Protect Our Coasts -- Not Big Oil's Profits

[Juan_Bottom]

sorry, i'm not buying it. speculation is a part of high oil prices, sure, but there's speculation in every market and there always will be as long as there's smart people looking to make a quick and easy buck. i would contend, however, that the real reason the price of oil is so high and isn't going to get lower) can be attributed to the basic economic principal of supply vs. demand. i'll assume you all paid attention in you high school econ classes so i wont explain the whole thing to you but what it comes down to is this; the world demand for oil is getting higher and higher. america and europe have traditionally sucked up most of the world's oil, but now, as china and india's general populations grow more and more wealthy, the demand is skyrocketing; if even half of eligable chinese and indians get a car, well, that essentially triples and then some the world's driving population (i don't actually know that, i sort of made it up but there's 2 billion of 'em, so i thought i made a reasonable estimate, if you can think of a better guess please correct me). at the same time, the world's oil supply is at best staying the same, and really is shrinking pretty quickly. an increase in demand without an increase in supply always makes higher prices in a free market.

i say we drill here, starting now. drill our coasts, and the reserves in alaska and the west. oil can now be drilled in a much more nature friendly way than we could even 10 years ago. the ecological impact would be unfortunate, but relatively small. increase nuclear power continue research into alternative, cleaner fuel technology, especially solar, and increase the supply of oil. increased supply equals lower prices.

finally, if we don't drill off our own coasts, you can be sure as hell somebody else will. china and cuba are working together in researching potential drilling sites very near our own shores, and you can bet they wont be as evironmentally concious as us.


also, since the OP posted a link to petition against drilling, i thought I'd leave a link for anyone who's in favor of drilling and wants cheaper gas: http://www.americansolutions.com/

You missed the point completely. There is more demand, yet refineries are being closed? They are purposely raising the cost of refined oil!!! So John Q. Public will let the oil companies have access to more oil. Don't fall for that bro.

[cutebastard71]

finally, if we don't drill off our own coasts, you can be sure as hell somebody else will. china and cuba are working together in researching potential drilling sites very near our own shores, and you can bet they wont be as evironmentally concious as us.


also, since the OP posted a link to petition against drilling, i thought I'd leave a link for anyone who's in favor of drilling and wants cheaper gas: http://www.americansolutions.com/

Or, we can use OTHER fuel sources... *gasp*

What alternative sources ? And please don't talk to me about Al Gore's BS and his challenge to utilities. Talk to anybody in power engineering and they will tell you that the only solution for the energy supply is nuclear energy. As for fuel, I do not know the figures but I will bet you that fossil fuels are still the most efficient solution. Now, have in mind that people in China and India WANT to drive cars to the same extent to which North American continent was obsessed with it. Considering the fact that very cheap solutions such as Tata Nano are available you can approximately guess how much oil they will consume. Yes, these cars are smaller but the Asian population is much much larger. And imagine what will happen once China starts to spend its reservers on improving the standard of living of their people....So let us be realistic and drop this "green" BS

And on the other note millions of dollars are wasted on studying "sustainable" (yeah what a buzzword) technologies instead of spending it on curing banal diseases in poor countries. But of course, you can always go to the disappearing middle class and ask for more

[bbqpenguin]

You missed the point completely. There is more demand, yet refineries are being closed? They are purposely raising the cost of refined oil!!! So John Q. Public will let the oil companies have access to more oil. Don't fall for that bro.

i agree that additional refineries need to be constructed, especially here in the u.s. unless i'm mistaken, congress banned the creation of new refineries some 20, 25 years ago. as they age, they fall into disrepair and sometimes have to be closed due to safety issues. obviously, if we were to allow additional drilling on our own land, we would want to see additional refineries constructed that would be safer and more efficient that those made 3 decades ago

[Juan_Bottom]

You missed the point completely. There is more demand, yet refineries are being closed? They are purposely raising the cost of refined oil!!! So John Q. Public will let the oil companies have access to more oil. Don't fall for that bro.

i agree that additional refineries need to be constructed, especially here in the u.s. unless i'm mistaken, congress banned the creation of new refineries some 20, 25 years ago. as they age, they fall into disrepair and sometimes have to be closed due to safety issues. obviously, if we were to allow additional drilling on our own land, we would want to see additional refineries constructed that would be safer and more efficient that those made 3 decades ago

They are closing foriegn refineries, not American ones. That's part of the reason that Hugo Chavez kicked us out of Venezuela, buddy.

[bbqpenguin]

You missed the point completely. There is more demand, yet refineries are being closed? They are purposely raising the cost of refined oil!!! So John Q. Public will let the oil companies have access to more oil. Don't fall for that bro.

i agree that additional refineries need to be constructed, especially here in the u.s. unless i'm mistaken, congress banned the creation of new refineries some 20, 25 years ago. as they age, they fall into disrepair and sometimes have to be closed due to safety issues. obviously, if we were to allow additional drilling on our own land, we would want to see additional refineries constructed that would be safer and more efficient that those made 3 decades ago

They are closing foriegn refineries, not American ones. That's part of the reason that Hugo Chavez kicked us out of Venezuela, buddy.

i must admit, i hadn't heard about that. do you have a reasonably reliable link? i'm not sure why they'd do that, there must be a reason

[Juan_Bottom]

You missed the point completely. There is more demand, yet refineries are being closed? They are purposely raising the cost of refined oil!!! So John Q. Public will let the oil companies have access to more oil. Don't fall for that bro.

i agree that additional refineries need to be constructed, especially here in the u.s. unless i'm mistaken, congress banned the creation of new refineries some 20, 25 years ago. as they age, they fall into disrepair and sometimes have to be closed due to safety issues. obviously, if we were to allow additional drilling on our own land, we would want to see additional refineries constructed that would be safer and more efficient that those made 3 decades ago

They are closing foriegn refineries, not American ones. That's part of the reason that Hugo Chavez kicked us out of Venezuela, buddy.

i must admit, i hadn't heard about that. do you have a reasonably reliable link? i'm not sure why they'd do that, there must be a reason

I heard it on Patriot Radio. They had a clip of an Interview with the VP of EXXON, and they were grilling him good. Let me check the site quick, yo.

[bbqpenguin]

You missed the point completely. There is more demand, yet refineries are being closed? They are purposely raising the cost of refined oil!!! So John Q. Public will let the oil companies have access to more oil. Don't fall for that bro.

i agree that additional refineries need to be constructed, especially here in the u.s. unless i'm mistaken, congress banned the creation of new refineries some 20, 25 years ago. as they age, they fall into disrepair and sometimes have to be closed due to safety issues. obviously, if we were to allow additional drilling on our own land, we would want to see additional refineries constructed that would be safer and more efficient that those made 3 decades ago

They are closing foriegn refineries, not American ones. That's part of the reason that Hugo Chavez kicked us out of Venezuela, buddy.

i must admit, i hadn't heard about that. do you have a reasonably reliable link? i'm not sure why they'd do that, there must be a reason

I heard it on Patriot Radio. They had a clip of an Interview with the VP of EXXON, and they were grilling him good. Let me check the site quick, yo.

cool, let me know

[Juan_Bottom]

WTPRN turned out to be a false lead. They didn't have anything, but a search of Google keeps throwing stuff like this in my face. I've found bunches of stuff about EXXON being booted out of Venezuela though.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-cou ... _6980.html
Sorry, I'm still looking for that clip, because it was awesome. But I can't watch video on this computer, and it's very hard to find a sound clip.

It is interesting to note that although we are told that there is an oil shortage, American oil refineries are all working at full capacity. It does seem like there is a refinery shortage, not an oil one.

[bbqpenguin]

to be fair, i'd have a hard time calling th huffington post very ubiased. that said, what i have read on there is generally at least as credible the mainstream media, and if nothing else it's at least interesting. unfortunately the links that particular article provided were broken, i would've liked to have read those memo's. anyways, it's not surprising that the oil companies do whatever that can to make money. they are, after all, businesses; their obligations are to their stockholders, not to us. however, i'd be surprised if they were truly trying to limit supply in order to inscrease profits. they make the same profit margin percentage for each gallon of gas whether the price per gallon is 1 dollar or 4 dollars (i think it's like 12 or 15 %). common logic suggests that lower prices and a higher demand would make them more money overall. i dunno, maybe i'm missing something here

[Juan_Bottom]

I've often wondered how they can be making record profit (EXXXON is #2 richest corp worldwide) and yet have the same profit margin here in the US.

Especially since Chavez stopped selling oil directly to EXXON and now they have to get it through Citgo(more $)... yet they're still number two.

I've read that the refineries themselves are making slim profits too. That this may raise the price of gas as well. I can't figure on where all that money is coming from... could speculation bring about such large profit? I'm missing something too.

[bbqpenguin]

maybe they're smuggling crack in the oil barrels. that would explain the profits and our seeming insatiable addiction to gas!

[Juan_Bottom]

:shock: maybe they're smuggling crack in the oil barrels. that would explain the profits and our seeming insatiable addiction to gas!

OMG!!!!
And they'll build 'false' oil drilling platforms out in the coast, so that drug runners can leave the coke there! That way, the smugglers don't have to drive their boats all the way to the coast. Thus saving on gas....

They almost had me too!