Back when the price was $25/barrel there was talk that U.S. oil wells were being capped because it cost too much to pump the oil.  They assured us that IF the price went up and it became cost-effective to resume pumping, they could do so.  Well, the price is now $136/barrel, so why haven’t they uncapped all those wells?

To me, it seems the Repubs are trying to use oil drilling as a wedge issue in the election.  If they were really concerned about the price of gas, they would get their Big Oil buddies to PUMP more oil from the American wells that are sitting idle.

Obviously, if Big Oil is not using the ones they have, they don’t need to drill for more.

SHAMEFUL political pandering!

Something you won’t hear much about from the oil companies or their republican helpers. That the oil industry already has some 67 million acres of land leased for exploration / drilling. Why haven’t they been exploiting that rather then trying grab up even more ? This is just more of the same, working for the oil patch. Hell, we went to war for the oil patch. The republicans refuse to consider a windfall profits tax, yet McBush suggests a temporary suspension of the fed. gas tax. Something that will reap an astounding $25 for the average consumer over the summer. Boy those republicans sure can feel our pain. With leaders as helpfull as this, who needs terrorism to worry about ?

“If you drill it, they will pay” should be the oil companies’ private motto.  No matter how many more oil rigs are built and no matter where the oil comes from, the bottom line will still be higher prices over the long haul because the world will gobble up every drop FASTER than it can be pulled up.  And the speculators will find even better ways of increasing their profits -  HISTORY PROVES THAT.  Big Oil would dearly love to triple the number of offshore rigs and dril in ANWAR etc. and then soak all the US consumers with their subsidies and higher prices.  Congress is in bed with big industry and big oil.  Only when there was an avalanche of small cars back years ago did the US demand decrease and prices leveled off.  Now we need an avalanche of cars that use NO oil.  We need that Manhattan Project for Energy proposed elsewhere in this issue.  We have fewer refineries than in the 70’s.  Maybe the Fed can build some nationalized refineries on close bases, use the products to fill the national oil reserve, and then compete with Big Oil.  But that would take YEARS.  We need alternative energy NOW -  and a national mind-set to go with that.  We need people to drive millions of little safe electric puttputts that use no oil - and band together to avoid being run over by the giant SUVs etc.

Honestly, I do think this would be a good temporary step towards energy independence, as long as we really bust our brains during the time we’re drilling domestically to find cost efficient, clean, and renewable energy. But this could be a double edged sword because if we have relatively cheap gas again it could hinder our research on those alternative energy sources. Because this never bothered anybody before their wallets started hurting. This article called The Oil “Melt-Up” and Why the U.S. Economy Won’t Run On Windmills Alone… explains why it is necessary to continue the use of oil instead of jumping straight on the alternative energy band wagon. I hope this comes into play when thinking about candidates. And while I’m 90% sure I’m voting for Obama, these issues need to be addressed. I want to know HOW we are going to switch to alternatives, not just WE WILL. Because this is an intricate problem that won’t fix itself after a little red tape it removed.

How is pumping oil by the guys who’ve set the prices and control the President, Bush’s ‘base’ going to bring the price of oil down?

That’s ludicrous.

“...A weekly report from MasterCard found
U.S. gas consumption last week dropped
3.2 percent from the previous year.

The credit card company’s SpendingPulse
survey also showed gasoline demand is off
4.3 percent over the past four weeks…”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12400801/.

....so the price should fall
Instead it rises….how come?

How come?
Because.
Because supply/demand
is an Adam Smith theory
that doesn’t work in controlled
market.

The Saudis were right when
they told jr there was no shortage
and no need to pump more oil.

Soon the storage tanks will be
full and the wells will HAVE to
stop pumping.

Why would oil suppliers accept dollars worth half of what they were before
Republican arrived on the scene.
The price increases reflect the loss of value of the dollar due to
Republican mismanagement of US fiscal policy
Failure to fund jr’s Iraqi war and six years of deficit spending have taken
their toll on America
The fall of the dollar has resulted
in a revenue cut equal to more
than 40% to foreign oil producers.

Thank Republicans for the drop that
has occurred in the past seven years
There’s plenty of supply and demand is falling….so the price should fall
Instead it rises….how come?
How come?

Well the producers are being paid with shit currency.
Foreign producers are getting paid with Republican
dollars that are worth about half what they were worth
before republicans took over.

It’s also causing inflation in th USA..which Republicans are
trying to cover up with their usual lies.

It wont work. The truth lies in the pocket book and wallet of every American

We can’t drill ourselves out of the now inevitable exhaustion of world oil supplies. We’ve reached the market tipping point where supply must always henceforth be constricted relative to supply.

Floating clogs of petrowaste arriving on Florida’s beaches will create a far greater economic disaster than whatever stopgap energy supply benefits are realized.

This is simply a case of the oil industry’s money backed influence on our politicians muscling away better choices.