Oil at $300

[Master Shake]

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27329

A good explanation, with policy recommendations, of our "energy crisis."

Money Shot.

So what is the solution? What’s right for America is wrong for the limousine liberals. It’s simple, really. Unleash the supply-side forces of economics.

Open up domestic oil drilling immediately. Turn back on the older wells now capped off. Fast-track new safe nuclear power plants. Stop creating global food shortages by killing off corn-based Ethanol production. Waive the punitive duty on cheap Brazilian sugar cane ethanol. Plant lots of domestic switchgrass for cleaner & cheaper ethanol manufacture. Begin a crash construction program of 50 new advanced nuclear power plants nationwide. Stop burning up natural gas to generate electricity. Build new clean coal-burning electric power plants nationwide (China is turning one per week for the next 5 years), and construct coal-to-oil conversion plants. The Germans were doing this in WWII. Alternative-energy sources like cheap 4th-generation solar panels will ramp up as their prices continue to fall.

In other words, return to the old policy of cheap domestic energy that has made America the powerhouse (pun intended) that it once was. The US will become oil-independent of our enemies whose treasuries are now overflowing with a flood of newly-printed dollars we’ve been using to pay our oil bills with, and the dollar regain its strength as the world’s reserve currency.

And the irony? All of this can be done now with results beginning in 90 days, and using new super-clean super-efficient and environmentally-friendly technology. The result: oil will drop down to well below $100 per barrel and the economy will once again boom. If France and China and Brazil can do it, why can’t America? Why not indeed?

Oil sells for $145 per barrel mostly because of artificially-created supply-side shortages. A small part of its price is also determined by speculators and uncertainty over a future cut-off of oil from the middle east that a war with Iran could cause. Assuming that Iran’s nuclear bomb program is destroyed by Israel this fall -- with or without America’s help - look for oil to spike up to $250-300. And 40 years of congressional bumbling will be the cause.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Oil at $300

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27329

A good explanation, with policy recommendations, of our "energy crisis."

Money Shot.

So what is the solution? What’s right for America is wrong for the limousine liberals. It’s simple, really. Unleash the supply-side forces of economics.

Open up domestic oil drilling immediately. Turn back on the older wells now capped off. Fast-track new safe nuclear power plants. Stop creating global food shortages by killing off corn-based Ethanol production. Waive the punitive duty on cheap Brazilian sugar cane ethanol. Plant lots of domestic switchgrass for cleaner & cheaper ethanol manufacture. Begin a crash construction program of 50 new advanced nuclear power plants nationwide. Stop burning up natural gas to generate electricity. Build new clean coal-burning electric power plants nationwide (China is turning one per week for the next 5 years), and construct coal-to-oil conversion plants. The Germans were doing this in WWII. Alternative-energy sources like cheap 4th-generation solar panels will ramp up as their prices continue to fall.

In other words, return to the old policy of cheap domestic energy that has made America the powerhouse (pun intended) that it once was. The US will become oil-independent of our enemies whose treasuries are now overflowing with a flood of newly-printed dollars we’ve been using to pay our oil bills with, and the dollar regain its strength as the world’s reserve currency.

And the irony? All of this can be done now with results beginning in 90 days, and using new super-clean super-efficient and environmentally-friendly technology. The result: oil will drop down to well below $100 per barrel and the economy will once again boom. If France and China and Brazil can do it, why can’t America? Why not indeed?

Oil sells for $145 per barrel mostly because of artificially-created supply-side shortages. A small part of its price is also determined by speculators and uncertainty over a future cut-off of oil from the middle east that a war with Iran could cause. Assuming that Iran’s nuclear bomb program is destroyed by Israel this fall -- with or without America’s help - look for oil to spike up to $250-300. And 40 years of congressional bumbling will be the cause.

I would not call this supply-side economics, at least the way we have witnessed supply-side economics played-out during the years of the Bush Administration. Rather, I would call your energy plan for America, "COMMON SENSE". It's smart growth. It's investment in the nation's future. It's the only way out of this economic disaster that we are in now. It's "getting real".

I have been sending e-mail to the Obama campaign asking them to get real on their energy policy, but I have not had any luck in changing their minds. They are high on dreams of solar energy miracles and windmill miracles.

And in Canada, I have written Jack Layton's office in Ottawa on the same matter: getting real on energy policy and bringing down the cost of living by placing more domestic energy supply onto the market. I have asked Jack Layton's office to endorse atomic power and Canada's CAN-DO reactors as a solution to the energy shortage. I have been going around-and-around with Mr. Layton's office for some time on this matter--- and to no avail, at least not so far.

[jtabeb]

Re: Oil at $300

I would not call this supply-side economics, at least the way we have witnessed supply-side economics played-out during the years of the Bush Administration. Rather, I would call your energy plan for America, "COMMON SENSE". It's smart growth. It's investment in the nation's future. It's the only way out of this economic disaster that we are in now. It's "getting real".

I have been sending e-mail to the Obama campaign asking them to get real on their energy policy, but I have not had any luck in changing their minds. They are high on dreams of solar energy miracles and windmill miracles.

And in Canada, I have written Jack Layton's office in Ottawa on the same matter: getting real on energy policy and bringing down the cost of living by placing more domestic energy supply onto the market. I have asked Jack Layton's office to endorse atomic power and Canada's CAN-DO reactors as a solution to the energy shortage. I have been going around-and-around with Mr. Layton's office for some time on this matter--- and to no avail, at least not so far.

Dude, nobody gonna listen till they HAVE TO LISTEN.

Sucks, but true.

[JOELBG1]

Re: Oil at $300

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27329

A good explanation, with policy recommendations, of our "energy crisis."

Money Shot.

So what is the solution? What’s right for America is wrong for the limousine liberals. It’s simple, really. Unleash the supply-side forces of economics.

Open up domestic oil drilling immediately. Turn back on the older wells now capped off. Fast-track new safe nuclear power plants. Stop creating global food shortages by killing off corn-based Ethanol production. Waive the punitive duty on cheap Brazilian sugar cane ethanol. Plant lots of domestic switchgrass for cleaner & cheaper ethanol manufacture. Begin a crash construction program of 50 new advanced nuclear power plants nationwide. Stop burning up natural gas to generate electricity. Build new clean coal-burning electric power plants nationwide (China is turning one per week for the next 5 years), and construct coal-to-oil conversion plants. The Germans were doing this in WWII. Alternative-energy sources like cheap 4th-generation solar panels will ramp up as their prices continue to fall.

In other words, return to the old policy of cheap domestic energy that has made America the powerhouse (pun intended) that it once was. The US will become oil-independent of our enemies whose treasuries are now overflowing with a flood of newly-printed dollars we’ve been using to pay our oil bills with, and the dollar regain its strength as the world’s reserve currency.

And the irony? All of this can be done now with results beginning in 90 days, and using new super-clean super-efficient and environmentally-friendly technology. The result: oil will drop down to well below $100 per barrel and the economy will once again boom. If France and China and Brazil can do it, why can’t America? Why not indeed?

Oil sells for $145 per barrel mostly because of artificially-created supply-side shortages. A small part of its price is also determined by speculators and uncertainty over a future cut-off of oil from the middle east that a war with Iran could cause. Assuming that Iran’s nuclear bomb program is destroyed by Israel this fall -- with or without America’s help - look for oil to spike up to $250-300. And 40 years of congressional bumbling will be the cause.

Master Shake, thanks for sharing the article. Reading it helped to center my perspective and educate me on the true nature of our “energy problem” To characterize the article as nothing more than propaganda being spouted by a conservative mouth piece getting paid to promote a suspect agenda would be shallow of me. Instead, I can appreciate it for what it is as further evidence that we as a society have yet to really get it. Many of the authors points need further questioning, However the BIG one-ENERGY-demands a response. As for the articles statement of the “problem” and the proposed solution to “Unleash the supply-side forces of economics”….this is an astonishingly simplistic view of the problem meet with equally amazing and shortsighted solutions. Not that I disagree with him on some of the points on smart energy investment, but he fails to adequately acknowledge that consumption, wastefulness and the depletion of finite resources as the true root of the problem. We don't have a energy generation problem, but a energy mis-use problem stemming from a cultural belief that finite resources are somehow infinite in our fairy tale world. Looking at the problem from a long term view, ramping up production to the levels proposed without addressing demand will only deplete irreplaceable resources more quickly and put off the real problem for another generation to deal with. I for one do not want my children and grand children to inherit that kind of world. Yes…we indeed need action-and soon-but to dismiss the real issue and to demonize others in the process is not helpful. \

[Jeff]

Re: Oil at $300

With all due respect, the absurd barrel of tripe trotted out here by a delusional idealogue is fraught with misinformation, not to mention downright lies. For God's sake, can somebody spell conservation? Despite Cheney's words to the contrary, conservation is not merely a "personal virtue" but a national imperative.

We Americans have been asked to suffer nothing from a war of choice in Iraq, or the destructive power of a whopping change in the price of energy (which manages not to make it into the CPI, but I digress). Would some politician grow some cojones and ask the American people to carpool, work from home, move to the job, cut the 28 car-based kid's activities and just use less freaking petroleum?

I grew up in a great country that could figure her way or invent her way or force her way to solutions. This nonsense about solving the addiction problem by growing more opium is surrealistically absurd on the face of it. For God's sake, if you think limousine liberals are trying to starve the "Republican Middle Class", adjust your tinfoil hat, see a shrink and stay on your meds. There is an obviously psychotic delusion going on.

Your family and a grateful nation will thank you.

[Master Shake]

Re: Oil at $300

With all due respect, the absurd barrel of tripe trotted out here by a delusional idealogue is fraught with misinformation, not to mention downright lies. For God's sake, can somebody spell conservation? Despite Cheney's words to the contrary, conservation is not merely a "personal virtue" but a national imperative.

Nobody's dissing conservation, Jeff, but one, conservation by itself isn't a solution, and two, why does conservation mean you can't develop and exploit known resources and ramp up nuclear power?

That addiction meme sure is spreading. Like to know where it originated. Some lefty/collectivist think tank, no doubt.

[FRED]

Re: Oil at $300

Nobody's dissing conservation, Jeff, but one, conservation by itself isn't a solution, and two, why does conservation mean you can't develop and exploit known resources and ramp up nuclear power?

That addiction meme sure is spreading. Like to know where it originated. Some lefty/collectivist think tank, no doubt.

EJ writes in:

The dollar since 1971 has acted as a global oil price subsidy for the US and its allies.

Had the international gold standard not been unilaterally dissolved by the US in the early 1970s, how many units of labor would a unit of oil cost today?

That is the reversion to the mean we are seeing.

[jk]

Re: Oil at $300

That addiction meme sure is spreading. Like to know where it originated. Some lefty/collectivist think tank, no doubt.

"Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil...."
george w. bush, State of the Union Address, 2006

no lefty, and no thinker either.

[Jeff]

Re: Oil at $300

Nobody's dissing conservation, Jeff, but one, conservation by itself isn't a solution, and two, why does conservation mean you can't develop and exploit known resources and ramp up nuclear power?

That addiction meme sure is spreading. Like to know where it originated. Some lefty/collectivist think tank, no doubt.

Conservation is the ONLY thing we can use to affect change IMMEDIATELY. Increased drilling takes literal decades to effect market prices in any meaningful way.

I hope and pray (figuratively) that President Obama begins his inauguration speech with a plea to carpool, a minimum of 4 to a car. Stop mowing the lawn. Fight terror by not sending them money. Expand public transportation. Ride a bike (EJ makes a great example).

This isn't freaking rocket science, but it won't make Bush & Cheney's pals in the oil patch a lot of money, so it awaits a new administration. If those boneheads had set out to destroy America and its' standing in the world in eight years, they couldn't have done a better job.

Lefty addiction meme? When will one of you morons admit to being wrong? Wrong on Iraq, wrong on energy, wrong on taxes, wrong on privatizing Social Security, wrong on Cuba policy, wrong on WMD's, wrong on Iran, wrong on immigration, wrong on foreign policy, wrong on torture, wrong on Gitmo, wrong on Abu Graib, wrong on being greeted as liberators, wrong on No Child Left A Chance, wrong on firing AG's for political advantage, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Please move aside and let the grownups give it a try, eh?

[Master Shake]

Re: Oil at $300

"Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil...."
george w. bush, State of the Union Address, 2006

no lefty, and no thinker either.

Not a conservative either, and certainly neither a thinker nor public speaker.

However, I doubt the analogy between energy and addiction that I'm seeing more and more of these days in reply to arguments for expanded energy development can be traced back to his SOTU address.

[Master Shake]

Re: Oil at $300

EJ writes in:

The dollar since 1971 has acted as a global oil price subsidy for the US and its allies.

Had the international gold standard not been unilaterally dissolved by the US in the early 1970s, how many units of labor would a unit of oil cost today?

That is the reversion to the mean we are seeing.

That may be true given what's transpired since the early 70's, but do you think we'd be seeing the same thing, or the same degree of change, if we built, say, 20 nuclear plants over that time, 10 or so refineries, and allowed oil and gas exploration and development of the continental shelf? Is there any good reason we shouldn't begin doing so at once?

Our energy policy is FUBAR, but it's not just because we drive big cars and don't conserve.

[Master Shake]

Re: Oil at $300

Conservation is the ONLY thing we can use to affect change IMMEDIATELY. Increased drilling takes literal decades to effect market prices in any meaningful way.

So, we should never do any further exploration and drilling because there's no immediate payoff?? That sounds like some weird corollary to Zeno's Paradox.

I hope and pray (figuratively) that President Obama begins his inauguration speech with a plea to carpool, a minimum of 4 to a car....

That would be positively Carteresque.

If those boneheads had set out to destroy America and its' standing in the world in eight years, they couldn't have done a better job.

I don't disagree.

Lefty addiction meme? When will one of you morons admit to being wrong? Wrong on Iraq, wrong on energy, wrong on taxes, wrong on privatizing Social Security, wrong on Cuba policy, wrong on WMD's, wrong on Iran, wrong on immigration, wrong on foreign policy, wrong on torture, wrong on Gitmo, wrong on Abu Graib, wrong on being greeted as liberators, wrong on No Child Left A Chance, wrong on firing AG's for political advantage, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Please move aside and let the grownups give it a try, eh?

Wow. Go drink a glass of wine and calm the hell down. When you do, explain to me why we shouldn't be developing known fossil fuel reserves and building more nuclear power plants and refineries.

[metalman]

Re: Oil at $300

So, we should never do any further exploration and drilling because there's no immediate payoff?? That sounds like some weird corollary to Zeno's Paradox.

he's saying it won't make much difference. that's true, never mind the time delays. it's not a lot of oil compared to what we import.

That would be positively Carteresque.

agree. need $10 gas asap.

Wow. Go drink a glass of wine and calm the hell down. When you do, explain to me why we shouldn't be developing known fossil fuel reserves and building more nuclear power plants and refineries.

isn't itulip pro nuke?



wups, wrong pic...

[Master Shake]

Re: Oil at $300

he's saying it won't make much difference. that's true, never mind the time delays. it's not a lot of oil compared to what we import.

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/...news2.13s.html [Bakken formation]

And that doesn't include the continental shelf, and certainly doesn't take into account our coal deposits.

I think it may be time to short environmental extremism.

[metalman]

Re: Oil at $300

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/...news2.13s.html [Bakken formation]

And that doesn't include the continental shelf, and certainly doesn't take into account our coal deposits.

I think it may be time to short environmental extremism.

agree 100% on the extremism but big oil doesn't leave oil in the ground for no reason. or are you a fan of peak oil as conspiracy theory?

If you Google the Bakken oil field that lies under North Dakota and parts of South Dakota and Montana, you will find many hits. Curiosly (sic), only a couple appear in any mainstream media outlet. The oil field here was discovered in 1951 and has been periodically reevaluated by oil companies and by the U.S. government, but was determined to be non-economically recoverable until prices hit $40 barrel. Now that prices are at $135/barrel and are expected to hit $200, development should be streaming into North Dakota. Instead, it is crawling and both Congress and the media are silent. The U.S. imported 5 billion barrels of oil in 2007 and there are 200 billion barrels in the Bakken field. In other words, with stronger fuel economy regulations and greater investment in mass transit, an effort aimed at sustaining the 2007 level of oil imports would mean a 40 year supply. That would be an ample window of opportunity to redirect the money the U.S. spends on military intervention in the Middle East back into America with investments in mass transit and alternative energy research and development incentives. The reality is, it wouldn't take nearly 40 years to transition U.S. energy requirements to alternative sources if the political will existed. http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/...news2.13s.html

"curiosly" (sic) is answered by "The only thing missing is the political will to give up global imperialism and remove the umbilical cord from the military-industrial complex. "

so us oil output peaked in the early 1970s because the military-industrial complex had a plan to invade iraq 30 years later in order to keep up the war materials biz?

man, those guys sure are clever.

the facts, if you're interested, are right here.