Oil up $10.75 to record $138.54 a barrel

[RunInRed 16,492]

Oil settles at a record $138.54 a barrel, up $10.75, on weak dollar and forecast that crude will hit $150 by July 4.

www.cnn.com

I know the answer....drill drill drill. Drill some more.

[Tigermike 3,055]

OK as the dim you are we know you are against drilling. So what is the answer?

You failed to comment here: http://www.aunation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=48104

or here http://www.aunation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=48091

So what is the answer?

[Auburn85 432]

hey rir, i would be interested in knowing what's your take on us becoming energy independent

[RunInRed 16,492]

A few facts to get out on the table first:

1) Crude oil is a finite natural resource

2) Now matter how much of it we find or how much we drill, ultimately, crude oil as an energy source will never be the final answer, but rather a temporary band-aid

3) America has a 20-million-barrel-a-day oil habit

4) There are no easy or obvious solutions to this problem

So now what? Well here's some of what Obama says:

1) Use a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions, auction pollution credits, and use revenue generated to support the development of clean energy

2) Invest in biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial-scale renewable energy, invest in low-emissions coal plants, and begin the transition to a new digital electricity grid

3) Establish a 25 percent federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to require that 25 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind and geothermal by 2025

4) Develop and deploy clean coal technology

5) Expand biofuel refineries

6) Increase fuel economy standards including retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers, so that they can build new fuel-efficient cars

7) Set National Building Efficiency Goals, Establish a Grant Program for Early Adopters, Invest in a Digital Smart Grid

Here is some of what McMain says:

Hmmm no energy plan posted on his website. Shocker.

[CCTAU 3,349]

It's only a finite source if you are around in a couple of hundred years:

Otherwise, it's just another ploy to jack prices up. How many wells do you hear of actually going dry every day?

The Myth Of Peak Oil

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | October 12 2005

Peak oil is a scam designed to create artificial scarcity and jack up prices while giving the state an excuse to invade our lives and order us to sacrifice our hard-earned living standards.

Publicly available CFR and Club of Rome strategy manuals from 30 years ago say that a global government needs to control the world population through neo-feudalism by creating artificial scarcity. Now that the social architects have de-industrialized the United States, they are going to blame our economic disintegration on lack of energy supplies.

Globalization is all about consolidation. Now that the world economy has become so centralized through the Globalists operations, they are going to continue to consolidate and blame it on the West's "evil" overconsumption of fossil fuels, while at the same time blocking the development and integration of renewable clean technologies.

In other words, Peak oil is a scam to create artificial scarcity and drive prices up. Meanwhile, alternative fuel technologies which have been around for decades are intentionally suppressed.

Peak oil is a theory advanced by the elite, by the oil industry, by the very people that you would think peak oil would harm, unless it was a cover for another agenda. Which from the evidence of artificial scarcity being deliberately created, the reasons for doing so and who benefits, it’s clear that peak oil is a myth and it should be exposed for what it is. Another excuse for the Globalists to seize more control over our lives and sacrifice more American sovereignty in the meantime.

The lies of artificial scarcity

The crux of the issue is that if oil was plentiful in areas in which we are being told by the government and the oil companies that it is not, then we have clear evidence that artificial scarcity is being simulated in order to drive forward a myriad of other agendas. And we have concrete examples of where this has happened.

Three separate internal confidential memos from Mobil, Chevron and Texaco have been obtained by The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

These memos outline a deliberate agenda to gouge prices and create artificial scarcity by limiting capacities of and outright closing oil refineries. This was a nationwide lobbying effort led by the American Petroleum Institute to encourage refineries to do this.

An internal Chevron memo states; "A senior energy analyst at the recent API convention warned that if the US petroleum industry doesn't reduce its refining capacity it will never see any substantial increase in refinery margins."

The Memos make clear that blockages in refining capacity and opening new refineries did not come from environmental organizations, as the oil industry claimed, but via a deliberate policy of limitation and price gouging at the behest of the oil industry itself.

The mystery of Eugene Island 330 and self-renewing oil supplies

Eugene Island is an oil field in the gulf of Mexico, 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana. It was discovered in 1973 and began producing 15,000 barrels of oil a day which then slowed to about 4,000 barrels in 1989.

But then for no logical reason whatsoever, production spiked back up to 13,000 barrels a day.

What the researchers found when they analyzed the oil field with time lapse 3-D seismic imaging is that there was an unexplained deep fault in the bottom corner of the computer scan, which showed oil gushing in from a previously unknown deep source and migrating up through the rock to replenish the existing supply.

Furthermore, the analysis of the oil now being produced at Eugene Island shows that its age is geologically different from the oil produced there after the refinery first opened. Suggesting strongly that it is now emerging from a different, unexplained source.

The last estimates of probable reserves shot up from 60 million barrels to 400 million barrels.

Both the scientists and geologists from the big oil companies have seen the evidence and admitted that the Eugene Island oil field is refilling itself.

This completely contradicts peak oil theory and with technology improving at an accelerating pace it seems obvious that there are more Eugene Islands out there waiting to be discovered. So the scientific community needs to embrace these possibilities and lobby for funding into finding more of these deep source replenishing oilfields.

The existence of self-renewing oil fields shatters the peak oil myth. If oil is a naturally replenishing inorganic substance then how can it possibly run out?

The future of oil

This year in particular we have seen a strong hike in oil prices and are being told to simply get used to it because this is the way it is going to be. In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita gas prices have shot up amid claims of vast energy shortages. Americans are being asked to turn off lights, change thermostat settings, drive slower, insulate homes and take other steps. Meanwhile the oil companies continue to make record profits.

Flying in the face of the so called peak oil crisis are the facts. If we are running out of oil so quickly then why are reserves being continually increased and production skyrocketing?

In the 1980s OPEC decided to switch to a quota production system based on the size of reserves. The larger the reserves a country said it had the more it could pump.

Earlier this year Saudi Arabia reportedly increased its crude reserves by around 200 billion barrels. Saudi oil Is secure and plentiful, say officials.

“These huge reserves enable the Kingdom to remain a major oil producer for between 70 and 100 years, even if it raises its production capacity to 15 million barrels per day, which may well happen during the next 15 years,”

Is this the normal course of behavior if we are currently at the peak for oil production? The answer is no, it's the normal course of action for increasing production.

There have also been reports that Russia has vastly increased its reserves even beyond those of Saudi Arabia. Why would they do this if they believed there would be no more oil to get hold of? It seems clear that Russia is ready for unlimited future production of oil.

There is a clear contradiction between the peak oil theory and the continual increase in oil reserves and production.

New untapped oil sources are being discovered everywhere on earth. The notion that there are somehow only a few sources that the West is trying to monopolize is a complete myth, promulgated by those raking in the massive profits. After all how do you make huge profits from something available in abundance?

A Wall Street Journal article by Peter Huber and Mark Mills describes how the price of oil remains high because the cost of oil remains so low. We are not dependent on the middle east for oil because the world's supplies are diminishing, it is because it is more profitable to tap middle east supplies. Thus the myth of peak oil is needed in order to silence the call for tapping the planet's other plentiful reserves.

Richard Branson has even stated his intention to set up his own refinery because the price of oil is artificially being kept high whilst new sources are not being explored and new refineries not being built.

"Opec is effectively an illegal cartel that can meet happily, nobody takes them to court," Branson has said. "They collude to keep prices high."

So if more refineries were built and different resources tapped, the oil prices would come down and the illegal cartel OPEC would see profits diminish. It is no wonder then that the argument for peak oil is so appealing to OPEC. If no one invests to build refineries because they don't believe there is enough oil, then who benefits? OPEC and the oil elites of course.

It seems that every time there is some kind of energy crisis, OPEC INCREASES production. The remarkable thing about this is that they always state that they are doing it to ease prices, yet prices always shoot up because they promulgate the myth that they are putting some of their last reserves into the market. Analysts seem confused and always state that they don't believe upping production will cut prices.

In a recent report the International Monetary Fund projected that global demand for oil by 2030 would reach 139 million barrels a day, a 65 percent increase.

"We should expect to live with high and volatile oil prices," said Raghuram Rajan, the IMF's chief economist. "In short, it's going to be a rocky road going forward."

Yet independent analysts and even some within OPEC seem to believe that the demand for oil is diminishing. Why the contradiction?

The peak oil and demand myth is peddled by the establishment-run fake left activist groups, OPEC and globalist arms such as the IMF.

Rolling Stone magazine even carried an article in its April issue heavily biased towards making people believe the peak oil lie.

The Scientific evidence also flies in the face of the peak oil theory. Scientific research dating back over a hundred years, more recently updated in a Scientific Paper Published In 'Energia' suggests that oil is abiotic, not the product of long decayed biological matter. Oil, for better or for worse, is not a non-renewable resource. It, like coal, and natural gas, replenishes from sources within the mantle of earth.

No coincidence then that the Russians, who pioneered this research have pumped expenditure into deep underground oil excavation.

We have previously scientifically exposed the scam behind peak oil. Here is a 1 hour+ audio clip featuring Alex Jones' comments on peak oil and then the analysis of respected scientific commentator Dr. Nick Begich who presents evidence to suggest the idea of Peak oil is artificial.

A dangerous fallout precedent being set is that people on both the left and right believe wars are being fought in order to tap the last reserves of oil on the planet. The "coalition of the willing", whoever they may be for any given war, will not pay particular attention to refuting this claim because it allows them a reason to start and continue said war.

Even though many will see it as immoral, many will subconsciously attach it as a reason for the war. In reality the war is purely for profit, power and control, oil can be a part of that, but only if the peak oil claim is upheld.

If we continue to let the corrupt elite tell us we are wholly dependent on oil, we may reach a twisted situation whereby they can justify starvation and mass global poverty, perhaps even depopulation, even within the western world due to the fact that our energy supplies are finished.

Peak oil is just another weapon the globalists have in their arsenal to move towards a new world order where the elite get richer and everyone else falls into line.

LINK

Achmed's in a dream world on most of his plans. Biofuels are nice but drive up the price of FOOD. It also takes more oil to make the same amount of biofuel. As my grandma used to say, "More money up a wildcat's ass." Achmed proposes to spend more for less just to say we are doing something. Just because you have a "plan" does not make it a good plan. Sometimes it's better to wait for good info instead of blowing smoke up the the people's proverbial backsides with "HOPE" and "CHANGE".

Refusing to drill is like committing to negotiate with no preconditions. You ain't convincing the other guy to comply.

[autigeremt 6,716]

Just a side note, as I am neutral on this issue (I think we should drill AND look for alternative sources to combat this problem), but did anyone read what a Cabinet Minister said today? Here's the lit. on it from the AP.

Traders also zeroed in on remarks by an Israeli Cabinet minister, who was quoted as saying his country will attack Iran if it doesn't abandon its nuclear program. Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz added that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "will disappear before Israel does," the Yediot Ahronot daily reported.

We just need to sit back and wait a few more months. Isreal will take care of the threat.

[rexbo 104]

OK as the dim you are we know you are against drilling. So what is the answer?

You failed to comment here: http://www.aunation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=48104

or here http://www.aunation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=48091

So what is the answer?

Blame Bush.

[LegalEagle 22]

OK as the dim you are we know you are against drilling. So what is the answer?

You failed to comment here: http://www.aunation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=48104

or here http://www.aunation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=48091

So what is the answer?

Blame Bush.

I don't blame Bush. I think he deserves full credit for it!

[AURaptor 1,126]

The cap and trade set up is a complete and utter scam. What it really does is set up a communist system, and does NOTHING to lessen carbon emissions, none of which need to be reduced all that much in the first place.

The free market will determine when such as bio fuels and alternative energy are necessary, not Government.

Setting arbitrary, unrealistic 'goals' for 'clean' energy is flat out naive and childish.

We got clean coal, but Bubba put much of it on Federal property, and out of reach for us to use. Why ? To help his buddies who have the market on that stuff so they'd make more $$

Again, free market will determine what gets built, not Government.

[BamaGrad03 0]

We've already shown a dip in consumption for like 9 straight months. Gas prices have gone up 27% percent in the same time period.

Yeah, it's GWB's fault.

Again, if Obama wins, I hope you are willing to eat some crow if gas doesn't drop down to $2 a gallon.

[rexbo 104]

We've already shown a dip in consumption for like 9 straight months. Gas prices have gone up 27% percent in the same time period.

Yeah, it's GWB's fault.

Again, if Obama wins, I hope you are willing to eat some crow if gas doesn't drop down to $2 a gallon.

Gas prices WILL drop IF Obama wins because a big user of oil will be shut down; the Department of Defense. At least temporarily, it will then go to $25 a gallon when Iran takes over all of the oil fields in the region...

[Tigermike 3,055]

A few facts to get out on the table first:

1) Crude oil is a finite natural resource

2) Now matter how much of it we find or how much we drill, ultimately, crude oil as an energy source will never be the final answer, but rather a temporary band-aid

3) America has a 20-million-barrel-a-day oil habit

4) There are no easy or obvious solutions to this problem

So now what? Well here's some of what Obama says: (Raise taxes)

1) Use a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions, auction pollution credits, and use revenue generated to support the development of clean energy (Raise taxes)

2) Invest in biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial-scale renewable energy, invest in low-emissions coal plants, and begin the transition to a new digital electricity grid (Raise taxes)

3) Establish a 25 percent federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to require that 25 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind and geothermal by 2025 (Raise taxes)

4) Develop and deploy clean coal technology (Raise taxes)

5) Expand biofuel refineries (Starve the poor nations then, Raise taxes to feed them)

6) Increase fuel economy standards including retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers, so that they can build new fuel-efficient cars (Raise taxes)

7) Set National Building Efficiency Goals, Establish a Grant Program for Early Adopters, Invest in a Digital Smart Grid (Raise taxes)

Here is some of what McMain says:

Hmmm no energy plan posted on his website. Shocker.

So after he (Raise taxes), how long until all this takes place? What happens to the economy in the mean time? What happens to food prices and food supplies with this great increase in bio-fuels?

(Raise taxes)

[AURaptor 1,126]

We've already shown a dip in consumption for like 9 straight months. Gas prices have gone up 27% percent in the same time period.

Yeah, it's GWB's fault.

Again, if Obama wins, I hope you are willing to eat some crow if gas doesn't drop down to $2 a gallon.

Where are you getting the 9 month consumption dip info ? Please,, let us in.

How is it Bush's fault ?

Sorry, but unless you can back up your claims, you can't get away with making claims like that w/ out some basis.

[BamaGrad03 0]

Sorry, should have indicated that it being Bush's fault was sarcasm.

How do you NOT know me by now raptor?

[Tiger Al 0]

Sorry, should have indicated that it being Bush's fault was sarcasm.

How do you NOT know me by now raptor?

It's an automatic reflex. Bell rings, dogs eat kind of thing.

[AURaptor 1,126]

Sorry, should have indicated that it being Bush's fault was sarcasm.

How do you NOT know me by now raptor?

Ah, so the 9 month dip in consumption is also sarcasm?

Got it.

[Tigermike 3,055]

A few facts to get out on the table first:

1) Crude oil is a finite natural resource

We'll never "run out" of oil; instead, we gradually will shift to whatever substitutes are cheaper at the time. In other words, Adam Smith solved the energy crisis in 1776 -- the free market responds automatically and without . . . subsidy or bureaucracy.

Drivers changing,,,,,,

[BamaGrad03 0]

Sorry, should have indicated that it being Bush's fault was sarcasm.

How do you NOT know me by now raptor?

Ah, so the 9 month dip in consumption is also sarcasm?

Got it.

No, our consumption is declining. Google is your friend.

[Bottomfeeder 244]

Perhaps if dunderhead dubya hadn't invaded Iraq, then the Iraqi oil could be on the market by now. The sanctions were to be lifted in like '04 I believe, but NOOOOOO. Dunghole had to invade and stop the supply from making it to market, now OPEC is rolling in our dough.

[BamaGrad03 0]

Perhaps if dunderhead dubya hadn't invaded Iraq, then the Iraqi oil could be on the market by now. The sanctions were to be lifted in like '04 I believe, but NOOOOOO. Dunghole had to invade and stop the supply from making it to market, now OPEC is rolling in our dough.

Most ignorant post you've ever made.

Do some research on where we get our oil, and have gotten our oil...and do some more research and note that the current price of oil has NOTHING to do with a lack of supply.

Also go check on what the price of oil per barrel was 3 years ago...4 years ago. Compare it to now.

[Bottomfeeder 244]

Perhaps if dunderhead dubya hadn't invaded Iraq, then the Iraqi oil could be on the market by now. The sanctions were to be lifted in like '04 I believe, but NOOOOOO. Dunghole had to invade and stop the supply from making it to market, now OPEC is rolling in our dough.

Most ignorant post you've ever made.

Do some research on where we get our oil, and have gotten our oil...and do some more research and note that the current price of oil has NOTHING to do with a lack of supply.

Also go check on what the price of oil per barrel was 3 years ago...4 years ago. Compare it to now.

I know where we get our oil from. It's PRICE of oil on the open market that is affected by supply. So, you say the price is affected by futures contracts. Sure it is along with, supply, demand, inflated dollar and global unrest. That's how I made $5000 dollars Friday. Let's just call it a hedge against rising gas prices and US dollar devaluation. I guess I am ignorant, but I make money being ignorant.

[CCTAU 3,349]

Perhaps if dunderhead dubya hadn't invaded Iraq, then the Iraqi oil could be on the market by now. The sanctions were to be lifted in like '04 I believe, but NOOOOOO. Dunghole had to invade and stop the supply from making it to market, now OPEC is rolling in our dough.

Most ignorant post you've ever made.

Do some research on where we get our oil, and have gotten our oil...and do some more research and note that the current price of oil has NOTHING to do with a lack of supply.

Also go check on what the price of oil per barrel was 3 years ago...4 years ago. Compare it to now.

I know where we get our oil from. It's PRICE of oil on the open market that is affected by supply. So, you say the price is affected by futures contracts. Sure it is along with, supply, demand, inflated dollar and global unrest. That's how I made $5000 dollars Friday. Let's just call it a hedge against rising gas prices and US dollar devaluation. I guess I am ignorant, but I make money being ignorant.

A year ago you were crying about not getting any work. Now you are a damn financial genius? Go back in the house. The helicopters are watching you.

[Tigermike 3,055]

If you think wages can keep pace with raising retail prices on any goods coming to market, you live in a fantasy world. If you think a new president (R or d) will magically stop the upward spiral you are a fool.

For decades congress (r & d) has put a very tight hold on drilling and refining. The current high prices are the inevitable result. We, the US, sits on billions of barrels of oil within the continental shelves, billions more on the interior, and billions in ANWR. Yet we insist on begging the Saudis and OPEC for higher production rather than taking some responsibility for our own energy needs, preferring to keep our landscapes while we demand that others exploit their own resources for our benefit.

A dem lib friend of mine put it this way in an e-mail: "The ANWR is a "NATION WILDLIFE RESERVATION"!!! There are just a few of these properties that Americans can't destroy across a VAST nation of places they are free to drill! We as Christians are put here to protect God's creatures. I think that we need to leave our Wildlife reserves alone. That's a typical republican attitude....destroy something beautiful just to keep the profits in their pocket. SHAME!!!" To which I can only say OK if that's your attitude then quit whining about high gas prices. Just shut up. When the dim politicians start their inevitable demagogue of high gas prices, tell them to shut up. Just tell them to shut up. But dems will not tell dims to shut up will they?

For the most part where does Europe get their electricity? Nuclear power! We could shift some of our reliance on petroleum to nuclear power and it would make a huge dent in the reliance on foreign oil. But again that would be down the road seven to ten years. BUT congress (under both parties) has shown much less courage standing up to the environmentalists on nuclear power than they have to "big oil".

Dims, environmentalists and Congress continue to look for unproven solutions while and spouting pie in the sky rhetoric while ignoring workable solutions right in front of them. What have they produced? We are still dependent on foreign oil. High oil prices coupled with high demand and lowering supplies cause an inflationary spiral to the economy that hits everyone. Poor, rich and everyone in the middle.

You may be aware that just last week, Barbara Boxer and the dim congress tried to push through the Lieberman-Warner bill, and lied that it would address gas prices. Well it damn sure would have. It would have driven them much higher through over-regulation of the energy industry. The energy industry does not need further regulation. They need Congress to get the federal government out of its way so that it can add more supply to the market, which is the only way prices will fall.

For at least twenty years we have asked for expanded nuclear power and domestic drilling. Every time the subject comes up, we get reminded that these solutions take seven or more years to have an effect. (Remember that Al? TX? channoc? Bottomfeeder) We had this same discussion four years ago and eight years ago. BUT if we had acted just seven short years ago in the aftermath of 9/11, when it became clear that energy would involve national-security issues, the benefits would have started to arrive right about now — and oil speculation would have never climbed to its current state.

We need to open drilling and encourage new refineries to be built. At least then we can expect to see some relief with the high prices sometime in the foreseeable future. We also need to get started with nuclear power plants and increase coal plants AND AT THE SAME TIME researching as many possibilities for renewables as possible. And yes drilling can be done safely and new refineries can be built safely. New nuclear plants can be built safely.

We need to be less selfish and start producing as much of our own oil as possible.

[Bottomfeeder 244]

Perhaps if dunderhead dubya hadn't invaded Iraq, then the Iraqi oil could be on the market by now. The sanctions were to be lifted in like '04 I believe, but NOOOOOO. Dunghole had to invade and stop the supply from making it to market, now OPEC is rolling in our dough.

Most ignorant post you've ever made.

Do some research on where we get our oil, and have gotten our oil...and do some more research and note that the current price of oil has NOTHING to do with a lack of supply.

Also go check on what the price of oil per barrel was 3 years ago...4 years ago. Compare it to now.

I know where we get our oil from. It's PRICE of oil on the open market that is affected by supply. So, you say the price is affected by futures contracts. Sure it is along with, supply, demand, inflated dollar and global unrest. That's how I made $5000 dollars Friday. Let's just call it a hedge against rising gas prices and US dollar devaluation. I guess I am ignorant, but I make money being ignorant.

A year ago you were crying about not getting any work. Now you are a damn financial genius? Go back in the house. The helicopters are watching you.

It doesn't take a financial genius to make money in this market. And, yes I was looking for work at one time. I found work and saved my money. Now, I making money with money I saved. What's wrong with that?

[Bottomfeeder 244]

If you think wages can keep pace with raising retail prices on any goods coming to market, you live in a fantasy world. If you think a new president (R or d) will magically stop the upward spiral you are a fool.

For decades congress (r & d) has put a very tight hold on drilling and refining. The current high prices are the inevitable result. We, the US, sits on billions of barrels of oil within the continental shelves, billions more on the interior, and billions in ANWR. Yet we insist on begging the Saudis and OPEC for higher production rather than taking some responsibility for our own energy needs, preferring to keep our landscapes while we demand that others exploit their own resources for our benefit.

A dem lib friend of mine put it this way in an e-mail: "The ANWR is a "NATION WILDLIFE RESERVATION"!!! There are just a few of these properties that Americans can't destroy across a VAST nation of places they are free to drill! We as Christians are put here to protect God's creatures. I think that we need to leave our Wildlife reserves alone. That's a typical republican attitude....destroy something beautiful just to keep the profits in their pocket. SHAME!!!" To which I can only say OK if that's your attitude then quit whining about high gas prices. Just shut up. When the dim politicians start their inevitable demagogue of high gas prices, tell them to shut up. Just tell them to shut up. But dems will not tell dims to shut up will they?

For the most part where does Europe get their electricity? Nuclear power! We could shift some of our reliance on petroleum to nuclear power and it would make a huge dent in the reliance on foreign oil. But again that would be down the road seven to ten years. BUT congress (under both parties) has shown much less courage standing up to the environmentalists on nuclear power than they have to "big oil".

Dims, environmentalists and Congress continue to look for unproven solutions while and spouting pie in the sky rhetoric while ignoring workable solutions right in front of them. What have they produced? We are still dependent on foreign oil. High oil prices coupled with high demand and lowering supplies cause an inflationary spiral to the economy that hits everyone. Poor, rich and everyone in the middle.

You may be aware that just last week, Barbara Boxer and the dim congress tried to push through the Lieberman-Warner bill, and lied that it would address gas prices. Well it damn sure would have. It would have driven them much higher through over-regulation of the energy industry. The energy industry does not need further regulation. They need Congress to get the federal government out of its way so that it can add more supply to the market, which is the only way prices will fall.

For at least twenty years we have asked for expanded nuclear power and domestic drilling. Every time the subject comes up, we get reminded that these solutions take seven or more years to have an effect. (Remember that Al? TX? channoc? Bottomfeeder) We had this same discussion four years ago and eight years ago. BUT if we had acted just seven short years ago in the aftermath of 9/11, when it became clear that energy would involve national-security issues, the benefits would have started to arrive right about now — and oil speculation would have never climbed to its current state.

We need to open drilling and encourage new refineries to be built. At least then we can expect to see some relief with the high prices sometime in the foreseeable future. We also need to get started with nuclear power plants and increase coal plants AND AT THE SAME TIME researching as many possibilities for renewables as possible. And yes drilling can be done safely and new refineries can be built safely. New nuclear plants can be built safely.

We need to be less selfish and start producing as much of our own oil as possible.

I agree with everything you said. I believe in a free-market with no government regulation.