to the prices and the mechanisms of the market," the king said in an interview published by the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassah. "

Thank you for contacting me regarding high fuel prices. As someone who also finds this to be unacceptable, I appreciate hearing from you. I understand your frustration with high fuel prices, which are causing hardship on consumers in New Hampshire and nationwide. Households and businesses are seeing a growing share of their money being eaten up in fuel costs. Hearing about the real life hardships that you and many other hard-working Americans face due to escalating energy costs helps to emphasize the urgency of this problem and illustrate why we must continue to work on finding real solutions. Unfortunately, the...

Gabe Schwartzman, a tall, lanky high school senior from Montgomery County, can fill up the tank of his 1980 Volvo sedan for less than $20. And he's happy to share his secret: "I take what would be thrown away and turn it into fuel." Over the last several months, Gabe has been hunkered down in the basement of his parents' Garrett Park home, converting used fryer oil from a restaurant up the street into fuel for his car. Brewing biodiesel, once a quaint hobby for green-minded citizens and budding chemists, is becoming more mainstream. The spike in gas prices is...

Looking for a new car? Maybe you have your heart set on something fuel-efficient because of $4 gas? Or perhaps you had a good year and feel you're ready to move up to something with a touch of style, luxury or class? Get in line. Despite tough times for the auto industry in general, there are some car models--across a broad range of classes and sizes--that are so popular that auto manufacturers are selling them faster than they can build them. The range of hard-to-get vehicles is as diverse as consumer tastes and budgets in general. Case in point: As...