By D.C.
Published Tuesday, June 24th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Filed under: Videos: News, This Week in Capitalism, Environment, US Politics

14 Responses to “Drilling For Oil In The Arctic: Bush’s Short Term Solution”

1. Why do you persist in stating the blatantly obvious?

   And in any case you have missed the point. The the high Oil prices are caused buy Oil companies wanting to make larger profits. Not by a lack of supply. Pumping more oil won’t make the price fall. There is no lack of supply either for oil or for Gas. There is simply the desire for more profits. That is, Capitalism.

   George Bush doesn’t want to drill for oil in Alaska to increase supply and lower the oil price. He wants to drill in Alaska so the ruling class he works for can make more profits.

   cine
   06/24/08 at 7:55 pm
   
2. 

   @Cine:
   Sure, 100 trillion barrels sounds like it could last forever, but the best estimates indicate that we will reach peak oil around 2010.

   It’s time for a new energy source. Arguing over where we can possibly find “new” oil is a waste of time at this point.

   PapaFigue
   06/24/08 at 8:35 pm
   

3. I’m not saying there will not be a supply shortfall in the future only that there is not one now. And saying the current price is because of lack of supply is misguided.

   I am not arguing that large amounts of oil will be found. I’m saying those who decide the price of your fuel WANT you to think it is because those pesky Arabs and Greenies are the reason for the high price and not themselves.

   Don’t get angry at the wrong people. Don’t be manipulated by the real criminals.

   cine
   06/24/08 at 8:51 pm
   

4. Even if we started drilling right now, none of that oil would be put into supply until another 10 years. And even then, gas prices would only drop 20 cents or so. How anyone (besides those who are going to make an obscene profit on that new oil) considers 20 cents to be worth destroying an entire wilderness reserve is beyond me.

   KazigluBey
   06/24/08 at 9:24 pm
   
5. 

   @Cine:
   Apparently, you’re unaware of the meaning of ‘Peak Oil.’ The term doesn’t mean we’re going to find more. It means that, no matter which country we invade, or which wilderness we raze, global oil supply will be at its zenith. This means the supply can Only fall, No Matter What. It doesn’t take an economics major to figure out how disastrous this will be, with or without the evil corporations and their price gouging.

   “Don’t get angry at the wrong people…Don’t be manipulated by the real criminals.”

   I would advise you the same. I’m arguing for alternative energy. I want geo thermal energy and electric cars, like now. I’m really not interested in making sure everyone knows how evil the bad guys are. I’d think this obvious at this point.

   @Kaziglubey:
   Once again, you prove that the simplest logic is the most brilliant, and well beyond the mental capacity of far too many people in charge.

   PapaFigue
   06/24/08 at 11:56 pm
   
6. 

   *there was supposed to be a video with this post, but I having technical difficulties in embedding it, please be patient*
   to Cine: I guess my point is unclear in this article because I am not saying that drilling for oil will help with the problem. I am saying that Bush would like us to THINK that if that is done, than it will help the rising price of gas. I completely agree that the oil companies are the ones jacking up the prices. I wrote an article on my blog a while back about how the UAE said they have plenty of oil to contribute and help with the supposed crisis but no one has asked for their help.
   Also, this is not so obvious to everyone, considering there are certain members of congress that believe drilling in the Arctic is the right thing to do.
   to PapFigue: Very interesting pov. I too would like to see a world where electric vehicles, and geo-thermal energy (like in Iceland) are commonplace and not the exception. I hope in the near future electric-vehicle technology will drastically reduce in cost.

   D.C.
   06/25/08 at 9:40 am
   

7. Here’s an idea. How about putting some serious money into developing lasting, plausible alternative sources of fuel, even if it compromises the sacred “bottom line” of major corporations.

   Nah. Too much like right, I guess.

   Comrade Kevin
   06/25/08 at 12:46 pm
   

8. I guess making money is more important than treating our enviroment with care.

   Alternative fuels and resources are the only answer as far as i’m concerned: Solar, Nuclear, Wind, and hydrogen.
   It seems that other foreign countries are already ontop of these sources (for the most part) than america, we refuse to change drastically… put away the comforts of modern living to remember to recycle, turn off the lights when were not using them, or ride a bike or walk to a near by store instead of driving a block to get there.

   Ultimately it’s up to wether the government will lower emission into the atmosphere to make a drastic change for the better… but I can’t count on them.

   As far as modern living is concerned, the only good way to go at this is semi-anarchy… grow your own foods, hook your house up to solar pannels and wind turbines and create a filteration system to be able to re-use recycled water, infact make your own disposal system as far as trash is concerned, be self educated to be able to make it on your own basically… that’s what I plan on doing and dedicating myself to when once I graduate.

   NOTE: did you know that if you take a really big tube of rich soil, put earthworms in there, you can use it as a House disposal for natural waste like Apples, banana skins, egg shells, etc… only cath is you can’t feed them meat and citric fruit like lemons and oranges. Also you can use earthworm waste as a fertilizer for plants and soil.

   NOTE: Mushrooms will save the earth one day because it has been scientifically proven to be able to acctually break down non-biodegradible products like Oil, and Nuclear waste.

   Educate yourself people.

   Severed
   06/25/08 at 2:59 pm
   

9. @PapaFigue. Why do you keep talking to me like I am denying the Peak Oil theory?

   You are complaining about a symptom and ignoring the sickness.

   Little is going to change (oil consumption included) unless we change the system.

   @Severed. I recommend the book “Heat” by George Monbiot to you.

   http://www.amazon.com/Heat-How-Stop-Planet-Burning/dp/0713999233

   And I assure you I am quite well educated…..

   cine
   06/25/08 at 3:34 pm
   

10. Checkout Mike Whitney who’s been reading my mind again.

    http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/06/gas-pump-gouging-dont-blame-the-saudis/

    cine
    06/25/08 at 3:46 pm
    

11. @ Cine: Never said you weren’t, I was just stating. I agree with you.

    @ Papafigure: Fact is most people are already aware that oil companies interests only lie in profits yes, but most don’t and that’s why it’s import to constantly inform others about what’s going on… and how to solve this problem.

    People ARE aware of the situation with being enviromentally friendly, BUT many are ill informed about the gravity of this situation as far as oil companies and greed are concerned. Many still believe that we are low on oil, but don’t know enough about alternate fuels or know about where the mindset of the companies are headed to be motivated enough to do anything about it, or to know how to do anything about it.

    Anyways.. thanks for the link… I will definately look into it.

    Severed
    06/25/08 at 3:53 pm
    

12. Fact is… oil takes millions of years to be created from remains of dead animals… and it’s non-reusable.

    We shouldn’t be so dependent of it in the first place.

    Severed
    06/25/08 at 4:09 pm
    

13. My dear Fellow Americans,

    Do you realize that much of the oil that comes from the oil pipeline that as built in the 1970’s is EXPORTED to Asian customers? Why?

    The oil companies right now have leased drilling sites covering millions of square miles of the American West and they have been holding these leases unexplored and undeveloped for years. Why?

    Three-fourths of the offshore sites that the oil companies hold leases for are not being explored nor are they being drilled currently. Why?

    There are hundreds/thousands of capped wells that were capped by the oil companies because they were not “economically feasible” to be drilled years back when they were abandoned? Gasoline and Diesel fuel are at an all-time high in the U.S. at over $4/gallon for gas and around $5+/gallon for diesel right now. The wells are still capped. Why?

    I have several more “questions” like these but I think that I am making the point that I had intended to make.

    The “Big 5″ oil companies give less than a hoot in Hell about the American consumer. They view us as ’sheep’ waiting patiently to be ’sheared” again and again and again …

    “Severed” made an excellent but moot point by stating the obvious, namely that “We shouldn’t be so dependent of it in the first place.” The fact is that we are not only dependent, we are addicted to oil and other petroleum products. Never you mind “Severed”, you keep reminding us of the inconvenient truth about the idiocy of our addiction to oil.

    Look folks, even John McBush, oh I mean McCain, today admitted that his stated policy on drilling in places like ANWR and other stupid places were not really the answer to the current problem. What he does not get, and I wonder whether Obama ‘gets it’ about starting today with a real energy policy based upon renewable and GREEN energy sources of energy with the same energy that was expended in getting Americans on the Moon in 1969.

    Some sane persons in Congress need to stand there every day telling the world via C-span that the oil companies ARE the problem, not the answer. Someone there needs to explain the FACT that supply and demand are not at work as Republican ‘water carriers’ for the Oil Lobby give forth authoritatively and at length daily in both the House and the Senate - and every word of it a lie. Someone needs to explain to the mental midgets who expound upon the “economic facts of supply and demand” that they learned in Jr. High school as the cause of the problem. The actual economic principle in effect is that the “supply” of oil is controlled in both quantity and cost per barrel by a CARTEL.

    Simply “A cartel is a formal (explicit) agreement among firms. Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry, where there are a small number of sellers and usually involve homogeneous products. Cartel members may agree on such matters as price fixing, total industry output, market shares, allocation of customers, allocation of territories, bid rigging, establishment of common sales agencies, and the division of profits or combination of these. (per Wikipedia)

    The FACT that a CARTEL controls the price and the quantity of oil precludes the normal effects of supply and demand on both price and quantity available. So, those idiots (”water carriers for Big Oil) in the Congress and elsewhere shut up and sit down. Telling the rest of us that this whole gasoline price thing is a function of supply and demand is a load of manure.

    I have recently heard that there are different enterprises ongoing around this nation that would potentially provide us with automobiles that would run on electricity (by revolutionary battery design and application). Also in the works as we speak are cars that will run on hydrogen (where another scientist/inventor has knocked the standard ‘comeback’ from the ‘troglodytes’ of the Right into a cocked hat by showing that hydrogen can in fact potentially be produced by simple and natural methods) and hydrogen is at once the most abundant substance on planet earth. The fact that the byproduct of burning hydrogen is water vapor is a pretty good thing. There are others out there struggling to bring to the world technologies that can solve our energy problems in a relatively short term time frame. The only thing that is lacking is funding commensurate with the enormity of the impact of these innovations.

    Perhaps if we could end the war on everything and everyone everywhere we might just have the resources to PUBLICLY fund these innovators. They must be publicly funded or they will either be bought up and withheld by the Energy Giants while they suck every last penny out of every drop of petroleum, every lump of coal and nuclear reactors aplenty so we can all be poisoned with the problem of the wastes from nuclear energy plants that NO ONE has ever solved, or they will be marketed at criminally high prices.

    Gentle Readers … the wind still blows, the sun shines in our sky these two sources alone could go a long way toward helping to America get off the oil ‘jones” she is now on. Tell your government to tell the oil lobbyists that the jig is up. Support no one who is not committed to ending the insanity of our addiction to oil for any office. Today is the acceptable time to start … TODAY!

    Michael Robbins
    06/25/08 at 10:25 pm
    

14. OOPS! in my Comment I misstated that the oil companies leases in the American West cover million of square miles … it should have read acres not miles! Mea culpa, mea culpa - maxime mea culpa! I made a boo boo! Sorry… MIchael

    Michael Robbins
    06/25/08 at 10:28 pm
    

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