I'll cut U.S. dependence on oil, pledges Bush

Didn't we start buying "crude" from those suckers because it was sold so cheap----cheaper than suckin' it out from underneath Texas and Oklahoma???

Then OPEC came in and threw a "Monkey wrench" in the cheapness with their greadiness.

I like the idea of ethonal---its hard to get greedy over a stalk of corn like we do over a barrell of oil!!

 

On this matter, I didn't believe Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, 1st Bush, or Clinton; why should I believe 2d Bush?

 

Well you can blame part of our dependence on foreign oil on the anti-nukes who succeeded in stopping the nuclear power industry in this country. Then there are the tree huggers, PETA people, and democrats who are more concerned in satisfying the rutting bull caribou of Alaska than they are in the security of this country. And then there are the environmental elitest like Kennedy and Kerry who did not wnt to see wind mills out their back, or was it front, window.

 

Where's Ken? He can tell us what percentage of our oil is imported from the middle east! I think it's about 10% isn't it?

 

He's kidding himself if he truly believes the answer is to be found in alternative sources of energy. Some small compensations may be had but at great cost, and good old crude oil is the blood this nations heart pumps or it dies. We must deal once and for all with the environmental terrorists in this nation and drill wherever oil can be found, and begin building refinerys now. This course of action still leaves us at OPEC's mercy 8-10 more years.

 

Just understand that ethanol as used in internal combustion engine fuel make up only about 10% of the fuel while the rest is still gasoline refined from crude oil. That 10% ethanol has about 50% of the energy so the mix has about 95% the energy of 100% gasoline. Most engines can run on that mix. More than that requires design changes. It's a bit cheaper although the industry that produces ethanol - farming - is heavily subsidized by government and the purchase cost doesn't reflect its true cost. That could change with higher demand and then supply as could the price charged. It does burn cleaner and has a high BTU content. It is renewable so long as the earth on which the corn is grown remains fertile and that means fertilzer which has to be manufactured just like crude oil has to be. It may be worth continued evaluation and development. It's not a slam dunk solution to the problem. Nothing is free!

 

I don't know the exact percentage but it is less than 20% of our imports. But since oil is traded on a worldwide market and so much of the rest of the world is more dependent on oil from the Middle East we cannot escape the effects of the Middle Eastern oil supply even if we imported no crude oil from the Middle East.

Where the United States gets its crude oil, Nov. '04 to Nov. '05

U.S.: 33.7%

Mexico: 10.1%

Canada: 10.6%

Venezuela: 8.2%

Saudi Arabia: 9.6%

Nigeria: 6.9%

Iraq: 3.6%

Other: 17.3%

SOURCE: ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION

- LINK

 

Thanks Ken. If say we were to drill in Alaska and suddenly come up with an abundance of oil, how would that effect everyone else? Got any ideas about that?

 

More supply + same or lower demand = lower price

 

Oh, can't have that. Good thing Rockefeller funds the greenies then, gives him control over them.

Neat, they can lobby congress to protect the reindeers and the oil barons can control the price by controlling supply. Cool! Man, these globalists got every angle covered don't they?

 

Why bother with all that Ben? Having a private central bank in a country serves the same purpose.

 

Hey, didn't you hear the news???

[Link to Article]

Wow........

Regards to all,
BiR

 

I voted for this George Bush twice, but would not do so again. Both parties are rotten to the core, power hungry, giving the illision of a difference between the two. Bush and his Republican Congress could have started lessening our dependence on foreign oil five years ago. The deficit is out of control, the borders are out of control, the Republicans are a sad lot. The Democrats have no plan either. The oil companies are stealing from the American people daily. We need two new parties that put the American people first, and break the power structures in place.

I wouldnt want to stand before God and claim He was on the side of either of those thieving parties.

 

That is a slanderous remark. Oil companies do not steal from the American people. And I should know as my dad worked for an oil company for over 30 years, I worked for an oil company for 3 summers while attending college, and I have worked for an oil company for almost 28 years since graduating from college. So before you accuse me of stealing from the American people you had best have facts to present first.

As the oil industry has clothed, housed, and fed me for all of my 50 years as far as I am concerned when someone slanders the oil industry he is slandering me.

 

Facts are facts. The profits of the oil companies are outrageous. It drains the average family of income that could be used in other areas. Ask a family where both parents work for minimum wage raising a family what they think about paying inflated oil prices. You working for an oil company has no bearing on the present state of the economy.

 

You are way, way, way, off base.

Per $1.00 in sales, oil companies keep about $.08, whereas pharmaceutical companies keep about $.18, banks keep about $.18, semiconductor companies keep about $.14, software companies keep about $.10, and telecommunications companies keep about $.09.

So if you think that oil companies are out of line on the level of profit, then you had best go after your bank, and the company that makes your drugs, and the company that makes your computer software, and your telephone company first since they are keeping more of every dollar that you give them than oil companies are.

Facts are facts. You need to face them and understand them.

 

Adding those facts up Ken one gets the impression that the oil companies, pharma companies, telephone companies and banks etc are all being consolidated into one big tyrannical company that is able to order governments around and in some cases even buy them.

 

Companies are in business to make money and profit for shareholders. There is no such thing as excess profit, unless you agree that there is such a thing as excess loss. Oil company profits at the moment are roughly 10.7% of sales, in the middle of business profits. Would you argue that industries that have profit in excess of 10.7% should have an excess profits tax? Corporate profits are already double taxed when paid out as dividends: For every $3 of earnings , which includes phantom gains due to inflation, the shareholder sees about $1 in dividends/retained earnings, while taxes eat up the other $2. The consumer pays additional taxes at the pump, that are outrageous. I would call that excessive taxation.

For the populists who think energy companies are gouging, just where do they think the money for research, development, and production of energy products comes from? It comes from the shareholders.

Where were these populists when, at $10/barrel oil, companies were capping wells and laying off workers? Why are they not fighting "environmentalists" who cost us all by preventing domestic exploration and development? Do they walk, instead of drive? Do they avoid heating their homes with electricity or derivatives produced by coal, oil, or natural gas? Do they realize that hybrid cars only transfers the use of fossil fuels from the pump to the power company, and in the process, increases our landfill/ground pollution problems because of batteries? Do they avoid plastics? Certain pharmaceuticals, derived from raw energy sources? Fertilizer?

As a farmer, 1/3 of my operational costs from inputs comes from fuel and fertilizer, derived from petroleum and natural gas. Cost of doing business. Without them, I am out of business, and the populists would be unable to afford to eat.

As Investors Business Daily pointed out recently, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News should be proposing an excess media profits tax, because their profit margin is 10.2%, in line with that of the energy industry. Bill, of course, is a leader in attacking oil companies for "price gouging". Too bad we can't tax his hot air.