Energy Independence
OPEC Plans Million Barrel A Day Cut To Increase Prices.
OPEC would cut crude oil production by at least one million barrels per day. It has moved up its “emergency meeting to October 24, 2008 from November 23rd.
Most think such a move by the cartel could send oil prices up $10 a barrel almost immediately and then more while importing country citizens continue to suffer.
“I think it is absolutely scandalous that OPEC is thinking of meeting in the next few days to cut oil production so they can push up the price of oil again and we will certainly try and prevent this happening,” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Oct. 17.
OPEC, of which Venezuela is a particularly greedy member, is suddenly having problems feeding its royals lavish lifestyle while paying off citizenry to keep them in line. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has budgeted for $90 a barrel oil a non-Opec member Russia pegged it at $100 a barrel. The defecation is hitting the impeller behind the scenes at OPEC.
Pakistan Teams With China For Nuclear Power
Pakistan, China, France and others call American environmental constraints on nuclear power “laughable” and simply foolish.
Pakistan has an “energy security plan” envisaging an increase in nuclear power generation from the current 425 megawatts to 8,800 megawatts by 2030 to meet its growing energy demands. It has contracted with China to build it two more nuclear plants. China is one of Islamabad’s closest allies as well as its largest arms supplier.
Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program has been under the spotlight since a 2004 confession by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of its nuclear program, that he sold atomic secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Khan was pardoned by then president Pervez Musharraf in 2004 but has been kept at his Islamabad villa ever since, guarded by troops and intelligence agents. Pakistan has rejected international demands for access to Khan.
Pakistan, China, France and others call American environmental constraints on nuclear power “laughable” and simply foolish.
Foolish as the USA “starves” itself for future power to satisfy irrational zealots.
Hypocrisy of Being Green
I just read a fascinating article by Alice Thompson of the Times Online who was discussing a new book “Not In My Name - A Compendium of Modern Hypocrisy” by Julie Burchill:
The premise is that as the economy gets worse, people no longer care about being green because they can’t afford it any more. It makes perfect sense. When you were making a good salary and had enough to satisfy your basic needs then you had the extra to buy the higher priced green items. But today, when money is tight, buying green is a luxury available only to the upperclass or “toffs”.
Perhaps because most people can’t afford to go green, there is a growing trend to mock the rich who are green. There is a collective sarcastic laugh by the masses when Al Gore and his ilk continue to lecture everyone else. In a bad economy that “Truth” of Gore’s is not simply “Inconvenient” but is now ridiculous. Who is going to pay extra for green
foods when they have barely enough to put any food on the table? Not only are people backing away from the expensive green ideology but they are also laughing at far left greenies and monitoring their hypocrisies. The conservative bloggers and other right wings take delight in finding and counting the hypocrisy of Gore and other greenies who preach that we must be green while they fly around in their private gas guzzling jets.
Although Gore and his Hollywood sycophants still tout the green doctrine, the politicians are observing which way the wind is blowing and are now changing their tune.
Maybe that’s another reason Gore is such a lousy politician, but even Obama has given fewer and fewer green speeches. Because as long as the economy is lousy, only Kermit can afford to be green.
AMERICANS SUFFER WHILE CONGRESS AND CANDIDATES ARGUE
ALARMING PERFECT STORM SLAMS STOCK MARKET
Upon news of a “perfect” storm the DOW collapsed today dragged backward by record per barrel oil, threats of corporate tax increases and windfall profit taxes, new taxes on investors, opposition to increasing domestic oil production and $7 per gallon fuel costs that impact companies from General Motors to Blackberry and predicted declining sales and earnings. Countrywide announced it is cutting 7,500 jobs.
The GOP introduced a bill in Congress to increase domestic oil production including offshore drilling and dropping the oil shale moratorium, adding incentives for alternative fuel vehicles, restrain speculators and keep away from ANWR.
Barack Obama spoke platitudes about “setting goals for energy” as the stock market collapsed he said the Federal Reserve needs from Congress, and called for a second stimulus package. He said the problem now is much more serious than in the early 1990s. He said ending the Iraqi War would help the domestic economy. He had no concrete suggestions. Clearly Obama is banking on a basket of untested and as yet undeveloped techniques to replace oil based fuels but nothing to change anything for 10 years. As he spoke oil touched $140 a barrel and the DOW averages dropped 358 points.
FIVE DOLLAR GASOLINE TOPS ENVIRONMENTAL HYSTERICS
Gas Prices Become Top Issue
Forty-four percent (44%) of Democrats think Clinton should be named as Obama’s Vice Presidential running mate. That’s down from 51% immediately after Obama clinched the nomination. Just 24% of unaffiliated voters think Clinton should be on the ticket while 52% disagree. Just 37% of all voters nationwide think that Hillary Clinton wants Barack Obama to win the White House this November. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 33% disagree and say that Clinton does not want an Obama victory. Thirty percent (30%) are not sure.
Sixty-five percent (65%) of voters want the feds government to get “actively involved in efforts to reduce the price of gas and oil.” The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey also found that 58% believe the most effective way is to provide financial incentives that will encourage private companies to find solutions. Just half as many (30%) believe that it would be more effective for the government to conduct its own research for developing alternative energy sources.
By a 70% to 20% margin, Republicans believe that providing incentives to private companies is the most effective approach. Democrats are more divided on the question, but 50% of those agree with the Republicans while 38% disagree and believe that government conducted research would be more effective. Unaffiliated voters, by a 54% to 30% margin, also agree that providing incentives for private companies is the way to go.
McCain’s call for a $5,000 tax credit for those who buy zero-carbon emission cars is favored by 44% and opposed by 39Only 31% of Republicans support this approach while 54% are opposed. Democrats favor the concept by a two-to-one margin. A narrow plurality of unaffiliated voters are also supportive.
McCain’s proposed $300 million prize to whoever can develop an automobile battery that would leapfrog existing technology and reduce dependence on foreign oil is favored by 51% and opposed by 33%. Including 50% of Republicans, 48% of Democrats, and 58% of those not affiliated with either major party who support it.
When survey participants were asked about these proposals, John McCain’s name was not mentioned and they were not identified with any candidate or political party. When his name is attached Democrats say they are opposed; Republicans and unaffiliated voter opinon doesn’t change.
Barack Obama has called for increased regulation of energy traders and speculators. That approach is supported by 47% of voters and opposed by 21%. Just 39% of Republicans like the idea along with 51% of Democrats and 52% of unaffiliated voters. As with the McCain proposals, Obama’s name was not mentioned in the question about regulating traders and speculators.
An earlier survey found that 62% favor drilling for offshore oil, 56% favor spending $150 billion to develop renewable green energy resources, and 51% agree with McCain on the need for more nuclear plants. Another survey found that just 47% oppose nationalizing the oil companies and only 52% believe oil companies should be allowed to keep profits from the development of alternative energy sources. Both Californians and Floridians favor offshore drilling.
Since gas prices have topped $4 a gallon, energy topics have become a central issue for Election 2008. McCain and Obama remain in a virtual dead heat with Obama ahead in likely Electoral College votes.
California Hypocritically Talks New Oil Tax to Stop Legislators Salary Cuts.
In what has to be the most politically tone deaf hypocritical proposals yet California’s liberal Assembly want to add billion in new taxes on oil produced in the state. In November 2006 Californians voted down a so-called oil severance tax that would have added “$4 billion in new taxes on oil produced in the state with the stated goal to reduce petroleum consumption by 25%, with research and production incentives for alternative energy, alternative energy vehicles, and it was voted down 55-45%.
Now with a gallon of gasoline at $4.50 and headed higher the idea is being advance again by Assembly Democrats as a way to balance the budget while still spouting platitudes about energy independence, alternative energy, and the like but, it has nothing to do with anything other than filling the already engorged California coffers.
The new proposal is aimed mostly at preventing legislators from having their $130,000 annual salaries (the highest in the nation) cut. In an act of astonishing hypocrisy they are whining about being unable to pay for gasoline to drive to and fro from the state Capitol in Sacramento.
Governor Schwarzenegger jets around commuting almost daily to LA in a private plane so big his wife’s brother is trying to block it from landing at Santa Monica Airport fearing a catastophe. Arnold says he buys carbon credits for his gas gulper plane and Hummer - but that simply adds to his hypocrisy.
Richard Silverstein says “Do I hear the word “hypocrisy”?”
The intriguing and detailed story in the Guardian about Israel violating it’s own boycott by buying oil exported by Iran for as far back as before the Shah fell, illustrates a couple of phenomena whose effect is bigger than any country, meaning they cannot help but participate in such practices.
One, the details behind the production of goods and their ultimate consumption have always been complicated. Today’s vast and increasing trade in goods and services that are contracted for and shipped around the world is facilitated sometimes on a one to one basis directly between a buyer and seller and also sometimes anonymously through private and public middlemen including transactions on what are called secondary markets.
Two, it is not surprising to me that the Israelis might be purchasing Iranian oil in some mechanism because a lot of it is exported and because it is of the high quality they want. That is self interest and most countries, corporations and other fictitious organizations wrongly emboldened by the 14th amendment and most importantly all “real person” individuals except me are guilty of the ubiquitous Hypocrisy of Self Interest. I say most importantly, because countries and corporations contain all the failings of us individuals.
I am excepted because I have sworn off any and all hypocritical behavior.
“Suicidal Oil Avoidance Policy” is Pure Pandering Hypocrisy
It was suggested elsewhere on hypocrisy.com that partisan environmentalists are responsible for a suicidal oil avoidance policy. That sounds like the paid comments of the oil lobby. Maybe even a lobbyist for Bush or McCain who are dependent on big corporate money to sustain their failed policies on all fronts.
Big Oil is deeply rooted in the Republican Party and it is an unholy alliance just like the drug companies and other abusers of the public trust. As long as they hold sway, we will never find alternatives to the earth destroying use of petro based energy and manufacturing.
If the Bush Administration had not delegated all of it’s energy policy discussions early in their eight years to the secretive Cheney Corporation which held fact finding and policy guiding meetings with only one side of the equation present, the current price of gas at the pump would be a lot lower than it is today.
Bush, Cheney and he other neo cons have not only missed the boat in foreign policy, energy policy, health care, national security and education, they have set us back decades when the rest of the world is advancing.
Jerry Ford once said something like our national nightmare is over. I am not prepared to say that until Barack Obama is installed in office in January 2009.
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
I’ll beg your pardon, right off the bat, as today’s Ten Post Round-Up will probably get a bit personal:
1: “Live Veterans cost money that might better go to the war profiteers. Dead ones cost nothing”….
2: …”if 81% believe we are in a recession, then rest assured 81% will ACT like we are in a recession”…
3: Young voters not pickin’ up what the GOP is puttin’ down?…
4: We might have brought “democracy” to Iraq, but the women of Iraq are still waiting…
5: A little sumthin’-sumthin’ to add to my to-do list in 18 days…
Greenpeace Founder Quits, Calls “Pop Environmentists” Obstacle
Patrick Moore, Greenpeace co-founder, has become a harsh critique abruptly leaving it after leading the group from 18-years because of what he calls “pop-environmentalism.” Specifically he cites fellow directors who without any formal science training labeled nuclear energy “evil” while going on to chemicals and biology and genetics. He calls it “pop-environmentalism” that uses misinformation, fear and sensationalism to deal with people on the emotional level rather than intellectual level.
Moore favors nuclear power because of its low cost ($1.68 per kilowatt hour) and reliability. Moore says natural gas cost three times as much (and where most of the electrical cost increases have come from); wind cost five times as much and solar ten times as much. Moore calls solar power completely ridiculous.
Mooreexplains nuclear waste recycling reduced it by 90% makinh it disposal manageable. He wonders how many Americans know half of the U. S. nuclear energy comes from dismantled Russian nuclear war heads? He speaks of a nuclear renaissance to replace coals fired power plants, and debunking the misbegotten idea nuclear reactors produce weapons which they do not. Moore labels the environmental movement an “obstacle.”
Excerpted and edited from NEWSWEEK, April 21, 2008, page 42.
Coal Rush Sends Prices To New Records While U. S. Dithers.
China and even Persian Gulf countries are building coal fired power plants. China is demanding more coking coal for steel making in addition to thermal coal for power generation. For the first time last year China imported more coal than it exported.
This could be good news for the U. S. with 27% of the world’s coal reserves. But, the coal industry is more of a perceived pariah that oil producers.
Although others are going full tilt into coal and U. S. is roping off much of its deposits from export or use in domestic power production. Coking coal is virtually ignored in the U. S. since its steel industry has almost disappeared since World War II.
OPEC cites the unwillingness to use its own oil and coal reserves when refusing to raise production. Humans have used ONE TRILLION BARRELS of petroleum of TWELVE BILLION known to exist. Coal, tar sands, a oil shale reserves exceed all liquid reserves, and much of those reserves are in North America but it too is roped off by regulations and government policies.
Blame Yourself For High Gasoline Prices
U.S.average retail gasoline prices have reached a new high, and are expected to rise 20 to 30 cents per gallon this summer says MoneyNews.com. According to the nationwide Lundberg survey of about 7,000 gas stations the price has risen 64 cents per gallon in the past 12 months as refiners are more willing to pass along rising crude oil prices. OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) is unwilling to increase production saying the U. S. can not refine more crude because no new refineries have been built in 30-years due to environmental zealots and their Congressional allies who have also bottled up new oil production thereby creating the price problem – so, they say, why should we help when you are helping yourself? So, apparently the “pain-at-the-pump” is not yet enough to provoke protest and revolt although gasoline use declined nationwide in January for the first time ever.
Obama Phenomena
It seems as if Obama is being carried by a tidal wave of adoration and gaining a momentum that Hillary might not be able to stop. There are reports of growing crowds wherever he goes as he mesmerizes all demographic groups: old, young, black, white, rural, suburb. I have even read of women fainting during his speeches as if he is the new Elvis or Beatle or Sinatra (pick your idol based on your generation). And yet….
Anyone who follows Obama and listens to him will agree that as wonderful as his speeches are they still don’t contain any substance. To learn more about him, I checked his website; http://www.barrackobama.com/. To my surprise
Climate Change I and Energy Security I
I believe mankind should immediately and seriously embark on a goal, to be driven by technology, not market based trading schemes as they have unintended consequences, to reduce worldwide use of and dependence of most of the world on so many carbon based energy sources. This should be done without political hysteria (ha) or business resistance (ha), in order to bring change to the oil based tensions in the world, to stimulate intellectual processes and learning, to create new economic businesses to create jobs and as an important byproduct to reduce our contribution of green house gases into the atmosphere, whether or not our use is determinative to short term climate change. Still an open question in science.
Most importantly for the US, national security is on the line and our unnecessary budget deficits are ballooned by our attempts to keep oil flowing to the entire world, not just to the US.
DRIVING DOWN IN CRUISIN’ CALIFORNIA.
In the 1950s CALIFORNIA INVENTED CRUISING and DRAG RACING and launched America’s love affair with cars.
“Golden Staters” tallied a record 33 million registered vehicles in 2007, but new data show drivers bought less gas than in any year since 2003. The rising cost of gasoline has Californians and others elsewhere cutting back and consolidated car trips and trading in gas guzzlers for more fuel economic models. America is on the cusp of significantly reducing oil use and that could drive prices down – some project this could mean an average 50 cent per gallon price cut this fall but will likely follow a sharp summer increase – primarily thanks to environmental reblending; that many are saying does more harm than good anyway.
Iran Unrest Requires Monitors, Most Recent NIE Wrong?
Iran is worried over rising political and ethnic unrest. Of course senior officials accuse the United States of helping foment protests by labor unions and students. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has recruited 12.5 million people to “monitor” the behavior and opinions of other Iranians. Not since the darkest days of Stalinism and Maoism has any regime mobilized so many citizens against fellow citizens; neighbor against neighbor, children against parents. Accused are watched; usually interrogated; often threatened, sometimes roughed up, and often arrested and imprisoned or worse. Some are reported to have disappeared.
Exxon Mobil makes record profit, gets huge tax break and still cries poor me?
As Exxon reveals the largest profit in it’s company’s history, no wait IN ANY company’s history, ever, in the whole world, it calls poor mouth and has it’s public relations machine in full swing telling us why? Why, we should not be MAD at them for having all this money as we struggle to pay our bills and fill our cars with over priced gas.
First of all, oil is getting hard to find. They have to dig in deeper and deeper to find this ever more expensive oil. They need to dig in more sensitive areas of the planet. Which costs more, why?
Cancel Carbon Emissions
FutureGen lost the support of the Bush administration last week because the estimated price tag had doubled to 1.8 Billion. FutureGen is the Energy Department effort with a dozen or so private utility companies from around the the world to develop a prototype plant to burn “clean coal.” Since all non government contributions were set at 400 Million all of the increase would be born directly by the government.
A Year of Change, World Economic Growth will Dominate Davos
Keep up on the news at a number of important sites such as Taipei Times
For the English point of view try Ft.com.
For additional background check Wikipedia Here.
How could Davos 2008 get along without YouTube?