A Common Sense Solution

[SuperScout]

[From US Senator Kay B. Hutchinson R-TX)

President Reagan said, 'There are no easy answers, but there are simple
ones.' This principle applies to America's energy woes. Since January 2007, the price of a gallon of gasoline has soared from $2.33 to a record $4.04. [And by that time, Da Dims were in control of the congress, and promised to 'fix' the energy problems. Riiiiight!] Over the next two decades, global demand for oil is expected to rise by 50 percent. Further price escalation is inevitable.

When confronted by these facts, the energy solution is simple. We need
more energy! We should be increasing our production of oil, natural gas, clean coal and nuclear power. And those resources should come from America, instead of foreign dictatorships.

One of the best-kept secrets in politics today is that America is one of the world's richest energy nations and is capable of achieving energy independence.

Our most valuable untapped resource is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, which is estimated to contain 10.4 billion barrels of oil. This remote frozen tundra could be drilled with minimal impact on
surrounding life. ANWR is the size of South Carolina and the area drilled would be roughly the size of Dallas/Love Field Airport.

In 1995, the Republican Congress passed legislation to open ANWR for
energy production. But President Clinton vetoed our bill. If he had signed it, America would now be producing an additional 1 million
barrels a day, almost enough oil to replace all of our daily imports
from Saudi Arabia. [Another example of the 'law of unintended consequences.']

Beyond ANWR, federal law prevents oil and gas production in the deep
waters off the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts. [Why? If it's there, why don't we use it? Or are Da Dims just more interested in keeping us dependent on the foreign cogernments?] These areas, along with a
section of the Gulf of Mexico, could contain as much as 115 billion
barrels of oil ・ greater than Venezuela's current reserves ・ and 565
trillion cubic feet of natural gas ・ greater than the combined reserves
of Iraq, China, Yemen, Oman, Nigeria and Venezuela.

Federal laws also prevent us from exploiting one trillion barrels of
shale oil in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah ・ an amazing amount that is
three times what Saudi Arabia has in reserve.

In May, I joined 18 other Senate Republicans to introduce the American
Energy Production Act of 2008. Our bill would remove unnecessary
government barriers to domestic energy production and allow us to tap
our vast resources with environmental safeguards. This should be
bolstered with an energy portfolio that includes renewable and
alternative sources such as solar, wind and nuclear power.

My Democratic colleagues have a starkly different approach to the
energy crisis: It is one that creates no new energy. [Now, there's a real solution, right?] Their answer is to tax energy production. [How innocative! How do you create a tax that increases production? If this was logical, then we should just increase everybody's taxes to 100%, then we'll solve all the problems.]

In 1980, Congress passed a 'windfall profits tax' and the consequences
were devastating. [Ahhh, yes, signed into law by the absolute genious of Supply and Demand, Jimma Cartah!] In the six years following that levy, domestic oil production dropped by 1.26 billion barrels and imports of foreign oil rose 13 percent. The disastrous tax was repealed in 1986. Rather than learn from that mistake, some in Congress would impose the same ineffective tax on the oil industry today. [Some people, Da Dims, seem to be too stupid to learn from their mistakes.]

Their proposal also seeks to blame 'price gouging' for soaring energy
prices. The Federal Trade Commission has been vigilant in its
investigation of pricing practices in the oil industry. It has
consistently found no evidence of market or price manipulation, and
instead points to global supply and demand as a leading factor in the
price of gasoline. [Duh! Where have I written about this before?]

In fact, as of January, the average tax on each gallon of gasoline was
47 cents, while the oil and gas industry has testified that it earns
only four cents per dollar of gasoline sales. [Anybody ever check the profit margin of any other major industry, such as the cosmetic trade? Guess what their profit margin is: 20-35%. But the average person can't differentiate between profit and profit margin. Apparently, neither can Da Dims, who are below average.]

The Democrats' plan would also repeal incentives for expanded refinery
investment. By increasing taxes and reducing the incentives to refine
oil into usable gasoline, we will end up with a smaller supply of domestic energy, which in turn fuels price increases, perpetuates our present crisis and keeps us at the mercy of OPEC. Energy companies would be hit with new taxes on foreign earnings, potentially exposing producers to double taxation and hindering their ability to compete for oil and natural gas reserves on the global market.

This year, we will spend about $500 billion to import oil. All of those dollars should stay here in America, instead of being sent to foreign regimes that may be hostile to our interests.

We need energy for Americans produced by Americans, and we need it now. Instead of searching for scapegoats, we should be searching for
additional energy resources to be part of a bold, comprehensive plan
for America's energy security in the 21st century. [ I couldn't have said it better, even if I wrote her material.]

[Stick]

Fox News said this morning that America was spending $1,200,000,000 every day in the Middle-East for those country's oil, crude oil that would have to be made into American gasoline for your car, truck, Ford or Honda, and petroleum containing products. The cost of refining that crude oil hasn't increased 200% in the past two years but the price at the pump has and Marathon, Sun Oil, Standard Oil and British Petroleum prices have more than doubled in that time and those companies and others profits have more than doubled during that same period.
Taxes? What I give to the Church or the Salvation Army is deductable on my yearly tax return. What this family spends on our health maintenance is deductable. A good portion of what we earn is spent for interest payments of what we own and is deductable on those Irrational Robbery Services yearly forms. Forms that this family has to file with the Federal Government every year and we would pay a significantly higher percentage of our income to said government and not be able to spend those funds on our own wants and pleasures.
Have the oil companies pay big time for their windfall profits but allow those companies to deduct every buck that they put out in the maintenance and improvement of their companies (as long as they spend it right here in the good ole USA while useing Americans to do their labors getting paid with American dollar$).

[reconeil]

All suggestions stated or reported are good,...without a doubt.

Still, and since much of The BIG OIL Rip-off Scenario has to do with Imports & Exports,...
wish someone could explain why one of World's Largest Producers & Exporters of Oil and/or
America HAS TO export SO MUCH OIL, while simultaneously importing SO-DAMN-MUCH-OIL??

If We TRULY need more for ourselves (?),...why not sensibly Export Less & Keep More here?

Oh, and by the way since Government Oil Reserves don't materialize out of thin air,...
does anyone have a clue as to just how much it costs The U.S. Taxpayer yearly to pay
for and continually replenish same? Hope: "We The (Schnooks)" get a break & aren't greedily
forced paying rigged World Oil Spot Price for our very own Natural Resource...HERE TOO?

Neil

[Gimpy]

Originally Posted by reconeil

Still, and since much of The BIG OIL Rip-off Scenario has to do with Imports & Exports,...
wish someone could explain why one of World's Largest Producers & Exporters of Oil and/or
America HAS TO export SO MUCH OIL, while simultaneously importing SO-DAMN-MUCH-OIL??

If We TRULY need more for ourselves (?),...why not sensibly Export Less & Keep More here?

Oh, and by the way since Government Oil Reserves don't materialize out of thin air,...
does anyone have a clue as to just how much it costs The U.S. Taxpayer yearly to pay
for and continually replenish same? Hope: "We The (Schnooks)" get a break & aren't greedily
forced paying rigged World Oil Spot Price for our very own Natural Resource...HERE TOO?

Neil

I think we may have some "common ground" here!

Well, at least SOME "common ground" anyway.

Oil prices dropped this week because the Dow dropped and speculation on Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac.


The main reason the price of oil is high because idiot speculators are worried about Bush and Israel's sabre rattling against Iran every few days.


Now that they are flip flopping about direct talks with Iran, the price of oil will drop more.


The Bush plan for "offshore drilling" is a hoax. It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence. It just gives millions more acres to the same companies that are sitting on nearly 68 million acres of public lands and coastal areas.


I still say the oil companies should finish what's already on their plates that they aren't drilling before we grant additional leases in environmentally sensitive locations.


That is, reopen all of the capped wells that still have more than 25% of their oil left and to fully exploit the 68,000,000 acres of leased land and ocean they currently have under lease.

As my dear old Grandmother once said "If you don't eat your vegetables, you can't have any ice cream! How can you have any "dessert" if you don't eat whats on your plate?!"

It is estimated that the lands currently under lease which are not being drilled could yield as much as 5 million barrels a day while the lands (off shore) that they are clamoring for that are still off limits will produce no more than 2 million barrels a day.??

There is something almost obscene about George Bush giving lectures on “our addiction to oil” and the urgent need to begin offshore drilling.


Can any of you guarantee that every single drop of oil produced on American soil or American waters will be sold only to Americans in America?


Or isn't it more than likely that any new American production will be merged into the international pool of oil as oil contracts and futures are traded and retraded? Do any of you REALLY believe that the current brand of BIG OIL executives will allow their "product" to be sold at prices than would be lower than in the international market place?

What this country requires is a huge concerted program of research in alternatives along with major study of our transportation systems, local and national.


We require a national energy policy related to both the above.


We have been living with eight years of an energy policy developed in the office of Dick Cheney by executives and representatives of the oil business, in SECRET MEETINGS no less. Everyone knows this, no matter that the secret details are tucked under executive privilege. I guess NOW we know WHY....huh?

The offshore drilling program has clearly been a major aim of that same Cheney “energy policy.” It promises nothing more than continuation of the same bankrupt, short range, drill now, huge profits, think later crap interspersed with their failed grand strategic plan to get a lock on Iraq reserves. That worked SO well, didn't it?


Yes there is addiction to oil, but that extends a lot further than the American motorist and has been "enabled" in the current White House!


Gimp

[Advisor]

What's to stop the Repubs & oil companies exporting more oil and still keep us dependent on foreign oil. After all, the free market ya know. I say, let 'em drill responsibly, but tax the crap out of every barrel of oil they export. America first, I sez. And, if we were not dependent on foreign oil we wouldn't have to keep interfering in the affairs of oil producing nations, protecting them (their oil,really). Good heavens, what a cost savings that would be. Smaller military, smaller budget, lower taxes. There ya go!!!

[SuperScout]

Just how much oil do any of you think we're EXPORTING and to whom?

What's to stop the Repubs & oil companies exporting more oil and still keep us dependent on foreign oil. After all, the free market ya know. I say, let 'em drill responsibly, but tax the crap out of every barrel of oil they export. America first, I sez. And, if we were not dependent on foreign oil we wouldn't have to keep interfering in the affairs of oil producing nations, protecting them (their oil,really). Good heavens, what a cost savings that would be. Smaller military, smaller budget, lower taxes. There ya go!!!

How high should the taxes be for the oil?

[Advisor]

If we have the capacity to be self-sufficient, and allow the oil companies total access to the oil fields, then the tax for exporting oil should be 100%..America first..the rest of the world can buy their oil from the Arabs, Russians & Latins.

[SuperScout]

By combining the various forms of energy - petro, natural gas, wind, coal, solar, nuke, wave, and stationary bicycle - we can be energy self-sufficient and energy independent. But guess who is standing in the way of that glorious dream? Primarily, the federal government. If 'nasty ol' big oil', the popular whipping boy, exports any to another country, sure, go ahead and tax them 100%. But if they know that they can sell all of it domestically, why should they sell if abroad, knowing the tax situation?

This whole argument of 'they're not drilling on the leases they already have' simply identifies the person making the statement as totally unread, geologically illiterate, a profound fool, or all of the above. Any oilman worth his weight in drilling mud knows that if there's a good possibility of a good play, his have his rig set up before you can say OSHA. Just because an oil company paid for a lease on certain land doesn't mean that there's oil underneath it; oftentimes, it's simply a matter of what lease area that has been offered. For example, out of a ten-section area, maybe only one section has any potential, but the seller of the lease demanded that all ten sections be leased. So for the whiners and snivelers to demand that every section be drilled, just because the land was leased is spurious, stupid, and overreaching.

[Gimpy]

Originally Posted by SuperScout

By combining the various forms of energy - petro, natural gas, wind, coal, solar, nuke, wave, and stationary bicycle - we can be energy self-sufficient and energy independent. But guess who is standing in the way of that glorious dream? Primarily, the federal government. If 'nasty ol' big oil', the popular whipping boy, exports any to another country, sure, go ahead and tax them 100%. But if they know that they can sell all of it domestically, why should they sell if abroad, knowing the tax situation?

This whole argument of 'they're not drilling on the leases they already have' simply identifies the person making the statement as totally unread, geologically illiterate, a profound fool, or all of the above. Any oilman worth his weight in drilling mud knows that if there's a good possibility of a good play, his have his rig set up before you can say OSHA. Just because an oil company paid for a lease on certain land doesn't mean that there's oil underneath it; oftentimes, it's simply a matter of what lease area that has been offered. For example, out of a ten-section area, maybe only one section has any potential, but the seller of the lease demanded that all ten sections be leased. So for the whiners and snivelers to demand that every section be drilled, just because the land was leased is spurious, stupid, and overreaching.

Just more nonsense from the rabid rightwing lying machine!


In a Nutshell, here's the FACTS about "oil drilling" in America and offshore!

_
On the Outer Continental Shelf, 82% of federal natural gas and 79% of
federal oil is located in areas that are currently open for leasing.


_ Onshore, 62% of oil and 84% of natural gas resources are either fully
accessible under standard lease stipulations designed to protect lands
and wildlife, or will be accessible pending the completion of land-use
planning or environmental reviews.


_ Between 1999 and 2007, drilling permits for oil and gas development on
public lands increased more than 361%.

Since 2004, the Bureau of Land Management has issued 28,776 permits
to drill on public land; in that same time, only 18,954 wells were actually
drilled.
_

Oil and gas companies have stockpiled nearly 10,000 extra permits to
drill that they are not using to increase domestic production.
_

Onshore, of the 47.5 million acres of federal lands leased by oil and
gas companies, only about 13 million acres are actually producing oil
and gas.


_ Offshore, only 10.5 million of the 44 million leased acres are currently
producing oil or gas.


_ Combined, oil and gas companies hold leases to nearly 68 million acres
of federal land that are not producing oil and gas.


_ The 68 million acres of leased, inactive federal land could produce an
additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural
gas each day.


_ That would nearly double total U.S. oil production, and increase natural
gas production by 75%.


_ 4.8 million barrels of oil equals more than six times the estimated peak
production from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.


_ Development of and production from the 68 million acres currently under lease but not in production would cut US imports of oil by onethird.


Read the Report!.................

[media]http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/images/stories/Documents/truth_about_americas_energy.pdf[/media]


As long as the oil companies hold oil hostage(along with America), they will continue to get away with charging high prices and demanding a greater share of the public's land. The government should force their hand by compelling them to produce or hand the over their idle leases for someone who will.......PERIOD!


Gimp

[SuperScout]

Irrespective of your traditionally gleaned information of cutNpaste from any website that supports your leftist/liberal/socialist agenda, what you know about drilling for oil and natural gas is exceeded only by your knowledge of underwater quantum bio-physics.

What did I write that was a lie? Prove it, or I'll consider your apology.