The Democrats do not care if American citizens lose their job, freeze to death or go bankrupt. The Democratic Party has been captured by the Environmental whackos. No matter what the consequences Democrats are going to block any drilling for oil anywhere in the USA. They are going to prohibit the use of coal our most plentiful supply of energy and they also will bloc natural gas use. In addition they absolutely will not allow another Nuclear Power Plant to be built in the USA and on that score they have been successful as the last one was built in the 70s. And they have also made it so difficult to build a refinery that none has been constructed in 35 years even though our population has increased by over 50 million people.
And the blame here belongs to THE GLOBAL WARMISTS. Junk science is going to put us in a position of extreme hardship. Cap & trade policies will increase prices tremendously. On gas at the pump it will mean a 53 cent increase per gallon. And this policy will send jobs overseas.
Militarily we are also at risk as 70% of our oil is now imported from foreign countries versus 30% in the 70s. And many of those who would sell us their oil are anti US rogue nations. We open ourselves to international blackmail by not becoming energy independent. There is no plan to put into practice should anti US oil producers just refuse to sell America oil on ideological grounds.
Nick Nichols lists some oil facts. Let’s take a look at some of them.
§ Fact: “Big oil” doesn’t exist in the U. S.—investor-owned companies like Exxon-Mobil, Conoco-Phillips and Chevron control 6% of the world’s oil reserves—how could they possibly fix the price of crude oil?
§ Fact: International oil companies—owned by foreign governments like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela—control 78% of oil reserves, with another 10% under their negotiating authority; 6% of crude oil reserves are controlled by Russian companies.
§ Fact: The price of crude oil represents 70% of the price of gasoline at the pump, that’s $2.80 out of a $4 gallon just for raw material; refining and retailing account for 17% of the price.
§ Fact: Oil and natural gas industry earnings are 7.4% compared to 7.6% for all U.S. manufacturing—so where are these huge windfall profits?
§ Fact: Taxes account for 13% of the price we pay at the pump for gasoline—that’s about 52-cents a gallon at today’s prices—compare that to oil industry earnings— talk about a windfall!
§ Fact: Oil, coal and natural gas represent about 84% of our energy mix—do you still buy the clap-trap that wind and solar will come to the rescue during our lifetime?
§ Fact: The prices Americans pay for gas are the result of increased demand for oil, a decline in the value of the dollar, political instability in the Middle East, and government regulations that prevent exploration, disrupt markets and raise prices at the pump.
A windfall profits tax will only worsen the situation. First of all Corporations do not pay taxes. They pass taxes on in the price they charge for the product. Secondly Big Oil are multinational corporations. They do business all over the world in various side ventures also. If you tack a windfalls profits tax on them they will stop producing here in the USA and run their business from elsewhere in the world in ventures that are not sold in the USA. Jimmy Carter tried it and it was a miserable failure. Are you too young to have known the long gas lines and the stations out of gas during the Carter Administration?
But the worst thing about this crisis is that it is deliberate and a calculated agenda to deindustrialize America and return it to some pre fossil fuel utopia envisioned by the enlightened, also known as environmental whackos or to be nicer the Greens. These people, all from the hard left, have been for decades now telling us that we have to give up fossil fuel, never use coal and be shot at dawn for even considering nuclear power. They have constantly advocated super high taxes on oil and gasoline to make people use something else. Al Gore and others have touted $5.00 to $10.00 per gallon federal taxes on gasoline and diesel for years now. This current spike in oil prices delights them. Notice how Obama’s reaction was, - I am just sorry it has come all at once. What is happening is exactly what they want. They are all smiles.
But what about Joe six pack. What does he do to pay the bills and feed his family? Who cares? The far left Greens have no compassion for the common man (and woman). They are so agenda driven, so enamored of their cause that anything else takes a back seat. We must rid the nation of fossil fuel usage right away, they say. This is the only thing on their mind. They are zealots, fanatics and so in love with their cause that they don’t care if the average American has no readily available alternative. Let them starve, lose their jobs, go bankrupt. That will show them we mean business and how important this issue is, they chortle.
Now I have always been and continue to be a big believer in being a good steward to mother Earth. Clean air, clean water, clean environment, and heavy fines and jail sentences for those who dump toxic waste are basic core beliefs of mine. But this man made Global Warming is a hoax and the utopian agenda that accompanies it seeks to put us into the lifestyle of the Amish. And if the whole United States economy has to crash, well so be it say the Greens.
Kim Strassel in The Wall Street Journal makes these observations about Harry Reid:
“In a recent interview with Fox News Business Channel, Mr. Reid, who was evidently fed up with questions about drilling, suddenly exclaimed: "Coal makes us sick, oil makes us sick; it's global warming. It's ruining our country, it's ruining the world. We've got to stop using fossil fuel."
“Mr. Reid's rant quickly became the No. 1 video on the Internet, approaching a half-million views. The pollster Rasmussen even took the unusual step of conducting a survey to see how many Americans agreed with the Nevadan's view. Let's just say he didn't win a majority.”
“But give Mr. Reid marks for honesty. To many liberal Democrats, cheap fossil fuels are the root cause of excessive materialism, suburban sprawl, a despoiled environment – and they've been demanding for decades that government raise the price of energy to discourage Americans from driving big cars and living in large, well-heated homes. Democrats may never have had the political courage to impose such towering European-style gasoline taxes directly, but Mr. Reid's policy diatribe at least explains why Democrats have found it so easy to sit on their hands rather than take steps to increase domestic supply and bring down $4 gasoline.”
And J. R. Dunn on The American Thinker had this to say:
“Current energy policy -- or non-policy, however you wish -- lies at the very center of the Green agenda. It is the only element in which any progress has been achieved. First, we need to rid ourselves of our "addiction" to nukes and oil. Then we adapt to solar and wind, and.... Here it peters off into silence. Because no such second step has ever, or will ever be made. Solar, wind, alcohol, ethanol... all these are single-digit energy sources. (And the low single digits as well, able to replace perhaps two or three percent of power generation at best.) Replacement of oil and nuclear power is a fantasy. Therefore, the rest of the Green dream is as well.”
“But the gutting of the American energy sector remains the Green's chief accomplishment, their single achieved step toward paradise. They will defend it tooth and nail. The Green lobby, comprised of organizations such as the Sierra Club and the World Wildlife Federation, is immensely powerful and has deep pockets -- not to overlook the many politicians who are avid converts (e.g., Hudson Valley congressman John Hall, who as leader of the execrable 70s soft-rock band Orleans wrote an anti-nuke anthem, "Plutonium is Forever"). “
The Green crisis ahead
“They'll still lose. Americans are not going to freeze in the dark. Nuclear technology has gone through several revolutions in the past decades. Entire families of reactors exist -- including the CANDU and pebble-bed designs -- that are far safer from kind of catastrophic failure. Evolution in oil drilling and exploitation has followed similar paths. We need to catch up on these technical advances. There are already 30 new nuclear plants proposed in the US and some are even in early stages of licensing. The plants use new designs which make use of passive safety systems that substantially reduce the chance of a major accident.”
“Other aspects of the Green argument have also collapsed. New discoveries off Brazil and in the Gulf of Mexico have nearly doubled international oil reserves, pushing backwards from the "peak oil" date. And global warming, that notorious by-product of "oil addiction," has faded to the point that its advocates are now reduced to threatening dissenters with prison.”
We have plenty of oil on US soil & sea; over 300 trillion barrels are there for the taking. More oil than all of the Mideast countries combined. But we are prohibited from drilling for it. The alternatives of coal and nuclear are also forbidden. And anywhere there is any energy construction or exploration there are the Green groups who bring out their lawyers and sue to halt the activity. If they lose they appeal to the next level. The latest addition of the Polar Bear to a threatened species status will allow environmental lawyers to block or tie up in courts energy activity of any kind for decades.
The Democrats say that oil is finite and that we need to get off our fossil fuel addiction. They have chosen this time in history to force us off this “addiction”. But what they are doing is making us all go COLD TURKEY. And they have not provided for any substitution to take the place of oil usage. Can you believe it? $10.00/Gal gas prices and they have nothing in its place to offer, not even remorse. They don’t care. Obama spoke out on energy a few days ago and told his audience that we had better all prepare for $12.00/Gal gas prices. Did he recommend any action to solve this problem? Not on your life. Like most good Marxists he is married to the ideology regardless of the consequences. This is the Democratic Party which is supposedly for the little people?
The Democrats say that drilling will not solve the problem. Don’t tell Castro that who has enlisted the Chinese to drill for oil for him 60 miles off the coast of Florida. They neglected to take Economics 101 and study the effects of supply and demand. I don’t think that there are many people out there who cannot see what the effect of doubling the supply of oil and gas available for sale would do to the price. Alternative energy is being feverously worked on. But technology break throughs do not open up just because you want them to. And mass marketing and mass superstructure of anything new takes time. We need a bridge that will allow us the time to develop alternative fuels without putting undue hardships on the American people. That bridge is the vast deposits of oil we have right here in the United States. And those deposits can be tapped without harm to the environment in the process of extraction.
Decisions have consequences and the Democratic, Liberal, Green, Environmental whacko- Global Warmists deliberate policy to allow the price of oil to exceed $140 per barrel and gas at the pumps up to $4.50/Gal and rising has dire consequences for the US economy. We are skating on very thin ice here. If we have serious hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and oil rigs have to shut down the price will skyrocket. Israel is getting ready to take out Iran who is about ready to combine its nuclear bomb with newly developed missiles If the missiles start flying the oil wells will be closed or destroyed and the world supply of oil will drop. Once again the price will go up.
US airlines have already put us on notice that they cannot continue to operate under these conditions and they cannot pass on their increased costs to the consumer. Eight airlines have gone belly-up already. Look for the auto manufacturers to soon stop production of any new vehicles and lay off all their workers. The tire manufactures will follow suit. When we hit $8.00/Gal at the pumps look for the National Guard to be called out to stop looting and stealing. When it hits $10.00/Gal look for all the airlines to shut down, commuters unable to pay the cost of getting to work, jobs to dry up, companies to go out of business and the army marching in our streets to keep order. All for an ideology that puts people last.
For the first time in my life I may purchase a gun to protect myself and my property. I also may stash some hard cash aside and maybe put up a bunker in the back yard completely stocked with food and water. For the first time in my life I am really frightened.