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Sol Sanders | Follow the Money No. 73 | Obama energy strategy: one part black magic, two parts propaganda
Here's the latest from Sol Sanders. A version of this column is cheduled to appear Monday in The Washington Times. -- Chris
Follow
the Money No. 73 | Obama
energy strategy: one part black magic, two parts
propaganda
Sol Sanders
Again,
and again, we must return to energy, the mother’s milk of the economy where the
Obama Administration’s ham-fisted tactics are strangling the baby of recovery in
the crib.
In
his June 29th press conference, the President again singled out rebates to push
U.S.
fossil fuel production in his demand for tax increases for an economy already
threatened by double-dip recession. The proposal compounds regulatory mischief:
blocking oil and gas in the Gulf
of Mexico
while Chinese and other foreign companies drill off
Cuba
almost within sight of Florida
beaches, forfeiting 250,000 jobs. “Regs” threaten West
Texas
fields contributing 20% of U.S.
new production because of an obscure lizard. The White House dallies over a
pipeline to bring Canadian oil sands crude to Texas
refineries. While Moscow
pushes Arctic prospecting, Juneau
can’t get Washington
to open up 14.7 million acres of state land with the critical Alaskan pipeline
faltering from declining throughput.
Mr.
Obama’s token strategic oil release – into the international crude pool rather
than reducing U.S.
pump prices – was one more feint in Mr. Obama’s ideological war on fossil fuels.
[Never mind ignoring the reserve’s national defense character; it was never
meant as a price instrument – nor political toy.]
All
this is done under the rubric of protecting the environment. “Junk science”, as
many highly qualified skeptics believe, may underpin claims fossil fuels
consumption decisively impacts climate change. It will take decades to know,
given our shallow data for changing climate through the
ages.
But
“junk economics” is all too evident in the Administration’s energy strategies.
Granted, impediments to cheap energy were inherited from previous governments
and imperfect markets. But Mr. Obama’s drive for “renewable sources” mimics
earlier Carter Administration’s abandoned “alternative energy” skeletons still
littering the landscape.
Mr.
Obama’s wind power subsides are indeed producing jobs – for
China
and Spain
– with transferred American companies' technology. Chinese windmills and solar
panels are exported to the U.S.,
often replacing American manufacture.
The
vignette of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger entertaining the possibility of
Chinese “high-speed rail” proposals with federal stimulus funds – just before
California
all but bankrupted -- is quintessential of a mind set. High salaried
propagandists for tax free non-governmental organizations [NGOs] promote “the
environment” through advocacy of “mass transit”, citing
China’s
example. They fail to note deficit-ridden Chinese government railways – whose
two top executives recently were arrested for stealing tens of millions –
blackmailed European and U.S.
companies for technology transfers in exchange for a phantom Chinese market. Now
Beijing
attempts exports while their own projects operate with anemic passenger loads --
at lower speeds because of faulty engineering. The misrepresentation is all too
typical of limitless, mindless propaganda pumped out on a daily basis, for
example on that other Washington
subsidized enterprise, National Public Radio, by the Obama cheering
section.
In
fact, a whole new era in fossil fuels is beginning. So-called “peak oil”, the
crisis posited when diminishing reserves supposedly would meet rising
consumption, has vanished. New vistas have developed worldwide with expanding
deep-water drilling technology – a Norwegian billion-dollar floating platform in
deep water off Rio
de Janeiro,
a good example. New fields await discovery in our own Gulf
of Mexico
– the less than cataclysmic British Petroleum oil spill notwithstanding.
Recovering Iraq
with the world’s second largest reserves, many yet untapped, is returning with
10 million barrels a day.
Even
more spectacular, a new era for natural gas suddenly has emerged with new
technology exploiting vast shale reserves lying deep below rock formations in a
dozen countries, not the least the U.S. [An ironic comment on priorities:
Beijing
is investing government billions into American companies to get at that
technology.] Of course, there already has been a half-baked university “study”
by enviromentalistas arguing “fracking” – the process of getting at that gas –
would poison ground drinking water. The study produces not a single instance nor
does it explain the risk with most such deposits lying well below
aquifers.
“Politically
correct” spokesmen and the mainstream media promise black magic energy
solutions, for example, electric cars, ignoring almost three quarters of our
electricity for recharging batteries is met with coal and gas – much less the
enormous costs and problems of grid expansion required for a massive changeover.
This
conjuror’s trick has gone wrong; Mr. Obama is actually cutting the beautiful
young lady in half as he cripples the energy sector.
»
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The energy policy is clear:
Libya is not our war. We are only providing assistance to the United Nations. Obama would never use our military for a dirty planet killing thing such as oil.
Barracky only wants to make Mr Soros happy and he hopes the people would understand this change in foreign policy.
Has the US stopped subsidizing Iraqi gasoline?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&add...
The Pittsburgh Post Gazette ran an editorial 8-18-05 titled, Bizarre war/The Tragedy of Iraq Never Ceases to Suprise. In it, it mentions how the US has been helping the Iraqs' purchase gas. The whole editorial is GOOD. Read it all at www.post-gazette.com Click Editorials.
"Now brace yourself for another item. Gasoline costs a lot less in Baghdad than it does in the United States. The current average U.S. price per gallon is around $2.52; in Baghdad it's 8 cents a gallon. This astonishing price is not a result of Iraq's producing oil; it's because the United States subsidizes the price of gas in Iraq, most of which is imported. Now, why might the United States do that?"
Then I find this
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2008-04-03/news/29432393_1_crude-oil-pri...
Cost of gas for U.S. troops in Iraq on par with prices at home BY DAILY NEWS STAFF DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Thursday, April 03, 2008WASHINGTON - Think you're being gouged by Big Oil?
U.S. troops in Iraq are paying almost as much as Americans back home despite fighting a war in a country known for its oil.
Military units pay an average of $3.23 a gallon for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, some $88 a day per service member in Iraq. A penny or two increase in the price of fuel can add millions of dollars to U.S. costs.
Critics in Congress are fuming. The U.S., they say, is getting ripped off as the cost of the war exceeds half a trillion dollars - $10.3 billion a month.
Some lawmakers say oil-rich allies in the Mideast should be doing more to subsidize fuel costs because of the stake they have in a secure Iraq. Others point to Iraq's own burgeoning surplus as crude oil prices top $100 a barrel.
Baghdad subsidies let Iraqis pay only about $1.36 a gallon.
But the U.S. military buys fuel on the open market, paying from $1.99 a gallon to as much as $5.30 a gallon under contracts with private and government-owned oil companies.
The center then sets a fixed rate for troops, currently $3.51 a gallon for diesel and $3.15 for gasoline.
Overall, the military consumes about 1.2 million barrels, or more than 50 million gallons of fuel, each month.
please add;
reams of US Govt legislation (inc. planning) strangling onshore drilling, shallow water drilling, even deep sea drilling
Result: no competition, bloated, protected giant dinosaur US Oil Co's (eg. Exxon etc)
reems of US Govt legislation (inc planning) strangling the US healthcare market
Result: no competition, bloated, protected dinosaur US healthcare Co's
reems of onerous US Govt legislation and regulators strangling the US banking sector
Result: no competition, bloated, protected dinosaur US bankers (eg. JPM, Gold-Sucks)
reems of US Govt legislation and regulators strangling US insurance and pensions, plus tax breaks for big-pension Co's 401k offerings
Result: small competition stiffed, bloated, protected dinosaur US pension and insurance Co's
anyone see a behaviour pattern here just write to your big cheesy smiling President, your fascist, sorry friend and busom-buddy in The White House... he's sure to fix this for the People of America he calls on so often to represent. Good luck with that!